Owen Paterson Tells Me: Horsemeat Could Be "Injurious to Human Health"
- 10 Feb 2013
A nice little scoop from Environment Secretary on my LBC show this morning. We spent ten minutes discussing the horsemeat scandal and towards the end of the interview (you can listen to it HERE) this exchange took place… ID: There are no health implications, are there? OP...
Political Book Awards: Bollocks Story in the Mail on Sunday
- 10 Feb 2013
There’s a story in today’s Mail on Sunday with the headline MARY’S REVENGE ON LABOUR PEER WHO ATTACKED CAMBRIDGE Simon Walters, the Mail on Sunday political editor, alleges that Professor Mary Beard, a judge at this year’s Paddy Power/Total Politics Political Book Awards , ...
It's Not Size That Counts! Oh, Really?
- 9 Feb 2013
Now, I post this purely as an educational tool. Tool. Geddit? I suppose we all knew that the French were the biggest pricks in Europe, and now we have proof! What I would love to know is how they worked this out. I doubt whether the research cost much to put together. I imagi...
LibDems Pick Mr Charisma
- 9 Feb 2013
This is the candidate the LibDems selected tonight to fight the Eastleigh by-election. His name is Cllr Mike Thornton. This is him at a council meeting. Hardly a surprise that he was so bored, listening to all those LibDem councillors drone on. I suspect this picture is going...
How Eric Pickles Forces Councils to Subsidise Local Newspapers
- 9 Feb 2013
You know those rather boring adverts at the back of local newspapers? Pages upon pages of public notices and planning applications, all put there courtesy of your local authority. Many people wonder why on earth in the days of websites all these adverts appear, week after wee...
Right & Left Is So 1990s...
- 8 Feb 2013
What do the terms right and left mean any longer? These two words have defined political discourse and debate for most of the last century, yet they are becoming increasingly irrelevant as supposedly right wing politicians adopt what have been traditional left wing causes. In ...
An Evening at the IMAX: The Political Book of the Year Awards 2013
- 7 Feb 2013
This time last night we were nearing the end of the 2013 Paddy Power & Total Politics Political Book of the Year Awards. It seemed a long time since the idea first emerged in a brainstorming meeting last summer. It really was the most fantastic evening. Four hundred peopl...
Pryce & Huhne Phone Call: When Prurience Goes Too Far
- 7 Feb 2013
I’ve got Sky News on the TV at the moment and have just heard the phone conversations between Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce. I think it is scandalous that they have been made public. I almost felt dirty listening to them. I’m not sure what is proved by their release. Indeed, why...
Imagine the Outcry if Stafford Had Been A Private Hospital
- 6 Feb 2013
I’ve spent the last 90 minutes watching the Prime Minister’s statement on the Francis Report into the terrible goings on at Stafford Hospital. What was allowed to happen there was terrible, and an indictment of all those who sat by and watched this catastrophe developing. Let’...
Looking Forward to the Political Book of the Year Awards
- 6 Feb 2013
Tonight at the IMAX it’s the Political Book of the Year Awards. I have to admit I am getting pre-ceremony nerves. I had the idea for this event in the middle of 2012 and it’s certainly been a challenge to organise everything in such a short time. But my team at Biteback have ...
Well At Least Chris Chope Avoided Referring to a 'Buggers' Muddle'...
- 6 Feb 2013
A majority of 225 is probably the highest the government has ever achieved at the end of a Second Reading debate. And yet it doesn’t feel like that, does it? And it certainly won’t in Number 10 today. I can’t for a moment imagine that the champagne corks were popping last nigh...
A Question for John Redwood: Are MPs Representatives or Delegates?
- 5 Feb 2013
John Redwood is a man of many opinions. Most of them are ones I agree with. He is a man I have immense respect and admiration for. I regard him as a friend. He’s also a superb blogger. So it was with some degree of horror that I read his blogpost on today’s gay marriage vote....
The Trials of Chris Huhne
- 4 Feb 2013
I’ve sat here for five minutes looking at a blank screen, not quite knowing what to write. You see, when a friend ends up in trouble, the last thing you want to do is stick the boot in. You want to empathise, sympathise and do what friends do. Stick by each other no matter wh...
Equal Marriage: An Open Letter to MPs
- 4 Feb 2013
This is a letter I am emailing to MPs of all parties this morning. Dear Member of Parliament, Many of you have already decided to support the Equal Marriage Bill. This letter is addressed to those of you who remain undecided or who intend to oppose it. Back in 2003 I became...
The Question Closet Case Gay MPs Will Have To Answer
- 2 Feb 2013
I’ve been looking at the Coalition for Equal Marriage’s website, and their list of MPs who intend to vote against allowing gay people to marry on Tuesday. I note with interest the names of several MPs who most people in the Westminster Village know to be closet case gays. And ...
Red Trousers Are Just Plain Wrong
- 2 Feb 2013
A few days I ago I tweeted about the fact that I had just seen a man wearing red trousers walking through Leicester Square. I’ve never understood how anyone who isn’t over 60 or Hooray Henry could wear them. But there was this seemingly normal looking thirty year old saunteri...
Troughing Councillors Should Be Voted Out of Office
- 2 Feb 2013
Just when you thought politicians couldn’t get lower in public esteem, Tunbridge Wells councillors are set to vote local Cabinet members a 22% increase in allowances, and the leader of the council is due to get a 15% rise. The proposals have been accepted by the council’s fina...
The Sun Replaces Archbishop With Bishop Basher Guido Fawkes
- 2 Feb 2013
It’s not often I burst out laughing when I read a tweet, but I did just now. The Sun has announced that Guido Fawkes will be writing a column for them each Sunday. What they haven’t announced is that Guido will be replacing the Archbishop of York’s column on the Op Ed page. I...
Let's Talk About Sex Addiction, Baby
- 2 Feb 2013
On my LBC show on Wednesday we talked about addictions and how to deal with them. I guess we all know what the most commons addictions are to alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. But it goes far more widely than that. A friend of mine is addicted to Skippy peanut butter and reckons ...
Gillard Fires the Election Gun Eight Months Early
- 30 Jan 2013
Morning, everyone. I am an avid follower of Australian politics so it was with a sense of incredulity that I heard this morning that Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called a general election for – wait for it – September 14th. Yes, you read that right – in eight and a half ...