European Election Result Predictions: South East
- 28 Apr 2014
Over the next three weeks or so I will be trying to predict the results of the European Elections which take place in the UK on May 22, with the results being announced late in the evening of Sunday 25 May. I will be hosting a European Elections Special Programme on LBC from ...
ConHome Diary: A Week of Doing Nothing
- 27 Apr 2014
I’ve spent this week in Norfolk on holiday. I’ve done very little apart from read, play with my dogs and watch 27 episodes of a brilliant US TV series called COVERT AFFAIRS. I’ve barely spoken to anyone apart from my partner and even turning on Sky News has been something I’ve...
European Election Result Predictions: East Anglia
- 26 Apr 2014
Over the next three weeks or so I will be trying to predict the results of the European Elections which take place in the UK on May 22, with the results being announced late in the evening of Sunday 25 May. I will be hosting a European Elections Special Programme on LBC from 9...
ConservativeHome Diary: Interviewing Nigel Evans & When a Cabinet Minister Resigns
- 18 Apr 2014
Was I too hard on Sarah Wollaston in last week’s column? I’ve been asking this question ever since a rather terse tweet from the Totnes MP, which said something like: “Iain Dale has suggested I should examine my role in the Nigel Evans case, so I have.” Strangely, the tweet ha...
It Shouldn't Happen to a Radio Presenter 16: Losing Laura Marshall - A Brilliant Speech Radio Producer
- 17 Apr 2014
I’m writing this on the 11.30pm back to Tonbridge after a lovely evening with my three LBC producers, Laura, Matt and Axel at the Hippodrome. The reason? Today was my last day working with Laura Marshall after two years of working together, firstly on the evening show and for ...
Theatre Review: Handbagged by Maggie & The Queen
- 14 Apr 2014
A play consisting of two Margaret Thatchers and two Queens and precious little else, well that’ll never work I thought when I first heard about HANDBAGGED. How wrong could I have been! I am not sure if HANDBAGGED is meant to be a relatively serious commentary on the relation...
Attitude Column: Media Coverage of Gay Issues Has Changed...And For the Better
- 13 Apr 2014
As Attitude celebrates a milestone birthday you might expect me to roundup how far gay rights have come in the last twenty years. But frankly we all know that many legislative battles have been won, and there aren’t many more to fight. But is it the same with media coverage? ...
Theatre review: Mamma Mia Still As Good As Ever
- 12 Apr 2014
I don’t get to go to the theatre much nowadays due to the fact that my radio show finishes at 8, and I am rarely in London at the weekend. So because I was presenting the LBC Breakfast Show last week, I decided to go totally overboard and on Thursday I went to not just one sh...
Attitude Column: The Problem With 'Gay' Books (And My 3 Favourites)
- 12 Apr 2014
Someone asked me the other day what my favourite ‘gay book’ was. What on earth does that mean, was my first thought. Do they mean that just because I am gay I only read books by gay authors or with a gay theme? I suppose if being gay is the main thing that defines you, then yo...
Next Time It Won't Be Nigel Evans - It Will Be Joe Bloggs
- 11 Apr 2014
Nigel Evans, speaking outside Preston Crown Court, declared that his “life will never be the same again”. He showed no sign of euphoria after being found not guilty of all the preposterous charges laid against him by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. One reporter t...
ConservativeHome Diary: The Nadine Vendetta, A 'Ladyshambles & Why Joe Bloggs Must Fear the CPS
- 11 Apr 2014
It’s a pity that the Telegraph has seemingly renewed its vendetta against Nadine Dorries. It had commissioned columnist Cristina Odone to interview Nadine Dorries about her debut novel THE FOUR STREETS. Odone duly read the book and could hardly contain her enthusiasm for it, t...
Book Review: Saving Susie-Belle by Janetta Harvey
- 6 Apr 2014
I can’t say I have read a lot of books about dogs, especially ones which have made me cry. But after reading SAVING SUSIE-BELLE – RESCUED FROM A PUPPY FARM: ONE DOG’S UPLIFTING TRUE STORY I suspect I may start to make a habit of it. Let me explain how I came to read it. All m...
ConservativeHome Diary: The Vince Enigma, Two Funerals & Two Debates
- 4 Apr 2014
I remember interviewing Vince Cable for Total Politics before the last election. I spent ninety minutes with him trying to elicit some sort of interesting line from him. I found him to be the coldest, most unemotional politician I had ever interviewed. We didn’t ‘click’ at all...
New Statesman Diary: Two Funerals & an Invitation to Ed
- 3 Apr 2014
It was a privilege to attend Tony Benn’s funeral. Bearing in mind there were 750 people inside St Margaret’s, Westminster, it was still an intensely personal and intimate event. I was one of the first to arrive and decided to sit on my own, in the back row, off to the right-ha...
Keith Simpson's Easter Reading List
- 3 Apr 2014
Guest Post by Keith Simpson MP Whilst FCO ministers will be spending the Easter Recess valiantly dealing with many “little local difficulties” abroad, many MPs of all parties will be going around the country, in the words of Willie Whitelaw, “stirring up apathy” for the Euro ...
Nominated For Interview of the Year Award
- 2 Apr 2014
Bit of a good day at work. For the second year running I have been nominated for a Radio Academy Award, something which I have to say wasn’t at all expected. It’s for Radio Interview of the Year, for my interview with James, an eyewitness to the Woolwich murders. The other no...
Why I'm Writing David Cameron's Authorised Biography
- 1 Apr 2014
Back in 2006 I nearly wrote a semi-authorised biography of David Cameron, only shortly after he had been elected leader of the Conservative Party. I had decided to take six months off, having been fairly burnt out by two failed election campaigns during 2005 (my election in No...
If You Don't Like Gay Marriage, Don't Marry a Homosexual
- 29 Mar 2014
Today we live in country where love and commitment are celebrated between a man and a woman, a man and a man and a woman and a woman. Some people still don’t like that. They should watch this seven second video. It really is as simple as that. Video H/T LiarPoliticians
ConservativeHome Diary: Just Before I Interrupted Myself...
- 28 Mar 2014
As I was saying… It’s that time of year when every Minister of State, and quite a few Parliamentary Under Secretaries, start pushing themselves forward with a single aim of getting two people to notice them: the Prime Minister and the Chief Whip. Why? Because they know that i...
The Ban on Sending Books to Prisoners is Just Plain Wrong
- 26 Mar 2014
The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation – Goethe I know I have developed a reputation for being as wet as a lettuce on prison reform, so no doubt what I am about to write will just burnish that reputation. When I heard that the government was banning ...