Some Thoughts on the Ukraine Situation
- 26 Feb 2022
The Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian people are offering fierce resistance to the Russian invasion. The Russians have not taken Kyiv and are suffering casualties as they try to make advances but does this mean that they may resort to ever more desperate measures to meet the go...
Why I Accuse the 'Stop the War Coalition' of Containing 'Fifth Columnists'
- 20 Feb 2022
This week I have lost my patience with those who lose no time in speaking ill of their own country, while always giving Putin and Russia the benefit of the doubt. I can at least have respect for pacifists who object to war out of principle, but what I deplore is anyone who say...
Announcing 'For the Many Live' at the London Hippodrome on Easter Monday
- 27 Jan 2022
UPDATE: Saturday 28 January - All tickets are now sold out! As most of you know, Jacqui Smith and I do a weekly podcast called FOR THE MANY. It's generally a 90 minute canter around the week's big news events, media stories and what we've both been up to, with added doses o...
Can Nus Ghani & Mark Spencer BOTH Be Right (Or Wrong)?
- 23 Jan 2022
When two people involved in the same conversation have a completely diffferent recollection of it, how are the rest of us supposed to judge who is right? Well, judging from the responses on social media to the Nus Ghani allegations against the government chief whip Mark Spence...
Telegraph Column: Carrie Johnson Doesn't Deserve This Criticism
- 18 Jan 2022
This article first appeared HERE in the Daily Telegraph. From the first minute of her relationship with Boris Johnson being made public, the Prime Minister’s wife Carrie has faced a disproportionate – and, I would argue, unfair – level of criticism. She is often portrayed b...
Telegraph Column: The Runners & Riders In a Future Tory Leadership Contest
- 17 Jan 2022
This article first appeared HERE in the Sunday Telegraph. I was asked to profile all the likely runners and riders in a Tory leadership contest. Obviously there is not as yet any vacancy, but if there were a contest in the next month or two, these are the likely participant...
The Barry Gardiner Interview: How it Came About & The Reaction
- 16 Jan 2022
When a politician is in the midst of a political scandal they face two choices. They go to ground and hope it will all go away (The Ostrich strategy) or they come out fighting and front it up (The Masochism strategy). Over the years I have enjoyed interviewing Labo...
My Top 14 Songs of 2021
- 31 Dec 2021
My musical tastes are, shall we say, not to everyone's liking. I like pop, pure and simple. I like misery ballads. I also like electro-pop and African music. You'll find lots of examples here in my list of ten favourite songs of 2021. These are songs I discovered in 2021, but ...
My Predictions for 2022 (And How My 2021 Predictions Turned Out)
- 30 Dec 2021
So how did my predictions for 2021 pan out? Here were my 2021 predictions. In 2019 I got 3.5/10, this year, rather better! The SNP will get a majority of seats and the vote in the May elections. HALF CORRECT GIVEN PRO-INDEPENDENCE PARTIES GOT A MAJORITY Englan...
My Top 20 Podcasts of 2021
- 29 Dec 2021
Back in January 2021 I compiled a list of 30 podcasts I regularly listen to. So I thought it was time to revisit it, as my podcast listening habits have changed somewhat. I've reduced the list to twenty and this year I've ranked them based on how often I listen to them. Th...
My Top Tweeters of 2021
- 27 Dec 2021
This is a list of 250 Tweeters I have most enjoyed during 2021. This is the eigthth year I have compiled this list. I follow about 4000 people on Twitter. Anyway, these are the ones who have entertained, informed, educated, annoyed and, most of all, made me laugh most this...
My Top 10 Books of 2021
- 26 Dec 2021
I've read a lot more books this year than I did in 2020. Here are my Top Ten in no particular order... This is the most important book I have read this year. Anyone who wants to understand what China is doing in Hong Kong needs to read it. It's semi-autobiographica...
A Message to Anyone Who Isn't Sure Whether To Get Vaccinated
- 18 Dec 2021
Someone sent me this from a post on Linked-In by Matthew Wyles, Chief Executive Officer at Hampshire Trust Bank plc. It puts it better than I can... I'm fully vaccinated w/booster and, no, I don't know what's in it. Neither this vaccine nor those I had as a child....
Thoughts on the 27 Deaths in the English Channel
- 24 Nov 2021
Many people have been warning that the kind of tragedy that happened today in the English Channel was inevitable. The world’s busiest shipping lane does not lend itself to small dinghies crossing the seaway even in the most clement of weathers. Today the inevitable happened an...
New Statesman Column: Matt Hancock's Book Advance, Range Anxiety & Learning About The Presidents
- 21 Nov 2021
This column was originally published in the New Statesman. There’s a real appetite for political history in this country at the moment. Whether in documentaries or books, people can’t get enough of it. This week my new book The Presidents is published, a year after the rele...
Telegraph Column: Is It Now Time to Ditch HS2? No Drama Sharma & Why Mr Speaker Should Be Ashamed
- 17 Nov 2021
The Victorians were visionaries. They were the first to see the potential of rail travel, and they lost no time in building a countrywide network. They didn’t have local council planning committees to contend with, or environmental lobbies to counter. Since then, Britain ha...
The Presidents Is Published This Week
- 14 Nov 2021
On Thursday THE PRESIDENTS is finally published! It feels a very long time since I started commissioning people to write e...
Telegraph Column: Article 16, Starmer & Solskjaer and Claudia Webbe
- 10 Nov 2021
I can hear it now. Sir John Major will take to the airwaves denouncing it. Alastair Campbell and Andrew Adonis will have a fit of the vapours on Twitter. Emily Thornberry will pronounce with all the solemnity she can muster that it is a dark day when Britain breaks a treaty. ...
A Tribute to Sir David Amess 1952-2021
- 17 Oct 2021
On Friday afternoon the Sunday Telegraph asked me to write a tribute to him for today's paper. What you will read below is an expanded version of what they printed today. I also decided to donate the fee from this article to one of David's favourite charities, The Music Man Pr...
If You Want To Understand the Greatness of Sir David Amess, Watch This...
- 15 Oct 2021
I'm sitting here, at 7.30 on Friday evening, wanting to write a full tribute to Sir David Amess. But the words won't come. I think I know the reason, because at exactly this time, I should be sitting beside David at a dinner of his Southend West Conservative Association. He in...