Former councillor makes the leap from politics to blogging

THE views of David Archer may no longer be heard at meetings of Lisburn Council, but they former UUP representative has signed up to give his opinions on a major new blogging platform created by LBC Radio presenter Iain Dale as its Northern Ireland correspondent.
By The Newsroom
Published 30th Jul 2011, 14:38 BST

‘Dale & Co’ is a new blogging platform which will showcase more than 100 writers, each with editorial independence, providing political, media, social and sports commentary on the net.

Mr Archer joins a list of high profile names such as former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, MPs Hazel Blears, Esther McVey and Nadine Dorries, BBC 5 Live broadcasters Sheila Fogarty and Stephen Nolan, Independent columnist Yasmin Alabhai-Brown amongst many others.

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Iain Dale commented: “We’ve assembled a team of contributors to bring you some of the finest writing and analysis on the internet, every day of the week.”

Speaking this week Mr Archer expressed his delight at becoming Dale & Co’s Northern Ireland correspondent: “Iain first approached me a few days after the election result and came at a time when I was wondering exactly what path I would take after almost 14 years or so in politics in Lisburn and Lagan Valley.

“When I learnt the identities of the other co-authors the challenge became all the more exciting. Each correspondent has complete editorial independence which is a great starting block.

“I am keen to pursue my passion for sports and the arts and hope my reports can reflect that. However I am entering new ground when writing about politics in Northern Ireland for a nationwide or world wide web audience given that I have been tied to a political office and party here and have never really the freedom to do so.

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“The other challenge for me will be to make sure I can report Northern Ireland news and affairs as quickly as possible. As Stephen Nolan is joining his BBC 5 Live colleague Sheila Fogarty as one of Dale and Co’s broadcasting correspondents it will be interesting reporting on Northern Ireland matters given Stephen’s morning show on Radio Ulster.

“But I have the contacts across the political spectrum here and I intend to hit the ground running and am looking forward to getting a scoop or two fairly shortly,” he added.

Local people can keep up to date with his work on www.iaindale.com.

Related topics:Northern IrelandStephen NolanUUP