Top 100 Independent Tweeting Bloggers 2014

I know at least two people have been looking forward to this year's independent bloggers' list. Sure, it's a bit different from the curmudgeonly elder sibling, but that's all for the good. Here's where blogging folk are keeping it real and (mostly) doing it because it's a passion, not a payslip. If you want to geek out over definitions have a look at last year's. If the commentators list is the top 40 as revealed by Radio 1 every Sunday afternoon, then think of this as your alternative/indie chart tucked away in the pages of the NME.

Enough of that. Here's the list for 2014. How did you fare?

1. (><) Alastair Campbell (287k followers)
2. (><) Tom Watson MP (158k followers)
3. (><) Guido Fawkes (139k followers)
4. (><) Louise Mensch (88.3k followers)
5. (><) Iain Dale (54.3k followers)
6. (><) Left Foot Forward (49.6k followers)
7. (+2) Eoin Clarke (37.2k followers)
8. (><) Harry Cole (36.8k followers)
9. (+47) Wings Over Scotland (36.6k followers)
10. (-3) Political Scrapbook (35.3k followers)
11. (><) The F-Word (32.4k followers)
12. (+15) Bella Caledonia (30.8k followers)
13. (-3) Caroline Criado-Perez (29.8k followers)
14. (-2) Open Democracy (28k followers)
15. (><) Douglas Carswell MP (27.3k followers)
16. (-3) Richard Murphy (23.9k followers)
17. (NE) Alex Andreou (23.9k followers)
18. (><) Labour Left (21.1k followers)
19. (+5) Mike Smithson (18.3k followers)
20. (NE) Exaro News (17.7k followers
21. (-5) New Left Project (17.6k followers)
22. (-4) Labour Uncut (15.4k followers)
23. (+45) Derek Wall (15.4k followers)
24. (-3) Archbishop Cranmer (14k followers)
25. (><) Another Angry Woman (13.9k followers)
26. (+2) Libcom (13.5k followers)
27. (-5) LibDem Voice (13.4k followers)
28. (NE) Ann Pettifor (13.4k followers)
29. (+10) Pride's Purge (13.3k followers)
30. (-4) Boycott Workfare (13.3k followers)
31. (-2) Jon Worth (13k followers)
32. (+18) CiF Watch (12.9k followers)
33. (-14) The Commentator (12.5k followers)
34. (+9) Coppola Comment (12.2k followers)
35. (+7) Disabled People Against Cuts (11.7k followers)
36. (-12) Mark Thompson (11.4k followers)
37. (-5) Lenin's Tomb (11.3k followers)
38. (-4) Carl Gardner (11.2k followers)
39. (-3) Diary of a Benefit Scrounger (10.8k followers)
40. (+11) Unlearning Economics (10.3k followers)
41. (NE) The Occupied Times (10.3k followers)
42. (-9) Angela Neptustar (10.2k followers)
43. (-7) Benefit Scrounging Scum (10.1k followers)
44. (-7) Boris Watch (10.1k followers)
45. (-5) Paul Flynn MP (10k followers)
46. (-16) Cath Elliott (9,978 followers)
47. (-6) John Redwood MP (9,904 followers)
48. (-10) Eric Joyce (9,467 followers)
49. (NE) Sarah Ditum (9,217 followers)
50. (-6) Hopi Sen (9,185 followers)
51. (+1) Chris Williamson MP (8,943 followers)
52. (+20) Euro Rights Blog (8,938 followers)
53. (-5) Michael Meacher MP (8,733 followers)
54. (><) The Enlightened Economist (8,592 followers)
55. (-10) James Cleverly AM (8,508 followers)
56. (-9) Kate Belgrave (8,473 followers)
57. (-4) Big Brother Watch (8,467 followers)
58. (-3) Adam Ramsay (8,397 followers)
59. (-13) Mark Pack (8,318 followers)
60. (+9) Lallands Peat Worrier (7,875 followers)
61. (+3) Scriptonite Daily (7,204 followers)
62. (><) David Hencke (7,138 followers)
63. (-6) Luke Akehurst (7,042 followers)
64. (NE) Old Holborn (6,997 followers)
65. (-2) The Void (6,911 followers
66. (NE) Glosswitch (6,843 followers)
67. (-9) A Dragon's Best Friend (6,540 followers)
68. (+11) Welsh Not British (6,140 followers)
69. (+17) James Bloodworth (6,126 followers)
70. (+5) A Burdz Eye View (5,810 followers)
71. (+3) Left Futures (5,441 followers)
72. (-2) Counterfire (5,370 followers)
73. (-2) Zelo Street (5,259 followers)
74. (-1) Chris Dillow (5,182 followers)
75. (NE) Mainly Macro (5,125 followers)
76. (+2) James MacKenzie (5,026 followers)
77. (+4) Stephen Tall (4,949 followers)
78. (NE) Karen Ingala Smith (4,493 followers)
79. (+10) Flip Chart Fairy Tales (4,422 followers)
80. (NE) Quiet Riot Girl (4,414 followers
81. (-4) Emma Burnell (4,347 followers)
82. (-2) The Cornish Republican (4,311 followers)
83. (><) All That Is Solid ... (4,155 followers)
84. (NE) Hannah Mudge (4,135 followers)
85. (-9) Heresy Corner (4,117 followers)
86. (-2) Liberal England (4,021 followers)
87. (><) Caron's Musings (3,987 followers)
88. (NE) Tim Worstall (3,789 followers)
89. (+2) Bright Green (3,605 followers)
90. (><) Anna Chen (3,570 followers)
91. (-6) Laurence Durnan (3,548 followers)
92. (+1) Ceasefire (3,387 followers
93. (-11) Lisa Ansell (3,373 followers
94. (+3) Mum V Austerity (3,349 followers)
95. (NE) Vox Political (3,097 followers)
96. (-2) Rob Marchant (3,031 followers)
97. (+1) Liberal Burblings (2,765 followers)
98. (NE) The Way I See Things (2,652 followers)
99. (NE) 100 Miles from the Sea (2,490 followers)
100. (NE) Luna17 (2,443 followers)

Compared with last year's assemblage, there has been some settling down. Near the top this has been taken to its logical conclusion: meet Stasisville. It's quite difficult to see how this could move any time soon. There's your usual smattering of new entries and a couple of rapid climbers, such as Wings Over Scotland and Derek Wall. I'll have what they're having. But this being an indie list which is mostly about fun (yes, among us are strange people for whom writing is fun) there's a tendency for some bloggers to just stop. By my reckoning, 10 or so bloggers have packed it in. A shame, yes, but there is a life full of wonderments beyond the screen. So I'm told.

I leave others to tease out some of the patterns to this list, such as matters of gender, ethnicity and political colouration.

Once more, I cannot pretend to completionism. There are bound to be folks I've missed, so if there's somebody who should be here and isn't do let me know in the comments beneath and I will update as and when. Remember, this is not a list about quality. It's solely a rank ordering of bloggers by Twitter followings.