The white smoke lasted all of a few seconds: from the moment I became editor I knew who I wanted to succeed me as political editor. In what few discussions I had about it, the same name was clearly ahead. And reading the comment threads, you guys knew it too. But today it’s official: James Forsyth, whose political analysis you have been following for so long, will be the new political editor...

My piece about the Cardiff Political Blogging debate next Tuesday, which I cross-posted to Miss Wagstaff's Salon in a slightly toned-down form: Speakers are Peter Black AM and Betsan Powys, Political Editor of BBC Wales, and Eleanor Burnham AM and Annabelle Harle from the Electoral Reform Society. In the Chair is Victoria Winckler, Director of the Bevan Foundation This event is being held in ...

This morning I've had an article, written with Chris Pope from the American Enterprise Institute, published at The American. It sets out how the current political success of the David Cameron-led Conservative Party isn't based on an embrace of environmentalism:...

The Blogging Tories website was created by Stephen Taylor and Craig Smith. It aggregates recent postings from 100s of conservative/ Tory Canadian political blogs. It is therefore an extremely good starting point for tracing news, grassroots comment about current Canadian politics. Topics covered include Conservative party events and policy and recent Canadian elections. Bloggers include political ...

The Lenten season approaches and I've decided to take a blogging break as part of that. I'd like to point you to a couple of Birmingham-based conservative websites. Young Tory activist Matthew Tidy has just started blogging. And David Kelly is a mysterious character who seems to be the first on all the local political gossip. I only plan to update the blog if and when my suggestion for a...

CentreRight (at Conservative Home) has an interesting 'blogging about blogging' post by Peter Cuthbertson, responding to the launch of, er, CentreLeft - A new left blog that promises to "challenge and correct" Conservative bloggers. I wouldn't have worded my criticisms as he has. "...For all that oppositional mentality...there is very little evidence of any effort to engage with conservative ideas...

I don't think there has ever been a week when blogging has been the subject of so much chat and perhaps that may be why there is so much confusion out there over what the nature of this beast actually is. I posted up a long though well received piece about the State of UK Blogging from a leading political company down in London. It turns out they had a glaring error in the text, as pointed ou...

Why does past political convictions mean that a politician should resign their post? Surely what someone has believed in the past means little in the present day? Political beliefs change over time. Mine certainly have in the three years since I started blogging. Yes, a political journey from the IRA to the Conservative and Unionist Party

That's right, one of the biggest jobs in political journalism is up for grabs. The FT Westminster blog reports that George Pascoe-Watson, who took over from Trevor Kavanagh in the political editor's chair at the best-selling British tabloid in 2006,...

In early September TOTAL POLITICS, in association with APCO WORLDWIDE will publish the 2008-9 Guide to Political Blogging in the UK. It will contain articles on blogging by some of Britain's leading bloggers, together with a directory of UK political blogs, and a series of Top 20s and Top 10s. The book will be available at the Green Party, TUC, Labour, LibDem and Tory Conferences, where TOTAL POLI...