ConHome Diary: Hitler, Hitler, Hitler
- 7 Apr 2017
Helen Szamuely, who died this week, wasn’t famous, but she should have been. She was a Brexiteer years before the word Eurosceptic was even invented. Her work in the broader Eurosceptic movement was vital to making the case for leaving the European Union. I first met her when ...
Why I've Said Yes to Hosting the Morning Show on Radio X
- 1 Apr 2017
This wasn’t supposed to be announced until Monday but Radio Today seem to have got hold of it, so I thought I’d share some news with you. As you know, I’ve been hosting LBC’s Drivetime Show for four years now. LBC is part of Global Radio, which owns several massive music rad...
ConHome Diary: Amber & Boris, Sayeeda & Douglas & Keir Starmer's Mirror
- 31 Mar 2017
Listening to the BBC coverage of triggering Article 50 you’d think we were entering a period of national mourning. It started with the Today programme who relished interviewing anyone who had anything negative to say – and believe me, most of their carefully chosen guests did....
When Will Someone Hold Highways England to Account?
- 25 Mar 2017
Back in the 1990s the Major government embarked on a much heralded programme of hiving off government responsibilities into stand alone and stand apart agencies. The idea was to keep politics out of these agencies. Fears were expressed that they would become politically unacco...
ConHome Diary: Terror in Westminster & Dreaming About Tim Shipman
- 24 Mar 2017
Steve Uncles is a name you probably won’t be familiar with. He has been a leading light in the English Democrats for a number of years, particularly in the south east, and has stood in a number of elections, including for Kent Police & Crime Commissioner and in the Europea...
Why Jacqui Smith and I Are Saying Good Bye to the Sky News Paper Review
- 22 Mar 2017
h/t to @Liarpoliticians for the video clip. Last night on Sky News Jacqui Smith and I announced we were doing our last paper review. (CLIP above). Several of you have been in touch with both of us to ask why. I started doing paper reviews on Sky around 17 years ago. Jacqui...
I'll Mourn His Victims, But No, I Won't Mourn Martin McGuinness
- 21 Mar 2017
Inam Bashir and John Jeffries. Two names you’ve probably never heard of. I knew their faces but not their names. They worked in a newsagents by South Quay DLR station on the Isle of Dogs. Each morning I’d call in to their little kiosk to buy my morning newspapers on the way t...
ConHome Diary: The Week That Was + Questions for Lord Feldman
- 17 Mar 2017
Well that was quite a week, wasn’t it? I still don’t understand why the government abandoned its plans to trigger Article 50 on Tuesday. Yes, Nicola Sturgeon stole the show on Monday with her referendum announcement, but I fail to see why that should have thrown the government...
ConHome Diary: Ready to Serve, The Honourable Ladies & the Wonders of Octopus
- 3 Mar 2017
On Wednesday evening I chaired a session at the Jewish Book Festival at King’s Place, which is also home to the Guardian. The guest was Malcolm Rifkind who was there to talk about his memoirs. POWER & PRAGMATISM, which I published last summer. I was delighted that they had...
The UK’s Contrarian Publisher: Iain Dale on the ‘Gift’ of Donald Trump
- 27 Feb 2017
By Roger Tagholm for Publishing Perspectives Particularly in an age when everyone faces the effects of the ‘echo chamber,’ hearing counter-opinions can be important. And the UK’s Iain Dale is happy to offer some balance. Since the June Brexit referendum in the UK and Donald T...
ConHome Diary: Jon Snow's Deleted Tweet & Can We Have Less Fluff Please on Sky News?
- 25 Feb 2017
Twitter can be an unforgiving beast, as Jon Snow found out on Wednesday evening. He is a newsman I have tremendous respect for, but when he tweeted this on Wednesday, I and many others saw red. “How many of those who voted Leave knew or had ever heard about the single market ...
Twenty Things We Learned From Stoke Central & Copeland
- 24 Feb 2017
What a night. I stayed up to see both results. Here are a few thoughts… UKIP’s ground operation is no match for Labour’s. Labour’s scare tactics on the NHS can backfire spectacularly. The relentless media campaign against Paul Nuttall – fueled it has to be said by Paul...
Leave Politicians Told Us Exactly What We'd Be Voting For - It's a Shame Remain Leaders Didn't, But We All Know Why...
- 19 Feb 2017
The mantra that leading Remain supporters come out with nowadays is that, while “of course” they support the democratic vote on June 23rd, we poor buggers hadn’t got a clue what we were voting for when we voted to Leave. Yes, we voted to leave the EU, but we didn’t know our “d...
ConHome Diary: Michael Gove Wanted to Reform Prisons But Liz Truss Seems More Interested in Headlines
- 17 Feb 2017
So unemployment is down a further 7,000. Productivity is up 0.3%. Wages up by 2.6%. All this economic good news continues to be reported with hashtag #despitebrexit. In addition, earlier this week the European Commission made a complete fool of itself by being the only organis...
My Favourite Book
- 12 Feb 2017
My favourite Book Picking your favourite book of all time is an almost impossible task. How can you compare WATERSHIP DOWN with ANIMAL FARM or, dare I say it, THE RATS by James Herbert? How do any of these compare to some of my favourite political tomes like Gyles...
ConHome Diary: Black & White Party Time!
- 10 Feb 2017
I suppose you should try everything once, just to see if you like it, so it was in that spirit that I accepted an invitation to go to the Conservatives’ ‘Black & White Party’ on Monday evening at the Battersea Evolution. Note that it’s degenerated from a ‘ball’ to a party....
it shouldn't happen to a radio presenter
- 3 Feb 2017
This was the tribute I paid to my friend Gordon Aikman, whose death was announced this morning. He has raised more than £540,000 for Motor Neurone Disease Research. He was one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. if you’d like to donate click here
ConHome Diary: Donald, Theresa, Jeremy & Another Hapless Sarah Olney Interview
- 3 Feb 2017
I suspect like many of you, when I heard Theresa May was going to visit Donald Trump, I feared the worst. Although I thought it was right she should go, I doubted whether much good would come of it. I thought also that there was a real risk of it all going wrong, largely becau...
Donald Trump Is So Wrong on Banning Refugees From the Middle East, But The Reaction Has Also Been Ridiculous
- 28 Jan 2017
A lot of cant has been expended on social media in the last 24 hours about Donald Trump’s Executive Order issuing a three month long temporary ban on citizens of seven middle eastern countries from entering the United States. I should say from the outset that I do not agree w...
ConHome Diary: The Worst I Have Ever Felt (And I Don't Mean Listening to Trump's Inauguration Speech)
- 27 Jan 2017
‘They buried a farmer today’. As I wrote in last week’s column, that’s the title of a poem I found on the internet, and rewrote to read at my Dad’s funeral on Monday. It was written by someone in Iowa and most of it fitted my Dad like a glove. And the bits that didn’t? Well, I...