So How Do I Answer the Question: "Did You Have a Nice Christmas, Iain?"
- 29 Dec 2016
They say ‘honesty is always the best policy’, but I wonder how honest I will be when I go back to work on Tuesday and a caller says: “Did you have a nice Christmas, Iain?” Do I say, “yes thanks, hope you did too.” Or do I tell the truth and say “No I didn’t. My Dad died and I ...
BOOK REVIEW: All Out War by Tim Shipman - Without Doubt the Political Book of 2016
- 27 Dec 2016
You know that feeling you get when you finish a book you never really wanted to end? It’s almost a feeling of grief. That’s what I’ve got as I type this, minutes after finishing Tim Shipman’s majestic ALL OUT WAR. It’s impossible to fully comprehend what happened on June 23 an...
My Predictions for 2016 - How Did I Do?
- 24 Dec 2016
In 2015 I got 8 out of my 10 predictions right. Seeing as 2016 turned out to be the year of the unexpected, I don’t think I’ve done quite as well. Here were my predictions for 2016, made on 31 December 2015… The EU Referendum will be held in July. WRONG (but only by 7...
My Top 100 Tweeters of 2016
- 22 Dec 2016
Each new year I compile a list of people whose tweets I have most enjoyed during the previous 12 months. I follow about 2300 people on Twitter, which is far too many to be honest, but I whenever I try to cull the number I end up giving up because it’s so difficult. Anyway, the...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 53: The Producer King Is Dead, Long Live the Producer Queen
- 17 Dec 2016
If you’ve never worked in radio, you will think I am going completely over the top when I say that the key relationship on any radio show is the relationship between the show’s producer and the presenter. If there’s a good relationship, magical radio can be the result. It ther...
ConHome Diary: Margaret Thatcher's Sexy Voice, Labour's Doldrums & ITV's Puerile Rubbish
- 16 Dec 2016
For anyone under the age of about 45, the name Jim Prior, who died on Monday, probably doesn’t mean much. However, those of us who know our history of the 1970s and 1980s know how significant he was. A key ally to Ted Heath, he was Agriculture Minister in the Heath government ...
ConHome Diary: My Political Comeback, Climbing the iTunes Chart and Why Tim Farron Has Come of Age
- 9 Dec 2016
Wednesday’ House of Commons debate on Brexit was hugely significant in various ways. Somehow the media and other parties seem to think the government doesn’t want to tell us anything and are shying away from any parliamentary scrutiny. So far as I can see, nothing could be fur...
Keith Simpson MP's 2016 Christmas Reading List
- 7 Dec 2016
This has been politically a roller-coaster of a year with the EU referendum which resulted in the resignation of David Cameron and the accession of Theresa May, the re-election of Jeremy Corbyn, the resignation and then American tribute tour of Nigel Farage and the success of ...
My Christmas Book Recommendations 2016
- 4 Dec 2016
Given that there is only one bookshop chain left in this country, a lot of people who are interested in political books often miss out on books they would love to read if only they knew they existed. So I thought I’d give you all some ideas for some Christmas presents for frie...
ConHome Diary: Me and Mussolini & Missing West Ham
- 2 Dec 2016
There I was, innocently presenting my radio show, when PING, an email came in which, at first sight, looked rather intriguing. The subject line was ‘Audition for Docudrama’. Well that certainly got my attention. So I opened up the email and I read on… “You have been chosen bec...
DOWNLOAD: The Launch of 'Iain Dale's Brexit Briefing'
- 2 Dec 2016
Today sees the launch of a weekly podcast, imaginatively titled ‘Iain Dale’s Brexit Briefing’. Each week I’ll be talking to two prominent voices on either side of the Brexit debate, we have a roundup of Brexit news of the week and other features too. It contains far more than...
ConHome Diary: How the Left Is Trying To Call Us All Fascists & Populists
- 27 Nov 2016
After Brexit and the election of Donald Trump I have noticed a worrying trend in the use of language by the left, and it’s potentially quite insidious. The left are now trying to define anyone right of Tony Blair as a ‘far right’, or Alt right, or a far right extremist. Or a f...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 52: Going Ten Rounds With Sajid Javid
- 23 Nov 2016
Please enable Javascript to watch this video Long time readers may remember an interview I did in 2013 with the then Treasury Minister Sajid Javid. [audio of that is at the end of this piece]. It was, shall we say, a textbook example of how, if you’re a government minister, n...
Book Review: Kind of Blue by Ken Clarke
- 19 Nov 2016
This book is like a fine old wine. It is to be savoured. Whenever I finish reading a really good book, I get a sense of grief when I read the final page. And so it has been with Ken Clarke’s memoirs. To be paid an advance of £400,000 was quite something. No one was more shocke...
ConHome Diary: Harvey, Donald and Nigel
- 18 Nov 2016
I cannot imagine what it’s like being accused of not only being a child sex offender, but also of murdering three children than I was supposed to interfered with. Especially if the allegations are a tissue of lies, but a tissue of lies which the Police tell the public are both...
Why I am Raising Money to Help Harvey Proctor - And How You Can Help Too (If You Have Any Human Compassion Within You)
- 12 Nov 2016
Harvey Proctor is penniless and destitute. He was cleared of all charges of child sexual abuse through Operation Midland and the Metropolitan Police has now issued a full apology. But apologies do not pay the bills. I published Harvey Proctor’s book CREDIBLE AND TRUE. On th...
EVENT: If You're in Norwich on Thursday Come & See Me Explain What Brexit Means Brexit Means!
- 12 Nov 2016
I spent four of the best years of my life at the University of East Anglia in the early 1980s. I studied German and Linguistics, and it was there that I got involved in politics. I wouldn’t be who or what I am today without the education UEA gave me. So when I was told, earli...
ConHome Diary: 2016 is 1968 and a Trumptastic Week
- 11 Nov 2016
In political terms 2016 is turning out to be every bit as important, in historical terms, as 1968. In Britain and America a revolution has happened, and it is one that few saw coming. Yet again it wasn’t just a political party or cause that was defeated, it was the political c...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 51: When a Scoop Slips Through Your Hands...
- 5 Nov 2016
I don’t pretend to be a journalist, but there are obviously journalistic aspects to what I do. When my blog was at its height I’d break quite a few stories, and I got a kick out of being first to do so. It happened several times. But there was always that fear that you’d be sc...
ConHome Diary: Interviewing John Howard & Why the Government is Wrong on the Article 50 Court Case
- 4 Nov 2016
For several years now, I have been trying to entice former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard onto my radio show. This week Dan Hannan kindly invited me to a dinner at the National Gallery where Mr Howard was being awarded this year’s Edmund Burke award. It really was a ga...