"Oggy Bloggy Ogwr is not just a political blog in the usual sense of responding to the day’s political events. Rather it is an attempt to explore some of the challenges that face Wales today, and offer solutions.
"It is impressive not only in the number of posts produced but also in the great detail in which they discuss their subject. What makes it stand out the most is that it is an effort to actually improve the country in which we live, rather than simply re-evaluating the day’s news and opinions." - Judges comments.
Oggy Bloggy Ogwr won best Political Blog at the Wales Blog Awards 2012 held in Cardiff last night. A blog awards might not be the most prestigious event in the world, but it goes some way towards acknowledging the breadth of online talent in Wales.
It was great to meet fellow nominees Y Cneifiwr and Carmarthenshire Planning in person, and as Y Cneifiwr summed up, compared to some of the other blogging subjects – ranging from music, sport, fashion and food & drink – political bloggers are "at the arse end of the business".
I'm not suggesting we're Byronic heroes, but most of the time it's a trudge of never-ending bad news stories. It's hard to stand on stage smiling when many of the blogs you write dump buckets of manure over people's heads – even if they deserve it. I hope my acceptance speech showed that you can have a sense of humour about the sheer levels of absurdity that surrounds these serious issues.
I think one improvement is to have separate "Best Writing on a Blog" awards for Welsh and English. I doubt you can judge the quality of writing – word play, nuances etc. - in two completely different languages on the same criteria. I think it's right that the other blog categories are bilingual so we don't reduce Welsh language blogs to token status. I read quite a few Welsh language blogs through Google Translate, which is imperfect, but I know some of best blogs in Wales are written in Welsh.
There were notable omissions from both the longlist and shortlists. Dic Mortimer is one of the best-written and entertaining blogs in Wales right now, while in the politics section alone you're missing the likes of Jac O the North, Syniadau, Blog Menai, A Change of Personnel, Borthlas, Valleys Mam. Nobody visiting here is likely to agree with John Tyler's views, but he writes on subjects with intelligence and forethought and that's all you can ask for - believe it or not, I consider Stonemason to be one of my guilty pleasures on the Welsh political blogosphere.
So even though I've won an award, I don't think it's fair to say that the blog awards themselves demonstrate how deep the Welsh blogosphere goes – in all subjects. I was familiar with a few, but not all, of the other blogs beforehand. Many of them are truly remarkable and have been bookmarked – winners, long-listed and short-listed ones.
I think I need to give you an idea now of why I started this blog and how I go about things.
I used to lurk on the Welsh political blogosphere during its "peak" around 2009/2010-ish. I would leave comments, sometimes anonymously, sometimes with my name. Then I realised I was starting to write so much that it warranted a blog of its own. The comment boxes wern't enough anymore.
I'd say that Syniadau, Ordovicius, Welsh Ramblings and Miserable Old Fart were my main "inspirations". I set Syniadau as the standard of blog I wanted to aim for in terms of depth and quality of analysis.
I started the blog with the aim of covering the devolution referendum and the 2011 Assembly elections, then leave it, coming back with bigger posts on issues relating to independence every few months - in effect, taking inspiration from Syniadau's forum on independence ideas and turning it up to 11.
Regarding the name, I knew it had to be catchy to stand out. As one of my favourite blogs was Ordovicius, and The Druid was also well-regarded, this blog was originally going to be called The Silurian – but I think that had already been taken. I thought of a few other names, knew I had to get Bridgend into it somehow – Ogwr – but how could I make that catchy? Hence, via Cornish miners and Max Boyce - Oggy Bloggy Ogwr. Even I get tongue-tied.
My blog hits for several months – were crap. I was going to pack it in sometime in September 2011 as it wasn't working. Then one of my posts was picked up by Duncan and Adam Higgitt of Wales Home fame. I was wondering where all these extra hits were coming from, but it turned out that Duncan Higgitt had been tweeting my posts (I wasn't a member of Twitter at the time – a big boo-boo). I realised there were people who wanted to read long-form posts - and wouldn't find it dull.
I eventually joined Twitter, but it wasn't until February/March this year that things took off. These include March 1st 2036, coverage of the Plaid Cymru leadership election, the defence "five parter" and the Green Investment Bank post. I had a much wider reach than I thought.
Ever since then, there's been a maintained level of interest that lets me know that people actually care about what I write - even established names in Welsh politics. I've also been asked to write articles for Cambria magazine. The first was quite popular, while the second should be out in the next edition, hopefully in the next month or two.
Some of you might wonder how/why I write so many long posts.
Firstly, I have a background in the sciences, so for the best part of a decade I've had to deal with large amounts of data and produce analysis from that. Obviously in politics you usually come to the conclusion, then fit the evidence around it. I try not to do that - even if its obvious I have an agenda. I hope my recent posts on the economy show that even if I support independence quite openly, I'm not blinkered to the reality of the current situation.
Secondly, I'm not bragging, but I'm a fast writer. It took me under 20 minutes to write this.
Thirdly, I tend to break longer posts up into chunks, and write aggressively for short bursts at a time over several days or weeks - around graphs/data etc. when necessary. Most of it is simply good time management, and it's probably easier if you don't have any major responsibilities like children!
I joke about it, but I do have a life outside of blogging - which I see as nothing more than a very serious hobby. I like food & drink, football, gaming, weight-training (though it didn't show in the photo from the blog awards because I have God-awful fashion sense - I'll need to work on that) and I listen to some truly ear-drum piercing heavy metal. Arsenal's dodgy defence last season probably motivated me most to "write aggressively".
Last but not least - someone has to do it. I don't think anyone, other than Michael Haggett (Syniadau) and a few others, has thought long and hard about the whats, hows and whys of Welsh independence. It's about thirty years too soon to be taken seriously, but I believe I'm "doing my bit" for the cause by stimulating debate and brainstorming options. When the time does come for it to be taken as a serious proposition, there'll be "something on the (virtual) table" for the professionals and policy wonks to work around. In some cases, maybe they could be on the table regardless of independence - media for instance - and I think that's the main reason why I won last night.
I won't be doing this forever obviously, but politics is such an open subject there's always something to write about. I've set a very high standard for myself, and worry that I might've peaked, but I hope I can continue at this standard for as long as possible.
I've only had to delete a single (non spam) comment in 19 months of blogging - out of hundreds of comments - which reflects very well on the maturity levels of readers and commentators. That's been the highlight for me.
I'd like to thank each and every one of you who've visited this blog, e-mailed me, followed me on Twitter/retweeted my posts, joined my facebook page or read my Cambria articles.
Diolch yn fawr iawn am eich cefnogaeth barhaus.
