Irish Political News

I am planning to move the Wardman Wire to a different server later this evening.

Service will be intermittent while I am testing the new install.

I suggest visiting www.mattwardman.co.uk, which has most of the same articles (and all of today's parliamentary Reports).

I am is currently having problems with a hack that is inserting phishing scripts into some of my domains, and has proved difficult to eradicate over the last couple of days. We’ve spent some considerable time tracking this down already, and the easiest solution is going to be to rebuild from scratch and copy files across [...]

I've been hinting for a couple of weeks that I've been thinking about designing a new "front end" for the Wardman Wire. Over the next few days I'll be asking for comments and feedback. This first post explains why I think a change is needed, and introduces you to two prototypes I have built for you to comment on.

Which is why cricket is so great. It's one of the only games in the world where you have sufficient time to wander round a field thinking 'why am I doing this?'

Further to my previous post about the new front end design for the Wardman Wire, I've tried it with a "light" stylesheet rather than a "dark" one.

Here is a screenshot which also includes a "video" module, showing Tim Ireland's video in support of the Campaign for the Iraqi Interpreters.

Over the weekend I've been playing with a new alternative front end for the blog. It is designed to give a more "newsy" view than the "time-based" view of the traditional blog format, and to help make it easier to keep track of the amount of material that we are now publishing. The idea is that there will be a more "magazine" style page on www.mattwardman.com, and the existing design will stay on www.mattwardman.com/blog/. Here is a screenshot of the prototype

I have a note from Unity that he has moved the Ministry of Truth web address to:

http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/

Worth updating if you review your blogroll.

I have a note from Unity that he has moved the Ministry of Truth web address to: http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/ Worth updating if you review your blogroll. Tags: ministry of truth  

The Wardman Wire has just celebrated it’s first anniversary (the first post was about the noise caused by English Heritage concerts on Hampstead Heath on March 6th 2007). I’ve spent most of the last year building the blog to this point, and working on various short projects professionally. Now, I’m looking for gainful employment, while continuing to edit and build the blog further in my spare time and at weekends. I am available for short or medium term contracts, full time employment or one-off projects of all kinds. If you like the work that you have seen me doing on the Wardman Wire over the year, and have an opportunity that may be suitable for me, please email me on mattwardman AT gmail DOT com - and I will be pleased to talk to you. I’m based on the Notts/Derbyshire borders, and am happy to travel or work from home. Over the Easter Weekend I will post a more detailed cv on the site here. For the record, there have been 1350 posts on mattwardman.com, and we now have around 10 writers contributing to the blog. The combined February statistics for this blog and mattwardman.co.uk were roughly 60,000 unique visitors (and around 30,000 “absolutely unique visitors”), and 140,000 page views after filtering of robots, crawlers etc; our growth rate has averaged around 30% per month in unique users since September 2007. The other political sites I have developed over the year draw a similar amount of traffic in various niches. Tags: matt wardman, employment, hire-me

I’ve added a couple of extra features to the blog today - a tag cloud covering 1200 articles, and a feed of recent articles at the bottom of the “single article” page. Wardman Wire Tag Cloud The first is that I have turned on the tag cloud page in Beta Form: About 90% of our posts (i.e., nearly all of mine and some of the other writers’) were tagged when written, and I have turned the feature on this morning. The number after the tag is the number of times that tag has been used. Tags included here have occurred at least 4 times in the past year. There is clearly some noise-removal to do, but I hope that in the meantime this page provides an alternate way to navigate our posts. Comments will be welcome. Recently Posted Articles I have also introduced a “recently posted list” going below single posts and pages (example - scroll to the bottom), as a way of (I hope) persuading those dedicated people who read all the way to the bottom of the comments to read another article. This works by pasting an RSS feed below the post by calling a plugin called “Feedlist“. This was a slightly more complex job than I had intended, and in the end I created a custom feed through Yahoo Pipes (which was necessary to truncate the post excerpt to a reasonable length). I still need to trim the excerpt it to “end of word”. This is still in Beta too - comments are welcome. Tags: yahoo pipes, tag cloud, wardman wire tag cloud, recent articles, wordpress plugin, feedlist wordpress plugin

