That was the year that was... as chosen by you

My review of the year is brought to you by… you. These are the five blog-postings which have attracted most hits in 2006 in ascending order of unique visitors:

5. ‘New vidcast: my take on Webcameron’ (1st Oct): what I thought was a subtle piece of satire suggesting that David Cameron’s inaugural attempt to speak to the YouTube generation perhaps lacked a certain authenticity appeared to get noticed for different reasons. This was, of course, never my intention.

4. ‘Oxford clutches to the past’ (28th Nov): the continuing fascination my home-town’s older university exerts on the media’s and public consciousness was demonstrated once more by the coverage devoted to Oxford’s internal wranglings over its governance. I explained why I was 100% behind the Vice-Chancellor’s reforms here.

3. ‘To robe, or not to robe’ (12th Nov): that this article was so popular had nothing to do with the quality of the writing, or the choice of subject matter - and everything to do with Iain Dale linking to it. I was rather scared by the proof of quite how many people read his blog.

2. First full day of the Lib Dem conference (18th Sept): ‘Clegg ups the ante’, ‘Media tarting’, ‘Fisking Jackie Ashley’, ‘Keeping it real. Honest’, ‘Can I stop now’, and ‘Immigration: “open door = revolving door”’. I’ve a sneaking suspicion winning that award may have helped boost traffic that day.

But, by some margin, the winner was:

1. ‘New poll: sexiest female and male Lib Dems’ (14th Dec): proving - yet again - how sophisticated and intellectual the readership of my blog is, and how undeserved is the party’s recently acquired reputation for moral dissolution. There’s still a few hours left to vote, by the way…

So, there you have it… my review of the year - well, the last three months - as chosen by you. Can I thank the tens and thousands of you who have visited my blog, for whatever reason, this year? I look forward to seeing you, and others, again in 2007.