From North Norfolk to Westmorland & Lonsdale
- 8 May 2010
As most of you know, at the last election I stood in North Norfolk and experienced one of the biggest swings away from the Conservatives - 8.6%. The LibDem majority increased from 483 to 10,606. As soon as the result was announced I knew I would get a whole heap of the brown s...
A Full Coalition Can Work
- 7 May 2010
Hilarious. I have just been dropped from a Newsnight discussion on a potential Tory-LibDem coalition because I am seen as too pro LibDem. I never thought those would be words I would ever write. But I know what they mean. I have spent most of the day explaining on the media...
A Few Thoughts on the Election Result
- 7 May 2010
An astonishing night. As predicted there was no such thing as a national swing. Seats the Tories should have won, they didn't and others no one predicted they would win, they did. What no one predicted was the disastrous night the LibDems have experienced. Not only will they e...
Twenty Election Night Predictions
- 6 May 2010
Have you noticed how virtually none of our highly paid political columnists or pundits have been brave enough to make any predictions about this election? Cowards, the lot of them. It's easy to understand why, because frankly no one knows what will happen over the next 36 hour...
Ten Things You Won't Hear David Dimbleby Say on Election Night
- 6 May 2010
1. It's 10pm and our exit polls show David Cameron heading for a clear majority. 2. And here's Jeremy Vine in his cowboy uniform. 3. That was Nick Clegg paying tribute to the two old parties. 4. If you click the red button you can see Emily Maitlis naked. 5. And now over t...
It's a Sin
- 2 May 2010
When you get to the closing stages of election campaigns, political parties who are losing tend to do desperate things. We saw an example of it earlier today with Shaun Woodward. Newspapers happily lap up any kind of lurid allegation - especially when it concerns a Conservativ...
Ten People Who Are Having a Bad Election
- 1 May 2010
A couple of days ago I published a list of Ten People Who Are Having a Good Election. So you won't be suprised if I now balance things up. These are ten people who perhaps haven't had the best of times over the last month... Gordon Brown Needs little explanation. He's head...
Telegraph Column: This Was Supposed to be the Internet Election
- 27 Apr 2010
This was supposed to be the election when internet politics came of age, when the blogosphere and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook had a real impact on the campaign. But it hasn't turned out like that: far from being an important player, the internet has become ...
Ten People Who are Having a Good Election
- 26 Apr 2010
Andrew Neil Ubiquitous. His Daily Politics morning reports have been incisive and entertaining and he always seems to ask the question the politician doesn't want to answer. A pity he isn't chairing the debate tonight. Michael Gove The Tory Party's emerging safe pair of h...
A Gay Row That Exposes Bradshaw's Hypocrisy
- 23 Apr 2010
I get very frustrated when the likes of Ben Bradshaw try to play politics with gay issues and try to make out as if all Tories are latent homophobes. I gather tonight Little Ben was at it again after an interview David Cameron gave to Gay Times and which was picked up by Chann...
These Attacks on Nick Clegg Will Backfire
- 22 Apr 2010
What a terrible indictment of the British press we see this morning. The Mail runs a spurious story about Nick Clegg making a supposed Nazi slur against Britain. The Expressreckons he wants us to be overrun by immigrants. The Telegraph accuses him, of well, properly declaring ...
Campaign Spotlight: Dagenham & Rainham
- 15 Apr 2010
I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours this afternoon campaigning in Dagenham & Rainham for my friend Simon Jones, who is seeking to oust Jon Cruddas. I was out with a team of eight canvassers (including Baroness Noakes) in a fairly nice part of the constituency on a new...
High Court Finds Against Leading Labour Blogger
- 8 Apr 2010
Alex Hilton has not had a good day if my reading of this interim judgement in the High Court is correct. Reading between the lines, it could have severe implications for all bloggers. In short, he is being sued because of an article posted on Labour Home which intimated that s...
My Consistently Inconsistent Advice on Dealing With Michael Crick
- 7 Apr 2010
Earlier on today a couple of commenters - Scary Mary and Grim Reaper - spotted an apparent inconsistency in what I wrote in THIS blogpost comparing Gordon Brown's electoral strategy to Michael Foot's compared to THIS one which ventured some advice to first time candidates. ...
Drowned Out By Mandelson's Crisps
- 6 Apr 2010
I suppose my chief memory of today has to be the moment I was drowned out on national radio ... by a packet of crisps. It wasn't any old packet of crisps. It was a packet being consumed, nay, chomped on by no less a personage than the First Secretary of State himself. Peter Ma...
And Do It Begins...
- 5 Apr 2010
After what seems years of waiting, it;s finally happening. The election is on. As I sit here tonight, two thoughts come to mind. I think of all the candidates up and down the country, many of whom have been campaigning in their patches for up to four years. The next four weeks...
Ten Lords a Leaping
- 4 Apr 2010
ConservativeHome have rather kindly included me on their list of 100 potential peers today. I don't delude myself that there's much chance of that actually happening, but it did provoke an idea for a blogpost. I support a fully elected House of Lords, but until that actuall...
The Perils of Saying Something Nice
- 3 Apr 2010
Last night I was in Oakham, Rutland to chair an election hustings organised by the Federation of Small Businesses, and a very lively event it was too. The panel consisted of local MP Alan Duncan, his Labour and LibDem opponents and two local businesspeople. The evening started...
Twenty Great Things About the 1980s
- 3 Apr 2010
1. Margaret Thatcher. 2. Labour couldn't win an election. 3. Putting the Unions back in their box. 4. Enabling millions of people to buy shares for the first time. 5. A-ha & Alphaville. 6. Audi Quattros. 7. Ejecting the Argentinians from the Falklands. ...
Why I Disagree With Chris Grayling on B&Bs
- 3 Apr 2010
Fasten your seatbelts. Just before I went down to the studio to talk about Labour posters on the Stephen Nolan Show I saw the breaking story about Chris Grayling. Tomorrow's Observer has a recording of him saying that he felt that the rights of bed and breakfast owners to refu...