Conservative Home Best Newcomer

Celebrating Winning Best Newcomer

To have been presented with a Conservative Home award by the delightful Nadine Dorries would have been a wonderful moment, but I could hardly justify a trip to London on the off-chance. Having blogged since last summer I hardly feel like a newcomer, but the criterion for the newcomer tag was to have started in 2006.

Other Winners

Iain Dale was a deserving overall winner and has put a mini-report on his blog. As well as being a fan of Archbishop Cranmer's blog, I am particularly pleased at the success of Birmingham University Conservative Forum blog. What many people may not realise is that as well as being very readable, the BUCF blog has also been a springboard for unprecedented Conservative successes in the guild elections at their university. Daniel, Joseph and the team deserve the plaudits.

The Next Generation Of Conservative Bloggers

It's been smashing to see the likes of Daniel and Matthew Sinclair (formerly of LSE) develop their political identities online and I would definitely like to see more young Conservatives blogging. Not only should the British Conservative movement be appealing to this generation, but it should be engaged with and influenced by them, too. I think it's notable that of the 10 Conservative blogs from the West Midlands that I link to, seven are younger than me and none of them are much older than me (I'm 32). Let's keep the momentum going.