Tuesday 6 January 2015

First Footing 2015, With The Best of 2014


First of all, can I wish you a Happy New Year?

Last year saw 36 posts.  A wee bit light given the year Scotland has gone through.  I’d have liked to have posted more but time constraints and all that.  It won’t surprise you to know that the referendum dominated the most read posts list, so without further ado (insert own preferred countdown music, be it Pick of The Pops, Phil Lynott or Paul Hardcastle…)

At 10, it’s the post about the first referendum debate between the Chairman of Better Together, Alistair Darling and the First Minister Alex Salmond.  A Wasted Opportunity was not the last post about currency, but Darling’s brutal slaughter of Salmond’s currency position told us what some people knew already – Sterlingzone wasn’t going to win the referendum.  As a contrast, the post at number 9 asks, in the week of Salmond’s resignation as First Minister, Just WhatHas Alex Salmond Ever Done For Us?

The second Darling/Salmond debate is partly the subject of the eighth best read post of the year.  A Tale of Two Debates compares & contrasts that debate with the Paisley hustings which featured Jim Sheridan MP, George Adam MSP, Fiona McDonald (from the PCS Union) and Tommy Morrison (from Clydebank Trades Union Council).  Both debates took place on the same night in August.  At 7 was my take on the whole Wiiings/Lally/Rowling/Cybernats thing. Cyber-twats probably tells you everything about what I think about every hardcore pro-Indy supporters favorite blogger with alarmingly UKIP acceptable views and a line in appropriating Laibach’s imagery.  Just outside the top 5 and at 6 is a post about that debate.  No not that one, the one between Sturgeon and Lamont.  So How Did Lamont Lose That Debate reports on Johann Lamont’s successful attempt to take Nicola Sturgeon to extra time and then penalties in their Scotland Tonight debate.

So, top 5, and at 5 is “The Lie of The Land – What Now For The 45?” which looks at the evolving post referendum landscape and the SNP’s task in making inroads to Labour’s 41 seats it will be defending in May.  Essentially, it will be hard.  The fourth best read blog of 2014 was the post sifting through the wreckage and foot in mouth moments of Johann Lamont’s leadership – The Political Suicide ofJohann Lamont. Ah, the wee things.

We are now into the top three, and the third best read blog of 2014 keeps that Labour theme going.  The Slow Slow Death of ScottishLabour pinpointed the issues Scottish Labour had accrued during the referendum campaign, and highlighted the reasons why voters might be thinking of not voting Labour in the onrushing General Election.  Being held off the number one slot is the second Sterlingzone post of the year – confusingly titled Sterlingzone – Part 57.  This one was in the aftermath of Osborne’s speech ruling out a currency union – closely backed up by the 99p shop Dennis Healy and the ginger haired one off the Muppets.  Punningly, Iain MacWhirter dubbed this event “The Sermon on The Pound” as he identified that Osborne’s behavior could backfire on the pro-Union parties.  Political mastermind my bahochie.

Which leaves us with the most read post in 2014.  At number one is “The UKIP effect” – a post looking at the rightwards drift of the Westminster parties as they are (without justification) looking to stem the light trickle of voters defecting to UKIP.  A rather prescient post that explains the (suggested according to polling) decline in support for Scottish Labour to the SNP, given it was written in February.

So that’s that for 2014.  A year like no other the blurb went, all rather obvious given that 2014 will only happen once.  Proper blogging will resume shortly…

No comments: