Sometime today ?

Sometime today or if traffic slows down (we've had 400+ hits already at 12:16) tomorrow, the little blog hit counter in the top right hand corner of this blog will hit 400,000. For me, this is a stunning achievement. As a dyslexic who couldn't read properly until I was 12 years old, having so many people read what I have to say is mindblowing. In actual fact the number is somewhat higher, as Blogger stats started in May 2009 and I'd been running the blog for eight months then. As it is the only number we have, then I guess we'll have to make do.

I can't take all of the credit, in fact I take very little. There are the guest bloggers, the "sources" within Barnet Council, the Councillors (of all sides) who take the time to have little chats and tell me where to look for the things I need to know, the people who tell their friends about the blog, the other bloggers who have linked to me. A special thanks to Dave Hill at the Guardian for making me one of his first listed London bloggers. It has given me a veneer of respectability I really don't deserve.

What has the blog achieved? It is quite hard to say. We've not managed to make too much of a dent in the madness of the One Barnet project, despite the foolishness being their for all to see. We have however managed to scupper the Councils plans to turn libraries into branches of Starbucks. We have, mostly through our guest bloggers, given the disabled of Barnet a voice which cannot and now is not being ignored. We have had many small victories. I believe we even changed the outcome of the Conservative Leadership Election, in backing Richard Cornelius. Whilst I think Richard has been far from perfect, he is a decent man and I suspect he is a far better choice than Andrew Harper who was seen as the favourite at the time.

But mostly I just wanted to say thank you and I hope that there has been something in this blog that you have enjoyed (if that is the right word). Here's to the next 400,000 !