In a few hours time new leader of the Conservative Party will be preparing for PMQs. Last night the Davis diehards held an end of campaign party to thank all those who had worked on the campaign. We held it at the campaign office in Victoria Street. Quite a number of MPs were ...
Some people take losing very badly. Ann Clwyd and her supporters were by no means gracious in defeat, when on Tuesday evening Ms Clwyd was deposed as the chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party. After hearing the result of the ballot, in one of the House of Commons commit...
This week my workplace in London’s Bloomsbury has been the victim of crime on three occasions. On Sunday a burglar broke into our offices before being frightened off by the alarm, on Monday a bike was stolen from outside our offices and on Tuesday five cars were broken into i...
The centre of power Despite Lord Saatchi's call for Conservatives to abandon the centre ground, David Cameron is wise to pitch his tent there. Lord Saatchi is without doubt a man with an enormous creative mind. His pamphlets for the Centre for Policy Studies are invariab...
Anyone who knows David Prior (former Tory MP for North Norfolk) will testify to the decency of the man. His former constituents in North Norfolk and the staff at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital will have been shocked at his very public arrest this week. But let u...
Anyone who knows David Prior will testify to the decency of the man. His former constituents in North Norfolk and the staff at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital will have been shocked at his very public arrest this week. But let us remember that arrest does not imp...
This Queen’s Speech has all the stench of a government in decay and on the way out. Listening to the stream of Ministers talking it up on 5 Live you would think the Government was still hugely popular, the Prime Minister is at the peak of his powers and that the Bills in the Q...
Queen's speech: bor-ing! The work of a weary regime devoid of new ideas, the Queen's Speech leaves us with only Labour's succession to look forward to. This Queen's Speech has all the stench of a government in decay and on the way out. Listening to the stream of minister...
Political autobiography is normally defined as a work of fiction by the author, about the author. Rarely do we find examples of 'good autobiography'. Indeed, it would be easier to draw up a list of Top Ten Worst Political Memoirs. The late Alan Clark, Conservative...
The Speaker of the House of Commons needs the support of the whole House if he is to be able to preside over it properly. Michael Martin’s performance this week, when he upbraided David Cameron for asking Tony Blair about his preferred successor, was merely the latest in a lon...
The future of television, some part of it at least, lies behind a black door on the fringes of Bloomsbury. It is the front door to a house; a sturdy, terraced one in Doughty Street where also stands the office of the Spectator. For all this 19th-century solidity, though, the b...
House of Lords reform seems to be back on the agenda at long last. Labour has indulged in many acts of constitutional vandalism since 1997 but none has been as bungled as their efforts to reform our Second Chamber. The trouble was that they embarked on the reform process witho...
Yesterday I went to a funeral near Bury St Edmunds to bury my Godmother, Molly Scotcher, who died last week. I’m not very good at funerals. No matter how much I tell myself I’m going to maintain a stiff upper lip, my eyes somehow turn into water fountains. It didn’t help today...
Ellee Seymour has an interesting little titbit about York LibDems leafleting constituents alerting them that Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Julian Sturdy lives three miles outside the constituency and therefore cannot be considered to be a local candidate. Pathetic, but ...
The problem with Party Conferences is that unless you announce lots of new initiatives and policies the media hordes have nothing to write about. And when you don’t feed the media beast, it turns round and bites you. If journalists have nothing better to write about they rehas...
The publication of David Blunkett’s diaries is likely to yield great disappointment for his publishers, Hodder. The reason why this book will rise quickly to that ever growing ‘remainder heaven’ in the sky is that we all believe we know quite enough about David Blunk...
What is it with British seaside resort hotels? In my experience they seem to delight in making life as difficult and as expensive for anyone who visits them. I’ve just returned from four days in Bournemouth which cost me more than it would have done to spend a fortnight in Maj...
Unlike newspapers, radio and TV broadcasters in Britain are bound by strict rules on balance and impartiality. But next week, a political channel threatens to turn these sacred codes on their head. How? By broadcasting on the net. When did you last watch a rough and tumble ...
By Iain Dale is Presenter of Vox Politix on 18DoughtyStreet Talk TV Political television in this country is on the decline. The BBC appears to think that it can only get ratings for political programmes if it invites comedians and celebrities to pontificate on gre...
Taxing times Tories want a mature debate about taxation, but the media is determined to present differing opinions as a split. As usual, the conference experienced by the representatives here in Bournemouth seems a little different to the subjects the media are obsessed ...