Blog
The Duke Should Get Behind a Wheel Today
- 18 Jan 2019
Iain Dale believes getting back behind the wheel right after a devastating car crash helped him regain confidence in driving, and says Prince Philip should do the same. pic.twitter.com/ixUFKiLwCL — Good Morning Britain (@GMB) January 18, 2019 Yesterday, at around 6pm...
EDP Column: Let's 'Renationalise' Highways England
- 13 Jan 2019
‘Fog in Channel – Continent Cut Off’ – that was a headline in The Times during Edwardian times. It signalled the high-handed, rather superior attitude we had (and possibly still have!) to our continental cousins. There is nowadays a modern day equivalent, courtesy of a governm...
I Still Couldn't Support the PM's Deal - Her Challenge is to Come Up With a Better One
- 12 Jan 2019
The headline given to my ConservativeHome diary column this week has caused a lot of comment. The comments have mainly been made by people too lazy to read the actual article and who don't realise that the author of a column doesn't write the accompanying headline. The...
Ten Signs You Have Joined the Establishment
- 12 Jan 2019
10. You get a letter from Number Ten inviting you to accept a KCMG 9. You start reading the Court & Social page of The Times. 8. You get invited to speak at the Reform Club. 7. You eat Welsh Rarebit after dessert. 6. You believe William Rees-Mogg to have been the world...
The Vuelio List of Top 50 Political Influencers
- 11 Jan 2019
Embed from Getty Images The PR & Communications outfit Vuelio has produced a list of the 50 people they consider the main influencers on the political debate/agenda in this country. No one ever agrees on who's included in this sort of list, or where they are ranked...
Evening Standard Column: Who will step in to rescue May’s Brexit?
- 10 Jan 2019
"It’s like a middle-aged swingers party waiting for the arrival of Scarlett Johansson,” chirped Michael Gove at yesterday’s first post-Christmas Cabinet meeting. “Or Pierce Brosnan…” trilled Amber Rudd. Goodness knows what the Goves and Rudds had been up to over Christmas. The...
Disgracing Myself in the Kremlin Age 13 3/4
- 9 Jan 2019
I was talking to a friend who's about to visit Moscow, so I thought I'd entertain her with a rather sordid anecdote from my first visit there in 1976, when I was a mere 13 years old. It was a trip organised by my school and we spent five days each in Leningrad (as it then w...
From the Archives: Long Read 'In Conversation with Shirley Williams'
- 7 Jan 2019
Iain: Do you enjoy Question Time? Shirley: Mostly I do. I’ve had a couple of experiences that I didn’t enjoy at all. I think almost entirely with the Hitchens brothers. I can tell you from personal experience that if you have both Hitchens, it is devastating! One thing, the...
From the Archives: Long Read Interview with Simon Heffer
- 6 Jan 2019
This is the full length version of my interview with Simon Heffer, which appears in the December 2010 edition of Total Politics. Embed from Getty Images So how have you found the change from working in a newspaper office to coming back to your old college? I’ve still ...
From the Archives: Long Read Interview with Tom Watson
- 5 Jan 2019
This is an extended version of my Total Politics interview with Tom Watson, which appeared in the January 2011 issue of the Magazine. He's incredibly open and honest about his time in government and the personal trauma he went through because of something I wrote... Embed f...