Freeform Fridays are a new experiment on the Wardman Wire: Im wondering about inventing Freeform Fridays, where I will give a platform to anyone with something interesting to say - a sort of virtual Speakers Corner. In my mind there needs to be somewhere on the blog which is relatively unstructured, to be a total change from the quite tightly timetabled nature of the rest of the week. Id see that as an opportunity for young or new bloggers to address a slightly wider audience - one of my priorities for asking people to write columns has been to look for good new writers, who would like the opportunity to write for a different audience or in a different style. Id like to see articles about eclectic political subjects on Fridays - for example how the mistresses of Charles II have an impact on life today, or a piece about the history of Hogarth, or even something about how political eras and movements can be studied by the distinctive hats they wore. Friday also needs to be more relaxed, partly because that is the feel of most of our workplaces and homes, but also to move the blog into the weekend mode. Id welcome any suggestions you have in the comments box below. As it happens, I am away on short notice (10pm last night) at the Jeecamp today, so as an experiment I have a few “lighter” postings myself today - and I have emailed the regular writers inviting any contributions. I wonder if anything will happen? Tags: freeform friday

I think I will start a category for mistakes by journalists to highlight some of the errors we have in the national press. That way, when the next drive by blog denouncer comes past waffling about bloggers and pyjamas there will be evidence to hand. Tags: political blogging

I’ve been working with Jon Bright who edits the OurKingdom blog for a couple of months on a policy project that we are calling “The Stump” or “On The Stump“. It is a rotating policy debate that moves around each week like the Britblog Roundup. There’ll be a team of up to about 10 people involved as “hosts”, but we would like that team itself to rotate in it’s membership over time. (This was first posted at the weekend to make sure that it reaches weekday readers - my apologies if you have read it twice.) How it works On Sunday “host for the week” Blogger A publishes an article about any issue or aspect of policy that they are interested in on their own blog, and a short summary on stump.org.uk. During the week (perhaps before Thursday night) anybody who wants to posts a response on their own blog and links back to the original post by blogger A (using a Trackback or Comment). On the next Saturday the next host Blogger B publishes a summary and of the responses, and perhaps some analysis of their own, including linking back to all those who responded. On Sunday (i.e., the next day) Blogger B becomes the host and publishes their own article about a question they are interested in, and the cycle starts again. This process prevents anyone having to do too much work continually - the way this is organised will mean that team members will have to put in quite a bit of thought and time roughly once every two months. Why is it organised like this? We are trying to help do our bit in several areas: Encourage wide policy debate on a range of questions at the same time. Encourage debate between different political viewpoints. Provide a way for bloggers to build wider contacts. Provide a mechanism where new bloggers can get involved in debate quickly. Encourage more interaction between different blog-niches (since policy and politics are not reserved for politico-geeks). How will the team work We are thinking about a team of around 10 people as hosts. But this area needs to be pragmatic. Our first thought is that team members will join for a period, be involved in the rotation for a time then leave to allow space for somebody else - that will give more people a chance to give input and build contacts. 6-12 months seems to be a reasonable minimum time to be involved as a host, since that is roughly the time needed to build a decent basic profile for a blog. The plan is to do the first team mainly by invitation to get a wide spread of bloggers and views - but if anybody is really keen there may be a couple of slots. If it works well, I’ll be happy to be the first team member to drop out - say after 3 or 4 cycles. Wrapping-Up We’re about ready to start, but we are still debating a few details, and some things are bound to change as we get going. So any comments or questions are welcome. You can find the blog at stump.org.uk, and the feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/stump. Watch these addresses for developments. Please make any comments or ask any questions on the Wardman Wire copy of this post. Tags: stump, on the stump. stumped, ourkingdom, policymeme, blog festival, policy festival

I had a couple of people who got lost looking for links yesterday (including the one I had left out by mistake), so I have swallowed the bitter design medicine and started underlining all the links. I don’t like the appearance myself, but ease-of-use comes first. I may make the underlinings slightly less intrusive by making them dotted (compare with the UK edition), and leaving underlinings of links on menus and in the sidebar - but I hope that you find that navigation is now easier (if less beautiful). Tags: hyperlinks, design, blog design

I’ve been working with Jon Bright who edits the OurKingdom blog for a couple of months on a policy project that we are calling “The Stump” or “On The Stump“.

