'January, February, I don't understand . . . ' *

This should have been the first post on the blog for 2026. It wasn't. Life intervened.

Briefly looking back on the figures for the blog in 2025, the plus point is that there were more posts on the blog in 2025 in comparison to the previous year (1543 to 1359). The minus point is that it's still not enough. The completion of the digitisation of the Socialist Standard is still behind schedule. Hopefully, we can break the back of it in 2026.

Listed below are the 21 most popular posts on the blog for 2025. Yes, 21 rather than 20. For some reason there was a glitch in the stats and the  "In the year 2025, if man is still alive . . . "  post wasn't showing up, despite the fact that I knew it was one of the most popular posts on the blog in 2025. So, I inserted it in anyway in its correct spot. If you want to compare the 2025 End of the Year stats with previous years posted, feel free to click on the link.

21. Death of a Clown (1949)

20. No let up (2025)

19. Obituary: Richard Headicar (2025)

18. Farage — opportunist supreme (2025)

17. Running Commentary: Catch ’em young (1986)

16. Marx: a critical view by Brian Crozier (1983)

15. Karl Marx and the abolition of money (1980)

14. British fascists online (2022)

13. 'It's Clichéd to Be Cynical at Christmas* . . .'

12. Unwillingly to school (1950)

11. George Orwell, Spain and anti-fascism (1997)

10. Letter: Vodka-Cola (1980)

9. What price energy? (1986)

8. Papal bull (1979)

7. The Menace of Aerial Warfare - Part 3 (1936)

6. Standard Leeds OK (1979)

5. "In the year 2025, if man is still alive . . . "

4. A Page of History: the 1834 Canut Revolt in Lyon (2015)

3. How we live and how we might live - Part 8 (2025)

2. The ghost of Christmas yet to come (1995)

1. Book Review: The End of the Megamachine. A Brief History Of A Failing Civilization by Fabian Scheidler (2020)

 

 

*With apologies to Ms. Barbara Dickson

"In the year 2025, if man is still alive, and if the hard copy of the Standard can survive, they may find* . . ."

First post of the year should be a (brief) look back at the blog in 2024.

Unfortunately, I spread myself a little too thin in 2024. I only put up 1359 posts in 2024 which is not terrible but I was aiming for 1500 posts as a bare minimum. Too much time spent elsewhere on social media, too much time starting mini-projects which have yet to see fruition on the blog. Hopefully some of them will see the light in 2025. There are no excuses if I make the same *cough* excuse come January 1st, 2026.

A milestone of sorts was reached in late December when the blog passed 4 million hits. Two points: 1) The obvious one first: I'm under no illusion that the majority of the hits are bots, etc. However, I do know from the blog's site tracker that the blog continues to receive a healthy audience from around the world. It's pleasing to note that many of those visitors are returning viewers. The blog continues to serve its purpose of providing another online presence for socialist propaganda. (The more the merrier.) And if it's also used as nothing more than a resource for students of working class history, all the better for that. 2) The 'hits' on the blog actually exceed 4 million. When google overhauled Blogger a few years back the stats actually went back to Year Zero.

New pages were added to the top of the page in January of last year for the current regular columns in the Socialist Standard, and there are plans to add more pages in the coming calendar year. I won't say too much right now. Just watch this space.

Now to the meat of the post: the twenty most viewed posts on the blog in 2024. This is only the fourth time that I've done a 'End of the Year Stats' post, which is actually bastard annoying when you consider that 2024 was the 18th year of the blog. Think of all those missing years. 

Nice to see a couple of Ralph Critchfield ('Ivan') pieces in amongst the twenty. He really was a wonderful writer for the Standard over many decades. Interesting to note that a couple of old pieces on Lenin - including Fitzgerald's classic 1924 obituary of Lenin - continue to receive hits year on year.  The video review of the German Industrial Metal band, Rammstein, polled so high 'cos I made a point of seeking out fan pages for the band on social media, and posted the article front and centre on said pages. Steve Coleman's humbug piece probably polled so high 'cos it had Christmas in its title, and I fear it could become the blog's perennial end of the year number one because of that. Lumbered with the impossibilist equivalent of Mariah Carey singing the Declaration of Principles to the tune of 'Little Drummer Boy'.

Anyway, in the spirit of the late and great Johnny Walker, here's the countdown of the twenty most viewed posts on the blog for the year 2024.

20. Taboo (1982)

19. Elections worldwide (2024)

18. “I hoped he liked me as well as I liked him.”

17. Snap, crackle, pop . . . (1987)

16. Confusion on the left (1965)

15. Dropped the ball . . .

14. Zionism – A case study in nationalism (2024)

13. Bird’s Eye View: Howlers (2023)

12. Warnings and alerts (2024)

11. Halo Halo! (2024)

10. Labour landslides: then and now (2024)

9. Tiny Tips (2024)

8. Uncensored News and Views on Russia (1946)

7. The Passing of Lenin. (1924)

6. A plague on both their houses (2024)

5. Lenin's Distortion of Marxism (1983)

4. Historical fascism (2024)

3. New translation of Das Kapital (2024)

2. Video Review: German cultural history and socialism (2024)

1. The ghost of Christmas yet to come (1995)

*Apologies to Zager & Evans.

Dropped the ball . . .

