I was excited to read Mr Iain Duncan Smith's article about blogging in The Guardian.

It is very good to know that he is reading, so I would like to welcome him to these pages.

(NB for foreign readers who do not know him I should explain that Mr Duncan Smith is a sort of Conservative George Lazenby.)

I am so pleased that at last an important MP has worked out the importance of the blogging revolution. That is, for the first time since politics began, our representatives can look through a window to read and learn from the lives, hopes, fears and aspirations of the ordinary man or woman in the street.

Previously, of course, they were forced to make highly-managed visits to new hospital wings, or take non-executive directorships of big multinational corporations in order to keep in touch with the real world of you or I.

But oh! - typical Guardian - a series of misprints have implied that it's the sites of political activists and organised campaigns that are most of interest to him, rather than the 99% of UK weblogs written by ordinary voters.

He should get this corrected right away.

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UPDATE - Claypot has asked me to mention this site, which I'm happy to do, although I'm always a little uneasy about juxtaposing serious stuff on what is essentially a humorous little piece of writing. It's the 'That's Life' syndrome ("Next week we'll tell you more about this poor dying baby in an incubator but meanwhile - here's an amusing carrot"). We are very lucky to have free speech here in the village, as long as we are obsequious to any Daily Mail reporters we might come across in the village shop.