Category Archives: Blog of the week

Just say "Argh" to AV!

9:24am Wed February 23rd

Scrapbook plans to stay neutral throughout the electoral reform campaign, but with No to AV’s garish and somewhat overblown campaign already ripening for satire, it would be wholly wrong of us not to guide you towards the wonderful ARGH to AV site.

Operating along similar lines to the Daily Mail-o-matic headline generator, the “No” camp could probably save themselves quite a bit of time using this tool. Although “The professional Elvis impersonator needs to STFU not an alternative voting system – Say ARGH to spending less than George Osborne’s inheritance on AV” is good, our personal favourite is:

Unfortunately, nothing quite reaches the heights of the original “Vote No to AV or the baby gets it” advert.

Two new Scottish blogs

5:32pm Sun February 14th

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If their blog suddenly exploded (unlikely as it is powered presumably by biodiesel) Scotland’s green movement would lose a decent clutch of its rising stars. Adam Ramsay and Gary Dunion, who were behind the recent No Shock Doctrine for Haiti campaign, have joined up with other Scottish green (Party) troublemakers such as Peter McColl and Maggie Chapman to join the ranks of blogging Edinburgh University alumni. They’re tweeting from @brightgreenscot and their RSS feed is here:

Whether they’ve exhumed his body or are receiving posts through means of séances, it seems that Lanarkshire’s own Keir Hardie has made a return to the political fray at 4wardnotback.blogspot.com. Its aggressive punchy style is exactly what Labour needs in the run up to May 6th. RSS feed is here or tweet Keir up @keirhardieblogs:

Check them out.

Norman Tebbit joins the blogosphere!

12:10am Mon January 11th

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No, seriously. Really, just look at the screen grab below. Oh, all right then bloody well go and look for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Eurosceptic loose-cannon-at-large Norman Tebbit has joined fellow troublemaker Daniel Hannan with his own blog over at the Telegraph (RSS feed here). And it takes him precisely 118 words to have a go at the Cameroons:

“About the only leading politican to show any [grit] these days seems to be the much-abused Prime Minister Brown. Grittiness and the stiff upper lip seem to have been replaced with emotional incontinence, political correctness and open-necked shirts worn with well cut suits.”

Open neck shirts, eh? To whom could the Noble Lord possibly be referring?

Scrapbook looks forward to Tebbit’s special brand of unreconstructed biggotry and “nasty party” quotes gaining mind share with journalists and bloggers in record time!

Thank you, God.

New group blog puts its Left Foot Forward

8:43am Mon September 14th

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Online for a while but launching officially today, Left Foot Forward (twitter) is the latest entrant into an increasingly crowded selection of lefty group blogs. The site takes its inspiration from US blog ThinkProgress, grounding the editorial outlook with a “what we’re fighting for/against” manifesto.

In the video below, editor Will Straw sets out the stall for a perhaps more serious kind of political blog: ”It’s not that we don’t like opinion or gossip, we think that our team of experts can add most value by analysing what’s behind the news and looking at the facts”. You know it’s earnest as he’s located the nearest bookcase for that 15% added gravitas!

Straw will be talking the talk this evening on Sky News at 7:15pm.

(Lefty) policy wonks of the world unite!

New additions to the blogroll

5:04pm Sun September 6th

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With the release of Total Politics’ Top 100 Left of Centre Blogs and it being a Sunday and everything, Scrapbook is being very lazy with a ‘new additions to the blogroll’ type post. Positions in the rankings given in brackets:

Hopi Sen (2) – That’s his real name. Honest.
Alastair Campbell (4) – Great posts more than make up for the weird design.
Sadie’s Tavern (17) – Provides consistent laugh-out-loud moments. Also check out w4MP’s guides written by her alter-ego ‘Dean Trench’.
Bickerstaffe Record (21) – From Cllr Paul Cotterill. A great balance between local council issue-inspired posts and weighty polemic. And he’s not afraid to take on Tom Harris with comedy results.
Yapping Yousuf (26) – Yousuf Hamid is a Scottish student blokey and “extremely infrequent gym user”. Ranked 8 in the Scottish blog list.
John Prescott/Go Fourth (28) – A pretty stupid ommision given Scrapbook is already using their profile badge (to the right).

Welcome to the blogroll.

Blog(s) of the Week

9:47pm Sun August 2nd

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Scrapbook intends to pay homage to its favourite blogs with this weekly feature, producing weekend filler posts gradually expanding the blogroll in the process.

Two blogs for your reading pleasure this week. Mark Hanson is a red-rosetted social media anorak consultant and all round good egg. Those wanting a UK perspective on what’s happening at the junction between the internets and politics need look no further than this blog.

Although mostly above the fray Hanson isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, his strident defence of health journalist Sally Gainsbury against a Mail on Sunday stitch-up being a good case in point.

Along with the Stilettoed Socialist and (until their graduations this summer) Tory Bear and Stuart MacLennan, Hadleigh Roberts is one of a handful of student politicos that make time to pen a decent blog post or two in between lectures, running up massive personal debt and binge drinking. These are all good examples, largely in contrast to campus newspapers, of blogs as a device to showcase students as good writers on politics full stop, rather than good writers on student politics.

Welcome to the blogroll.

Blog of the week: Chris Paul's Labour of Love

12:50pm Sat July 25th

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Scrapbook intends to pay homage to its favourite blogs with this weekly feature, producing weekend filler posts gradually expanding the blogroll in the process.

From a good regional field which includes Paul Cotterill, Chris Paul’s Labour of Love is probably the best lager political blog in the North West.

He likes to write about Tractor production and has an MP-terrifying penchant for forensic muckraking. And Iain Dale doesn’t like him, which is always a good sign.

You can also pursue him on Twitter here.

A blogroll is born

9:08am Wed July 22nd

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The very short blogroll on the right comprises PS’ absolute Desert Island Discs, the blogs that would be typed into the location bar if Google Reader went AWOL. The list will be expanded with a regular Blog of the Week and when laziness precludes full posts.

Category Archives: Blog of the week

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