Some of you may recall that back at the beginning of August The Observer did an interview with me on a passage on my book about an attempted rape I had experience in my twenties. On the back of that, a national newspaper commissioned me to write an 1800 word feature on the sub...
This article first appeared on Reaction.Life. Occupied, Netflix It is, nowadays, almost de rigueur to be a fan of Scandinavian dramas. First, there was The Killing, then Borgen, then The Bridge. When we heard last week that Borgen is to return for a further series, I cou...
This column first appeared on Reaction.Life A Podcast of One’s Own with Julia Gillard I’ve often wondered how former prime ministers and presidents cope with losing office. How does your brain adjust to being the most powerful person in the country one minute, and t...
When you're in a political hole, the best thing to do is stop digging. You collect your thoughts, then you devise a strategy to climb out of the hole. That's what Gavin Williamson should be doing now. He needs to do it quickly because that hole is about to treble in size when ...
In July a photographer called Richard Davenport emailed me asking if I would take part in a phot feature he was planning. Given the Edinburgh Fringe had been cancelled, he decided to take pictures of people who had been intending to perform in Edinburgh, but couldn't. And ...
If we lived in normal times, I would be in the middle of a book tour, speaking at literary festivals up and down the country, from Appledore to Ilkley. I had forty odd speaking engagements planned to publicise my book on the decline of public discourse, ‘Why Can’t We All Just ...
This article first appeared on Reaction.Life Full Disclosure podcast with James O’Brien, Global Radio If the title of the podcast if ‘Full Disclosure’ I’d better disclose that James O’Brien is a colleague of mine on LBC, and Global Radio are the publishers of my own podc...
By rights, I should be at the beginning of a run of ten shows at the Edinburgh Fringe. But it was cancelled this year, for obvious reasons. So I'm taking part in the digital fringe, with three of my ALL TALK shows on Zoom. They will take place at 1pm each Wednesday for the res...
Thursday was the official publication day for my book, WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG. I’ve done a whole host of media interviews over the last week talking about the book but the question I have most often been asked is this: Why did I write it? Well, it is down to tw...
This article was written for Reaction.Life. Haughey – The Charles Haughey Documentary (RTE, YouTube) One of the great delights of YouTube is that it contains a vast treasure trove of political documentaries, the existence of which is usually spread by word of mouth. A co...
This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph. There’s nothing Westminster journalists like more than a process story that potentially involves one of their own. This week the Conservatives advertised for a new No 10 spokesperson, who will host a live, televised daily ...
Earlier this month I recorded an episode of Lisa Francesca Nand's BIG TRAVEL PODCAST, and it's out now on all podcast platforms. This is what the podcast blurb says. Quite how you can resist listening to it after reading this, I just don't know! A school trip to Commun...
This article was originally published on Reaction.Life. I wrote a new column each Friday on the site. The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty, BBC2 As you will know, if you are a regular reader of this column, I’m a sucker for a person based biographical documentary. So whe...
I get a lot of emails from LBC listeners and For the Many podcast fans, but this one, from 22 year old Joseph Bryant*, was a corker. So I thought I'd share it with you. Hi Iain, I've just ordered a copy of your book from your website. I'm 22 and have just fini...
This article first appeared on Reaction. Hillary, Sky Documentaries There’s nothing quite like a multi-part documentary series on leading American politicians. Just a few weeks ago I wrote about the Amazon Prime series on Bill Clinton and George W Bush, they provided fr...
Jacqui Smith and I have taken a perverse pride in describing our offering as the 'yet to be award winning 'For the Many Podcast''. Well, no longer. No, we're not being cancelled, but we have won an award! It's the Civility in Politics Award for 'Co-operation of the Yea...
IainDale · Iain Dale takes BA Management to Task This evening I hosted another phone-in asking people to comment on British Airways' treatment of its workers by sending them so-called 'Fire & Rehire' letters and emails. It's a terrible way to treat loyal worker...
This article first appeared on Reaction.Life Test Match Cricket, Sky Sports Test Match Special, 5 Live Sports Extra On Wednesday cricket fans around the world finally got what they were almost panting for – some live test match action. It didn’t last long, given ...
This column first appeared on Reaction.Life. Eurovision – The Story of Fire Saga, Netflix I’ve never quite understood the appeal of Will Ferrell, so it was with some degree of trepidation that I decided to take the advice of several friends who had seen “Eurovision” with...
Wednesday was a sad day for every right thinking person in Hong Kong, and it is a day that will be full of consequence, not just for the people of Hong Kong, but for the future of international relations and the world’s dealings with China. China has been flexing its muscle...