Poll Pimping: Dale's Annual Exercise in Blog-Gradation

Old hand Sunny Hundal is suggesting a boycott with some useful arguments but new boy Tom Harris is gleefully pimping the poll and stands to pick up the acceptable-face-of-Labour vote himself from Iain's crew - despite some tardiness on the reciprocal linking and hat-tipping front.

You will make your own minds up.

Being Iain Dale's annual blog-grading exercise this thing is inevitably biased to his side of the political spectrum by being so closely associated with his own blog. This year the tweaked rules seem likely to exacerbate the bias towards the big FO blogs with lists of ten rather than twenty and the constraint that all ten votes must be used. Last year IIRC it was up to twenty picks per voter.

If last year's pattern is followed Iain will also have panels of bloggers of each political stripe ranking their own kind. In which exercise yours truly was unfeasibly highly ranked last time out. And long may the judges, whoever they may be, continue to enjoy a bit of rough with the smooth. Though I can't say I've used the buttons, bells and whistles that came with the ranking and in fact detect an overall reduction in such badging.

A category for the independent left, where there are some blogs in five figures for weekly visitors that didn't make Dale's 100 last time never mind the left-leaning top tens, would be useful.

Iain's rules are of course simple:

1. Please only vote once. By email at toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com or in comments at Iain's original poll pimpage
2. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents are eligible or based on UK politics are eligible (which must obviously rule out the Irish-based, Irish-resident Guido Fawkes!!!!!! hurrah! let him dangle, burn etc)
3. Votes must be cast before Friday 15 August
4. Blogs chosen must be listed in the Total Politics Blog Directory
5. You must send a list of TEN blogs, ranked. Any entry containing fewer than ten blogs will not count
6. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name