My initial thoughts about the site in general consisted “God, how deathly boring!” Politics and political blogs have never been very popular with me (unless there’s parody involved), but for the sake of reviewing, I do read them. The site itself is hosted at Blogspot (which does not affect the score of this review) and has no real design to speak of, which is probably the point of the blog. Perhaps it’s supposed to represent news print. Straight black and white. Politics is boring, therefore the site design is well, boring. After a very quick onceover, I noted that the site had only been started in May this year (2003), and wasn’t updated as much as I would normally like – certainly not for a News/Links blog in any case.
With those initial strikes out of the way, I delved deeper into the blog. The actual content (when it’s actually posted) is quite thoughtful and very well put forward. The blogger knows his Blairs from his Bushes. Obviously. He takes a firm stand on his beliefs about the war in Iraq and the Weapons of Mass Destruction debacle. However, he makes a fair few poignant statements but does absolutely nothing to back them up (no links or research aside from a quick reference to Reuters). This is something I consider extremely important when writing about political events.
“It is regretful that it has taken the death of Dr Kelly to lead to a judicial inquiry. The parliamentary committees have proved ineffective at getting to the truth and the Official Opposition has maintained its usual levels of political ineptitude.”
“What’s the answer to Blair’s quandary? Firstly lay off the BBC, they aren’t the enemy! Second lay into the Conservatives, they are and they’re hypocrites to boot!”
Unfortunately for a blog such as this one, it’s not updated nearly enough for it to be a useful forum as the writer so desired. Things are happening every day – the media is plastered with information daily on the happenings in the UK and the Blair administration. Considering the blog was started in May, and lots has happened since that time, one would assume that there would be a heck of a lot more information than there is currently. I think many people wanting to find current news, views and updates would find the site irritatingly lacking – something I find disappointing as the site has such good potential.Progressive Politics UK