Theatre review: Mamma Mia Still As Good As Ever
- 12 Apr 2014
I don’t get to go to the theatre much nowadays due to the fact that my radio show finishes at 8, and I am rarely in London at the weekend. So because I was presenting the LBC Breakfast Show last week, I decided to go totally overboard and on Thursday I went to not just one sh...
Attitude Column: The Problem With 'Gay' Books (And My 3 Favourites)
- 12 Apr 2014
Someone asked me the other day what my favourite ‘gay book’ was. What on earth does that mean, was my first thought. Do they mean that just because I am gay I only read books by gay authors or with a gay theme? I suppose if being gay is the main thing that defines you, then yo...
Next Time It Won't Be Nigel Evans - It Will Be Joe Bloggs
- 11 Apr 2014
Nigel Evans, speaking outside Preston Crown Court, declared that his “life will never be the same again”. He showed no sign of euphoria after being found not guilty of all the preposterous charges laid against him by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. One reporter t...
ConservativeHome Diary: The Nadine Vendetta, A 'Ladyshambles & Why Joe Bloggs Must Fear the CPS
- 11 Apr 2014
It’s a pity that the Telegraph has seemingly renewed its vendetta against Nadine Dorries. It had commissioned columnist Cristina Odone to interview Nadine Dorries about her debut novel THE FOUR STREETS. Odone duly read the book and could hardly contain her enthusiasm for it, t...
Book Review: Saving Susie-Belle by Janetta Harvey
- 6 Apr 2014
I can’t say I have read a lot of books about dogs, especially ones which have made me cry. But after reading SAVING SUSIE-BELLE – RESCUED FROM A PUPPY FARM: ONE DOG’S UPLIFTING TRUE STORY I suspect I may start to make a habit of it. Let me explain how I came to read it. All m...
ConservativeHome Diary: The Vince Enigma, Two Funerals & Two Debates
- 4 Apr 2014
I remember interviewing Vince Cable for Total Politics before the last election. I spent ninety minutes with him trying to elicit some sort of interesting line from him. I found him to be the coldest, most unemotional politician I had ever interviewed. We didn’t ‘click’ at all...
New Statesman Diary: Two Funerals & an Invitation to Ed
- 3 Apr 2014
It was a privilege to attend Tony Benn’s funeral. Bearing in mind there were 750 people inside St Margaret’s, Westminster, it was still an intensely personal and intimate event. I was one of the first to arrive and decided to sit on my own, in the back row, off to the right-ha...
Keith Simpson's Easter Reading List
- 3 Apr 2014
Guest Post by Keith Simpson MP Whilst FCO ministers will be spending the Easter Recess valiantly dealing with many “little local difficulties” abroad, many MPs of all parties will be going around the country, in the words of Willie Whitelaw, “stirring up apathy” for the Euro ...
Nominated For Interview of the Year Award
- 2 Apr 2014
Bit of a good day at work. For the second year running I have been nominated for a Radio Academy Award, something which I have to say wasn’t at all expected. It’s for Radio Interview of the Year, for my interview with James, an eyewitness to the Woolwich murders. The other no...
Why I'm Writing David Cameron's Authorised Biography
- 1 Apr 2014
Back in 2006 I nearly wrote a semi-authorised biography of David Cameron, only shortly after he had been elected leader of the Conservative Party. I had decided to take six months off, having been fairly burnt out by two failed election campaigns during 2005 (my election in No...
If You Don't Like Gay Marriage, Don't Marry a Homosexual
- 29 Mar 2014
Today we live in country where love and commitment are celebrated between a man and a woman, a man and a man and a woman and a woman. Some people still don’t like that. They should watch this seven second video. It really is as simple as that. Video H/T LiarPoliticians
ConservativeHome Diary: Just Before I Interrupted Myself...
- 28 Mar 2014
As I was saying… It’s that time of year when every Minister of State, and quite a few Parliamentary Under Secretaries, start pushing themselves forward with a single aim of getting two people to notice them: the Prime Minister and the Chief Whip. Why? Because they know that i...
The Ban on Sending Books to Prisoners is Just Plain Wrong
- 26 Mar 2014
The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation – Goethe I know I have developed a reputation for being as wet as a lettuce on prison reform, so no doubt what I am about to write will just burnish that reputation. When I heard that the government was banning ...
The Quiet Rise of Nicky Morgan
- 22 Mar 2014
If David Cameron wants to promote more women to the cabinet he need look no further than Nicky Morgan, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. I’ve known Nicky and her husband Jonathan for more than ten years, although we’re no close friends. She was selected for Loughborough...
A Tribute to Corinne De Souza 1955-2014
- 18 Mar 2014
This site seems to have become a repository for obituaries and tributes in the last week, and I am afraid here’s another one. John and I first met Corinne De Souza back in 1997 just after we opened Politico’s. It turned out that unbeknown to me at the time I had taken over he...
WATCH: Tory MP & Putin Supporter Clash (Again) Over Crimea
- 17 Mar 2014
Two weeks ago I hosted a debate on Ukraine between Tory MP Brooks Newmark and former Kremlin advisor Alexander Nekrassov. Today I hosted Round 2. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.
A Tribute to Tony Benn
- 14 Mar 2014
Even before I first met him in the mid 1990s, Tony Benn was always a source of endless fascination for me. I remember buying a volume of his diaries from a second hand bookshop in Cambridge and being transfixed. By the time I met him I had bought all the other volumes and I r...
Two Extended Interviews With Tony Benn
- 14 Mar 2014
I’ ll write a proper tribute and obituary to Tony Benn later. I first met Tony in the 1990s and we became quite friendly. He said he regarded me as his “favourite Thatcherite entrepreneur”. I am not sure how many other Thatcherite entrepreneurs he knew, but I took it as a comp...
A Tribute to Bob Crow
- 11 Mar 2014
Sometimes you find out something which just leaves you reeling in shock. And so it was about ten minutes ago, when I learned that Bob Crow had died. He was only 52 years of age. There’s no use pretending that Bob Crow and I agreed on anything. We didn’t. But he had my total ...
An Evening of Taboos and Dogging With 'Fascinating Aida'
- 9 Mar 2014
How is it that ‘Fascinating Aida’ rarely get on television, when vastly inferior acts do? Having just seen them perform in Norwich it’s a question which continues to baffle me. I emerged from the Theatre Royal with my cheekbones aching, as did the rest of the audience. How co...