Blocked by Tom Watson
- 18 Dec 2008
Well this was a bit of a surprise. As you know, I am a bit of a late convert to Twitter. I don't follow the Twitter activities of a huge number of people (around 50) but I tried to add Labour blogging Minister Tom Watson to that list this afternoon. But up came the following r...
Will Young to Appear on Question Time
- 18 Dec 2008
Last night on Radio 5 Live's Stephen Nolan Show I took part in a 15 minute discussion on ... wait for it ... whether it is right for Will Young to appear as a guest on Question Time. Question Time had issued an embargoed press release about him appearing on a show in the New Y...
Will Derek Draper Be "Labour's Iain Dale"?
- 17 Dec 2008
My invite to Derek Draper's blogging breakfast seems to have got lost in the post. Guido and Harry Phibbs have all the details so I won't go into inordinate detail. But one thing struck me about the whole event. Doesn't it just illustrate the differences between the two phi...
Whatever Happened to my Telegraph Column
- 5 Dec 2008
Thanks to those of you have been emailing asking what's happened to my Daily Telegraphcolumn. I started it in February 2007 and have been writing it every fortnight since then, alternating with John Kampfner. However, the Telegraph have decided (and I rather agree with them) t...
Jacqui Smith Appears to Give the Police Carte Blanche
- 30 Nov 2008
I have just been watching Andrew Marr's interview with Jacqui Smith. At the end of the Major government, many Cabinet Ministers appeared on TV and were seen as totally out of touch with public opinion. The interviewer would say something was white and they would say it was bla...
Can British Bloggers Make Money Out of Blogging?
- 29 Nov 2008
The latest issue of the British Journalism Review has a fairly lengthy article by me on whether UK bloggers can make money from their blogging activities. Although it has only just been published, the article was written three months ago. Links to all the blogs mentioned can b...
LibDems Look Into the Abyss Over £2.4 Million Donation
- 28 Nov 2008
Michael Brown, the man who gave the LibDems £2.4 million, has been convicted of fraud, following an early conviction of perjury. The Electoral Commission has said it will now reopen its investigation as to whether the donation was permissible in the first place. If it finds th...
I Fancied Esther Rantzen
- 27 Nov 2008
I seem to have created a bit of a stir with my latest Twitter/Facebook status update. For those who missed it, this is it... Iain is wondering if it is wrong to admit that as an eleven year old, he fancied Esther Rantzen Now, perhaps it deserves a little - but not too mu...
Neatly Avoiding the 45 Tax Bear Trap
- 26 Nov 2008
Sunder Katwala on the Fabian Society's Next Left blog is trying to stir up a bit of trouble over the 45p tax issue. When it was announced I wrote a post saying that the announcement of a new higher rate signalled the end of New Labour. In the comments we had this exchange... ...
Perhaps It's Time to Legalise Prostitution
- 20 Nov 2008
Over the last ten years, the nature of prostitution in this country has changed, with a growing number of the women involved in it being trafficked into this country for the specific purpose of pimping them out for sex. That's not to say it wasn't an ugly business before - it ...
Message to Yasmin: Demonising Families Is Not the Answer
- 17 Nov 2008
This lunchtime I had the anguish pleasure of listening to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown tell Jeremy Vine that in the field of child protection, it is families who are the problem rather than the solution. Even for Yasmin, that was a corker. In her opinion families just can't be trusted...
Lynne Feathertone is Right: Heads Must Roll Over Baby P
- 16 Nov 2008
Earlier this morning on Sky News, LibDem MP Lynne Featherstone called for heads to roll in the Baby P investigation. Specifically, she said that senior officials in the Children's Services department of Haringey Council should be sacked. She went on to put a lot of blame on th...
When Fiction Poses as Journalism
- 15 Nov 2008
Isabelle Oakeshott has a STORY in the Sunday Times tomorrow which seeks to pour yet more petrol on the GET GEORGE OSBORNE fire. But it is so preposterous you almost have to laugh if this is the best she can come up with. She asserts that Tory activists want rid of George Osbor...
Book Review: FA Confidential by David Davies
- 14 Nov 2008
David Davies was a BBC journalist who in 1994 jumped ship to work for the Football Association, first as spokesman, then as Executive Director. His memoirs are a fascinating account of his twelve years working at the top level of the FA, and they reveal a shambolic organisatio...
Baby P: It's Not Partisan to Ask Questions
- 14 Nov 2008
It seems that even to comment on the case of Baby P produces howls from the left of partisan politics. It is, of course, utter rubbish, and an attempt to deflect blame. If politics is about anything, it is about trying to prevent a repetition of the tragic events in Haringey. ...
MPs Bury Heads in Sand Over e-Democracy
- 12 Nov 2008
Yesterday afternoon I was part of a panel at the e-Democray conference. Pete Bazalgette (who created Big Brother), Labour MP Margaret Moran and LibDem MP Willie Rennie were the other participants. Normally, this sort of panel is quite tepid because there is a certain amount of...
In Conversation with Iain Duncan Smith
- 6 Nov 2008
This interview was conducted in late October 2008. A much edited version appeared in Total Politics magazine. You’ve got a better than average office here, haven’t you? This office was originally the ex-leaders' or ex-prime ministers' office, and I got it when I fi...
In Conversation with Hazel Blears
- 1 Nov 2008
This interview was conducted in October 2008 and appeared in Total Politics magazine. To her fans she’s a human dynamo, to her enemies she’s an irritating robot. Iain Dale talks to Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government about her li...
My Israel Diary
- 31 Oct 2008
DAY ONE I'm so tired I can hardly type, so we'll see how far I get with this. Today was spent travelling through northern Israel in a huge American nine seater 4x4. We set off from Tel Aviv just after 8am. The traffic congestion heading out of the city was New York-esque in...
Speaking at the Conservative 'Madrasa'
- 26 Oct 2008
On Saturday morning I spent a very enjoyable two hours doing some TV training with the 75 twenty somethings who attended the Conservative Madrassa Young Britons' Foundationconference in Berkshire. Several things struck me. There were a considerable number of female participant...