ConservativeHome Diary Week 15: Can Kevin Rudd Imitate Lazarus?
- 26 Jul 2013
As the Australian election campaign cranks up a gear, Kevin Rudd, the new Australian Prime Ministerseems to be attracting quite a bit of media hostility. The Aussie media, having encouraged him to overthrow Julia Gillard, is now turning on him. The Australian Spectator has cal...
LBC 97.3: Iain Dale Talks to Gyles Brandreth About Happiness & the Royal Baby
- 22 Jul 2013
This week I am standing in for Nick Ferrari, presenting the LBC Breakfast show. Today I had a rather hilarious encounter with Gyles Brandreth, who was supposed to be coming in to talk about his new one man Edinburgh Fringe show, but that all went awry when news of the royal ba...
Book Review: DOMINION by C J Sansom
- 20 Jul 2013
If you are a fan of counterfactual history, and you wonder what might have happened in May 1940 had Lord Halifax become prime minister rather than Winston Churchill, then you will love this book. The author, C J Sansom, is a strange cove. he rose to prominence with a highly s...
LBC 97.3 Drive: This Is What We Do...
- 10 Jul 2013
if you’ve never listened to my radio show, have a quick listen to these three audioboos from yesterday’s show. Because this is what we do… (And if you listen to only one, make it the last one. Especially if you want to know how I can be ‘cured’ of being gay!) listen to ‘Far l...
Book Review: 'Strictly Ann' by Ann Widdecombe
- 7 Jul 2013
I first met Ann Widdecombe at Politico’s, the bookshop in Westminster I used to own, in April 1997. She came in and bought ten copies of Derek Lewis’s account of his time as director of HM Prison Service. She plonked them on the counter, I looked her squarely in the eye and ra...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 14: Five MPs Who Won't Get Promoted But Should
- 5 Jul 2013
What is it with Tory MPs at the moment? There must be something in the air. Last week Crispin Blunt ‘mwah mwah’d’ me, and this week I got a bear hug from Mark Pritchard, who had come into the LBC studio to talk about MPs’ pay. It’s just not British! Anyway, credit to Pritchard...
Winning Radio Presenter of the Year - Who'd Have Thought?!
- 4 Jul 2013
I’ll try to keep this short. Last night at the Arqiva Awards I won Radio Presenter of the Year. That has to rate as one of the proudest moments of my life. I was up against Real Radio’s Dixie & Gayle and Absolute’s Frank Skinner. To be acknowledged like that by your peers...
James Purnell Can't Justify His Salary or the BBC's Move to Salford
- 2 Jul 2013
listen to ‘'Are you really worth twice as much as a Cabinet Minister?' – Iain Dale to the BBC's James Purnell’ on Audioboo Have a listen to this from an interview I did yesterday with James Purnell, the former cabinet minister and now the Director of Strategy and Digital at ...
Discussing Mental Health on the Radio
- 30 Jun 2013
Since I have been presenting on LBC (nearly three years, since you ask) one of the subjects I have covered a lot is mental health. Last year the programme was shortlisted for the Mind Media Awards for best radio programme. We didn’t win. but were delighted to attend such an ...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 12: Osborne & Cameron Don't Care About Marriage Tax Breaks. Good
- 28 Jun 2013
Digby Jones is someone who knows how to give ‘good interview’. I talked to him about deficit reduction shortly after George Osborne had sat down on Wednesday. He was keen to emphasise that ringfencing health, education and aid spending was fundamentally wrong, especially healt...
Listen: Michael Gove's 'Whopper'
- 27 Jun 2013
listen to ‘'I hear you're more of a Whopper man Mr Gove!'’ on Audioboo From an interview I did with Michael Gove this afternoon. We had been discussing new school buildings, but I decided to end the interview on a lighter note and talk about George Osborne’s burger eating ha...
In the Case of The Bow Group v Iain Dale... Round 2
- 25 Jun 2013
I warn you now. Reading this blogpost may make you lose the will to live. Back on 24 May I incurred the wrath of the Bow Group’s chairman Ben Harris-Quinney when I wrote this in my ConservativeHome Diary. I’m not quite sure what has happened to the Bow Group. It seems to ...
Book Review: 'Goodfella' by Craig Bellamy
- 23 Jun 2013
Craig Bellamy is a player than opposing fans love to hate. It ought to be because he’s a bloody good player, but the real reason is that people think he’s just a bit of a nasty piece of work. It’s true. He can be, but this book shows there’s more to Craig Bellamy than the sna...
Listen: Interview With Lady Antonia Fraser
- 22 Jun 2013
Yesterday I spent half an hour talking to renowned historian Lady Antonia Fraser about her superb new book on the 1832 Reform Act. It’s called PERILOUS QUESTION: THE DRAMA OF THE GREAT REFORM BILL 1832. And it really is a dramatic page turner. I don’t know much about this per...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 11: Did Angela Merkel Bring a Change of Underwear to the G8?
- 21 Jun 2013
Whoever chose Lough Erne as the venue for the G8 should get some kind of honour. As a PR exercise it couldn’t be faulted. The countryside backdrops to all the interviews and press conferences were simply stunning. Less stunning, though, was the fact that David Cameron seemed t...
Interviewing Dylan Jones
- 19 Jun 2013
Last Friday I interviewed GQ editor Dylan Jones about his new book THE EIGHTIES: ONE DAY, ONE DECADE and also his work as long standing editor of the most excellent GQ MAGAZINE. You can listen HERE.
Why Is Cameron Talking up Arming Syrian Rebels When Parliament Would Vote Against It?
- 16 Jun 2013
I am far from being a pacifist. Indeed, I am a firm believer in intervention when there is a clear case that can be made. But whatever David Cameron says, that case cannot be made in Syria. It is a mystery to most people why Cameron is going out on a limb on Syria. It is not a...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 10: Tim Yeo is Beyond Hope (And Parody)
- 14 Jun 2013
When I wrote about Tim Yeo last week, I had no idea what the Sunday Times were about to unveil. The least Mr Yeo could do was stand down from his select committee. What I don’t understand is the lack of intervention by the Whips’ Office or Number Ten. Yeo can deny everything a...
Book Review: Harry's Game: Inside the Mind of Harry Redknapp by John Crace
- 10 Jun 2013
This is not a biography of Harry Redknapp. In fact having finished reading it, I am still not very sure what it is. What I do know is that it tells us very little about Redknapp that we didn’t know before. And that’s quite a failing in a book of more than 200 pages. It’s rath...
The Energy & Climate Change Select Committee Must Hold Tim Yeo to Account
- 9 Jun 2013
It’s rare that I am ahead of my time, but less than a year ago I wrote a blogpost titled TIM YEO: THE UNACCEPTABLE FACE OF CONSERVATISM. I wrote… I have always found Tim Yeo’s interest in climate change and green issues a tad hypocritical bearing in mind the amount of tim...