91Èȱ¬

We've made various reasonably friendly requests over the months....

....that we all keep our comments brief her on the blog.

The theory goes that when we talk with people in our lives, we don't speak for a minute and then let the other person reply for a minute. Conversation is made up of lots of short comments, and that's what we're looking for on this blog. Nothing new in that, but we're about to get stricter...

So, if your comments is a long set-piece on a subject, it's likely not to be published. If it completely ignores what we're all talking about it may go the same way.

Obviously there are come circumstances where longer comments are necessary, but this blog isn't an invite to publish an op-ed piece. It's an invite to take part in a conversation and we hope you'll take us up on it.

We've too much anecdotal evidence that people come looking for a conversation and sometimes find something that seems like a series of long and unconnected polemics. The trouble is those people then go away and we don't want that.

This of course doesn't apply to many of you and we're very grateful to everyone of you who does get involved, converse and share your thoughts.