Scots do well on Lib Dem Blog Award Shortlists

Those nice people at Lib Dem Voice have been messing with the fragile and egotistical heads of we bloggers over the last few days. They've been teasing us with hints of secrets for days on Twitter, whipping us into an anticipatory frenzy. They even gave us a couple of hours' notice that the shortlists were going to be announced at 11:25 this morning. They were on time, too and you can read the full list here.

I had never had any expectation of being included in any of the shortlists, so I wasn't surprised not to see my name in any of the categories - and then I was completely flabbergasted to discover that this blog on the shortlist for the actual Blog of the Year award. Imagine, a one in five chance of getting a BOTY. Mind you, I tend to assess these sorts of chances in the same way as John Diamond, the late and much missed (by me, anyway) Times columnist who wrote in his book C, Because Cowards get Cancer too about his feelings about being told he had a 80% or a 60% chance of survival or whatever. He said, no, actually, it was 50-50 - he'd either survive or he wouldn't. On that logic, I'm in with a 50-50 chance of victory:-)

So, having talked up my chances of winning by two and a half times, I am crushed that I am not going to be able to be at the glittering awards ceremony on Sunday night at Bournemouth. No Kate Winslet moment for me.

You know when they do the Oscars, or the BAFTAs, they do them very early in the evening, and probably for good reason, because they don't want the participants to have been drinking free booze for an extended period of time. By my the time the awards start at 10pm, all the participants will have been enjoying the delights of the Conference fringe for several hours. That's going to be fun. The spirited and opinionated Liberal Democrat nature is only enhanced by copious amounts of wine and beer so I hope that there's championship quality banter.

Seriously, though, I find myself on a list with exceptionally talented people:

the wonderful Costigan, king of smut, innuendo and tearing the Daily Fail to pieces, also up for best new blog, and with one for Best Posting;

the original and talented Charlotte, also nominated for best new blog and with two posts up for the Best Posting on a Lib Dem blog;

the man they call the Lib Dem Blogosphere's Tactical Nuclear Bastard, previous champion, with his post on the appalling reporting of Jo Swinson's expenses up for best posting, fierce, provocative, sweary and usually right;

everybody's favourite elephant - for a long time, I sported a Bloggers for Fluffy Justice banner on this blog after he was shockingly denied victory last year, cos he's brilliant as this posting on the Megrahi affair shows.

So there you have it - but what of the other Scots? Well, we've done really well, with two of our number up for the "Best Blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office", Willie Rennie MP and Cllr Fraser MacPherson.

Alexander Ryland's Lamp of Liberty is shortlisted for best new blog.

Jo Swinson gets the nod for her fabulous tweets and use of Facebook for which she's already received public acclamation.

Finally, in the Best Non Lib Dem Political Blog, our own Mr MacNumpty makes the shortlist. Nominations were invited from all Lib Dem Voice readers and I nominated J Arthur partly because his diligent round up of Holyrood happenings every week takes some effort and is a valuable historical asset and because of posts like this , this and this. Sure, he often has a good go at the Lib Dems, but then I often have a good go about the SNP but we generally make up over a discussion on Strictly Come Dancing.

We have a lot to be proud of in the Scottish and Lib Dem Blogospheres as the various lists that have come out in this awards season have shown.