It is a rotating policy debate that moves around each week like the Britblog Roundup. There’ll be a team of up to about 10 people involved as “hosts”, but we would like that team itself to rotate in it’s membership over time.

How it works

1. On Sunday “host for the week” Blogger A publishes an article about any issue or aspect of policy that they are interested in on their own blog, and a short summary on stump.org.uk.
2. During the week (perhaps before Thursday night) anybody who wants to posts a response on their own blog and links back to the original post by blogger A (using a Trackback or Comment).
3. On the next Saturday the next host Blogger B publishes a summary and of the responses, and perhaps some analysis of their own, including linking back to all those who responded.
4. On Sunday (i.e., the next day) Blogger B becomes the host and publishes their own article about a question they are interested in, and the cycle starts again.

This process prevents anyone having to do too much work continually - the way this is organised will mean that team members will have to put in quite a bit of thought and time roughly once every two months.

Why is it organised like this?

We are trying to help do our bit in several areas:

How will the team work

• We are thinking about a team of around 10 people as hosts. But this area needs to be pragmatic.
• Our first thought is that team members will join for a period, be involved in the rotation for a time then leave to allow space for somebody else - that will give more people a chance to give input and build contacts.
• 6-12 months seems to be a reasonable minimum time to be involved as a host, since that is roughly the time needed to build a decent basic profile for a blog.
• The plan is to do the first team mainly by invitation to get a wide spread of bloggers and views - but if anybody is really keen there may be a couple of slots.
• If it works well, I’ll be happy to be the first team member to drop out - say after 3 or 4 cycles.

Wrapping-Up

We’re about ready to start, but we are still debating a few details, and some things are bound to change as we get going. So any comments or questions are welcome.

You can find the blog at stump.org.uk, and the feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/stump. Watch these addresses for developments.

Please make any comments or ask any questions on the Wardman Wire copy of this post.

I’ve been working with Jon Bright who edits the OurKingdom blog for a couple of months on a policy project that we are calling “The Stump” or “On The Stump“. It is a rotating policy debate that moves around each week like the Britblog Roundup. There’ll be a team of up to about 10 people involved as “hosts”, but we would like that team itself to rotate in it’s membership over time. How it works On Sunday “host for the week” Blogger A publishes an article about any issue or aspect of policy that they are interested in on their own blog, and a short summary on stump.org.uk. During the week (perhaps before Thursday night) anybody who wants to posts a response on their own blog and links back to the original post by blogger A (using a Trackback or Comment). On the next Saturday the next host Blogger B publishes a summary and of the responses, and perhaps some analysis of their own, including linking back to all those who responded. On Sunday (i.e., the next day) Blogger B becomes the host and publishes their own article about a question they are interested in, and the cycle starts again. This process prevents anyone having to do too much work continually - the way this is organised will mean that team members will have to put in quite a bit of thought and time roughly once every two months. Why is it organised like this? We are trying to help do our bit in several areas: Encourage wide policy debate on a range of questions at the same time. Encourage debate between different political viewpoints. Provide a way for bloggers to build wider contacts. Provide a mechanism where new bloggers can get involved in debate quickly. Encourage more interaction between different blog-niches (since policy and politics are not reserved for politico-geeks). How will the team work We are thinking about a team of around 10 people as hosts. But this area needs to be pragmatic. Our first thought is that team members will join for a period, be involved in the rotation for a time then leave to allow space for somebody else - that will give more people a chance to give input and build contacts. 6-12 months seems to be a reasonable minimum time to be involved as a host, since that is roughly the time needed to build a decent basic profile for a blog. The plan is to do the first team mainly by invitation to get a wide spread of bloggers and views - but if anybody is really keen there may be a couple of slots. If it works well, I’ll be happy to be the first team member to drop out - say after 3 or 4 cycles. Wrapping-Up We’re about ready to start, but we are still debating a few details, and some things are bound to change as we get going. So any comments or questions are welcome. You can find the blog at stump.org.uk, and the feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/stump. Watch these addresses for developments. Please make any comments or ask any questions on the Wardman Wire copy of this post. Tags: stump, on the stump. stumped, ourkingdom, policymeme, blog festival, policy festival

