Top 100 Independent Tweeting Bloggers

By popular demand, the top 100 independent tweeting political bloggers for 2012.

1. Alastair Campbell (198,921 followers)

2. Tom Watson MP (108,869 followers)

3. Guido Fawkes (89,639 followers)

4. Iain Dale (35,831 followers)

5. Tim Montgomerie (32,302 followers)

6. Left Foot Forward (28,631 followers)

7. Sunny Hundal (28,210 followers)

8. Political Scrapbook (23,130 followers)

9. Labour List (22,272 followers)

10. Harry Cole (21,143 followers)

11. Eoin Clarke (20,605 followers)

12. Conservative Home (16,403 followers)

13. Open Democracy (15,325 followers)

14. Liberal Conspiracy (15,227 followers)

15. Richard Murphy (15,205 followers)

16. Old Holborn (14,415 followers)

17. The F-Word (12,103 followers)

18. UK Progressive (11,808 followers)

19. Lynne Featherstone MP (11,712 followers)

20. Jonnie Marbles (11,603 followers)

21. Douglas Carswell MP (11,593 followers)

22. Labour Uncut (11,198 followers)

23. Jody MacIntyre (11,094 followers)

24. The Commentator (9,728 followers)

25. New Left Project (9,626 followers)

26. Angela Neptustar (9,083 followers)

27. Archbishop Cranmer (8,862 followers)

28. LibDem Voice (8,857 followers)

29. Cath Elliott (8,775 followers)

30. Jonathan Isaby (8,284 followers)

31. Mark Ferguson (8,037 followers)

32. Diary of a Benefit Scrounger (7,437 followers)

33. Boris Watch (7,317 followers)

34. Benefit Scrounging Scum (7,269 followers)

35. Mike Smithson (7,157 followers)

36. Labour Matters (6,913 followers)

37. Jon Worth (6,770 followers)

38. Lenin's Tomb (6,740 followers)

39. Bloggerheads (6,703 followers)

40. John Redwood MP (6,672 followers)

41. Another Angry Woman (6,635 followers)

42. Mark Pack (6,526 followers)

43. James Cleverly AM (6,477 followers)

44. Adam Bienkov (6,395 followers)

45. Labour Left (6,281 followers)

46. Hopi Sen (6,182 followers)

47. Carl Gardner (5,944 followers)

48. Crash Bang Wallace (5,859 followers)

49. Paul Flynn MP (5,745 followers)

50. Obnoxio the Clown (5,638 followers)

51. Aaron Peters (5,587 followers)

52. Raheem Kassam (5,510 followers)

53. Julie Bindel (5,497 followers)

54. Bright Green (5,244 followers)

55. Libcom (5,240 followers)

56. Big Brother Watch (5,174 followers)

57. Bella Caledonia (5,068 followers)

58. CiF Watch (4,932 followers)

59. Jess McCabe (4,927 followers)

60. Pride's Purge (4,880 followers)

61. Tom Scholes-Fogg (4,814 followers)

62. Luke Akehurst (4,686 followers)

63. A Dragon's Best Friend (4,481 followers)

64. The Blog That Peter Wrote (4,518 followers)

65. Michael Meacher MP (4,339 followers)

66. Craig Murray (4,124 followers)

67. Julie's Think Tank (4,004 followers)

68. Disabled People Against Cuts (3,961 followers)

69. A Latent Existence (3,697 followers)

70. Counterfire (3,579 followers)

71. Peter Watt (3,535 followers)
72. Heresy Corner (3,525 followers)

73. John O'Shea (3,115 followers)

74. James MacKenzie (3,076 followers)
75. Alan Mills (3,069 followers)

76. Laurence Durnan (2,986 followers)

77. Emma Burnell (2,976 followers)

78. Liberal England (2,902 followers)

79. A Burdz Eye View (2,852 followers)

80. A Very Public Sociologist (2,811 followers)

81. The Third Estate (2,735 followers)

82. Tom Miller (2,688 followers)

83. Chris Dillow (2,614 followers)

84. Left Futures (2,561 followers)

85. Caron's Musings (2,539 followers)

86. Stephen Tall (2,411 followers)

87. Liberal Burblings (2,164 followers)

88. The Way I See Things (2,085 followers)

89. Jeff Breslin (2,021 followers)

90. Louise Shaw (1,902 followers)
91. Jim Jepps (1,894 followers)

92. Quaequam Blog (1,880 followers)

93. HarpyMarx (1,874 followers)
94. Ed Simpson (1,866 followers)

95. Rob Marchant (1,836 followers)

96. Tara Hewitt (1,791 followers)
97. Jane Watkinson (1,754 followers)

98. Open Unionism (1,671 followers)

99. Luna 17 (1,635 followers)

100. Ceasefire (1,580 followers)

The same caveats apply as last time. And it is, of course, ordered by Twitter following. Quality is in the eye of the beholder.

This post defines as 'independent' bloggers whose primary blogging outlet is either a site of their own, or a group blog not attached to a mainstream media platform, think tank or trade union. It's basically the last list without the journos and columnist-bloggers.

I did toy with the idea of leaving out the big political blogs semi-attached to the main parties (ConHome, LabourList, LibDem Voice); and Guido as he and his team are 'professional' bloggers. But in the end it was right to include them. The three party sites are outlets for a lot of "normal" bloggers who don't get paid for their efforts. And Guido's rose up organically from the mess and froth of political blogging. If he ever gets bought out by another media organisation, that designation will change.

One last point, this is very much a *provisional* list. I know some of the follower totals might be slightly off, but there are only so many hours in the day. And it's also likely a lot of people have been missed off, particularly on the right, among LibDems and Greens, and bloggers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If you are or you know someone who's missing, drop a comment below. It will be updated in the near future to iron out any inaccuracies.

Updated 5pm, 02/01/13.