I stopped blogging for a long time – you may have noticed. Or maybe you didn’t. Or maybe you did and didn’t care.

Part of the reason was because I was busier. As well as my actual job, I spend a lot of the past 18 months being an Election Agent in the biggest General Election campaign of my life. And, I have to say, I don’t regret a second of it. Running the Labour Campaign in Glasgow West – and being able to do so among comrades and friends was amazing; and following that up with a by-election win made it all the sweeter. I could take this moment to point out that we began with the largest majority in the city to overcome in the General Election, and ended with the largest majority in the city to defend…but I’m modest, so I won’t.

But the reason I stopped posting so much, the real reason, was that I was taking it too seriously. Most writing I have done in my life has been formal. Speeches, essays, dissertations, campaign copy, legal documents and submissions – they have all had “a way” to do it and a style to follow. Blogging doesn’t have that so you have to develop your own; and mine tended to be essay length – since that is what I knew.

So blogging, which started as an enjoyable pass time when I was a law student, inspired by a lawyer, became a stress and a slog – because everything had to be detailed, and offer every defense to every counter-argument that could be advanced. My Nicola Sturgeon retrospective was nearly 2,800 words, for goodness sake! If it was a Uni Essay I would have burst the word count!

But it remained something that I enjoyed doing when I wasn’t stressing myself out about it. I think I know where that over-defensiveness started…but that’s for another time. So in 2025 one of my goals will be this: I will blog more often, more succinctly, more casually, but more consistently.

I will blog less, more.