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I first encountered Paul Cotterrill’s blog when we had a lively debate about the merits of reforming political party funding. His thoughtful, well argued posts and sense of humour made him an obvious choice to be an early member of the Bloggers Circle. I caught up with Paul to find out what he could teach me about blogging.

An analysis of his blog during September, revealed the following issues and phrases most likely to emerge in his writing – a healthy mix of the things that really matter to the people of Bickerstaffe ward and the wider issues of interest to other bloggers in the circle.

And to quote Paul out of context, I found a number of delicious quotes on his blog, including:

• “It’s important, I contend, to set out the emerging debate within an appropriate epistemological framework, and to take a considered view on the extent to which the debate is ontologically ’real’, and to set this against the claim that it is a ’social reality’ effectively manufactured by the hegemonic forces of capitalism eager to ‘alienate’ the working classes from an appreciation of their true objective interests.”
• Just how stupid are rightwing bloggers?
• I just thought I’d stick up the content of this letter to Dickets Lane/Wigan Road residents as it’s not got indivudual information in, and is a bit too long to regurgitate in a leaflet, so i’ll just link to it with the clever tinyURL thigummy

Paul was also kind enough to answer some questions I asked, in order to get a better idea of how he does it.

1. Tell us about your blog in a soundbite
A blog about local politics in West Lancashire which keeps getting distracted by other matters

2. How long have you been blogging?
I had a false start sometime 2007, but finally got regular about it by about July 2008, and haven’t looked back since. Or is that looked up since?

3. What do you think is your best ever post and why?
Tricky one.

I think I’ll have to go for my long post about now my local Conservative council develops an image of itself at odds with reality, and how an imposition of its own version of reality must be challenged, but must first be recognised for what it is.  I only started reading proper, serious books about 6 or 7 years ago, and it was the first time I really felt I had been able to bring my newly acquired theoretical perspectives around ‘critical realism’ to bear on a practical issue in such a way that I was more confident about what day-to-day political approach I need to take as a Labour councillor in a Conservative controlled area.  I was dead chuffed.  I’m doing a post at the moment on ‘The epistemology of decent journalism’ which calls on much of the same ideas, but develops them further, so what goes around comes around.

See Awards ceremonies, management beliefs, power relations, and the critically realist path of the righteous left

4. How often do you blog?
Pretty well every night, when everyone in the house has gone to bed.

5. Tell us how you find the time
Less sleep. I usually blog in the hours after midnight.  I used to read novels then.  I’ve stopped.

6. What keeps you going?
I find writing stuff down in a blog helps me clarify my own thinking about stuff, as well as – from a practical point of view – getting stuff down which is often cut and paste into newsletters and other local correspondence.

I also like to comment on other people’s blogs quite a lot, because I think it’s important that blogs engage rather than simply become rants from a small dark room.  I think there’s a lot of hope for the blogosphere generally as an alternative to the control exerted by the mainstream media giants, and I’m keen to support that in my own little way.

7. What’s a good day, in terms of traffic to your blog?
I’m afraid I have no idea.  I don’t bother with what I’ve seen referred to as ‘statporn’.  My mate Steve, who understands these things, did set up google analytics for me but I’ve lost it.

8. What would you like to achieve with your blog?
The success of the blog itself is unimportant, and in fact I’ve started to move a lot of my ‘wider’ writing to Though Cowards Flinch’ in order to ‘get back local’ with the Bickerstaffe Record.  Through my blogosphere engagement, though, I have come to realise (and have been told by friendly others) that I do know a thing or two about things, and can write reasonably well, and I can now see doors opening to making a bit of a living (though only a bit) in some kind of ‘engaged journalism’/'radical publishing’.  I’m quite old, and it’s a bit late for a career change, but engagement with people in the blogopshere (and especially engagement with young people who take my on my own terms rather than see me as a dull middle-aged fart) is potentially opening up some really interesting doors for me in my increasingly radical dotage.

9. What’s the best piece of advice you can give?
Always try to respond to commenters, who like to see comments back.  They didn’t just comment into the ether. They commented in order to engage and they deserve the courtesy of a response.  It also means they’ll visit the site again.

Never abuse people personally, and try to be as respectful to people as you would be if you met them in real life, however much you disagree with them. This applies to everyone except Tom Harris MP, who should be abused as much as possible for his writings, views, personality, and personal hygiene.

Am I allowed two? I am quite old and prone to handing out advice whether people want it or not.

10. Tell us how a blogpost gets your attention?
If it’s clear from the start that the post is either going to offer a point of view on something i’ve not seen before, or is going to give me new, originally sourced information.  Conversely, I’m put off by articles that simply link to other pieces of commentary and regurgitate/synthesize what’s been said there.  That’s with the exception of Vino S, who simply gives a two or three line abstract and invites the reader to look at the original, and doesn’t try to make his post a commentary about commentary.

Related posts:

1. Meet the blogger: Joe Nutt

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