Blogawardthink: Blackwhite Blogshys Doubleplusgood Duckspeak

The Orwell Prize has longlisted as follows with a neat Jump Page too:

Alix Mortimer | The People’s Republic of Mortimer
Andrew Sparrow | Guardian Politics Blog
Chekov | Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness
Hopi Sen | Blog from the backroom
Iain Dale | Iain Dale’s Diary
Jack Night | Night Jack
Mark Easton | BBC News -Mark Easton’s UK
Neil Robertson | The Bleeding Heart Show
Oliver Kamm | Times Online Oliver Kamm
Paul Mason | BBC Newsnight - Idle Scrawl
The Heresiarch | Heresy Corner
Tom Harris MP | And another thing...

Director of the Prize, Jean Seaton, says...

In the year we ran Orwell’s diary as a blog, the entries that were selected had to do something distinctive - react immediately to events, take risks, speak to their readers and capture what it means to be at the centre of a story or situation as it evolves. But the best of them do what reporting does - tell us something we need to know, but often with a highly personal voice.

Iain Dale reckons "about 85" bloggers were "considered by the judges" (i.e. 83 retiring souls self-nominated! list here! and a good list it is too). Claiming initially that he was the only one on the right ... apart he said from Tom Harris MP, boom, tish ... but half the long list of 12 have it seems come out as raving righties. Oliver Kamm not having got round to owning up to that just yet. Iain, faced with the strongest in depth competition I've yet noticed in such a competition, is managing expectations and he is a hopefulfailure.

You may also be interested in Book Long List | Journalist Long List.