Top 100 People on the Left 2010
- 25 Sep 2010
Ed Miliband won the leadership campaign. He has transformed his personal position in the party, altered the political dynamic of the internal party debate and his blessing is now necessary for the shape of the party to come. He largely won the argument on the election and on t...
The Launch of Iain Dale in the Evening on LBC on Monday
- 17 Sep 2010
As most of you will know, over the last few months I have been a stand-in presenter for LBC in various time slots. Well, I'm delighted to tell you that I have been offered a permanent gig and I will be getting my own daily three hour programme. From Monday I'll be taking ov...
Top 50 Liberal Democrats 2010
- 16 Sep 2010
This year has forced a rethink of what it means to be a Liberal Democrat. As the anonymous panel met to compile the list there was a sense in which that crisis of identity was still being played out. Not since the party was welded together from what was left of David Owen’s eg...
Travelling to Arnhem
- 16 Sep 2010
My Dad turns 81 next month. He was nine when the Second World War broke out. For him, the war defined his who life. He was 15 when it ended. To this day he devours every programme he can watch about it. My parents' TV is permanently tuned to the History Channel or the Discover...
How does PC World Stay in Business?
- 4 Sep 2010
There's a reason I hate going to PC World, and yet like a dog returning to its sick, I continue to do so. Today's visit illustrates why I reckon its the chain store with the worst customer service in Britain. It's staffed by acne-ridden, monosyllabic teenagers with barely a GC...
Job Advert: Executive Assistant to Iain Dale
- 1 Sep 2010
Executive Assistant to Iain Dale The Role: Iain Dale is a busy man. He is the publisher of Total Politicsmagazine, a contributing editor to GQ, managing director of Biteback Publishing, editor of Iain Dale’s Diary and author or editor of more than 20 books. And he need...
Crispin Blunt Comes Out
- 27 Aug 2010
Well, I hadn't seen this one coming. Crispin Blunt wishes to make it known that he has separated from his wife Victoria. He decided to come to terms with his homosexuality and explained the position to his family. The consequence is this separation. There is no third part...
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...