The blog and its arguments are getting some attention and interest in the media, the latest being Defence Management, which has published a feature on the design of protected vehicles.
Booker, of course, has been a good friend, with several pieces mentioning the blog, and we recently made guest appearances in The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Sunday Times and even the Sunday Mirror - although the latter lifted a quote from the blog and attributed it to a "Richard Norton". Unfortunately, the Telegraph attributed its quote to Richard D North, who has taken it in good heart.
We continue to have the support of a number of MPs, most notably Ann Winterton, and communicate with others regularly. Some also tell me they follow the comments on the forum, many of which are of exceedingly high quality. I am also told that the blog is read widely in the MoD - not always with approval - and also in a number of other high places.
We are in turn informed by many people of far greater knowledge and influence than ever we will have, making us something of a sounding board for a wide constituency, some - but by no means all - military. We are happy to play that part and would not be ill-disposed to taking the occasional guest post.
The effort required to keep the blog running is huge - especially latterly - and, while other blogs have more spectacular success, in our quiet way, we are quite satisfied that we are having an influence and helping to highlight and steer the debate. We like to think that we are an example of how blogging can work, and that blogging itself works.
We thank our readers - and those sites who link to us - for making it possible. No honest blogger will deny that they live and die by their "hit rate". DOTR daily hits, modest though they might be, are building steadily - that helps give the blog its credibility. Thank you all again.
Back to work ... sigh!
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