Upstart bloggers
The new keyboard pundits snapping at the heels of the established players
The newest political blogs from around the country provide a handy list of people – and ideas – to watch in the future. Although not complete, here’s my guide to the most interesting ones at the moment:
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– 3,479 Twitter Followers
-500 Likes on Facebook
Wolves of Westminster was an editorially neutral blog founded in 2018 by a Kings College London student and his old school friend but was relaunched in May 2019 with a new website and new team members who tend towards centre-right politics. Contributors post news and comment every couple of days and Wolves have been doing a roaring trade in leaks from Momentum meetings, for example this exclusive which revealed Momentum were mass-printing and distributing election leaflets without a valid imprint. The editor of the blog is anonymous but deputy editor Patrick Timms previously worked in IT and now balances his translation job with news and punditry. Previously a Labour supporter, 33-year-old Timms became more interested in politics in the last few years and stood as a Conservative candidate for the May 2019 local elections. The blog is a potential spring-board for a full-time media career – a previous deputy editor, Chris Bradford is now working for The Sun.
– 11.9K Twitter Followers
– No Facebook page
Founded in 2018 by a Tory student, The New Briton is a right-of-centre political blog run by card-carrying Tories to provide a voice for young Conservatives. Imran Fahiya was brought up in a Labour-supporting household but made a political volte-face after deciding their policies “were not offering the right solutions to the problems facing the country”. He found like-minded students over Twitter to help run The New Briton but the law-student is now in his final year at university in London. Contributors vary but the blog provides a platform for the more socially-conservative wing of the Tory party.
– 5518 Twitter Followers
– 565 likes on Facebook
Conservatives Global is a new English-language blog to “strengthen the positive case for conservatism” and unite Conservatives around the world. Created by Lithuanian born Richard Rimkus – with help from ex-IDS spinner Nick Wood’s Media Intelligence Partners in November last year, ConservativesGlobal has persuaded an impressive list of UK conservatives to write for them – like former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith – and has also attracted a good range of articles from around the world. As well as attempting to unite conservatives, the blog also says it plans “to counteract the level of disinformation put out by left-wing organisations”. Rimkus, who runs the site, is also the founder of Conservative Friends of the Baltic States.
– Twitter 4364 Followers
– 2,359 likes on Facebook
The spiritual successor to the successful BrexitCentral blog, Global Vision is a pro-Brexit media platform with a focus on free-trade deals the UK could strike after leaving the Brexit transition period. The new website is run day-to-day by Rebecca Ryan, the woman behind the highly effective StandUp4Brexit campaign which got Tory MPs on the record to criticise Theresa May’s ‘Chequers’ plan for Brexit, and chaired by trade expert Shanker Singham. It publishes around one article per day focussed on a specific aspect of Brexit and does a daily news email but has recently began focussing on Coronavirus.
– 4,577 Twitter Followers
– 1,522 Facebook Likes
Set up initially as a hobby by William Walter in 2016, CommentCentral is now run day-to-day by Daniel Huggins who is balancing blogging with his PhD in Health Policy at Kent University. CommentCentral has provided centre-right commentary over the last few years and was the home of a large amount of Brexit op-eds over the last few years.
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