Editorial: A question of blogging

One of the problems of setting up a blog is ensuring that posts are regular, preferably daily in order to attract and maintain a readership which after all is the reason we all set up blogs in the first place. There is of course a downside to this, especially if like me, you have a full time job and end up cream-crackered at the end of the day.

Most of the time blogging is fulfilling as I get to address matters that concern me and have learnt that I can't comment on everything so have deliberately focused Howie's Corner on a number of "key" issues. Occasionally there are guest posts, cross-posts and I like to move away from politics and publish "Musical", Comedy" and "Holiday" interludes just for fun.

Other bloggers like Jim Denham of Shiraz Socialist and Phil BC of All that is Solid also take breaks from the tiring and somewhat rarefied world of politics with Jazz and Dance music respectively. Phil also likes writing about his hobby of computer games. As for me I (eventually) set up a  separate blog for my own hobby in the form of Howie's World of Comics.

Like most bloggers I also spend time on Face book which as you gain more contacts and join more groups becomes quite absorbing. And distracting.

I noticed Phil BC make an announcement that his own posts may be more infrequent not just due to work but because he noticed that there were growing piles of books and movies to be read and watched. Something I have thought about for a while.

My blog has clearly changed direction since it was started including three different layouts. Now is the time for me to have a serious rethink about the future direction I will be taking. For the immediate future there will be no changes but in the long term I want to branch out a bit more and perhaps post slightly less in order to improve the quality of material that appears here. I admit to being rushed at times and that does show.

Despite readership having gone down from last year, there are still more than enough of you who read what I have to say or post here to make this blog worthwhile continuing. I'm not going away.

However for some reason with the local/Mayor elections coming up and shortly after, the referendum on Europe the civil service has really emphasised the practice of "Purdah" which means I will not be covering either event during the period this is in force.

That in itself means I will have to think about "replacement" issues to blog about. It can't all be about atheism, secularism and religious extremism so I'll have to have a serious think over the next couple of weeks or so.

I would like to thank all of you whether regular or occasional readers for joining me on my journey through the world of politics we have to put up with.

I will continue to stand against political and religious extremism in all its forms and speak out in favour of free speech and human rights.

Watch this space.