It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 22: When A Caller Turns the Question Back onto the Presenter
- 27 Mar 2015
listen to ‘Move over Kate Moss! Iain Dale takes a call from a photographer and ends up with a modelling contract!’ on audioBoom Today on my LBC show I tackled quite a difficult subject – why 100,000 students are funding their degree by going on the game or selling various ...
ConHome Diary: When Answering a Straight Question Can Work
- 27 Mar 2015
Those of you of a certain vintage will remember Sir Anthony Garner, the formidable Director of Campaigning in Central Office in the 1980s. I am very sad to tell you that he has died. I remember attending a Saturday campaigning seminar at CCO in Smith Square back in 1986. Sir A...
Labour Triumph Over Channel 4/Sky Debate Format
- 27 Mar 2015
In the post below I mused as to why Ed Miliband didn’t face Jeremy Paxman first and answer audience questions second, like David Cameron did. It seemed very odd that the format was different for both leaders. I’ve now found out the reason. According to a souce close to the ev...
Miliband v Cameron Live: Miliband Shaded it But Will It Change Anything?
- 26 Mar 2015
In some ways that was a prime example of how not to produce a programme. The format didn’t work, the selection of audience questions was lax in the extreme and the whole thing was clunky. Why on earth did Sky and Channel 4 not ditch their adverts? The programme wasn’t 90 minut...
My Twenty Pieces of Advice to General Election Candidates
- 22 Mar 2015
This is a rehash of a blog I wrote at the beginning of the 2010 election campaign, having just re-read my blogposts from the 2005 election, when I was Conservative candidate in North Norfolk. The experience brought back lots of memories – not all of them bad! But it did make ...
Who Would Be in a Cameron Cabinet After 7 May?
- 22 Mar 2015
Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to look at a few post-election scenarios in terms of possible cabinet line-ups and who might stand in any of the various leadership contests the election result might throw up. Let’s start by looking at a possible Cameron Cabinet. I’m g...
General Election Predictions: My Final Revised Seat Totals Could Lead to a Nightmare for the Country & the Economy
- 21 Mar 2015
Back in January I released a seat by seat prediction for all 650 parliamentary constituencies at the general election. It attracted a lot of comment, largely because I was the first to do this. “How do you come to those conclusions?” people asked. “What methodology did you use...
Revised General Election Predictions for the North West
- 21 Mar 2015
There are 75 constituencies in the North West, which includes Cheshire, Liverpool, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria. In my original predictions in January this was the state of the parties… Conservative 18 Labour 55 LibDem 1 UKIP 1 This is the seats that I am revi...
Revised General Election Predictions for Yorkshire & the North East
- 21 Mar 2015
There are 56 constituencies in Yorkshire, Humberside and the North East. In January I made the following predictions… Conservative 20 Labour 60 LibDem 2 I have only one change to make to those predictions. Great Grimsby Conservative: 10063 (30.5%) Labour: 10777 (32.7%) Lib...
Revised General Election Predictions for the West Midlands
- 21 Mar 2015
There are 59 constituencies in the West Midlands, which includes Birmingham and surrounds, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire. In January I predicted the parties would end up with… Conservative 29 Labour 30 This really is a key battleg...
ConHome Diary: Time to Buy Shares in George Osborne?
- 20 Mar 2015
I remember thinking at the time, “this could be big”. Four months ago I did a phone-in on LBC on the growing rumours of a child sex ring at Westminster and asked why the Met didn’t take any action. I took two completely spontaneous calls from ex Metropolitan Police Officers, b...
Me? A Member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
- 19 Mar 2015
I’ve never been a great fan of Will Self. However, I have finally found something written by him which I quite like. It’s a review of Nigel Farage’s book THE PURPLE REVOLUTION, which my company Biteback has published this week. Self has written a typically idiosyncratic revie...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 21: The Perils of Outside Broadcasts
- 18 Mar 2015
I love getting out of the studio and broadcasting from different venues. Whether it’s the party conferences, a phone-in with Ed Miliband in a Hastings hotel or in a tent on College Green I love it. The adrenaline flows, it’s different and there’s always an element of seat of y...
Revised General Election Predictions for Wales
- 17 Mar 2015
There are 40 parliamentary constituencies in Wales. In my original predictions I only predicted two changes in the political make-up, Cardiff Central and Cardiff North, both to Labour from the LibDems and the Conservatives. This is how Wales looked then… Conservative 7 Labour...
Revised General Election Predictions for London
- 17 Mar 2015
There are 73 parliamentary seats in London. If Ed Miliband is to form a government he needs to make many gains in the capital. As things stand, this is the state of the parties Conservative 28 Labour 38 LibDem 7 In my January predictions I predicted Conservative 26 Labour ...
Revised General Election Predictions for the East Midlands
- 17 Mar 2015
There are 46 parliamentary constituencies in the five counties that make up the East Midlands – Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. In January I predicted the results would be as follows… Conservative 23 Labour 22 UKIP 1 I am maki...
LISTEN: Two Ex-Police Officers Tell Me How They Were Forced To Shut Down Investigations Into Child Sex Abuse Involving Politicians
- 17 Mar 2015
As the Met now faces an inquiry into its action or inaction into politicians involvement in child sex abuse I thought I might remind you of something that happened on my LBC show last autumn. I took from John in Harrow, a former Metropolitan Police Officer who was ordered to ...
Revised General Election Predictions for the South West
- 16 Mar 2015
There are 55 seats in the South West, which includes Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire and the Bristol area. My January predictions looked like this… Conservative 39 Labour 9 LibDem 7 I’m not making any changes to my original predictions for any ...
Revised General Election Predictions for the South East
- 16 Mar 2015
There are 78 parliamentary constituencies in the South East. In my original predictions in January, this is how things stood… Conservative 67 Labour 7 LibDem 1 UKIP 1 Green 1 Speaker 1 There are only two constituencies in the South East that I wish to revise my predictions f...
Revised General Election Predictions for East Anglia
- 16 Mar 2015
There are 58 parliamentary seats in the East of England, which comprises Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. Back in January I predicted this outcome… Conservative 43 Labour 10 Liberal Democrat 3 UKIP 2 Let’s start of by revising two of m...