Blimey, Lists are all the rage it seems. Following the Daily Telegraph publishing a rather strange list of the one hundred most influential leftists in Britain.

It seems surreal to find Gordon Brown and Blair as number one and number two respectively. Any logic that includes those two should surely also include David Cameron?

What is interesting (well perhaps only interesting to bloggers) is that the Telegraph includes various bloggers as influential. Making the rather bizarre judgement that Sunny Hundal is more influential than Gerry Adams, and Dave Osler is more influential than Tariq Ali and John Pilger.

According to the Telegraph:

72. SUNNY HUNDAL

Blogger, PickledPolitics.com

There are few left of centre bloggers who could be described as ‘influential’. Sunny Hundal is one. His site specialises in discussing ethnic issues, but is increasingly reaching out to wider issues on the left. He’s an eloquent media performer and the very antithesis of the stereotype ranting blogger.

77. NORMAN GERAS

Author of the Normblog (www.normblog.typepad.com)

Geras was Professor of Government, University of Manchester until 2003 but now writes one of the most influential left of centre blogs in Britain. A founder of the Euston Manifesto, Geras’s views were important in shaping the pro war left’s view of the war in Iraq.

93. DAVID OSLER

Dave’s Part Blog (www.davidosler.com) Osler is a financial journalist and a Trotskyite turned Labour Party member whose blog has given him a profile and influence few on the extreme left can dream of. He’s one of the few leftist bloggers with a finely developed sense of humour.

Simultaneously, Tory self-publicist Iain Dale has published a list of the top one hundred left blogs.

It is clear from a moment’s perusal that his list is very heavily weighted towards the Labour party. It is a bizarre list of left blogs in Britain that doesn’t include Lenin’s Tomb or Ian Bone.

Anyway, here is my take on the top one hundred and one left blogs from England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

Why 101 blogs and not 100? Well purely because false modesty prevents me from ranking the SU blog in the list, but I have included it, so that we don’t get forgotten.

The placings in the list are arbitrary of course. I have taken into account the originality of the content, how often it is updated,, the quality of the writing, the number of comments, and the degree to which the blog makes a useful contribution to lef politics in my personal opinion!

Some very good blogs are not updated frequently, and therefore get a lower ranking. Some other very good blogs only have occasional political content, and as this is a political list you get a lower rank than you deserve.

So here we go

0) Socialist Unity Blog (not ranked in the list)

1) Cedar Lounge (the winner! From Ireland.)

2) Splintered Sunrise (second place also taken by an Irish blog)

3) Stroppy Blog

4) Lenin’s Tomb

5) Liam Mac Uaid

6) Rebellion Sucks

7) Dave’s Part

8.) Shiraz Socialist

9) Scottish Patient

10) Random Pottins

11 to 20

Ian Bone

SouthPawPunch

Greenman’s Occassional Organ

Union Futures

Red Squirrel’s Lair

Grimmer Up North

Jon’s Union Blog

Seren

Commissar of People’s Enlightenment

Jews Sans Frontieres

21 to 30

The Early Days of a Better Nation

Mike Marquesee

A Very Public Sociologist

Respect Blog

Adventures in Historical Materialism

Martin Wicks

Unrepentant Communist

Mike’s Little Red Page

Left Wing Criminologist

Kit Notes

31 to 40

Another Green World

John Angliss

Socialism or Your Money back

The Gaping Silence

Ian’s Redlog

For a New Left Party

Red Star Coven

The Sharp Side

Peter Tatchell

Michael Greenwell

41 to 50

International Rooksbyism

Stumbling and Mumbling

Organised Rage

The Nation of Duncan

The Peoples’ Republic of Teeside

Labour Left Forum

George Monbiot

Through the Scary Door

Madam Miaow

Labour and Capital

51 to 60

Labour’s Fightback

Three Score Years and Ten

1820

Cllr Matt Sellwood

The Soul of Man under Capitalism

Bash the Rich

I intend to Escape

Though Cowards Flinch

Life is Complicated

The Green Ribbon

61 to 70

Daily (Maybe)

Paul Kingsnorth

John Molyneux

Geoff Sez

Dear Kitty

Consider Phlebus

Between Hammer and Anvil

Aaronovitch Watch

Hak Mao

Gauche

71 to 80

The Point Is

SpectreZine

The Giant Step Forward

Labour of Love

The Memory Hole

Cloud in Trousers

The Right are Wrong

My Random Thoughts

The Bristol Blogger

Spaces of Hope

81 to 90

Reasons to be Impossible

The Thoughts of Chairperson Mikey

Real Labour Blogger

Public Not Private

Dirty Leftie

Proud to be Left

The Sharpener

Unknown Conscience

Drink Soaked Popinjays

Konichiwa, Bitches

91 to 100

Bob from Brockley

General Theory of Rubbish

Modernity Blog

Katheder Blog

From Despair to Where?

The Ghost of Watt Tyler

Indecent Left

Cliffism

Disillusioned Kid

Whatever Happened to Leon Trotsky