LISTEN AGAIN: LBC's Seven Hour Election Night Show
- 10 May 2015
LISTEN HERE On Thursday night, Shelagh Fogarty and I spent seven hours presenting LBC’s election night coverage. Tim Montgomerie, Damian McBride and our resident Elections Analyst Gareth Knight were with us for the whole night and we were also joined for a lot of it by the Li...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 27: Getting Off To a Good Start on Election Night
- 9 May 2015
Listeners and viewers have a lot of choice on election night, so it’s important to get off to a flying start. We decided to start our show at 9.55 and build up to 10pm when we would get the exit poll flashed onto our screens. I was co-presenting with Sheila Fogarty for the...
ConHome Diary: Twenty Comments on Election Night
- 8 May 2015
Party leaders say some very odd things. Ed Miliband was interviewed by my LBC colleague Theo Usherwood on the last day of campaigning and was very keen to explain his priorities as prime minister. He said he wouldn’t be thinking of hedge fund managers every day, “I’d be thinki...
Join Shelagh Fogarty Tonight From 9.55 for the LBC Election Night Coverage
- 7 May 2015
I hope you will join me and Shelagh Fogarty from 9.55pm until 5am for LBC’s election night coverage. We’re intending to have some fun and give the BBC a run for their money. We have reporters at 100 counts, we’ll get the results on air as soon as they are announced and we’ll ...
LISTEN: Gender Segregation Can Never, Ever Be Justified And Here's Why
- 7 May 2015
Earlier this week I did a phonein on gender segregation after 7 Labour candidates spoke at a meeting in Birmingham where the women had to sit separate from the men. Among those candidates were Jack Dromey, Tom Watson, Khalid Mahmood and Liam Byrne. Now it’s one thing for this...
WATCH: The LBC Business & Economy Debate
- 5 May 2015
Tonight I hosted an hour long Business & Economy debate on LBC with Vince Cable, Chuka Umunna, Matt Hancock and Neil Hamilton. It was quite sparky at times, and I reckon was one of the best debates of the election campaign. The ‘Ask me Anything’ sections, where the candi...
A Rather Lovely Election Graphic For You
- 5 May 2015
LBC’s Adrian Sherling has knocked this up. Rather lovely, don’t you think?
Attitude Column: What If a Footballer Came Out?
- 5 May 2015
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 sister. They would all find out like the rest of the country. Had he told any one of them,...
Final General Election Predictions 64: Birmingham
- 5 May 2015
APOLOGIES, IT SEEMS I FORGOT TO LIST MY FINAL BIRMINGHAM PREDICTIONS. HERE THEY ARE! Back in January I predicted the outcome of the General Election, seat by seat. Since then, I have done more research and altered some of the predictions taking into account various issues inc...
LISTEN: Idiotic Stunts Like the Mili-Tablet Happen Because No One Has the Bottle To Say No
- 4 May 2015
listen to ‘“No one had the bottle to say NO!” Iain Dale gives his take on Labour’s #EdStone & it isn’t pretty’ on audioBoom How did the Ed Miliband Tablet idea ever get past the Labour Party drawing board?
Never Go Tiger Hunting With a Gossipy Liberal Democrat
- 4 May 2015
I had never heard of Lord Scriven before this morning. He’s the LibDem Peer who tweeted that David Cameron had told Nick Clegg before the election that he didn’t think the Tories would get a majority. So Cameron has taken to lying on Tory Maj. @nick_clegg told me that Came...
Twenty Predictions For Election Night
- 4 May 2015
Just as in 2010 there will be queues outside polling stations at 10pm and people won’t be allowed to vote. Politicians will declare their outrage and say that something must be done to prevent it happening again. Just like 2010. There will be reports of voter...
How Would Parliament Work if the SNP Get 50 Seats?
- 3 May 2015
No one has so far thought about the consequences for Parliament of the SNP gaining a shed load of seats. Let’s imagine that they do as well as the pollsters say and they get something around 50 seats. There are a number of consequences to that for the operation of Parliament. ...
ConHome Diary: How Not to Motivate Your Troops
- 3 May 2015
In my latest series of how CCHQ wins friends and influences people, let me bring you this email which was sent to Team 2015 miscreants who, in their opinion hadn’t turned up often enough to campaign for the party in marginal seats… Dear xxx- We’ve been sending you a few e...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 26: Reviewing the New Jon Gaunt Podcast
- 2 May 2015
What any radio presenter needs is ‘stickability’. You need to give the audience a reason to stick with you rather than twiddle the knob and tune into a different station. In commercial radio that’s doubly important, as the presenter isn’t in total control of that because of th...
My Final Election Prediction: Minority Government Looms
- 2 May 2015
So, at long last I’ve completed my final election predictions, seat by seat, region by region. My final prediction is this… *Conservative 276 Labour 267 Liberal Democrat 23 UKIP 5 SNP 54 Plaid Cymru 4 Respect 1 Green 1 DUP 9 Sinn Fein 5 SDLP 3 Independent 2 If I am right, co...
Final General Election Predictions 63: Teesside
- 2 May 2015
Back in January I predicted the outcome of the General Election, seat by seat. Since then, I have done more research and altered some of the predictions taking into account various issues including new updated constituency polls by Lord Ashcroft. Over the next ten days I will ...
Final General Election Predictions 62: Tyne & Wear
- 2 May 2015
Back in January I predicted the outcome of the General Election, seat by seat. Since then, I have done more research and altered some of the predictions taking into account various issues including new updated constituency polls by Lord Ashcroft. Over the next ten days I will ...
Final General Election Predictions 61: Northern Ireland
- 2 May 2015
Back in January I predicted the outcome of the General Election, seat by seat. Since then, I have done more research and altered some of the predictions taking into account various issues including new updated constituency polls by Lord Ashcroft. Over the next ten days I will ...
New Statesman Diary: Shitting on My Own Doorstep (And On Ken Livingstone)
- 2 May 2015
Seven years ago I wrote a column for GQ predicting that Ed Miliband would succeed Gordon Brown as leader of the Labour Party. He was Cabinet Office minister at the time. Ever since then, even though his politics and mine are far apart I’ve felt I had something invested in him....