1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote will not count.
4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
5. Only vote once.
6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible. No blog will be excluded from voting.
7. Anonymous votes will not count. You must give a name
8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2010. Any votes received after that date will not count.

Your support would be hugely appreciated!

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote will not count.
4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
5. Only vote once.
6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible. No blog will be excluded from voting.
7. Anonymous votes will not count. You must give a name
8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2010. Any votes received after that date will not count.

Any support for this blog would be much appreciated!

(Via Iain Dale)

It is a bit of a crude tool, as there’s no way of knowing whether the references to each politician are positive or negative; Bristol East Labour MP Kerry McCarthy tops the charts by some considerable distance, but she very much has the “marmite factor” with multiple references to her by both strident supporters and opponents.

Nonetheless, as a broad measure it works, so it is pleasing to see that I’ve made the top 20 lists of Prospective MPs – ranked the fifth most “retweeted” candidate and the eleventh most mentioned candidate in the UK. Thanks to everyone who follows my Twitter posts – @cllrilindley.

Now I’m not going to make a song and dance about social networking, but I’ve always believed that politicians should be as accessible as possible. As a Councillor and now Prospective MP I have always tried to use as many methods as possible to keep local residents informed of my views and of the work I’m doing on their behalf – be that through sites like Twitter, through this website, or through the time-honoured methods of leafleting and knocking on doors!

It is a huge honour to be the Prospective Conservative MP for Worsley and Eccles South. I grew up and live locally in Walkden, and I share the frustration felt by local residents who have been let down and taken for granted by Labour.

Local residents need and deserve a fresh start – we cannot afford another five years of Gordon Brown. I would be delighted to have your support – I will not let you down.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy new year – best wishes for an enjoyable and successful 2010. I think it is going to be a good year!

Blogging will be light over Christmas but regular readers can rest assured that I’ll be back after Boxing Day.

Merry Christmas!

• Follow me on Twitter
• Visit my Flickr gallery
• Access the Salford Conservatives website

I think blogging is a good thing, and more Councillors and politicians should do it. I act as a representative on behalf of the local residents in my ward and I also have a wider responsibility to the City of Salford as a whole. It is – unquestionably – a good thing that they are able to see what I do on their behalf, and what I think about local and national issues that affect them. I also hope this site is of benefit to the local people to whom I aspire to represent as a Prospective MP. They can see what I do, how hard I work, and more than a flavour of who I am and what I think.

I do not spend hours slaving away writing this blog. It takes a matter of minutes to update the website (in most cases) and to update Twitter takes a matter of seconds. It does not interfere with anything else I do and other responsibilities I have – indeed it enhances them considerably.

It is part of my job to keep residents informed of local events and local issues that affect them. This website is part of that. It is a shame that some opposition activists actually think it is a bad thing to communicate with the people who have elected me to represent them.