Evening Standard Column: Tories must stop navel-gazing and take the fight to Labour
- 5 Oct 2017
I wrote this article on Monday evening for publication as the main ‘Op-Ed’ article in the Evening Standard on Tuesday. So, there I was, sitting between Theresa May and Andrew Marr on Sunday morning, waiting for Marr to open his show. I was there to do the paper review with Po...
The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right 2017
- 2 Oct 2017
Each year for the last ten years I have convened a panel to compile a list of the Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right. This year our panel was comprised of a national newspaper journalist, two ex-Spads, two online commentators and an ex Conservative MP. The most di...
ConHome Diary: These Cabinet Spats Must Stop, Otherwise Corbyn Walks Into Number Ten
- 29 Sep 2017
Make no mistake, if Labour wins the next election we’ll see the most hard left policy platform ever experienced in Britain. The devil in me would be fascinated to see what would happen and discover how quickly the whole house of cards would fall apart. But the patriot in me is...
The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Left 2017
- 25 Sep 2017
This is the tenth year in a row that I have convened a panel to compile a list of the Top 100 Most Influential People on the Left. Back in 2008, Gordon Brown topped the list, but of the other 99 people included, 84 of them do not figure on the 2017 list. This year’s panel w...
The Top 50 Most Influential Liberal Democrats 2017
- 15 Sep 2017
Each year I convene three panels to compile lists of the Top 50 Liberal Democrats, the Top 100 People on the Left and the Top 100 People on the Right. Each list is published to coincide with the three party conferences. This is the tenth year I’ve been doing this and despite t...
ConHome Diary: Missing the LibDem Conference, Overseas Aid & Why Justice for Grenfell
- 15 Sep 2017
Sometimes you look at the way government works – or doesn’t – and you scratch your head in bewilderment. It has been revealed that any money we provided to Caribbean Islands to help them rebuild after Hurricane Irma cannot come out of the International Development budget, it h...
ConHome Diary: Can Jacob Rees-Mogg Ever Become Speaker?
- 9 Sep 2017
Arms sales are worth about £8 billion every year to the Uk economy. All arms exports have to be licensed through the BEIS Department and have to be signed off by the Secretary of State. Arms exports are a controversial subject and understandably so. Opposition politicians take...
ConHome Diary: "I'm Going Nowhere" Says May & Michael Heseltine's Delusions
- 1 Sep 2017
So Theresa May has announced she intends to fight the next election. Cue a legion of the usual suspects appearing on radio and TV questioning the likelihood of that actually happening. It was an audacious announcement for the PM to make, as she knew what the reaction might be....
Britain Will Have to Pay an EU Exit Bill, But It's Up to the EU to Explain How It Should Be Calculated
- 27 Aug 2017
Tomorrow morning David Davis will be heading to Brussels for what ought to be a very telling week of negotiations with Michel Barnier and his team. Both sides have been very vocal in the last few days and if their pre-briefings are anything to go by it could be a very awkward ...
ConHome Diary: Chris Rennard's Memoirs, Giving a Former Gang Member a Chance & Nigel Farage becomes Me
- 25 Aug 2017
This week I signed up a two volume memoir by former LibDem campaigning guru, Chris (Lord) Rennard. What this man doesn’t know about the arts (and also dark arts) of constituency campaigning can be written on a postage stamp. He, more than anyone, was behind the LibDem rise to ...
ConHome Diary: Why Theresa May Was Right to Play the Ball, Not the Man
- 19 Aug 2017
Sarah Champion is one of the more impressive Labour MPs. She is that rarest of people, a Labour front bencher who can actually string a sentence together and conduct a coherent interview without experiencing a car crash. On Wednesday evening she resigned from the front bench (...
Old Blogpost: What if a Footballer Came Out as Gay?
- 10 Aug 2017
ATTITUDE COLUMN FROM APRIL 2015: WHAT IF A FOOTBALLER CAME OUT? A NOVELLETTE ESSAY! He hadn’t told anyone. Not even his agent. It was going to be done on his own terms. Adam Ranger hadn’t told his mother what he was about to do, and he especially hadn’t told his gossipy siste...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 57: The Iain Dale LBC Mash Up
- 4 Aug 2017
Created by @LeRadioGuy
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 56: LBC's Achieves Record Audience Figures
- 3 Aug 2017
If you don’t work in the Radio industry then you won’t ever have felt that slight empty feeling in your stomach that we all feel four times a year, when the audience listening figures are announced. Inevitably, there are downs as well as ups, and when they’re down it’s alm...
ConHome Diary: A Dispatch From Spain
- 28 Jul 2017
OK, I admit it, I’m not exactly in the mood to write this column today. Why? I’m sitting by the swimming pool on the side of a Spanish mountain, overlooking a lake, struggling to actually see the screen because of the sun. The water beckons, but I’m determined not to succumb t...
ConHome Diary: Interviewing the PM
- 24 Jul 2017
I imagine The Spectator’s Andrew Neil and Fraser Nelson must have been rather pleased at the ensuing publicity from their annual summer party last Thursday. I arrived rather late on and it was in full swing. Virtually the first two people I clapped eyes on were Robbie Gibb and...
Keith Simpson's Summer Reading List
- 12 Jul 2017
By Keith Simpson MP The electorate and colleagues are exhausted after a six week election campaign which resulted in no one party achieving an overall majority. The government continues with DUP support with an enthused Labour Party and the SNP licking their wounds. An autumn...
ConHome Diary: Bim Afolami, Ignoring David Cameron's Norway Plea & My Weird Few Days
- 7 Jul 2017
Nick Watt is one of the political broadcasters I always take notice of. He has a keen ear for shifts in government policy and is very good at keeping his ear to the ground. On Wednesday night he made a film about how the government is being urged by “senior Tories” to adopt ...
ConHome Diary: Golf, Vince & Why the BMA Make Me Sick
- 1 Jul 2017
On reflection, I was a little harsh of Sajid Javid in last week’s column, where I criticised him for his response to the Grenfell Tower crisis. I still think there were aspects of his department’s immediate response which were lacking, and the PM seemed to endorse this when sh...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 55: The Fortunately Podcast - Feeling Unworthy of the Garvey/Glover Lovebomb!
- 25 Jun 2017
One of my favourite podcasts at the moment is the FORTUNATELY podcast, made every week by two of my favourite presenters, Fi Glover and Jane Garvey. It’s all about the world of radio – chiefly Radio 4, although from time to time they stray outside the world of the BBC. I first...