Where Were You When You Heard Margaret Thatcher Had Resigned?
- 26 Feb 2009
The New Stateman has a Thatcher Special this week - yes, you did read that correctly. One of the features is a WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU HEARD SHE HAD RESIGNED. They have edited my contribution, so I thought I'd give you the unedited version here... The night before Margaret ...
Review: Margaret
- 26 Feb 2009
I can't decide if I enjoyed that or not. In some ways it was a gross caricature, in others it was a pretty accurate portrayal of a political assassination. The trouble with political dramas based on real events is that they inevitably involve a large degree of exaggeration - b...
Rwanda: The Shaming of Donald Steinberg
- 24 Feb 2009
I was going to write this blogpost last night, but I was so angry I decided it was best to sleep on it. Bad decision. I'm still fizzing with anger. Yesterday evening I was invited by TIME Magazine's excellent London Bureau Chief Catherine Mayer to attend a screening of an impo...
A Fire at the Farm
- 21 Feb 2009
Well, if you've been following my Twitter feed you'll know that it's been quite an evening at Dale Towers near Saffron Walden. We've been spending the weekend with my parents at their farm (where I grew up) in Ashdon. At about 9pm my partner John went out for a smoke and ca...
Why Speaking the Language of the Left Won't Work
- 19 Feb 2009
Harriet Harman's desire to appear more left wing than she really is, is not only a reflection of her desire to be a leadership player when the time comes, she calculates that it will resonate with the country as well as her party. Jon Cruddas makes a similar calculation in his...
My Sunday Newspaper Shame
- 15 Feb 2009
On Friday I caused a bit of havoc on my Twitter feed by saying this... Oh dear, looks like I am going to be exposed in a Sunday newspaper for a misdeed of my youth. Gulp. It's all rather embarrassing. I was inundated with messages on email and via Facebook of the "we'l...
The Draper Slo-Mo Car Crash Continues
- 14 Feb 2009
Draper's having another one of his hissy fits over Guido's Friday Caption competition. And he is DEMANDING - yes, demanding, that I and ConHome remove our sidebar links to Guido. How very student union of him. He even shows graphics demonstrating that we link to Guido. What Dr...
25 (More) Random Things About Me
- 8 Feb 2009
1. When I was 9 I stuck a pitchfork through my big toe. 2. My Saturday job was mucking out my Dad's pigs. I was paid 10p per hour. 3. At primary school my friend threw a lump of plasticine at me from the other side of the classroom. It went straight into my mouth. 4. If I c...
What The Twitter Is Draper Up To?
- 6 Feb 2009
In his bizarre attempt to become the blogosphere's Mr Popular, Derek Draper's latest wheeze is to "follow" every single one of my Twitter followers. Some might consider this to breach Twitter's own rules. While I have been out this afternoon I have been deluged with Twitter...
Misunderstood, Funny or Racist
- 5 Feb 2009
There's a very interesting thread on my West Ham Blog on a post headed "The Evils of Racism". I wrote it yesterday in response to the West Bromwich Albion fan forum The Stirrer, Bob Piper and Ministry of Truth who had written more about the Radio 4 interview and my remarks con...
Banned by Draper - My Life's Work is Complete
- 4 Feb 2009
Derek Draper should take some of his own psychotherapy. Having spent yesterday ranting at junior interns at the Taxpayers' Alliance, it seems that his Victim of the Day today is me. This is what he has just twittered... LabourList has suspended Iain Dale from our blogroll u...
25 Random Things About Me
- 3 Feb 2009
Well if it's good enough for John Prescott, it's good enough for me. And I suppose it just proves that blogging is about me, me, me :). Anyway, here are 25 random things you probably never knew about me, and probably never wanted to know. Tough. 1. I worked for a year as a ...
The Definition of Leadership
- 26 Jan 2009
Erik Jendresen was the supervising producer of the wonderful series BAND OF BROTHERS. I have just come across a note I was sent some years ago by the man who inspired the series, Richard Winters (played in the series by Damian Lewis). I had written to Mr Winters to tell him wh...
In Conversation with Ken Olisa
- 23 Jan 2009
This interview was conducted in early 2009 and appeared in Total Politics magazine. Ken Olisa was a board member of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). How many people work at IPSA? We're going through a staged change. We top-loaded the staff t...
Meeting Margaret Thatcher
- 14 Jan 2009
I went to the Carlton Club this evening for a drinks party hosted by Liam Fox. I was delighted to see Lady Thatcher arrive and looking absolutely fantastic. For a woman of 83 and supposedly in frail health, she looked absolutely stunning. I had a couple of minutes talking t...
The Beauty & Illogicality of Language
- 11 Jan 2009
Something I learned studying for my degree in Linguistics (and German) is that language is something which evolves over time, and often for no apparent reason. Some of the commenters on my earlier post about Prince Harry have accused politically correct leftists of turning the...
Tories Launch New Online Strategy
- 10 Jan 2009
A couple of days ago Tim Montgomerie wrote about a new Conservative web initiative which is launching this Friday. It's the first tangible sign that Sam Coates has quickly brought a new campaigning aspect to the Tories' web presence and very welcome it is too. As Labour lea...
Derek Draper Launches Labour List
- 9 Jan 2009
Gaby Hinsliff has the STORY for tomorrow's Observer that the much vaunted Derek Draper blog initiative launches this week. Draper himself will be the editor and seems to be modelling it very much on ConservativeHome. It's called LabourList.org and will call into question the f...
Today: The Carol Thatcher Interview
- 4 Jan 2009
I'm not sure that the Today Programme got the dust up they were looking for this morning. I was supposed to be on with Amanda Platell, but she was replaced at the last minute by Michael Eboda from New Nation. He duly took the line that it seemed to be a bit of a fuss about not...
The Perils of Selling a Used Car
- 30 Dec 2008
We have just had a visited from Her Majesty's Constabulary. "Do you own an Audi, Sir?" asked the WPC? "Well, if you look behind you, you'll see three of them!" I jauntily replied. "Is one of them registration number GU... XXX?" "Yes, the A4 over there," I pointed out. "We're t...