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...
EXCLUSIVE: Returning Officers Threaten to Strike Over Election Counts
- 1 Apr 2010
The row over election night counting threatened to worsen last night, as Returning Officers revolted over Government plans to force them to hold counts on election night itself, rather than the next day. I can reveal that more than 100 Returning Officers have signed a lette...
A Promotion for TV's Shane Greer
- 1 Apr 2010
I'm delighted to announce today that Shane Greer will be replacing me from 1 May as Managing Director of Biteback Media, the company which owns Total Politics Magazine. Shane has been instrumental in the success of the company in its first two years, and having established ...
Speech: Politics, Speeches & Audiences in the Age of Celebrity
- 31 Mar 2010
Last week I spoke to a group of speechwriters. Several people have asked if I would post my speech, which took as its subject “Politics, Speeches & Audiences in the Age of Celebrity”. Here's an abbreviated version... The best speeches are made like I sing in the shower....
Why the A21 Must Be Dualled
- 25 Mar 2010
Anyone who knows the A21 between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells will know what a treacherous road it is. It's the bit where the dual carriageway goes down to a single lane each way, near Pembury (where we live). There's a steep stretch of hill with a bend half way up. About ...
Hanging up on BBC London
- 22 Mar 2010
I don't normally go on BBC Radio London, and my experience just now reminds me why. I've always been taught that as a radio presenter, if a guest hangs up on you, it reflects very badly on you. You've clearly failed to control the interview. I was invited on to Eddy Nest...
In Praise of Vodafone
- 15 Mar 2010
Remember about a month ago I wrote THIS post about my mobile phone bill? It was £2,500, and it turned out the next month's was even more. I twittered about it and was contacted by Vodafone's web relations team. To cut a long story short, they have spent the last month trying t...
A Day at Auschwitz-Birkenau
- 3 Mar 2010
Back in 1984 I visited Dachau. I took my mother and sister. And it was true what they said: the birds really didn't sing there. It was a profoundly moving experience. My mother couldn't wait to leave and hated it. In 1990, just after the reunification of Germany, I drove to Bu...
A Tribute to Michael Foot
- 3 Mar 2010
Michael Foot has died at the ripe old age of 96. Whatever one's politics, he was a true political great. The first time I ever really heard of him was when my Grandmother gave me some well meant political advice when I was about thirteen years old. She told me: "Just remember,...
Counterfactual: The Second Falklands War
- 17 Feb 2010
No, it really didn't mean anything, the Foreign Office official told David Miliband. "They do things like this all the time, Foreign Secretary," he soothed. "We've got good relations with Argentina. Nothing to worry about." It was the day after the Argentinian President had is...
When Making a Speech, Don't Change a Winning Formula
- 14 Feb 2010
It's only natural that I have been giving a lot of thought to what happened yesterday and why I underperformed at the East Surrey selection. Without going into a rather long tedious saga of self analysis, I think two things were at play. One is that I broke the habit of a l...
The Super Injunction Law Needs Reforming
- 31 Jan 2010
The John Terry story gets more lurid by the day. According to the Sunday Mirror, he got Wayne Bridge's girlfriend pregnant and then arranged for her to have an abortion. In addition, he allegedly lied to Bridge when confronted about the affair. The non football fans among you ...
Review: 'Mo'
- 31 Jan 2010
There was a part of me that wasn't looking forward to watching 'Mo'. I wasn't sure that Julie Walters could carry it off. Idiot. Of course she could. She grew into the role so that after half an hour you really did imagine she really was Mo. She even get her voice right. Th...
An Appreciation of Duncan Brack
- 30 Jan 2010
One of the great things about running Politico's for seven years was that I got to meet a huge number of people from across the political spectrum, who otherwise I would never have got to know. Duncan Brack was one of those people. Unless you're a LibDem activist you've pro...