Blogging is a harsh, unforgiving medium; perhaps like all of them. One has few friends, and, when sorrows come in batallions, a daily circulation in excess of 23,000 can rapidly decline to a mere 5,000 as one's readership abandons loyalty because the unwritten contract has been broken.His Grace would like to tell his readers and communicants what he has been through, but you would not believe him. It is an episode worthy of Burmese justice or North Korean notions of truth. It appears to have passed, and His Grace has prevailed. He thanks God for his deliverance, and those readers and communicants who have prayed and occasionally enquired. Bless you sincerely for your compassion and intercession.
His Grace's ashes are much diminished, and it will take time to reach optimum reconstitution. But he returns noting that, in his absence and notwithstanding a quarter of a year of silence, he won an award from Total Politics, whose readership still placed him at #11 in the hierarchy of Conservative blogs. It is quite a fall from #6, yet to be (just) out of the 'Top 10' comes as no surprise when His Grace was hastily delated (too hastily [after just a few weeks] in the case of Tim Montgomerie) from the most prestigious blogrolls. Of course, one ceases to be a 'regular read' when one is no longer regularly posting, but Tom Harris MP followed hard upon, and he defines his list by quality as much as Mr Montgomerie does by personal choice. When one loses one's biggest referrers, one is slowly and callously euthanised.
It is dog eat dog.
His Grace would like to thank inter alia Iain Dale, Dan Hannan , John Redwood , Douglas Carswell and Bishop Alan for their patience and forebearance. Perhaps they understand something more of adversity, depression and distraction.
So, to what should His Grace turn his attention?
So much is worthy of instant religio-political comment that he hardly knows which way to turn. He will ponder, as his is wont, and glean the collective wisdom of the few communicants who remain.
