Articles tagged Boris Johnson:
The Consequences of Matt Hancock's Resignation & Have we Reached 'Peak Johnson'?
- 26 Jun 2021
When I woke up at 5.25am on Friday, I checked my phone and saw the front page of The Sun. I actually exclaimed: “F*****g hell”, as opposed to “F*****g hopeless.” I was due on air on Good Morning Britain an hour later with Jacqui Smith. We were both staying in the same hotel so...
Boris Johnson Needs to Grip the Exam Crisis & Grip it Today
- 17 Aug 2020
When you're in a political hole, the best thing to do is stop digging. You collect your thoughts, then you devise a strategy to climb out of the hole. That's what Gavin Williamson should be doing now. He needs to do it quickly because that hole is about to treble in size when ...
Cummings & (Not) Goings
- 24 May 2020
I write this as the Prime Minister has announced he's standing by Dominic Cummings and a lot of what follows is based on a Twitter thread that I posted last night. I've been in isolation for 67 days in Kent. I could have driven 158 miles to my house in Norfolk, where in the...
Boris is Back, Journos Disappearing Up Their Own Fundamentals & Why the Death Toll Needs More Explanation
- 13 Apr 2020
So there I was – broadcasting from home on Monday. It was about 8.10pm, and I had just finished interviewing the new Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds. I switched from my email to the Google document on which my producer writes instructions. There it was in bla...
My Take on the Reshuffle Fallout
- 16 Feb 2020
It seems the estimable editor of ConservativeHome, Mr Paul Goodman, was the only one to foresee the departure of Sajid Javid as chancellor. That’s why he’s on the big bucks. Clearly Boris and his team thought that Sajid would cave, just as all the other ministers did, who w...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 70: Telling Your Producer to 'Shut The F**k Up'
- 29 Nov 2019
Earlier today Nick Ferrari hosted an hour long phone-in with Boris Johnson. Nowadays all these interviews are not only filmed, but streamed live. We have a whole host of cameras in the studio, and unlike certain other broadcasters if we are going to stream something we are inc...
Calm Down, Calm Down...
- 27 Oct 2019
I really should know better. On Tuesday night, I was on a Newsnight panel which included the rather impressive Liam Thorp, political editor of the Liverpool Echo. Emily Maitlis threw him a question about Boris Johnson, and he immediately launched into a little spiel about how ...
Calm Down, Calm Down, Prorogation is Not the End of Democracy As We Know It
- 28 Aug 2019
It's the end of democracy as we know it. This government is autocratic. Boris Johnson is running a tin-pot dictatorship. A coup. Just four of the quotes I've heard on the radio and TV over the last hour and all to do with the fact that the Prime Min...
How Boris Really Became Prime Minister - A Counterfactual
- 24 Jul 2019
Duncan Brack and I have published three books of counterfactual essays over the last 15 years or so. Prime Minister Portillo And Other Things That Never Happened was the first, published in 2003. Prime Minister Boris And Other Things That Never Happened followed in 2016, with ...
There Must be No Tory Leadership 'Coronation'
- 27 May 2019
This is an unedited version of my Sunday Telegraph column. Just as the last four Tory prime ministers have been defenestrated by the issue of Europe, the next one will almost certainly be defined by it. It will also dominate the imminent leadership campaign, as each cand...