Does anyone have a list of websites of current MPs in a spreadsheet, OPML file, or other easily-digestible form? I’m trying to find the list for a (non-paying!) colleague who already has all the Labour ones, so I’m mainly after the others. Tags: websites of mps, mp websites

I’m thinking about what type of posts would be best on the Wardman Wire on Fridays Since we now have a (fairly) regular posting schedule for the rest of the week, I’m tempted to look for a way of making Fridays less organised, and perhaps give an opportunity for a range of guests to post. The chaos will come out somewhere, so it might as well be somewhere expected… I have come up with some suggestions, but would welcome any comments you might have. Choose a topic and invite impromptu Guest articles for Friday on the preceding Monday. As 1, but ask people to respond on their own blogs, and then link to them all with excerpts. To this feels a bit too much like either the Britblog Review or the new “On the Stump” project I have been working on with Jon Bright (more on this soon, perhaps over the weekend or on Monday). Invite submissions on any political topic, and run up to half a dozen articles each week. Find a Friday columnist - perhaps on a “non UK Politics” theme (foreign policy? a “Letter from Peking”?) Go for something that is completely divorced from politics. A mixture of all of these.# … is in the comments below. I hope. I’d welcome suggestions and comments, if you would like to add any below. Tags: freeform friday, friday on the wardman wire

The Thunderdragon’s “We The People” column this week is about the EU Referendum (or lack thereof). He posts on a Thursday evening every couple of weeks, a time which has a habit of missing most of the visitors - so we are starting to put a plug in on Friday morning. Tags: Thunderdragon, We The People

I’ve created a banner, and individual sidebar buttons for the regular columnists on the Wardman Wire. So if you are a Garbo Groupie, Keen on Keen, find the Thunderdragon hot, or want to draw your readers’ attention to the Britblog Podcast - then you can use one just for these niches within the site. You can find all the buttons, and links to the code snippets on the buttons and banners page. There’s also a link in the “Quick Links” below the header. These are the eight designs so far, which include the column name and the day of publication. These are 180×80 pixels. I don’t normally encourage direct linking, because it loads my server down - but in this case I’d recommend it in case we move columns around over time and have to update the buttons. There are about another 8 buttons to go for writers who have come on board more recently. Tags: banners, buttons, sidebar buttons, promotion, wardman wire promotion

I have increased the number of articles on the RSS Feed to 20 from the present 12. Why not subscribe if you don’t want to miss anything? For anoraks and techies, this is so that I can put a longer list of “Recent Postings” in the sidebar to make articles 2-3 days old easier to find; the “Recent Articles” widget takes the list from the RSS feed. Tags: rs feed, wardman wire, recent articles, recent postings

The Wardman Wire currently has 1999 comments. Who will be number 2000?

A quick summary of the regular articles that we aim to publish each week. These form a framework for the blog, and other articles are published around them. As it’s a blog, they won’t all appear absolutely consistently (unlike the nationals, I do not pay them ?60k a year each…), but this is the general outline. Daily Breakfast Time: Daily Papers Roundup. 9:00am Morning Cartoon Monday Lunchtime - The Day Job Guest Column: Me, my day job and my blog. Tuesday Lunchtime: Politics Decoded by Garbo. Wednesday Mid-morning: Britblog Roundup Podcast. Lunchtime: Thinking Aloud. Simon Barrow (Ekklesia) and Guests alternate weeks. Thursday Lunchtime: Parliamentary Roundups. Westminster Watch (UK Parliament): Sadie Smith. Senedd Scanner (Cardiff): Pippa Wagstaffe. Holyrood History (Holyrood): J Arthur MacNumpty. Evening: We The People by The Thunderdragon (alternate weeks). Friday Gadget Guide by Matt Wardman (starting soon). Freeform Friday (still thinking about the exact format). Saturday Lunchtime: Touching Base by David Keen. Sunday Politics Podcast - excerpt from Matt Revell’s Politics Programme. Blog Platform by Matt Wardman. Previous in series

