Why Wahhabi/Salafist Mosques Should be Banned From Receiving Foreign Funding
- 28 Jun 2015
I’m not a great fan of the “something must be done” knee-jerk response to a terror attack or tragedy. It invariably leads to the wrong thing being done and the consequences can be felt for years afterwards. What is needed is calm, cool reflection on what has happened. So what ...
ConHome Diary: Wasn't Timmy Mallett Available to Chair Network Rail?
- 26 Jun 2015
Listening to Nick Ferrari interview Nick Clegg yesterday, I started to wonder about his future. I doubt very much he will stand at the next election. It must be pure torture for him to sit in the House of Commons struggling for space alongside the hordes from north of the bord...
Four New Blockbuster Books From Biteback For Your Summer Reading
- 21 Jun 2015
Over the next fortnight Biteback has four cracking books coming onto the market. I don’t normally use this blog to push Biteback books, but I’m going to make an exception here, and you will understand why when you read on… Tomorrow sees The Times start its serialisation of Ro...
ConHome Diary: If the Charleston Shooter Had Been a Muslim...
- 19 Jun 2015
Sometimes you wonder how perfectly sensible politicians score such obvious own goals. How David Lidington thought it was at all sensible to try to persuade Tory MPs that the government should be given full authority to rig the EU referendum is anyone’s guess. The surprise was ...
On This Day I Got Married
- 12 Jun 2015
Seven years ago on Monday, John and I entered a civil partnership. You can read about the day HERE if you’d like to. It really was a perfect day. Today we converted our civil partnership into a marriage. In effect it is backdated to 15 June 2008, so we’ve now been married fo...
ConHome Diary: My Strange Dreams About Nigel Farage & Norman Lamb
- 12 Jun 2015
On 4 July I am chairing the first Conservative mayoral hustings for Conservative Way Forward. I’m amused that The Spectator’s Steerpike column is building this up as an Iain Dale v Ivan Massow confrontation. Hey ho. I suppose it might sell a few tickets! As well as Ivan Massow...
Attitude Column: The Joys of Equal Marriage
- 11 Jun 2015
Seven years ago this month my partner and I got married. Well, at least we thought we did. The reason I say ‘thought’ is that for us, entering a civil partnership was indeed the same as getting married. For us the implications were the same. Yes, it was a legal contract, but i...
LISTEN: LBC's Four Minute Election Night Montage
- 6 Jun 2015
This is a four minute montage of some of the best bits from LBC’s election night coverage. It’s quite stirring in places. And it brings back a lot of memories. It’s a night which will live with most of us for a very long time.
ConHome Diary: Why I Will Always Be Grateful to Charles Kennedy
- 5 Jun 2015
A couple of left wing friends of mine are still literally grieving at the election result. It’s really affected them in a bad way. I keep saying they should move on and get over it but the truth is that their reaction, I think, displays a certain arrogance which is more preval...
A Tribute to Charles Kennedy
- 2 Jun 2015
Charles Kennedy was a man beset by grief on two counts. He died grieving for the loss of his father who died in early April, at the start of the general election campaign, but he was also grieving over the loss of his seat after a parliamentary career lasting thirty-two years...
ConHome Diary: The Tale of Harriet Harman's Fine Pair (Of Shoulder Pads), Zac Goldsmith for London Mayor & Ben Harris-Quinney Suspended From Tory Party
- 29 May 2015
There is a growth industry in this country and it is for very expensive lawyers to send out letters threatening to take people to court for libel. Nick Cohen writes about this in this week’s Spectator ]. He’s been threatened by Carter Ruck for writing a thoroughly researched a...
ConHome Diary: Praise be to Lynton Crosby!
- 22 May 2015
So James Chapman has been recruited by the Chancellor as his Director of Communications. It’s a big loss for the Daily Mail, where he has been an excellent political editor. It will trigger quite a substantial reshuffle in the lobby, which is always amusing to watch. If I was ...
The New Iain Dale Political Books Podcast - Subscribe Now on iTunes!
- 21 May 2015
I used to host the LBC Book Club hour, which was highly popular. Unfortunately, it was discontinued last year, so I have decided to start a new podcast, called the Iain Dale Political Books Podcast. The idea is to talk to a political author about their own book and maybe also...
BOOK REVIEW: More Human by Steve Hilton
- 21 May 2015
You can divide political people into two categories – dreamers and do-ers. The dreamers write idealistic papers for worthy think tanks, write a few comment pieces for newspapers but give them a sniff of power or office and they suddenly become like anyone else, part of the mac...
WATCH: Emma Sky on Iraq, Syria & Why We've Got it So Wrong
- 19 May 2015
This is a 20 minute interview I did with Emma Sky on LBC today, author of THE UNRAVELLING: HIGH HOPES & MISSED OPPORTUNITIES IN IRAQ (Atlantic Books, HB, £18.99). I learnt more about Iraq and what has gone wrong in this interview than I have done in the whole of the last t...
WATCH: My Interview With Harriet Harman
- 18 May 2015
I interviewed Harriet Harman this evening on LBC for 30 minutes. We covered a lot of ground – why Labour lost, the lessons that can be learned and the current leadership contest.
Nicola Sturgeon is Dominating This Election
- 17 May 2015
It could have been so very different. This general election campaign has so far been dominated by one woman. No, not Margaret Thatcher or her legacy, but another Iron Lady, the leader of the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon. No one could have predicted it, few can explain it, but let me h...
Election Predictions: Why Did We Get It So Wrong?
- 16 May 2015
Let’s face it, it wasn’t just the pollsters who got it wrong. It was the whole political class, including the punditerati and the commentariat. Including me. We have egg on our faces, we were humiliated and we all need to look at why this happened. How could we all – and I mea...
ConHome Diary: The Curate's Egg Reshuffle
- 15 May 2015
Overall, I think it has been quite a good and competent reshuffle, albeit with one or two glaring exceptions and none more so than the removal of Grant Shapps from the party chairmanship and his move to the Department for International Development as Minister of State. It’s a ...
WATCH: The LBC Parliament Hour - An Hour With Four New MPs
- 14 May 2015
Four new entrants to parliament joined me in the LBC studio’s this evening. They were Stephen Kinnock, Tulip Siddiq, James Cleverly and Tania Mathias. Along with recounting their experiences of becoming MP’s, the four covered the current Labour leadership contest , the possi...