Thoughts on politics and life from a liberal perspective

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Bowing Out

I have come to a decision that due to other commitments I am going to stop blogging.

This will be my last blogpost and I will be closing the comment facility at the end of this Thursday on this entry and all old posts. I know that if I leave it open beyond that I will only end up getting sucked into further debates!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have visited and those who have commented on my posts over the last two or so years. It has been great fun but I now need to focus my energies in other areas for the foreseeable future.

Cheers,

Mark (Reckons) Thompson.

22 comments:

Thomas Byrne said...

Good luck to you Mark, I did the same to my blog and twitter just this week, although I'm planning a break rather than quitting - I think.

Anonymous said...

I think its honourable that Lib Dems should maintain a prolong period of silence to apologise for what they've enabled this government to get away with.

Stephen Tall said...

Very sorry to read this, Mark, and hope you'll be back as soon as your life allows!

Alex said...

This is a shame, good luck anyhow.

Rosalind said...

That's a shame. Hope whatever the commitments are, they don't keep you away too long.

Jennie Rigg said...

But you've not even WON Blog of the Year yet! ;)

Millennium Dome said...

Blimey, Mark, running the BBC can't take *that* much of your time... oh, yes, you're still not that Mark Thompson.

Seriously, you've been one of the most prolific and insightful people on the Lib Dem blogs, in fact on UK blogs in general, dammit you actually changed the debate on the expenses row and made it about safe seats! You'll leave a gap that just can't be filled.

Thanks for all you've done. And come back!

hypnoticmonkey said...

Dear Anonymous,

If that's the case, it doesn't bear to think about how much peace we're owed from Labourites in lieu.

Sorry to see you go, Mark! Hope you enjoy the 'afterlife' ;-)

Mark Pack said...

Really sorry to hear that. Best of luck with all your other endeavours

Anonymous said...

Mark, I think its a real shame that you are bowing out of the blogosphere. Your blog and others like Caron Lindsay's were one of the reasons that i took up blogging in the first place.

I can only aspire to the heady heights you have reached with my humble tome but you have been an inspiration for us newbies and we'll miss your thoughtful insightful posts.

Lisa @ Spiderplant Land

dazmando said...

Mark, I will miss you perhaps more than any blogger as you was the reason I started blogging as you setup Bracknell Blog. I posted about to say fairwell here http://bracknellblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/mark-reckons-is-bowing-out.html

Good luck Mark, although I know you dont need it.

oneexwidow said...

As a relatively recent discoverer of your blog, I want to thank you and wish you well.

Andrew

Mark Wadsworth said...

Cheers. Best of luck.

You could have signed off with a merry farewell to Sir Ian Gilmore, who was on Channel 4 News just now, up against that insufferable woman who drove her son into smoking cannabis.

Stephen Glenn said...

I really want to know how Mark managed to get site of the BOTY results a whole month in advance. So that he could break the curse of stopping blogging pre-emptively. Then it dawned on me, he used his BBC contacts to borrow that blue box from Cardiff....

Excuse me...oh...

Sorry not that Mark Thompson.

Mark I truly am sad to see you stop, but I fully understand that real life isn't always an easy thing to juggle with this blogging lark. I've told everyone who has ever asked me for advise to blog in their own voice and to only blog when they want to. I 'reckon' the desire to blog on is no longer there.

I guess the rest of us with our individual sytles will have to fill some of the gap you leave, or maybe some new start will step in to take the Lib Demlogosphere by storm.

Anonymous said...

Blimey, that's a bombshell! There's a roaring silence in the Lib Dem blogosphere now.

Good luck to you in your future endeavours Mark, and do come back soon; your insight is sorely needed at times like these.

NoetiCat said...

Very sorry to read this and your input will be sorely missed, but while it's not quite the BBC I guess you do have a life and a company to run out there.

NoetiCat

Unknown said...

Just got in to see this news. You are such a natural at this blogging lark & fabulous at putting the common sense liberal view on the media. I understand though that blogging at this level has a huge impact on your life.

You have been around for a short time but you really have made a difference. From the expenses/safe seats stuff to your advancement of the case for evidence based drugs policy.

Thank you for that & I hope we'll see you back one day.

Andrew Hickey said...

Curse of the BOTYs strikes early?

Hope you reconsider, Mark. You normally post a *LOT* - you could easily cut down to posting a quarter of the amount you normally do and still post more than many of us...

Mrs B said...

hope the other activities include winning a seat in Bracknell next May!

G said...

I used to only read one political blog, and now I'll read none :( thanks for a very interesting blog.

David Weber said...

Sorry to hear this, Mark. What about House of Comments? Are you still keeping on with that?

It's a pity, because you could have cut the amount you posted by about three quarters before you even slowed down to the rate most blogs seem to operate at. More than any other, I think the loss of this blog will hit the 'sphere hard.

All the best

David

Hugh said...

Great shame.  Hope you're able to be back for the AV referendum.