A Message to America From Her Majesty The Queen...
- 31 Oct 2016
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your inde...
ConHome Diary: Who Will be UKIP Leader & Why Mark Carney is a Brilliant PR Man ... For Mark Carney
- 28 Oct 2016
It will be interesting to see the final lineup in the UKIP leadership contest when nominations close on Monday. The three leading candidates are clearly Paul Nuttall, Suzanne Evans and Raheem Kassam, but the question is whether any of the more fringe candidates like David Kurt...
ConHome Diary: The Danger of Hillary & Interviewing Ken Loach
- 21 Oct 2016
Wednesday’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump didn’t really move things. Trump started well but couldn’t resist becoming Mr Nasty again, leaving the floor for Clinton to wipe the floor with him. For me she won virtually every single section of the debate, with Tr...
WATCH: My LBC Interview with Ken Loach
- 20 Oct 2016
Please enable Javascript to watch this video Ken Loach talks about his new film ‘I, Daniel Blake’.
BOOK REVIEW: Politics - Between the Extremes by Nick Clegg
- 15 Oct 2016
I like Nick Clegg. Always have. He’s a transparently nice guy. I suspect he’s a very loyal person, and someone who tries to see the best in people. This can sometimes be a fatal flaw in a politician. I remember seeing Nick Clegg at the 2008 LibDem conference, less than a year...
ConHome Diary: In Defence of Craig Oliver & I Really Don't Hate Wales
- 14 Oct 2016
Well, Craig Oliver’s book has certainly attracted a degree of animosity from Her Majesty’s Press. Robbie Millen in The Times called it “hastily cobbled together”, while James Kirkup in The Daily Telegraph is crueller. He suggests that “to read this book is to suffer a form of...
Tim Farron Just Doesn't Get It - Britain Voted to Leave the EU AND the Single Market
- 10 Oct 2016
Please enable Javascript to watch this video I had the pleasure of interviewing LibDem leader Tim Farron earlier. We were talking about whether Parliament should have a vote on any deal the Government negotiates. Tim just couldn’t get it into his head that the Single Market ...
BOOK REVIEW: Unleashing Demons by Craig Oliver - The Inside Story of the Remain Campaign
- 9 Oct 2016
I did a 10 minute interview with Craig Oliver about his book, which you can watch HERE It was around 10am in the morning on a Saturday in December 2012. I was in bed. The previous night I had given a speech to David Cameron’s Conservative Association in Chipping Norton. The ...
ConHome Diary: The Mess That Is UKIP & Why I'm Being Damned Before I Even Publish
- 7 Oct 2016
I did enjoy Theresa May’s joke about Boris Johnson at the beginning of her main conference speech. It genuinely brought the house down. For those who didn’t hear it, here goes: “When we came to Birmingham this week, some big questions were hanging in the air. Do we have a ...
Top 100 People on the Right List 2016
- 3 Oct 2016
Each year for the last nine years I have convened a panel to compile a list of the Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right. This year our panel was comprised of a current Member of Parliament & former minister, two right leaning journalists, and a party agent current...
ConHome Diary: A Tale of Two Conferences & I Reveal a Dark Secret
- 30 Sep 2016
I’ve been to between 50 and 60 party conferences over the years – Conservative, Labour and LibDem. This year’s Labour conference in Liverpool was undoubtedly one of the flattest ever. I’d be surprised if there were more than 40 MPs there. Many of the delegates spent most of th...
The Top 100 People on the Left List 2016
- 24 Sep 2016
Iain Dale and his panel of experts choose their Top 100 Most Influential People On The Left list – and after a remarkable year for Labour, there have been some dramatic changes. Each year for the last ten years I have convened a panel to compile a list of the Top 100 Most I...
ConHome Diary: Hillary Debates The Donald and Why Corbyn Won't be Magnanimous
- 23 Sep 2016
Over the weekend I head up to the Labour Party conference. It’s my 18th conference, but I suspect this will be different to all the others. I’m expecting a very different clientele to be attending. Gone will be the sharp suited youths of the Blair years, present will be a new ...
WATCH: The LBC Middle East Process Debate With Mark Regev & Manuel Hassassian
- 19 Sep 2016
This was an hour long debate I hosted this evening between Mark Regev, the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, and his Palestinian counterpart, Manual Hassassian. I had interviewed them separately back in July and asked if they would debate each other. Somewhat to my surprise they...
BOOK REVIEW: Speaking Out by Ed Balls - Best Political Book I've Read This Year
- 18 Sep 2016
Very few political books stand the test of time. Three months after they come out they’re forgotten. Ed Balls can be proud that his book will be different. It’s not a conventional political memoir in that it’s not chronological and doesn’t pretend to be a learned, intellectua...
The Top 50 Liberal Democrats 2016
- 17 Sep 2016
Each year I convene three panels to compile lists of the Top 50 Liberal Democrats, the Top 100 People on the Left and the Top 100 People on the Right. Each list is published to coincide with the three party conferences. This is the ninth year I’ve been doing this and although ...
WATCH: Iain Dale Interviews Owen Smith
- 17 Sep 2016
Twenty minutes with the Labour leadership contender.
ConHome Diary: Dave Quits, I'm Playing Kofi Annan & Why Sadiq Refused an Upgrade
- 17 Sep 2016
Brits don’t quit. That’s the quote that came back to bite David Cameron on the arse this week, after he announced his departure from the House of Commons. This decision makes me sad as I have always taken the view that ex-Prime Ministers should continue to play a role in our n...
ConHome Diary: Do Some Lives Matter More Than Others?
- 9 Sep 2016
In the next few weeks we’ll get the results of the UKIP and Labour leadership elections and the SNP’s deputy leadership election. Labour and the SNP have both experienced booming membership growth, but there the similarity seems to end. Labour is languishing at 27% in the late...
WATCH: A Frankly Excellent Interview with Ed Balls!
- 6 Sep 2016
Earlier this evening I interviewed Ed Balls for twenty minutes about his new book SPEAKING OUT: LESSONS IN LIFE & POLITICS. I had just finished doing one of my more ‘robust’ interview with the Vice Chairwoman of Momentum, so perhaps that wasn’t the best preparation to ha...