Tomorrow I will score a small victory of sorts. Last year some small minded Scousers decided they would get me banned from performing in a live event with Jacqui Smith and Lisa Nandy at the Royal Philharmonic in Liverpool. All over a book I had had the temerity published eight years previously on Hillsborough. The lily-livered Royal Harmonic bowed to their wishes and the event was cancelled. This year, history threatened to repeat itself when a Liverpool fan site called ‘The Spirit of Shankly’ decided to write to Keir Starmer and all Merseyside MPs to demand they ban me from the Labour conference and from doing a booksigning. Well, I’m here. So sod the lot of them.
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I seem to be at that age where I go to more funerals than weddings. Two more friends of mine died this week, Ming Campbell and the former Irish politician Martin Mansergh. Up until recently Ming was one of the most regular guests on my show, and was a font of wisdom and knowledge on most aspects of foreign policy. He was a politician an interviewer would listen to with utter respect, rather than automatically look for the flaw in their argument. He was also the most fantastic gossip. I remember sitting next to him at the Channel 4 political awards one year and spent a very happy hour or two being entertained. His wife, Lady Elspeth was just as fabulous. I got to know Martin Mansergh when I launched a podcast series on the Irish Taoiseach. He did the Albert Reynolds podcast and wrote the chapter in my forthcoming book and was an absolute pleasure to deal with. I was looking forward to meeting him at the launch in Dublin on 4 November. He died while on a visit to the Saraha with other former Irish politicians. How horrible for his family to have to repatriate his body. Martin and Ming were both great men in different ways, but they will both be hugely missed.
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Last weekend I was in Gloucestershire for the Gloucester History Festival and then to do a talk in Bibury Church, a truly magnificent building. Bibury has been voted the world’s prettiest village and it is easy to see why. I’m not too familiar with The Cotwolds, but the visit had encourage me to return. Not least the discover of one of the best restaurants I have eaten in for some time. David Laws and his partner Jamie took me there for lunch on Saturday and it was truly outstanding. I couldn’t believe it is part of a chain of hotel/restaurants, but I was delighted to find out that one is opening at Groombridge, near where we live in Tunbridge Wells. It's called The Pig.
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On Friday I was in Rye in East Sussex, speaking at their Arts Festival. It’s a delightful coastal town and my immediate impression of it was that I could live there. Trouble is, even though it has railway connections to Hastings and Ashford, it’s quite remote and London is two hours away whether by train or road. The event itself was excellent, with some great questions. The interviewer, James Stewart, who described himself as a ‘BBC Lifer’, but now edits the local newspaper in Rye. He allowed me to really enjoy it and didn’t unnecessarily interrupt, which I’m afraid a recent interview did constantly. I managed to bite my tongue, but it was irritating in the extreme. And best of all, we sold a decent amount of books!