ConHome Diary: No Dave, I Won't Stand for Kensington (Not That You've Asked!)
- 27 Feb 2015
My interview with Ed Balls on Wednesday seems to have created a bit of a stir. According to the Huffington Post it was “the most cringeworthy LBC interview in, well, recent days.” Personally, I thought it was a hoot. You see Ed Balls had come top of a Mumsnet survey of sexy MP...
EXCLUSIVE: Bruno Waterfield to Leave the Telegraph
- 21 Feb 2015
Yesterday we learned that top investigative reporter Holly Watts is to leave the Telegraph for The Guardian. Another day, another journalist departs Telegraph Towers. I can exclusively reveal that highly respected Brussels Editor Bruno Waterfield is the next one to leave. He...
Why the Public & Private Sectors Can And Must Work Together in Healthcare
- 21 Feb 2015
THE private versus public sector debate has bedevilled health policy for some time. It lies at the very core of the failure of politicians to provide the leadership the NHS needs. The ‘public good, private bad’ mindset which is held by many politicians on the left is equally m...
ConHome Diary: Fancy Talking About Male Genital Mutilation?
- 20 Feb 2015
It’s always bittersweet for a publisher when you see a book that you turned down being published. You wonder if you made a mistake and if it will in fact turn out to be a bestseller. That’s happened to me this week with the publication of William Waldegrave’s memoir A DIFFEREN...
Attitude Column: What's Wrong With a Bit of Gratuitous Nudity?
- 15 Feb 2015
We British have a very strange attitude to the human body and showing it in public. I’ve never quite understood why. Perhaps it’s an innate puritanism that runs through our society, alongside a rather quaint hankering after Victorian times where a woman exposing a bare ankle w...
ConHome: How I Escaped a Lynching in Newcastle
- 13 Feb 2015
Ed Miliband’s troubles with the business community were highlighted by his no-show at the British Chambers of Commerce annual shindig. The fact that both Chuka Umunna and Ed Balls made speeches was ignored by a media looking for any opportunity to stick the boot in. The fact t...
Interview With Kent on Sunday: "I’ve got a brilliant job which I love; I wouldn’t think of going back to politics"
- 9 Feb 2015
Last week I met Sarah Linney, a reporter with Kent on Sunday. This interview is the result. You can find it on their website HERE At Portcullis House – a parliamentary building in Westminster just across the road from the House of Commons which bulges with the offices of MPs...
My New Book: The NHS - Things That Need to be Said
- 8 Feb 2015
Writing a short polemical book about the NHS when, inevitably, the readers of the book are bound to know far more about the subject than I do, is perhaps not the wisest thing for a political pundit and broadcaster to do. Let me explain why I have written this book. Each and e...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 20: RAJAR - What Goes Up... May Come Down
- 7 Feb 2015
What goes up, must come down. That doesn’t apply just to Christmas decorations and share prices, but to radio audiences too. Every quarter we get listening figures courtesy of RAJAR. They instill fear into every radio presenter and producer, because those are the measure that ...
ConHome Diary: Feeling Sorry For Ed Balls (No, Really)
- 6 Feb 2015
I suspect I am alone here, but I did feel a twinge of sympathy for Ed Balls this week after forgetting the surname of a man he had just spent the evening with at a Labour fundraising dinner, and who runs Labour’s Small Business Advisory Group. I couldn’t believe it became such...
General Election Predictions: Seat By Seat - Now Published As An eBook
- 3 Feb 2015
Several people suggested I should release my seat by seat predictions as an eBook, so that’s exactly what I have done. I also included various lists of seats – you know how I like a list :). It’s 432 pages long. Anyway, you can order it for only £1.59 Buy the eBook from Pol...
CAMPAIGN ADS: Israel: The Bibi Sitter
- 3 Feb 2015
I’d love to see a British political party adopt this style of ad. Strangely I can see Nick Clegg doing it, but maybe not Cameron or Miliband.
Media Monkey Business, Rory Bremner and the Political Book Awards
- 2 Feb 2015
I am still scratching my head over a complete bizarre diary story in The Guardian’s Media Monkey column, concerning Rory Bremner’s hosting of last week’s Political Book Awards. Here it is. To the Paddy Power Political Book awards 2015 at London’s Imax cinema, where the win...
My First Park Run (And How Greg Clark MP Kicked My Sorry White Ass)
- 31 Jan 2015
I’ve never done a park run before. And to be honest I wasn’t wholly looking forward to it. I wouldn’t know anyone, no doubt I’d be wearing totally inappropriate gear and I’d be very slow. I set myself a goal of doing it in under 45 minutes, but wasn’t wholly confident I’d do t...
LISTEN: 25 Minutes With Sir Nicholas Soames Talking About His Grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill
- 30 Jan 2015
Earlier this week I recorded a 25 minute interview with Sir Nicholas Soames. We spent the entire time talking about his grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill. I think you’ll rather enjoy it, Listen HERE
ConHome Diary: Why I Wear Garish Ties on TV
- 30 Jan 2015
The Political Book Awards have been going for three years now. I started the event three years ago because I felt there was a real gap in the market for it. Political literature has always been seen as the black sheep of the literary family. Publishers tend to shy away from po...
VIDEO: Rob Ford & I Discussing the Political Books of the Year on the Daily Politics
- 29 Jan 2015
So this was my third appearance on the Daily Politics in ten days. Doesn’t that merit keeping a Daily Politics mug?!
We're Looking For a New Office
- 28 Jan 2015
Biteback Publishing is looking for a new home. We’ve been at Westminster Tower by Lambeth Bridge for several years now but our lease runs out in the summer and we are looking to move to a new abode. We need space for 15 people and require a meeting room and kitchen. I reckon ...
Those Election Predictions Summed Up
- 27 Jan 2015
LBC have posted a mini version of all my election predictions HERE