Back in early December I posted a run-down of the list of weekly columns on the Wardman Wire, using the excuse that the site “has been a bit of a building site recently with a lot of changes”. I’m pleased to say that the move from a personal political blog to a site with a wider team of writers is nearly complete - so there may be a bit more stability round here for the next few months (at least in terms of who is writing). This is an extra Blog Platform column to map out where we are and where we may be going. What Happens each Week I’m doing a rundown by day this time. There’s more to say, but I’ll keep this post as short as I can manage. Now that the rate of change on the blog is slowing down (at least in terms of new and guest writers), I’ll see if I can be more reliable at making sure that things appear on the right day. Our practice is - with one or two exceptions - to publish the column each day at 11:00am, to give time for the article to hit the RSS feed in time for the lunch break. Then nothing else appears until perhaps 4pm. As ever, the best way not to miss anything is to subscribe to our RSS feed. Nearly Every day “The Daily Roundup” is currently a roundup of 10 or a dozen newspaper stories designed to provide “blog fodder” for our readers. It focuses on interesting and occasionally unusual stories. On good days it is published around 1am; on not quite so good days with breakfast or a little later. As you can see from the podcast player in the sidebar, we experimented with a daily podcast - I hope to take that forward, but I’m thinking about a practical approach. The “Morning Funny” (which needs a better name) is a cartoon or joke which appears at the start of the day - usually at around 9:00am. There are agreements in place with 5 or 6 different cartoonists to reproduce their work, and I sometimes re-recycle a joke from the Adam Smith Institute Jokester; make that “used to re-recycle” - he has retired. Monday “The Day Job” is about what bloggers do when they are not blogging. I have only done one of these, and intend to increase the frequency. Tuesday “Politics Decoded” is Garbos weekly political comment column - running for 6 months now. Garbo publishes his “bon mots” before lunch on a Tuesday with the reliability of Mr Gordon asking Mr Cameron questions at PMQs instead of answering them. (more…)

I have just created a 468×60 banner for anyone wanting to link back to the Wardman Wire: Click through for the full size version. You can include a hosted copy in your site from here: http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/host/ww-banner-468×60.jpg This banner is a bit rough and ready, as it was created in 2 minutes - I’ll be updating this file in due course with better lettering for the slogan - so you won’t need to uddate your web page. If you use the banner, please link back to: http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/ I’d like to thank in advance any readers who kindly use the banner to link back. Tags: wardman wire banner, banner advert  

In my strategy for the Wardman Wire I try to find niches where no one else is writing. Recently I have covered the phenomenon of Roundups breeding like rabbits filling that particular set of niches. I think I’ve spotted an empty niche, and there will be a column starting on Thursdays to try and fill it. So? So we are introducing another roundup to fill this gap - and going further. I think it is a genuine first for a blog. On Thursdays the Wardman Wire will be carrying a report from as many Parliaments as possible that affect us. The idea is that for each of the Holyrood Parliament, Cardiff Assembly, Westminster Parliament, Brussels/Strasburg European Parliament, and Stormont Assembly, there will be a report of happenings during in the week - to be published each Thursday. We have chosen Thursday to be at the point when most of the business is done, but early enough to give time for responses. (more…)

I reported yesterday that Gallup had just published a the results of a long-term detailed poll about attitudes and values in the Muslim World. Bearing in mind the paucity of reporting of this important survey, I have added a media log to the original article. Tags: who speaks for islam, gallup poll

BONG ! I’m working on a new column idea for Thursdays, which I hope will be starting in the next week or two, to be posted in time for you to read over lunch in the usual Wardman Wire pattern. It will be intensely political, and will cover a niche in political blog reporting that is currently as empty as the “Blog Roundup” niche is bursting at the seams. … but that is all I am saying for now. Come back this Thursday and see if it has arrived yet. Wardman Wire: the best writers writing the best columns. You know it makes sense sometimes. [Update: You know it makes sense sometimes looks to me to be a good blog slogan.] Tags: matt wardman, blog column

