All That Is Solid ...: Top 100 Tweeting Politics Commentators 2018

 It's the most
wonderful time of the year! As the curtains begin drawing on another
turbulent 12 months in politics, it's time to pour the mulled wine, help
yourself to a crafty mince pie and get down with that other venerable
annual tradition: the totting up of who's hot and who's not in the world
of political comment. At least where Twitter is concerned.



Every year there might be folks who've never clapped eyes on this time sink before, so let's recap the basics. These are not my top 100 commentators. I repeat, these are not my top 100 commentators. The people listed below are the hundred most followed commentators in the UK Twitterverse. But nothing is ever that simple, oh no. There are some exclusions. Sitting politicians
aren't included, so while Nigel Farage, for instance, has his nice LBC
gig he won't make his debut on this here list until next year - assuming
we survive the chill winds of Brexit - when the European Parliament has
dispensed with his services. Likewise, Brits abroad who earn their
moolah or infamy commenting primarily on US politics are barred too. In
plain English, no Mensch, and no Prison Planet twerp. And the final
condition is all of these have to regularly produce comment or analysis
outside of Twitter. People who just tweet and nothing else don't make
the cut.



If you're wondering why I do this, it originally began
as clickbait in the early days of Twitter (ask anyone on this list who
were around in the early days of political tweeting and their eyes will
grow misty with nostalgia). But as the novelty has worn off I've kept
with it because, well, the movements on the list over the years have
been plenty interesting. In the beginning one-writer-and-their-blog
outfits ruled the roost (even I made the first!), but gradually traditional
media power and reach asserted itself and Twitter became a crude
measure of the popularity of the people it featured. With very few
exceptions, radical, marginalised, and amateur pundits were squeezed out
and an establishment, um, established. And this was maintained by Very
Important People publicly tweeting and cross promoting the tweets of
other Very Important People. There are people on this list who rarely if
ever engage with the hoi polloi but are still very happy to
promote the works/books/hot takes of their mates, making it very
difficult - but not impossible - for outsiders to acquire the sorts of
followings amassed here.



Enough of the nonsense, here's this year's list with a brief analysis to follow!



1. (1) Jon Snow (1.33m followers)

2. (2) Robert Peston (938k followers)

3. (4) Laura Kuenssberg (890k followers)

4. (3) Nick Robinson (880k followers)

5. (5) Andrew Neil (834k followers)

6. (6) Owen Jones (760k followers)

7. (7) Paul Mason (602k followers)

8. (8) Krishnan Guru-Murthy (521k followers)

9. (9) Evan Davis (498k followers)

10. (10) Alastair Campbell (445k followers)

11. (11) Kay Burley (409k followers)

12. (12) Andrew Rawnsley (399k followers)

13. (14) James O'Brien (390k followers)

14. (13) George Galloway (301k followers)

15. (16) Faisal Islam (277k followers)

16. (30) Harry's Last Stand (252k followers)

17. (15) Guido Fawkes (248k followers)

18. (20) Jim Waterson (234k followers)

19. (19) George Monbiot (232k followers)

20. (17) George Osborne (229k followers)

21. (22) Maajid Nawaz (223k followers)

22. (NE) Carole Cadwalladr (222k followers)

23. (24) Mary Beard (214k followers)

24. (21) Fraser Nelson (207k followers)

25. (27) Marina Hyde (202k followers)

26. (26) Britain Elects (181k followers)

27. (25) Michael Crick (176k followers)

28. (23) Laurie Penny (176k followers)

29. (28) Cathy Newman (174k followers)

30. (32) Kevin Maguire (166k followers)

31. (39) Hugo Rifkind (164k followers)

32. (31) Mark Steel (163k followers)

33. (40) Jack Monroe (160k followers)

34. (29) Polly Toynbee (160k followers)

35. (42) Douglas Murray (156k followers)

36. (34) Hadley Freeman (148k followers)

37. (33) Tim Montgomerie (145k followers)

38. (38) Isabel Hardman (140k followers)

39. (36) David Allen Green (137k followers)

40. (35) Paul Waugh (133k followers)

41. (54) Julia Hartley-Brewer (132k followers)

42. (37) Adam Boulton (132k followers)

43. (61) Ian Dunt (130k followers)

44. (48) Emily Maitlis (128k followers)

45. (43) Iain Dale (124k followers)

46. (41) David Aaronovitch (123k followers)

47. (50) Andrew Marr (118k followers)

48. (51) Nick Ferrari (117k followers)

49. (47) John Rentoul (113k followers)

50. (49) Dan Hodges (112k followers)



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