Okay, that's the NYC NYE reference out of the way. Paul Anka singing Imagine in Times Square to Eric Adams, Flo-Rida (resplendent in a gold lame bomber jacket) and a few thousand vaping tourists a couple of minutes before midnight was not on my 2023 Bingo Card. 

Sadly, hitting 2000 posts on the blog for 2023 was on my Bingo Card and I came up short. Family life, another bout of Covid and bingeing Radio 4's Clare in the Community all played their part in sabotaging my efforts sometime around mid-December.

Here's to 2024. Another 12 months of trying —  and failing —  to finally finish the digitisation of the Socialist Standard project.  Note to self: I will need to concentrate more on the Edwardian Socialist Standards in 2024, which is okay with me 'cos I find the period fascinating but impossibilists battering John Burns and Will Thorne unconscious with a rolled up copy of Wilhelm Liebknecht's No Compromise month after month is not everybody's cup of tea. You have been warned.

Posted below are the 20 most popular posts on the blog from 2023. Disregard the number one, 'Political Notebook: Boo, Hiss', from 1979. It always crops up in the end of year lists but only because people are randomly searching the words 'Boo, Hiss' on the internet and stumble across the blog. The British pantomime tradition has a lot to answer for. 

20. The morality of slums (1987)

19. Morris and Revolution (1990)

18. Imperialism Part 2: Super-profits and the labour aristocracy (2020)

17. At Home and Abroad . . . (1971)

16. The persecution of Taslima Nasrin (1995)

15. Marx and Keynes (1972)

14. Why are prices always rising? (2023)

13. World Bankers (2008)

12. Tories Again Steal Labour’s Clothes (1971)

11. Doing the Splits (1971)

10. 50 Years Ago: Oil — The Prize in the Middle East (2005)

9. Running Commentary: If Thatcher goes (1986)

8. More Lenin or Less? (2004)

7. Was Antonio Gramsci a Socialist? (2017)

6. The Three Pillars of Marxism (1995)

5. Tony Blair and the Chilcot inquiry (2010)

4. The Socialist Forum. (1931)

3. Star Trek: First Contact (1997)

2. Impossibilism by Stephen Coleman

1. Political Notebook: Boo, Hiss (1979)

A word from your sponsor . . .

Just a wee post for you unhappy few who still check out the blog from time to time. Apologies for the lack of blog posts in recent months. It can't be helped. My laptop has been on its last legs for over a year now, and it just can't take the strain anymore. I'm actually shocked my laptop has lasted as long as it has. It was good that I posted over a thousand posts in 2021 but, obviously, the original intention was to post a lot more. I will try and make some sort of effort in 2022 to try and continue with the digitisation project but no big promises. We'll just see how it goes.

As I'm here, posted below is 2021's 20 most viewed posts on the blog.

Happy New Year, and best wishes for 2022.

20. Externalities and British Chicken (2021)

19. It’s an ill wind (1950)

18. Obituary: Eva Torf Judd (1941)

17. Blue Labour (2021)

16. Pathfinders: Magic bullets (2021)

15. Slaughter in Vietnam (1970)

14. Impossibilism by Stephen Coleman

13. Ecology: the first decade (1971)

12. The Commune in Paris (1905)

11. Countdown to COP26 – Part 2 (2021)

10. Star Trek: First Contact (1997)

9. Karl Marx and the abolition of money (1980)

8. The Three Pillars of Marxism (1995)

7. Marx’s Conception of Socialism (1973)

6. The Class Struggle On Board The "Titanic." (1912)

5. Death of a Clown (1949)

4. A Duke Distorts Marx (1986)

3. It was reported . . . (1983)

2. Fromm’s sane society (1956)

1. Political Notebook: Boo, Hiss (1979)

Blogger's Note:

The blog received so many hits in 2021 for the 1983's article 'It was reported . . . ' because of this court case in the news, and people found the blog wanting more background on Lady Lavinia Dorothy Nourse. 

Popular Posts in 2019

First post of 2020 on the blog should be a brief look back at 2019 on the blog.

The following are the ten most popular posts on the blog in the previous 12 months. Of course there's a couple of anomalies in the mix that I shouldn't have to point out to the reader but I do think it's interesting that, overall, the most popular posts in the past year are articles that deal with matters relating to history and/or socialist theory.

It could be argued that those are the type of articles that I am more inclined to push on various social media sites, etc, and there is some truth in that, but people still have to click on those links at the other end so maybe, just maybe, in these uncertain times it's the sort of material that people want to read. Writers and Editors for the Socialist Standard, please take note.

A special note on the IWW article. That particular piece's place on the blog dates from a time when I was a bit more eclectic in my choices of what I posted on the blog. (Go back to 2006/07 on the blog, and you'll see what I mean.) That an article on the meaning of the term 'Abolition of the Wages System' posted 13 years ago was still gets multiple hits in 2019 is heartening.

• The Destruction of Nature: by Anton Pannekoek (2019)
• A Commentary on the Communist Manifesto (1930)
• Who The Hell Was Karl Marx? (1998)
• What Does The IWW mean by "Abolition of the Wage System"?
• Lenin . . . Reviewed (1976)
• Djanogly – One Of The Family (2011)
• MMT: New Theory, Old Illusion (2017)
• Karl Marx and the abolition of money (1980)
• 50 Years Ago: Beeching’s Cuts (2012)
• Socialism and Calculation (1987)