Saturday, February 16, 2008



Five years of No Right Turn

Today is No Right Turn's fifth birthday. Most blogs don't make it past five posts, so to last five years is quite an achievement. In the past year I've written 1301 posts, totalling 276,863 words. And that despite severe distractions in December. In the past five, it's been 6,747 posts, and 1,231,125 words. Maybe I should just call this a job and be done with it?

We've also seen 235,198 unique visitors this year; with luck we'll hit quarter of a million this year.

Looking back, the big achievement for the year has obviously been the passage of the Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Act, which repealed the archaic offence of sedition. Having campaigned for repeal for three years, it was particularly satisfying to see the law changed. But in addition to changing the law, I've also devoted significant coverage to electoral funding reform, and the repeal of Section 59, as well as kept up my usual coverage of Parliament and my continuing analysis of climate change policy. And despite some poisonous efforts from the Kiwiblog right to bully me into silence, I intend to keep doing so.

Finally, I'd like to thank last year's guest columnists - Anita, Terence Wood, and Nicky Hager - and everyone who's emailed me with tips, links, or encouraging words. On the days when I'm wondering what to post, its nice to have something turn up in the inbox to give me a reason to keep going.