Top Ten Nicest MPs
- 24 Dec 2006
Kerron Cross is an all round good guy. He's so nice in fact that he's just compiled his list of his Top Ten Nicest MPs and has emailed to ask if I fancy doing the same. Well for lack of anything better to do on a very tedious Christmas Eve in the wilds of Essex (more of which ...
Book Review: DC Confidential by Christopher Meyer
- 23 Dec 2006
Christopher Meyer is certainly a colourful character, some would say rather unsuited to the world of diplomacy. But this is an entertaining, if at times infuriating, account of his career in the Foreign Office. Should he have been allowed to write such a book? My view on this ...
Ten Things I would Never Do
- 22 Dec 2006
The Telegraph has had a lot of letters lately suggesting clubs its readers would never join. Today they even have a page 3 feature on it. So I thought I'd compile my Top Ten Things I Would Never Do... 10. Join the Carlton Club until they admit full women members 9. Take ad...
The Seven Best Things I Did in 2006
- 22 Dec 2006
1. Go to Cardiff to the FA Cup Final and witness one of the greatest football matches of all time 2. Meet Cliff Richard 3. Resume blogging and make many new friends through it 4. Lose two stone in weight 5. Rediscover the delights of playing golf 6. Celebrate eleven years...
Top Ten Political Chatup Lines
- 21 Dec 2006
1 Would you like to see the contents of my despatch box? 2 Have you ever had a whip? 3 Hello, I’m David Mellor 4 I’ve asked Angie to join us, you don’t mind do you? 5 I’ve asked Bobby to join us, you don’t mind do you? 6 I’m so depressed about the world crisis I really do...
The Tory Leadership Campaign Finally Comes to a Cloe
- 6 Dec 2006
In a few hours time new leader of the Conservative Party will be preparing for PMQs. Last night the Davis diehards held an end of campaign party to thank all those who had worked on the campaign. We held it at the campaign office in Victoria Street. Quite a number of MPs were ...
Independent Diary: Curtains for Ann Clwyd
- 6 Dec 2006
Some people take losing very badly. Ann Clwyd and her supporters were by no means gracious in defeat, when on Tuesday evening Ms Clwyd was deposed as the chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party. After hearing the result of the ballot, in one of the House of Commons commit...
EDP Diary: Victim of Crime
- 30 Nov 2006
This week my workplace in London’s Bloomsbury has been the victim of crime on three occasions. On Sunday a burglar broke into our offices before being frightened off by the alarm, on Monday a bike was stolen from outside our offices and on Tuesday five cars were broken into i...
Guardian: Cameron is Right to Pitch for the Centre Ground
- 21 Nov 2006
The centre of power Despite Lord Saatchi's call for Conservatives to abandon the centre ground, David Cameron is wise to pitch his tent there. Lord Saatchi is without doubt a man with an enormous creative mind. His pamphlets for the Centre for Policy Studies are invariab...
Public Humiliation Should Not be Part of Our Legal Process
- 19 Nov 2006
Anyone who knows David Prior (former Tory MP for North Norfolk) will testify to the decency of the man. His former constituents in North Norfolk and the staff at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital will have been shocked at his very public arrest this week. But let u...
EDP Diary: Jon Snow, Me and our Ties
- 17 Nov 2006
Anyone who knows David Prior will testify to the decency of the man. His former constituents in North Norfolk and the staff at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital will have been shocked at his very public arrest this week. But let us remember that arrest does not imp...
Guardian: A Very Boring Queen's Speech
- 15 Nov 2006
Queen's speech: bor-ing! The work of a weary regime devoid of new ideas, the Queen's Speech leaves us with only Labour's succession to look forward to. This Queen's Speech has all the stench of a government in decay and on the way out. Listening to the stream of minister...
Guardian Column: Waste of a Queen's Speech
- 15 Nov 2006
This Queen’s Speech has all the stench of a government in decay and on the way out. Listening to the stream of Ministers talking it up on 5 Live you would think the Government was still hugely popular, the Prime Minister is at the peak of his powers and that the Bills in the Q...
TimeOut: The Art of the Political Diary & Biography
- 11 Nov 2006
Political autobiography is normally defined as a work of fiction by the author, about the author. Rarely do we find examples of 'good autobiography'. Indeed, it would be easier to draw up a list of Top Ten Worst Political Memoirs. The late Alan Clark, Conservative...
EDP Diary: How to reform the House of Lords
- 3 Nov 2006
The Speaker of the House of Commons needs the support of the whole House if he is to be able to preside over it properly. Michael Martin’s performance this week, when he upbraided David Cameron for asking Tony Blair about his preferred successor, was merely the latest in a lon...
Guardian Review of 18 Doughty Street by Dave Hill
- 30 Oct 2006
The future of television, some part of it at least, lies behind a black door on the fringes of Bloomsbury. It is the front door to a house; a sturdy, terraced one in Doughty Street where also stands the office of the Spectator. For all this 19th-century solidity, though, the b...
Thoughts on House of Lords Reform
- 22 Oct 2006
House of Lords reform seems to be back on the agenda at long last. Labour has indulged in many acts of constitutional vandalism since 1997 but none has been as bungled as their efforts to reform our Second Chamber. The trouble was that they embarked on the reform process witho...
Molly Scotcher 1931-2006
- 21 Oct 2006
Yesterday I went to a funeral near Bury St Edmunds to bury my Godmother, Molly Scotcher, who died last week. I’m not very good at funerals. No matter how much I tell myself I’m going to maintain a stiff upper lip, my eyes somehow turn into water fountains. It didn’t help today...
Living in the Constituency
- 21 Oct 2006
Ellee Seymour has an interesting little titbit about York LibDems leafleting constituents alerting them that Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Julian Sturdy lives three miles outside the constituency and therefore cannot be considered to be a local candidate. Pathetic, but ...
Guardian Diary: Keep the Journalists Busy or Live to Regret It
- 10 Oct 2006
The problem with Party Conferences is that unless you announce lots of new initiatives and policies the media hordes have nothing to write about. And when you don’t feed the media beast, it turns round and bites you. If journalists have nothing better to write about they rehas...