Jolly Blogging Weather
Who reads blogs? It is a question I often ask myself, having a list of my own favourites to be looked at each morning. Well the statistics are astonishing. Last month I had 220,000 hits, compared with under 14,000 a year ago. I started it at the beginning of 2007. Also my website has grown from 5,000 to 12,000 in the same period of time. Yesterday I enjoyed recording a discussion on the future of post offices on my website. A number of my parliamentary colleagues tell me that I am unwise to do a blog each day, saying it will come back to haunt me, or that the time it takes up to write is excessive. I disagree.
One of my main concerns as a politician is the public’s view that politicians do not listen and do not communicate their views. Like so many of my colleagues of all political persuasions, I try hard to remedy that impression. The blog and the website are part of this attempt. It is therefore pleasing that an increasing number of people visit my sites even if the contents are quite pedestrian compared with others!