Another Non Story - This Time It's Chuka Umunna's Turn for 'The Treatment'
- 5 Apr 2013
On the back of the Osborne disabled parking story, I see we have another one today. Labour’s Chuka Umunna is being taken to task for comments he made about West End nightlife. This is what the Daily Mail said… In public he’s a hard-working man of the people, a rising star ...
And This is What Political Journalism Has Been Reduced To...
- 4 Apr 2013
God I hate the Daily Mirror. Remember that post that I wrote a few weeks ago about falling out of love with politics? Well THIS story from the Daily Mirror is a perfect example of why no one in their right mind would want to be a politician. They are having a go at George Osbo...
On North Korea & Trident
- 4 Apr 2013
We had a corking discussion on North Korea and also whether we should renew Trident on my LBC show tonight. But I was very concerned by the number of people who sincerely appear to believe that America is at the centre of all evil in today’s world. Sure, America isn’t perfect ...
Mick Philpott: The Blame Game - Is It the Welfare State's Fault?
- 3 Apr 2013
When terrible things happen, the natural instinct is to seek an explanation, to find a reason for what happened. Sometimes there are no explanations. Sometimes there are no reasons. Sometimes bad things happen purely because evil people are at the centre of them. That is what ...
Paolo Di Canio - If He's Good Enough for Swindon...
- 1 Apr 2013
Oh the hypocrisy of the Left. It was OK for Paolo Di Canio to play for Sheffield Wednesday, Celtic, West Ham and Charlton. It was OK for him to manage little old Swindon Town in League One, but oh no, the thought of him managing Premier League Sunderland is repellent. No, I’l...
Can John Hayes Be a 'Willie'?
- 29 Mar 2013
‘Not since Caligula appointed his horse as his chief adviser has such an inappropriate appointment been made’. Those were the words of not one, but two Tory MPs, speaking to me about John Hayes being made the Prime Minister’s chief parliamentary adviser. I wouldn’t quite go t...
Book Review: 'What Have I Done' by Amanda Prowse
- 29 Mar 2013
Reading a novel about violent domestic abuse is not my idea of fun, but doing my job you often have to read a lot of books you wouldn’t normally bother with. And so it was that I read ‘What Have I Done’ by Amanda Prowse. She tells the story of an apparently normal family with...
Damian McBride & Me: How the Book Came About
- 28 Mar 2013
Four years ago I appeared on the Today Programme talking about Carol Thatcher and her use of the word ‘gollywog’. She had just been fired from the ‘One Show’ for having the temerity to liken someone’s hair to that of a ‘gollywog’. This is what I wrote on my blog at the time… ...
Welcome to the Glenda Slagg School of Commentary
- 24 Mar 2013
What an astonishing reaction there has been to Boris Johnson’s car crash of an interview with Eddie Mair this morning. It’s so typical of our ‘hero to zero’ society. In a way it’s rather pathetic. Some people are seriously positing that after that interview there is no way Bo...
A Tribute to James Herbert
- 21 Mar 2013
James Herbert was one of the greatest British novelists of recent times. His death on Wednesday robs us of a truly talented writer. I first started reading his horror novels as a teenager. The Rats and The Fog were masterpieces of their genre. He never really got the recognit...
Shock Horror! I'm a Right Wing Libertarian!
- 20 Mar 2013
My Political Views I am a right social libertarian Right: 4.78, Libertarian: 3.99 Political Spectrum Quiz As if I was in any doubt… My LBC producer Matt, who is the son of a Labour politician, thinks I am heading to defect to New Labour. This might give him pause for thought...
A Political Geek's Wet Dream - Coming to you Soon on CD
- 20 Mar 2013
Later this year, my company Biteback Publishing, will be publishing a mammoth CD Box Set of Great Parliamentary Speeches, 1978-2013 – thirty five years of great parliamentary oratory. It will also hopefully be available as a download on iTunes, and we’re also contemplating an...
Budget Preview: Don't Expect Anything Radical
- 20 Mar 2013
Let me predict the headline the Chancellor would like to see in tomorrow’s Daily Mail… PERSONAL ALLOWANCES RAISED TO £10k A YEAR EARLY It’s a measure which has the double attraction of keeping the LibDems happy and giving his own activists something to trumpet on the doo...
Is This The Day Oliver Letwin Effectively Shut Down This Blog?
- 18 Mar 2013
As Catherine Tate’s ‘Nan’ might say: “What a fucking liberty”. David Cameron was once a daily reader of my blog. Whether he reads it now, I have no idea. If he does, it might not be for much longer. Why? Because if what I read is even 50% correct, I may well be forced to clos...
Confused of Tunbridge Wells
- 18 Mar 2013
Sophy Ridge reports that a deal on press regulation was struck in the early hours of the morning. Present, she says, were Ed Miliband. Oliver Letwin, and four members of Hack Off. If that is true, just watch it unravel this afternoon. Tory MPs don’t trust Oliver Letwin’s backb...
Cyprus: Could There Now be a Run on Spanish, Italian & Greek Banks?
- 17 Mar 2013
Well if I lived in Spain. Greece or Italy, do you know what I would be doing tomorrow? Trotting off down to my local bank and withdrawing all my savings and then either stuffing it under my mattress, putting it into a German bank, or buying property or gold with it. Future hi...
My First Week on Iain Dale at Drive
- 16 Mar 2013
Radio listeners are a very conservative bunch. They are fairly resistant to change. Whenever a programme director makes a change to a schedule he or she knows there will be howls of disapproval. I remember the furore that was caused when Jeni Barnett left LBC after her contrac...
Dogging in Tunbridge Wells
- 16 Mar 2013
[ This is how I spent Saturday afternoon. Me, Bubba, and some much needed zzzzzzs.
Cameron's Motherhood & Apple Pie Speech Lacked Red Meat
- 16 Mar 2013
Watching David Cameron’s speech at the Conservative Spring Conference was a slightly strange experience. The words came out but they were just that – words. There was an absence of passion, and only at the end, when there was a desultory attack on Labour did he become at all ...
Archbishop Softens Line on Gay Marriage
- 12 Mar 2013
Several of the papers have picked up my interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday, but they have concentrated on what he said about bankers’ bonuses. I think they missed the main story, and that was on gay marriage. It seemed to me that His Grace really softened hi...