Book Review: The Heart Beats on the Left by Oskar Lafontaine
- 6 Jun 2002
Politicians generally fall into two categories – those who yearn for power and know how to use it when they achieve it, and those who revel in being out of the inside loop thereby retaining their ideological purity. Oskar Lafontaine belongs to the latter group. He is a...
New Statesman Diary: Mo Mowlam Calls Me a Wanker
- 1 Jun 2002
A year ago I was co-presenting the Radio 5 Live Sunday Service programme which – completely flummoxed the Sports Minister Richard Caborn. This week, I was at it again with Peter Mandelson, who I was interviewing for my new Planet Politics programme on Oneword Digital Radio. ...
Guardian Diary: Mo Mowlam Answered my Phone
- 13 May 2002
Blair-faced cheek There was more than met the eye to the Blair family trip to Cornwall last summer, writes Iain Dale I wonder where Tony Blair and his family will be heading for their summer holidays this year? Last year they were forced to spend a few days in Cornwall a...
Speech at Politico's 5th Anniversary Dinner
- 5 Apr 2002
Venue: The Savoy Lady Thatcher, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, Five years ago, when the doors opened at Politico’s for the first time, I can’t have imagined that I would be here tonight, in the presence of so many who have helped make our business what it is today....
Repeat, I am Not a Friend of Lady Thatcher's
- 25 Mar 2002
Writing wrongs It's incredible how some journalists think you must be a close personal friend of Lady Thatcher if you have edited a couple of books about her, writes Iain Dale A lot of rubbish has been written about Margaret Thatcher in the last few days. Whoever thin...
Book Review: Jo Grimond by Michael McManus
- 4 Mar 2002
Book Review, New Statesman The Guardian Jo Grimond: Towards the Sound of Gunfire Michael McManus Birlinn, 460pp, £20 Writing your first biography must be a formidable task for anyone. Michael McManus's task was perhaps harder than most, as his subje...
Guardian Diary: Influencing David Blunkett & Cross Party Friendships
- 20 Feb 2002
* Shock, horror! I can reveal that Home Secretary David Blunkett was dining with two top lobbyists from the lobbying consultancy Weber Shandwick at the Gay Hussar one evening a couple of weeks ago. Another lobbygate scandal in the making? I doubt it. One of them was former Lab...
The long battle to be an MP
- 14 Jan 2002
Iain Dale looks at the hurdles would-be MPs must overcome just to get their names on a ballot paper. It comes as no surprise that most MPs have the hide of a rhinoceros and a highly developed ego. After all, if they've survived the candidate selection process they shou...
Guardian Diary: Lamenting the Lot of Parliamentary Sketchwriters
- 12 Dec 2001
I can think of only one reason for Robin Cook’s ridiculous reforms of the hours the House of Commons sits – to curry favour with the Parliamentary sketchwriters. After all, they are the ones who stand to gain most from a Parliamentary sitting which starts at 10am and finishes ...
Book Review: No, Prime Minister by Teresa Gorman
- 30 Oct 2001
What do the following have in common? Dennis Thatcher, Norman Tebbitt, Anne Widdecombe, David Steele, Lord McKay of Clashfern, Alistair Campbell, Frederich Hayek, Bernard Jenkins, Ian Sproat, Michael Forsythe, Michael Joplin, George Mambiot. I could go on. The unfort...
What Would a Portillo Shadow Cabinet Look Like?
- 2 Jul 2001
Iain Dale peers into the future and imagines what a Portillo Shadow Cabinet might look like. Michael Portillo has a problem. It's the same one that beset William Hague. Just how do you pick a formidable Shadow Cabinet with only 165 other MPs to choose from with several o...
Politico's & the General Election
- 13 Jun 2001
Iain Dale of Politico’s describes the fun and games at his store during a frantic election campaign. Phwam! Hardly had John Prescott’s straight left landed than Simon & Schuster were on the ‘phone asking if we wanted the rest of the stock of the Prescott ...
New Labour, Old Habits
- 2 Jun 2001
New Labour, old habits As the general election gathers pace, Iain Dale explains why readers are still political animals Political bookbuyers have rarely had it so good - assuming, that is, they can find places to buy political books. Readers outside London are lucky if t...
Guardian Diary: Election Night Prep
- 1 Jun 2001
I’ve had a curious existence in the last few months. I have had to transform myself into ITN’s political editor John Serjeant. Not a pretty sight. But it has all been in the interests of making ITN’s election night coverage run as smoothly as possible. Few people reali...
OLAS Article: Why Lots of Political Journalists Are Hammers Fans
- 5 May 2001
Article for West Ham fanzine Over Land & Sea... 5 Live Political pundit Iain Dale says the BBC is riddled with Hammers fans and the media can’t get enough of us. We West Ham fans are a bit like the Tories - we think everyone's against us. We even think the med...
Speech: Politics in the Age of Personality
- 18 Feb 2001
• We live in an age of personality and of “the personality”. It is an age where fame is an objective not a resultant, where every facet of a personality is pored over for column inches and TV sound bites. In times past scientists could become world famous for their discoveries...
Manuscript: Memories of Maggie
- 10 Oct 2000
MEMORIES OF MAGGIE EDITED BY IAIN DALE introduction The idea for this book came on a holiday to the United States when I came across a marvellous book called ‘Recollections of ...
Introduction to Memories of Maggie
- 1 Oct 2000
This is the introduction to my book MEMORIES OF MAGGIE, published by Politico's in October 2000... introduction The idea for this book came on a holiday to the United States when I came across a marvellous book called ‘Recollections of Reagan:APortrait of Ronal...
Article for Government Opportunities: Why Start a Small Business
- 12 Nov 1999
Article for Government Opportunities by Iain Dale, Managing Director, Politico’s Bookstore. Owning and running a small business - a comparatively new small business at that - is something best done by a masochist. Why else would anyone put themselves through the tortu...
Manuscript: Tony Blair's New Labour Joke Book
- 2 Feb 1999
Tony Blair’s New Labour Joke Book Compiled by Iain Dale & John Simmons The word "politics" is derived from the words "poly" meaning many, and the word "tics" meaning bl...