Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, ITV The Political Party Podcast with Matt Forde “You should get Keir to do more of these non political and more personal interviews,” I said to his press officer after he spent ten minutes talking to me and Jacqui Smith about his memories of ...
So, no new Covid deaths were reported yesterday for the first time since last March. As a former Prime Minister might have put it, just rejoice at that news. Well it is of course fantastic news, but should it affect the decision Boris Johnson must make in the next two weeks a...
Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast Over the last twenty years there has been an explosion of interest in history, not just British history, but all sorts of different kinds of history. The podcast genre is absolutely ideal to capitalise on this. I’ve already reviewed ...
This article has just been published in the Diabetes UK magazine, Balance. I suspect I am the same as any other diabetic. I struggle to keep my blood sugars under control. After 13 years I know what I am supposed to eat and drink but I have all the self discipline of a...
What Most People Think Podcast with Geoff Norcott Geoff Norcott has made quite a name for himself over the last few years as one of a breed as rare as hen’s teeth – a right wing comedian. It has to be said that he’s now not alone as a member of that small band of brothers. ...
A bit of an announcement. In September 2018 I started presenting a new show on LBC called Cross Question. It has been a once a week hour on a Wednesday evening, and the format is similar to Any Questions or Question Time, the main difference being that the questions come fr...
One of the things I love most about my job at LBC is being given the opportunity to present election night shows. I’ve done four general election nights, two American elections, two referendums and various local election nights. Last week, however, Covid thwarted me. Most of t...
Parish, Tortoise Media Many people felt that the internet would signal the end of properly funded investigative journalism and a dumbing down of current affairs coverage more generally. The reverse has been true. Investigative journalism is far from dead and it’s possible t...
You can tell an awful lot about a politician by how they react to an election defeat. This week we learned that Sir Keir Starmer is neither a lucky general or is cool under fire. His interview on Friday afternoon was a textbook classic of how not to react. He looked like a rab...
Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women podcast, Global Radio Let me say this up front. I am an unalloyed Rachel Johnson fan. Like most of the Johnson family, she is an adornment to our national life, even if she sometimes puts her foot in it. Her recent memoir of her time in Chan...
All to Play For podcast, Joe.co.uk & Coral Football podcasts are two a penny nowadays, but what a discovery All to Play For has been. It is presented by actor and comedian Tom Davis and former West Ham, Chelsea, Liverpool and England star, Joe Cole. Each week they ...
Photo credit: Archant. Eve Collishaw is someone you won’t have heard of unless you follow Norwich politics very closely. I first met her on the campaign trail in Norwich North in the 1983 general election. She has stood in every local election in the city more or less e...
I had heard great things about this documentary from several people I greatly respect. A couple of them were people on the right who I wouldn’t have thought would be persuaded to become more environmentally aware through the means of a Netflix documentary. So it was with high ...
There are two things that dog owners fear the most. That their dog might run away never to be seen again, or that it might be dognapped. Around 11.30am this morning I left our house in Norfolk to go to Cromer for a round of golf. Fifteen minutes later, I was driving pa...
Finding Jack Charlton, BBC2, iPlayer This documentary is a difficult watch. At times I wondered whether it should have ever seen the light of day. At times I wondered if it really fulfilled its aims. At times I wondered if its dual strands of career retrospective and encour...
I have just learned that Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, has died at the age of 90. In the last week we have lost Cheryl Gillan, Peter Ainsworth and Ian Gibson from the ranks of politicians or ex-politicians. And now Shirley. I do hope her death is not eclipsed ...
I was and am proud to call Cheryl Gillan a friend. I was so sad to learn this afternoon that she had died. She had been in poor health for some time and had been devastated by the death of her beloved husband Jack Leeming at the age of 91 in 2019. She was absolutely devote...
My sisters and I grew up in a small village in North Essex, where the church was an integral part of village life. We were all confirmed into the Anglican church. My mother would go to church semi-regularly and would be part of the church flower rota. We were given the choice ...
For those of you who enjoyed Alex Macpherson's counterfactual about what might have happened if I had been elected MP for Bracknell, he has now turned his attention to my For the Many podcast partner, Jacqui Smith. ‘He died whilst enjoying one of his great passions in...
This article first appeared on Reaction. Finding Derek, ITV1 & ITV Hub I’m going to be honest, I have put off writing this column because it’s not easy writing about two people, one of whom I regard as a new friend. The other is a former political enemy, who once tri...