I'll Mourn His Victims, But No, I Won't Mourn Martin McGuinness
- 21 Mar 2017
Inam Bashir and John Jeffries. Two names you’ve probably never heard of. I knew their faces but not their names. They worked in a newsagents by South Quay DLR station on the Isle of Dogs. Each morning I’d call in to their little kiosk to buy my morning newspapers on the way t...
ConHome Diary: The Week That Was + Questions for Lord Feldman
- 17 Mar 2017
Well that was quite a week, wasn’t it? I still don’t understand why the government abandoned its plans to trigger Article 50 on Tuesday. Yes, Nicola Sturgeon stole the show on Monday with her referendum announcement, but I fail to see why that should have thrown the government...
ConHome Diary: Ready to Serve, The Honourable Ladies & the Wonders of Octopus
- 3 Mar 2017
On Wednesday evening I chaired a session at the Jewish Book Festival at King’s Place, which is also home to the Guardian. The guest was Malcolm Rifkind who was there to talk about his memoirs. POWER & PRAGMATISM, which I published last summer. I was delighted that they had...
The UK’s Contrarian Publisher: Iain Dale on the ‘Gift’ of Donald Trump
- 27 Feb 2017
By Roger Tagholm for Publishing Perspectives Particularly in an age when everyone faces the effects of the ‘echo chamber,’ hearing counter-opinions can be important. And the UK’s Iain Dale is happy to offer some balance. Since the June Brexit referendum in the UK and Donald T...
ConHome Diary: Jon Snow's Deleted Tweet & Can We Have Less Fluff Please on Sky News?
- 25 Feb 2017
Twitter can be an unforgiving beast, as Jon Snow found out on Wednesday evening. He is a newsman I have tremendous respect for, but when he tweeted this on Wednesday, I and many others saw red. “How many of those who voted Leave knew or had ever heard about the single market ...
Twenty Things We Learned From Stoke Central & Copeland
- 24 Feb 2017
What a night. I stayed up to see both results. Here are a few thoughts… UKIP’s ground operation is no match for Labour’s. Labour’s scare tactics on the NHS can backfire spectacularly. The relentless media campaign against Paul Nuttall – fueled it has to be said by Paul...
Leave Politicians Told Us Exactly What We'd Be Voting For - It's a Shame Remain Leaders Didn't, But We All Know Why...
- 19 Feb 2017
The mantra that leading Remain supporters come out with nowadays is that, while “of course” they support the democratic vote on June 23rd, we poor buggers hadn’t got a clue what we were voting for when we voted to Leave. Yes, we voted to leave the EU, but we didn’t know our “d...
ConHome Diary: Michael Gove Wanted to Reform Prisons But Liz Truss Seems More Interested in Headlines
- 17 Feb 2017
So unemployment is down a further 7,000. Productivity is up 0.3%. Wages up by 2.6%. All this economic good news continues to be reported with hashtag #despitebrexit. In addition, earlier this week the European Commission made a complete fool of itself by being the only organis...
My Favourite Book
- 12 Feb 2017
My favourite Book Picking your favourite book of all time is an almost impossible task. How can you compare WATERSHIP DOWN with ANIMAL FARM or, dare I say it, THE RATS by James Herbert? How do any of these compare to some of my favourite political tomes like Gyles...
ConHome Diary: Black & White Party Time!
- 10 Feb 2017
I suppose you should try everything once, just to see if you like it, so it was in that spirit that I accepted an invitation to go to the Conservatives’ ‘Black & White Party’ on Monday evening at the Battersea Evolution. Note that it’s degenerated from a ‘ball’ to a party....
A Tribute to Gordon Aikman
- 3 Feb 2017
This was the tribute I paid to my friend Gordon Aikman, whose death was announced this morning. He has raised more than £540,000 for Motor Neurone Disease Research. He was one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. if you’d like to donate click here
ConHome Diary: Donald, Theresa, Jeremy & Another Hapless Sarah Olney Interview
- 3 Feb 2017
I suspect like many of you, when I heard Theresa May was going to visit Donald Trump, I feared the worst. Although I thought it was right she should go, I doubted whether much good would come of it. I thought also that there was a real risk of it all going wrong, largely becau...
Donald Trump Is So Wrong on Banning Refugees From the Middle East, But The Reaction Has Also Been Ridiculous
- 28 Jan 2017
A lot of cant has been expended on social media in the last 24 hours about Donald Trump’s Executive Order issuing a three month long temporary ban on citizens of seven middle eastern countries from entering the United States. I should say from the outset that I do not agree w...
ConHome Diary: The Worst I Have Ever Felt (And I Don't Mean Listening to Trump's Inauguration Speech)
- 27 Jan 2017
‘They buried a farmer today’. As I wrote in last week’s column, that’s the title of a poem I found on the internet, and rewrote to read at my Dad’s funeral on Monday. It was written by someone in Iowa and most of it fitted my Dad like a glove. And the bits that didn’t? Well, I...
ConHome Diary: Washington in Denial, Theresa May Shows Her Balls & The Fantasies of Trump Supporters
- 21 Jan 2017
I think it’s called the Law of Sod. Having booked our flights to Washington DC to cover the Trump inaugural, within a matter of minutes it is announced that Theresa May’s big Brexit speech would be on Tuesday. At more or less exactly the time our plane is due to take off from ...
WATCH: Why Theresa May Must Accept the Verdict of the High Court & Allow Parliament to Vote on Triggering Article 50
- 16 Jan 2017
This is a short video I made in advance of the Supreme Court decision on Brexit, due on Monday next week, I believe. In it I urge Theresa May to accept the result, if the government loses, and to immediately introduce a one line Bill into the Commons. It’s the first of this...
ConHome Diary: Washington Beckons, Trumpery & Why Southern Rail Is Not Fit to Run a Franchise
- 13 Jan 2017
Next week I’ll be writing this diary from my favourite city in the whole world, Washington DC. It’s my first visit there since the autumn of 2012 when I covered the re-election of Barack Obama. This time I’ll be there as Donald Trump will be sworn in as President during my LBC...
ConHome Diary: Signing Farage, The Worst Christmas of my Life & Interviewing the PM
- 6 Jan 2017
LBC announced a new signing for its presenter line-up yesterday. From Monday Nigel Farage will be presenting an evening show from 7-8pm Monday to Thursday. Given his other interests the show will often be broadcast from Brussels, Strasburg or America. The reaction from the lef...
My Ten Predictions for 2017
- 31 Dec 2016
A daily or Sunday newspaper ceases print publication. John Humphrys announces he will retire from the Today Programme. Labour loses Copeland by-election. Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Hull are relegated from the Premier League. 5.
So Did I Keep my 2016 New Year's Resolutions?
- 30 Dec 2016
These are the resolutions I made a year ago. Let’s see how many of them I stuck to… Not to buy a new car. ACHIEVED Read more for pleasure, rather than because it’s my job. NOT ACHIEVED Do more TV. NOT ACHIEVED Go abroad more often. NOT ACHIEVED Lose another hal...