Hopefully to everyone - since this article is to introduce a whole new set of political websites and RSS Feeds that I have been working on since before Christmas. I have also added them all as a toolbar to all the sites. The most significant additions are websites and RSS feeds for blogging members from: The Westminster Parliament The Welsh Assembly The Scottish Parliament The European Parliament As far as I am aware, these feeds are not available from elsewhere - at least with such memorable addresses (see below). Niche Blog Aggregators I’ve been developing niche aggregators since last year, and I’ve now added a toolbar to a number of sites above. I explained my ethos in full here. Briefly, I only use the Excerpt from each article and link directly to the sites concerned - to drive traffic to each blogger’s website rather than keep visitors on the aggregator, and build a combined RSS feed from each website. List of Websites Here’s the full list of websites included in the toolbar above. The Wardman Wire - Matt Wardman on Politics, News and Culture Poliblog Perspective - The Nuts and Bolts of Political Blogging Daily Roundup by Matt Wardman - Matt Wardmans Daily Roundup of News and Comment in the British Media English Political Comment Aggregated - Political Comment from English Bloggers Euro Political Comment Aggregated - Political Comment from Euro Bloggers Irish Political Comment Aggregated - Political Comment from Irish Bloggers Scottish Political Comment Aggregated - Political Comment from Scottish Bloggers Welsh Political Comment Aggregated - Political Comment from Welsh Bloggers Comment from Westminster MPs Aggregated - Comment from Westminster MPs Comment from Senedd AMs Aggregated - Comment from Senedd Ams Comment from Holyrood MSPs Aggregated - Comment from Holyrood MSPs Comment from Brussels MEPs Aggregated - Comment from Brussels MEPs Feed Addresses This is a full list of the 12 feed addresses. http://feeds.feedburner.com/mattwardman http://feeds.feedburner.com/poliblogperspective http://feeds.feedburner.com/dailyroundup http://feeds.feedburner.com/politics-england http://feeds.feedburner.com/politics-europe http://feeds.feedburner.com/politics-ireland http://feeds.feedburner.com/politics-scotland http://feeds.feedburner.com/politics-wales http://feeds.feedburner.com/uk-parliament http://feeds.feedburner.com/senedd http://feeds.feedburner.com/holyrood http://feeds.feedburner.com/europarl OPML File You can get it as an opml file here. This was exported from Feeddemon, so it should be compatible with most RSS readers. Put me in / Take me out Email “mattwardman [at] gmail [dot] com”, and I will consider adding you to the relevant aggregator. The only tricky one will be the English Aggregator, as there are a large number of English Political blogs. If you want your personal blog removed from any aggregator, then I will do so without question for private individuals. I will need more persuasion to remove Elected Officers, as I think inclusion is a matter of public interest; I also stuggle with the concept of any Member of Parliament wanting less publicity. I may also get slightly grumpy with anyone who calls a stream of weekly press releases a “blog” ! Wrapping Up If you know of any Members of Assemblies or Parliaments who I have missed, please drop me an email and I will add them. Please also do so with any bugs you discover. I have not developed a site for the Stormont Assembly, as I do not know of any members there who maintain blogs. There’s some tuning to do with these sites on content, but they should be quite stable. I hope they are useful - especially in saving some time for bloggers keeping up to date. Tags: matt wardman, blog aggregator, senedd, holyrood assembly, scotland, wales, england, house of commons, europe, brussels, ireland, politics, current affairs

We have a new columnist on the Wardman Wire this week. Simon Barrow, co-Director of the Think Tank Ekklesia - an organisation known for thinking “differently” (that is a compliment) - will be writing a fortnightly piece on Wednesday afternoons. The column is entitled “Thinking Aloud”, and will be a good alternative for all those being bored to tears by Prime Minister’s Questions at that time. Simon’s first column with be an introduction. Comments will be very welcome. I’ll leave Simon to do his own introduction tomorrow, and what he is hoping to do. As with all new columns, it may take some time to bed in - and the emphasis may adjust somewhat over time. Our usual practice on the WW is to wait a few weeks than have a conversation about how the column fits in. Consider a Paper Aeroplane Simon also occasionally for the Our Kingdom blog, and is on the list of authors at Liberal Conspiracy. Since Ekklesia sometimes does subversive thinking, this is my own subversive thought as to how he may combine the three. For Liberal Conspiracy: explaining that the paper is fully recycled, and that the piece of tree used for making the previous paper before it was recycled was managed sustainably and that it was processed in a chlorine-free pulping process, and that no flies were sideswiped by the plane while in flight. For Our Kingdom: explaining the contribution made to constitutional reform by the paper aeroplane, and proving that the air molecules supporting each wing were divided equally to 0.0000000000001% accuracy. For the Wardman Wire: explaining how much fun it was throwing it out of the window. And who is anybody to say that I may not be right…. Tags: simon barrow, ekklesia, our kingdom, open democracy