A day spent poring through my year’s Blogoir output trying to choose some coherent entries for the 2009 Orwell Blog Prize.

It turns out that links in earlier postings disappear for various reasons, rather reducing the effect/impact of that work months and years later. Especially poignant to see that links I put up to the FCO’s eccentric tendency to grow extra Strategic Priorities from seven to ten have been ‘archived’ by the FCO.

But after a lot to going to and fro, I have submitted to the Prize ten entries of different shapes and sizes. So let’s see.

I have made 700 postings this year. The site now has a friendly core of some 4000 Unique Visitors per month who with the Viagra and other e-spiders have given me 1.4 million ‘hits’.

Many thanks to all those who have been reading regularly and/or who have posted or sent me detailed and thoughtful thoughts in response. Impressively little obscene abuse so far – no doubt that will come one day.

Enough for this year, one in which extremist language and ideas seemed to gain momentum with those defending classic ‘Western’ freedoms appearing unsure how best to respond.

Let’s sign off 2008 with this striking thought from the Tax Justice Network, a rich source of busy ideas for those bent on getting more private money into state hands:

Tax is the link between state and citizen, and tax revenues are the lifeblood of the social contract.

Hmm. The Social Contract.

As people get more powerful, or at least more truculent, maybe we should look again at that idea in 2009. And some First Principles…

Happy New Year.