Cambridgeshire Tories well represented in blog awards

The independent 2010 Total Politics blog awards are out for the top Conservative blogs and Cambridgeshire Tories feature well.

This 'Cherry Hinton Road' blog has entered at number 74 while over on Perne Road Coleridge branch chairman, Richard Normington, has moved up from 90 to 64 (well done, Richard!)

The full local list is:

21 (27) Steve Tierney
40 (50) Steve Barclay MP
59 (88) Ellee Seymour
64 Richard Normington
67 (77) Tales from a Draughty Old Fen
74 Your Coleridge Conservative Action Team

(Today also marks four months since Labour's last local blog post.)

One day left to vote for your favourite blogs

There's only one day left to e-mail your votes for your favourite blogs in this year's Total Politics blog awards.

The blog awards weren't on our radar last year until Richard Normington unexpectedly received one for the blog he wrote on the local association website. Richard's blog is a great read and highly recommended in its new location.

A new kid on the blog

While looking for sources to find out whom the local Lib Dems have selected to be the next wannabe rubber tree I stumbled across Market Division Lib Dem County Cllr Sarah Whitebread's new blog. She acknowledges Tory supremacy in the Cambridge blogosphere and says that she wants to add an 'opinion' dimension to the otherwise sterile blog action from local Lib Dems here. This is to be welcomed!

"For such a liberal city it’s a shame that the most active bloggers at the moment seem to be tories."

I did notice while browsing the new blog that Martin Land has been selected Lib Dem PPC for Huntingdon. That would be the same Land who called Cambridge 'one of the scruffiest, nastiest little towns in England' in his blog. Yes we do have a copy of that post even though you pulled it down. I'm surprised Cambridge Lib Dems want to be associated with him!

P.S. Cllr Whitebread, is Colin going to be standing in Market Ward this year?

Coleridge Conservatives' blog highlights from 2009

The turn of the year seems to provide the top national bloggers with an excuse for some introspective blogging about blogging, so this year Coleridge Conservatives are indulging in our own review of 2009.

There were 124% extra unique visitors in 2009 over 2008, when the blog began. We made 212 posts, which is broadly equivalent to the 188 in the ten months of the previous year that the blog was running.

We're being kept on our toes in Cambridge by Richard Normington's blog, which has thrived since moving to its own site with 196 posts in 2009 and now by our new PPC, Nick Hillman, whose blog is updated most days. Both blogs are highly recommended.

The top ten most visited posts from 2009 were:

1. Andy on a Latest Graffiti Outbreak by 'Melon'.
   The city was plagued by graffiti from 'Melon' AKA 'ATS' last year, initially apparently concentrated around Coleridge and Romsey. The commenter on this thread was admiring the artwork; it's almost tempting to agree, but when every single cabinet, road sign and booth in an area bears the tags it does start to look a bit shabby...
   
   
2. Chris Reviewing the case for the Guided Bus.
   Some of the traffic was driven to this page by a link from flat.earth cast.iron's anti-guided bus page, as you can tell from the comments - single issue action groups often pile in like this. All visitors are welcome!
   
   
3. Chris on the Runners and Riders for June 4th's Cambridgeshire County Council elections.
   Thanks to Chris for an interesting summary of the chances of the hopeful candidates from the city. Some of us were surprised when we read a rumour that City Cllr Colin Rosenstiel had been selected to fight Market Division for the Lib Dems, but it turned out not to be true... or did the Lib Dems change their minds in private after his censure by the standards committee? It will be interesting to see if Colin stands again for the city council in May. One to watch.
   
   
4. Grafton Centre M+S store to close.
   
   
5. Exclusive: Folk Festival Fiasco – Second financial calamity hits Council.
   
   
6. Residents' Parking Rejected by Blinco Area.
   So good Labour used the text verbatim for their own blog post before editing it a bit. The Lib Dems are still trying to push for this unpopular scheme despite its rejection by the public.
   
   
7. Blog Exclusive: What's all this then.
   First with the news on what appeared to be the latest exploit of a certain city councillor. Thanks to the commuter for sending us the photograph!
   
   
8. Tesco Approved on Leisure Park.
   This application didn't turn out to be as controversial as the application for Mill Road, despite Labour trying to cash in on the NMRT momentum - the cases were clearly not comparable.
   
   
9. Cambridge Cycling Campaign Strategy Day.
   Coleridge Conservatives are strong supporters of cycling in Cambridge but don't buy into the car versus cycle dualism to which some people in both lobbies try to reduce the arguments.
   
   
10. Folk Festival Report is Truly Shocking.
    Subsequently Chris found himself on the enquiry into the fiasco - the rest of us await the outcome of the enquiry with interest.
    

Meanwhile, over at the 'Coleridge Labour Update' blog there hasn't been an update for a whole four months now...