New Statesman Diary Column
- 19 Aug 2010
There is clearly little personal love lost between the London mayoral rivals Oona King and Ken Livingstone, who came into the LBC studios recently. Barely had they sat down at opposite mikes than they were jabbing fingers at each other. Neither seemed to understand that it's n...
New Statesman Diary August 12 2010
- 12 Aug 2010
Gordon Henderson, the Tory MP who represents the good burghers of Sittingbourne and Sheppey, must have a political death wish. Having been asked in a ConservativeHome survey which non-Tory politician he most admires, he replied "Nigel Farage" - possibly the answer most likely ...
New Statesman Diary
- 5 Aug 2010
Oona King is operating an innovative online campaign in her bid to beat Ken Livingstone to Labour's London mayoral nomination. She is inviting bloggers to her Docklands campaign centre to find out more about her policies, including, strangely, several right-wing Tory bloggers....
The Joys of Live Phone-in Radio
- 4 Aug 2010
What I love about presenting a phone in based radio show is that you can never predict what's ging to happen. And so it proved tonight. In the first hour of the programme we covered the story about the Advertising Standards Authority ruling in favour of Channel 4's decision...
Anyone for Tennis?
- 25 Jun 2010
There was a time, in the late seventies and early eighties, when I would go to Wimbledon every year, but my interest in tennis waned in the 1990s as the main players just resorted to bashing the ball from base line to base line. Seeing a player come to the net was as rare as a...
A Candidate No Longer
- 17 Jun 2010
Last night I attended a reception at Number 10 and had a brief chat with David Cameron. He said he hoped I would try for a seat at the next election. I explained that that wouldn't be happening and that I had made a decision well before the last election not to try again if I ...
Visiting Number Ten After 27 Years
- 16 Jun 2010
Tonight I am going to a reception at Number Ten. It will be the first time I will have been there to a social event since I was a mere political stripling at the age of 20, in January 1983. And that was quite a memorable evening. Margaret Thatcher had invited all the differ...
Heckled in Chelmsford
- 8 Jun 2010
Ann Widdecombe and I have done around 50 or 60 of our theatre shows up and down the country, but never has a member of the audience got up, shouted to us to 'F' off and stormed out of the theatre. Until last night in Chelmsford, that is. It was near the end of the second h...
Rooney's Gold: A Publishing Tale
- 7 Jun 2010
Before you start getting angry, this is not a football story - it's about libel. The last time I was quoted in a front page article in the Daily Star on Sunday it was under the headline HORSE FART SIGNALS END OF DOCK STRIKE. Actually, come to think of it, it may have been t...
Israel: The Consequences of the 'Peace Flotilla'
- 1 Jun 2010
I wasn't going to write about what has happened off the Israeli coast, because I am tired of writing about the Middle East and then having the blog infested by dogmatic nutters from both sides of the argument. However, as I had to talk about it on the Sky News paper review, he...
Mail on Sunday Article: When David Laws Came Out It Brought Back Memories
- 31 May 2010
Until yesterday, David Laws was barely known outside Westminster. But the revelation that he claimed £40,000 over eight years to rent a room from his gay lover soon put paid to that. David Laws is hardly the only gay in the Westminster Village. But he is perhaps the only on...
More Thoughts on David Laws' Resignation
- 29 May 2010
LBC listeners were split this morning on the David Laws issue. Some phoned in with some very tough words for him but others were more sympathetic. There seems to be a font of goodwill towards the coalition. People wish it well. If David Laws survives, it will be because of tha...
I Hope David Laws Survives
- 28 May 2010
I'm about to hit the hay as I have to get up early in the morning to do my LBC show. Guess what the phone in is likely to be about. Yup, David Laws. The Telegraph has revealed tonight that he has claimed £40,000 in expenses over eight years to rent a room from someone who t...
IPSA is the Parliamentary Equivalent of a Failed State
- 20 May 2010
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has not made an auspicious start. It has packed itself with very highly paid staff, most of whom know nothing about the way Parliament operates. It's chairman, Sir Ian Kennedy, has become a hate figure among MPs. So what, yo...
Why I'd Vote for John Bercow
- 18 May 2010
It's interesting that many of the left have interpreted the blogpost last night on Ming Campbell and the Speakership as proof that I want to see the back of John Bercow and that I therefore automatically support Nadine Dorries and Kat Hoey in their bid to oust him. Read the po...
Campaign Spotlight: Norwich South
- 16 May 2010
I spent a couple of hours this afternoon canvassing in one of the less Conservative wards of Norwich South with Antony Little, the Tory candidate, who also stood there in 2005. Norwich South is a constituency I know well, having been at university in Norwich in the early 1980s...
Did the LibDems Pick the Wrong Norman?
- 15 May 2010
It comes to something in a Ministerial shuffle when Norman Baker becomes a minister and Norman Lamb doesn't. As regular readers will know, LibDem MP Norman Lamb whipped my Tory ass in the 2005 election. He was a formidable opponent. Over the last couple of years he has been...
A New Dawn Has Broken, Has it Not?
- 11 May 2010
Well, it's finally happened. Labour has bowed to the inevitable and called off talks with the LibDems. Gordon Brown will apparently resign the office of Prime Minister tonight and David Cameron will travel up the Mall tomorrow morning (or perhaps even tonight) to kiss hands wi...
Just When You Thought...
- 10 May 2010
I hardly know where to start. When I sat down in Richard Bacon's studio at around 3pm, John Pienaar was reporting the news that Nick Clegg hadn't told David Cameron of his meetings with the Labour Party. Pienaar was pretty critical of Clegg and more or less said he needed to g...
The Change Coalition is Coming
- 9 May 2010
I've noted with wry amusement that ever since I came out as an enthusiast for the Change Coalition, the media invites have dried up. Believe me, after Friday's marathon I am hardly complaining. I can do with the rest, but note how the news channels are concentrating on using T...