Future Leaders Series 1: Who Will Succeed Nick Clegg?
- 4 Apr 2015
This is the first in a series looking at the runners and riders in post-election leadership contests. I’ll be looking at the other three parties over the next few weeks. This is the first election after which there could be scenarios where all four party leaders are replaced w...
ConHome Diary: I Must Learn to be Biased Towards the Liberal Democrats
- 3 Apr 2015
‘David Cameron was the clear winner in last night’s debate. He clearly showed the difference between the Conservative long term economic plan and the chaos that would ensue if Alex Salmond put Ed Miliband into Downing Street. Only with a Conservative government can hard workin...
Iain Dale to Replace Lord Ashcroft in the House of Lords
- 1 Apr 2015
It’s being officially announced later this morning, but I wanted my esteemed readers to be the first to know, that I am being raised to the peerage to replace Michael Ashcroft in the House of Lords. It’s a great honour and I am very grateful to Michael for resigning his seat a...
Football Mad: The Story of Mental Illness & Suicide in the Beautiful Game
- 30 Mar 2015
NOTE FROM IAIN: This is an article written for my West Ham Till I Die blog by one its readers whose pen name is ‘Iron Liddy’. She has written several articles for the site before, but none which has attracted the level of interest or comment that this one has. When you have fi...
Tales from an Edinburgh Taxi
- 29 Mar 2015
I was in a taxi in Edinburgh this morning, and got talking to the driver, as you do. “Who are you going to vote for,” I asked after a while. “I’ve always voted Labour, but I don’t think I’m going to this time,” he replied. “I imagine it’ll be the SNP then,” I suggested. “Ne...
Should I Go To A&E For Something That Is Neither an Accident Nor an Emergency?
- 28 Mar 2015
I’m in Edinburgh this weekend to attend a wedding. I’m in a very nice hotel and they let me check in early. So far so good. You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I had to have an unexpected operation. It all went well, but every day I have to go to my doctors to have the ...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 23: The Power of Talk Radio
- 27 Mar 2015
This morning, I got a call from a journalist asking me to explain the power and influence of Talk Radio for an article he was writing. I explained that people’s stereotypical views of people who phone in are just wrong. It’s not just white van men or cabbies who phone in. Depe...
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...