ANNOUNCEMENT: After Ten Years, I'm Leaving Biteback Publishing...
- 22 May 2018
This is a press release I’ve issued this morning. Sad day. Iain Dale steps down at Biteback and Andy McNab takes on advisory role to guide Biteback into next stage of growth After ten years, Biteback Publishing Managing Director Iain Dale is to step down from the company in ...
CNN Talk: A Royal Wedding Special
- 18 May 2018
This is a special edition of CNN Talk on the Royal Wedding live from Windsor. Lovely setting.
ConHome Diary: Brexit 'Gammon' and Brexit Madness
- 18 May 2018
Tory MP Nick Boles wrote a brilliant article for the Jewish Chronicle on Wednesday in which he took Israel to task for the killing of 58 Palestinians on the Gaza border. In it he explained that as a strong supporter of Israel he couldn’t stand by and not question the tactics u...
The Words No One Wants to Hear - "It Could be Pre-Cancerous"
- 12 May 2018
Around a year ago I was just finishing my 3.59pm talkup, at the start of my show – the bit where I take over from Shelagh Fogarty. I saw her looking at me rather intently. As the news started she said to me: “You should get that looked at.” I had no clue what she was referrin...
ConHome Diary: Who are the Real "Obsessives"? Remainers or Brexiteers?
- 11 May 2018
I was always under the impression that David Willetts had two brains. It seems that he has mislaid at least one of them since he left the House of Commons. Quite how he put his name to a ludicrous proposal from his Resolution Foundation to give every 25 year old £10,000 is one...
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Peter Mandelson: An Obituary
- 8 May 2018
Back in 2009 GQ asked me to write a fake obituary of Peter Mandelson, along with Andrew Roberts, John Kampfner, Stephen Bayley, Matthew D’Ancona and John Rentoul. I decided to make mine rather more tongue in cheek than some of the others did, but they were all hugely entertain...
ConHome Diary: The Loneliness of a Prime Minister & Why She Needs Some Willies
- 4 May 2018
Wednesday’s meeting of the Brexit subcommittee on Brexit could have gone very wrong indeed. If the Prime Minister had tried to force through her unworkable ‘Customs Partnership’ proposal there could have been very serious consequences. If any or all of the ‘four Brexiteers’ ha...
Evening Standard Column: The Sajid and Sadiq Show
- 1 May 2018
The Sajid and Sadiq show: UK’s two most influential British Asian politicians are on the path to greater power. When Sajid Javid was appointed Home Secretary yesterday, Sadiq Khan was the first to congratulate him — now their friendship could turn to political rivalry. He’s r...
Amber Rudd's Resignation, What Her Successor Needs to Do & the Terrible State of Our Politics
- 30 Apr 2018
Back in 2006, when he took over from Charles Clarke at the Home Office, John Reid famously declared that the Home Office was “not fit for purpose”. It is hard to escape the conclusion that little has changed in the intervening twelve years. Amber Rudd’s resignation last night...
ConHome Diary: The Death of the Political Poster
- 27 Apr 2018
Amber Rudd, in her evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on Monday, declared that she was aware of individual cases related to Windrush children, but hadn’t joined the dots and realised that something systemic had gone wrong. I suppose I would gently ask how many cases...
Book Review: Unbelievable - My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History by Katy Tur
- 22 Apr 2018
If you want to read Bridget Jones meets Donald Trump, then this is the book for you. And even if you don’t, it’s for you. It’s a really enjoyable, funny, and mostly insightful book about Donald Trump’s campaign to become President, seen through the eyes of an NBC reporter. K...
So What's It Like To Be On Question Time?
- 21 Apr 2018
So, what was it like? That’s the question I’ve been asked a lot over the last 36 hours. Everyone wants to know what it was like to be a guest on BBC’s Question Time. Well, on Thursday I appeared on it for the first time. I’d done ANY QUESTIONS on Radio 4 quite a few times, but...
20 Things I Did For the First Time
- 21 Apr 2018
First Job Mucking out my Dad’s pigs on a Saturday morning for 10p an hour First Real Job Researcher to Patrick Thompson MP 1985-7 First Role in Politics Chairman of UEA Conservatives in 1981 First Car An orange Ford Cortina Mk III, lovingly nicknamed the Big Jaffa. I wrote ...
ConHome Diary: The Consequences of Windrush & Spinning the Local Elections
- 20 Apr 2018
Back in 2006 the then Labour Home Secretary John Reid described his own department as “not fit for purpose”. Twelve years on very little seems to have changed. Even after eight years of Tory occupation, six of which were controlled by Theresa May, it is still the department wh...
What Really Happened At Margaret Thatcher's Final Cabinet Meeting
- 19 Apr 2018
Some time ago, back in 2006, I had intended to write a book about the month leading up to Margaret Thatcher’s fall from power. Part of the incentive to do so was that there seemed to be so many conflicting accounts of what actually happened. I knew I would be able to get acces...
WATCH: Is Trump Morally Fit to be President (Our Most Watched Show So Far)
- 16 Apr 2018
Is Donald Trump “morally unfit” to be President? That was one of the comments from former FBI Director James Comey. With me, Afua Hirsch, Liam Halligan, presented by Hannah Vaughan-Jones.
The 100 Most Powerful Politicians of the Last 100 Years
- 16 Apr 2018
1 Winston Churchill Con 2 David Lloyd George Lib 3 Clement Attlee Lab 4 Margaret Thatcher Con 5 Harold Wilson Lab 6 Stanley Baldwin Con 7 Edward Heath Con 8 Ramsay Macdonald Lab 9 Tony Blair Lab 10 James Callaghan Lab 11 Harold Macmillan Con 12 R A Butler Con 13 William Whitel...
FROM THE ARCHIVES: In Conversation with Nigel Farage
- 16 Apr 2018
This interview took place in October 2008. It’s actually very hard for Nigel Farage to give a bad interview. He is the kind of character who always has something interesting to say. Indeed sometimes he says far too much for his own good. Politics needs characters like Farag...
WATCH: CNN Talk - What Would Military Action in Syria Achieve?
- 14 Apr 2018
I post this twelve hours after military intervention started, but this was our discussion on CNN yesterday lunchtime.
On the Gender Pay Gap in Airlines
- 11 Apr 2018
In last week’s ConHome column, I wrote about the gender pay gap and used airlines as an example. A reader emailed me afterwards and I thought his email might be interesting for people to read… On April 6th, in regard to the gender pay gap - specifically airlines - on your reg...