Twenty Random Reshuffle Predictions & Completely Baseless Tips
- 14 Jul 2014
I’ve seen so much baseless reshuffle speculation in the papers over the last few days that I thought I would add to it. Much of it is based on nothing more than sniffing the political wind, but some people are better sniffers than others. If I get half of these right, I will b...
Keith Simpson's Summer 2014 Reading List
- 13 Jul 2014
Another nine months before the General Election and, probably, barring accidents, no more ministerial reshuffles following this summer. Historically, July, August, September have been months of crisis in international affairs, and this summer we commemorate the centenary of th...
ConHome Diary: My Weird Dream About Bill Cash & Ann Widdecombe
- 11 Jul 2014
The reshuffle, it seems, is pencilled in for Monday, although if last year is anything to go by that could change at least three times before then. David Cameron is a reluctant reshuffler and hates the experience. He also conducts them very differently to other party leaders. ...
A Letter to Your Local School
- 10 Jul 2014
My friend Jonathan Sheppard has composed this rather hilarious letter for you to send to your local school! Dear (insert name of head teacher), Today some of your teachers took part in industrial action yet again. This is now the (insert number) time that my child has m...
My Memory of 7/7
- 7 Jul 2014
I don’t know if you remember where you were on the morning of the 7th July 2005 when you heard the news of the terrorist bombings in London. I was sitting at my desk in the House of Commons (for the uninitiated, I was working for David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary) and a c...
UPDATED SEAT BY SEAT FORECAST: Why the LibDems Will Win Fewer Than 30 Seats At The Next Election
- 6 Jul 2014
A few months ago I posted a prediction that the LibDems would win 30-35 seats at the next election. I went through each LibDem seat and predicted what would happen to it. Click HERE to read the original predictions. Clearly any such exercise is fraught with difficulty, and I ...
ConHome Diary: Is The Telegraph Stark Staring Bonkers?
- 4 Jul 2014
My company, Biteback Publishing, is five years old this week. Happy birthday to us. For any small publisher to make it to five years is a minor miracle in today’s publishing environment, especially when you have companies like Amazon apparently about to tell us that we’re not ...
My LBC Book Interviews: The Best of 2014 So Far...
- 4 Jul 2014
Every Friday night at 7.30pm on LBC I interview an author about a book they have just published. Here are the interviews from the first half of 2014. Each is around 20 minutes long. I hope you enjoy them and would love to hear any feedback you may have. Remember, you can now l...
Attitude Column: The Perils of Stereotyping the Gays
- 3 Jul 2014
I don’t know about you but I find it incredibly frustrating that the old gay stereotypes still remain, and from what I can work out they probably always will. We’re all either incredibly camp, have lots of facial and stomach hair, and probably sleep with any other male that sh...
Biteback Publishing Is Five Years Old
- 2 Jul 2014
It has been five years since Biteback Publishing opened its doors. In that time we have consistently sought to publish books that have set the political agenda, and I truly believe we have established ourselves as one of the leading specialist independents in the country. We h...
ConHome Diary: I Stand By What I Said - Andy Coulson Was Good At His Job
- 27 Jun 2014
I won’t be joining those who want to dance on Andy Coulson’s grave. Back in September 2010 I wrote a blogpost for which I have since been widely ridiculed. It was headlined ‘COULSON’S ACCUSERS CAN GO TO HELL’. It started: “Andy Coulson is bloody good at his job. That’s why...
A Mother's Love
- 25 Jun 2014
Two years ago today we buried our mother and I gave the eulogy at her funeral. It was an awful day, yet there was also something fantastic about it. The fact that two hundred or so people gathered to honour her and the way she lived her life was something to behold. It was a ...
INTERVIEW: If Want to Understand What Drives Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Read On...
- 21 Jun 2014
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and I agree on very little. Where she’s left-wing, I’m right, and vice versa. But we’ve always got on. We’ve done numerous sparky, late-night paper reviews together, and have had some furious arguments on air. If it weren’t for Yasmin, I wouldn’t have got ...
Con Home Diary: Tebbit Names His Preferred Successor to Cameron
- 20 Jun 2014
The Prime Minister’s pledge to have a third of his government replete with female ministers by the time of the next election is looking rather unlikely to be met. Seven government departments still have no female ministers whatsoever. He may well put that right in the forthcom...
There Are No Words
- 17 Jun 2014
I’ve felt very sad today. A friend of mine, Joe Pike, moved to Scotland not that long ago. I was sad to see him go, but it was the right move for him. I saw him a couple of months ago when he was in London on a flying visit. He’d met someone who he hoped to build a future with...
ConHome Diary: My Tips For The Cabinet Reshuffle & Lots Of Other Lovely Diarytastic Stuff
- 13 Jun 2014
It’s a pretty safe bet that if the European and local elections, and of course Newark, had been disasters for the Conservatives the reshuffle would have happened by now. The fact that is hasn’t says a lot. It was rumoured that it might take place next week, although James Land...
A Tribute to Andy Wilson
- 11 Jun 2014
I don’t know who it was who said that ‘only the good die young’, but they certainly had a point. Only two months ago I wrote about my friend Corinne de Souza, who died from cancer at the age of 58. Well yesterday I attended the funeral of another friend who also fell victim t...
ConHome Diary: The Ten Bills in Prime Minister Dale's Queen's Speech
- 6 Jun 2014
It comes to something when the measure in the Queen’s Speech which grabs most headlines is a 5p plastic bag tax. Back in the 1980s and 1990s there would be between 18 and 23 bills in the Gracious speech. In this one there were eleven. Now, don’t get me wrong, I rather like the...
Could the EU block an In/Out Referendum in Britain?
- 2 Jun 2014
I was alerted to a fascinating (and very badly written) ePetition tonight. It concerns the EU’s apparent future ability to ban a UK Government from holding a referendum in 2017. Here’s the text… Full and open disclosure on EU Qualified majority voting and it’s effect on a ...