Blog
How Priti Patel Becomes Prime Minister - From the New Book 'Prime Minister Priti & Other Things That Never Happened
- 16 Jul 2021
Counterfactual history has always fascinated me, and this week Duncan Brack and I have published our fifth book of politically themed counterfactual essays titled 'PRIME MINISTER PRITI & OTHER THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED'. It contains 23 essays and I have written the title ...
The Lessons We Can Take From Euro 2020
- 12 Jul 2021
I’m writing this on what can genuinely be described as the morning after the night before. It’s not exactly a feeling of grief, but certainly a feeling on intense loss. Last night was probably the only chance I will get to witness England winning a major tournament, and in...
The Consequences of Matt Hancock's Resignation & Have we Reached 'Peak Johnson'?
- 26 Jun 2021
When I woke up at 5.25am on Friday, I checked my phone and saw the front page of The Sun. I actually exclaimed: “F*****g hell”, as opposed to “F*****g hopeless.” I was due on air on Good Morning Britain an hour later with Jacqui Smith. We were both staying in the same hotel so...
Reaction Media Review 55: GB News
- 22 Jun 2021
GB News Back in 2006, YouGov’s co-founder Stephan Shakespeare and ConservativeHome founder Tim Montgomerie (now of this parish) conceived of an idea to start a political TV channel on the internet, with a decidedly right of centre tinge. This was in the days before sma...
Reaction Media Review 54: Quickly Kevin Podcast & Euro 2020
- 19 Jun 2021
Quickly Kevin, Will He Score? Podcast I listen to ten or a dozen podcasts each week and I’ve now worked out that more than half of them are about football, rather than politics. Make of that what you will. The latest addition to my regular staple of podcasts is ‘Quickly Kev...
The 12 Podcasts I Listen to Every Week
- 12 Jun 2021
I have about 50 podcasts which I subscribe to in my Apple podcasts library on my phone. Some I dip into, some I listen to every episode religiously. Here are the 12 podcasts I make sure I listen to reach week. There was a time when most of these would have been political podca...
Reaction Media Review Column 53: Piers Morgan, Matt Forde & Keir Starmer
- 8 Jun 2021
Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, ITV The Political Party Podcast with Matt Forde “You should get Keir to do more of these non political and more personal interviews,” I said to his press officer after he spent ten minutes talking to me and Jacqui Smith about his memories of ...
We Need to Have a Word About Deaths
- 2 Jun 2021
So, no new Covid deaths were reported yesterday for the first time since last March. As a former Prime Minister might have put it, just rejoice at that news. Well it is of course fantastic news, but should it affect the decision Boris Johnson must make in the next two weeks a...
Reaction Media Review 52: Dan Snow's History Hit & A Gay & A Non Gay
- 1 Jun 2021
Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast Over the last twenty years there has been an explosion of interest in history, not just British history, but all sorts of different kinds of history. The podcast genre is absolutely ideal to capitalise on this. I’ve already reviewed ...
How using Freestyle Libre Has Helped Me With My Diabetes
- 29 May 2021
This article has just been published in the Diabetes UK magazine, Balance. I suspect I am the same as any other diabetic. I struggle to keep my blood sugars under control. After 13 years I know what I am supposed to eat and drink but I have all the self discipline of a...
Reaction Media Review 51: Geoff Norcott's 'What Most People Think' Podcast
- 25 May 2021
What Most People Think Podcast with Geoff Norcott Geoff Norcott has made quite a name for himself over the last few years as one of a breed as rare as hen’s teeth – a right wing comedian. It has to be said that he’s now not alone as a member of that small band of brothers. ...
Cross Question Goes Three Nights A Week
- 20 May 2021
A bit of an announcement. In September 2018 I started presenting a new show on LBC called Cross Question. It has been a once a week hour on a Wednesday evening, and the format is similar to Any Questions or Question Time, the main difference being that the questions come fr...
Reaction Media Column 50: May Elections Coverage & the LibDem Podcast
- 20 May 2021
One of the things I love most about my job at LBC is being given the opportunity to present election night shows. I’ve done four general election nights, two American elections, two referendums and various local election nights. Last week, however, Covid thwarted me. Most of t...
Reaction Media Review 49: 'Pariah' - The Harvey Proctor Story
- 11 May 2021
Parish, Tortoise Media Many people felt that the internet would signal the end of properly funded investigative journalism and a dumbing down of current affairs coverage more generally. The reverse has been true. Investigative journalism is far from dead and it’s possible t...
Ten Things To Take Away From the May Elections
- 9 May 2021
You can tell an awful lot about a politician by how they react to an election defeat. This week we learned that Sir Keir Starmer is neither a lucky general or is cool under fire. His interview on Friday afternoon was a textbook classic of how not to react. He looked like a rab...
Reaction Media Review 48: Rachel Johnson's 'Difficult Women' & 'State of Mind' with Richard Sefton
- 6 May 2021
Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women podcast, Global Radio Let me say this up front. I am an unalloyed Rachel Johnson fan. Like most of the Johnson family, she is an adornment to our national life, even if she sometimes puts her foot in it. Her recent memoir of her time in Chan...
Reaction Media Review 47: All to Play For & Line of Duty
- 27 Apr 2021
All to Play For podcast, Joe.co.uk & Coral Football podcasts are two a penny nowadays, but what a discovery All to Play For has been. It is presented by actor and comedian Tom Davis and former West Ham, Chelsea, Liverpool and England star, Joe Cole. Each week they ...
A Tribute to Eve Collishaw
- 24 Apr 2021
Photo credit: Archant. Eve Collishaw is someone you won’t have heard of unless you follow Norwich politics very closely. I first met her on the campaign trail in Norwich North in the 1983 general election. She has stood in every local election in the city more or less e...
Reaction Media Column 46: Seaspiracy on Netflix
- 20 Apr 2021
I had heard great things about this documentary from several people I greatly respect. A couple of them were people on the right who I wouldn’t have thought would be persuaded to become more environmentally aware through the means of a Netflix documentary. So it was with high ...
When Your Dog Goes Missing...
- 16 Apr 2021
There are two things that dog owners fear the most. That their dog might run away never to be seen again, or that it might be dognapped. Around 11.30am this morning I left our house in Norfolk to go to Cromer for a round of golf. Fifteen minutes later, I was driving pa...