ConservativeHome Diary Week 31: What the PM Should Do in Sri Lanka
- 15 Nov 2013
The Times (£) trumpets that Croydon South has rejected three of David Cameron’s favoured candidates (they all work for him in Number Ten) during their selection contest. It is apparently a “snub” to the Prime Minister. Bollocks. What is far more likely is that the three of the...
Bloody Well Done to Jeremy Hunt!
- 8 Nov 2013
Steve Wright used to have a character on his Radio 1 afternoon show called Mr Angry. Each time he rang into the programme he would end his call with the words “I’m so angry, I could throw the phone down!” And that’s what he then did. I feel like that right now. Why? Because J...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 30: Whatever Happened to 'Recall'?
- 8 Nov 2013
It was in the Liberal Democrat manifesto. It was in the Tory manifesto. It was in the Coalition Agreement. So why has nothing been done about it? What am I talking about? Yes, the power of recall. After the expenses scandal, David Cameron and Nick Clegg made great play of the ...
Book Review: Piers Morgan's Diaries: Shooting Straight
- 6 Nov 2013
I’ve never quite understood why so many people appear to hate Piers Morgan. I like him. I find him funny, witty, entertaining and, yes, often thoroughly irritating. People write about him as if he is somehow thick and has got to where he has purely by luck and good fortune. It...
Book Review: A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine - Tony Benn's Last Diaries
- 5 Nov 2013
Last Thursday I went to see Tony Benn to interview him for the LBC Book Club. Because I hadn’t reached the end of his book, I hadn’t realised he had moved out of his family home on Holland Park Avenue and had moved into sheltered accommodation round the corner. The interview w...
The Tonbridge Open Primary Showed the Tories At Their Best
- 3 Nov 2013
Yesterday morning I became poacher turned gamekeeper, or was it the other way around? Back in 2009 I was a candidate in the Bracknell Open Primary. There were seven candidates in the final. I came third, behind Rory Stewart, and the eventual winner, local GP Philip Lee. Yester...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 29: For Once, Ed Balls Was Right
- 1 Nov 2013
Tomorrow morning, I’m moderating Tonbridge & Malling’s Open Primary, where local people will select a candidate to follow Sir John Stanley. My last experience of an open primary was competing in one in Bracknell in 2009, and a few weeks before that chairing the Bedford May...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 27: Russell Brand May be a Hammer But That's His Only Redeeming Factor
- 25 Oct 2013
I was on my sick bed on Wednesday, so I had the dubious delight of watching the entire coverage of the Home Affairs Select Committee hearing on Plebgate. It didn’t exactly make me think we have the most wonderful police in the country. The three Police Federation representativ...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 27: If Chris Bryant Can Apologise to Andrew Mitchell, So Should Ed Miliband
- 18 Oct 2013
My job leads me to meet some interesting people. This week I interviewed Princess of Michael of Kent about her new novel, The Queen of Four Kingdoms. We were sent a protocol sheet in advance which instructed us what to call her and how to bow. Never having been very good at an...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 26: Has Adam Afriyie completely lost his marbles?
- 11 Oct 2013
I try not to obsess about West Ham in this column, but you will forgive me reporting an exchange between West Ham supporting Tory MPs Alec Shelbrooke and Bob Neill, and Spurs fans Iain Duncan Smith and Mike Penning. You will recall that West Ham hammered Spurs 3-0 on Sunday by...
MPs in Grinder Shock!
- 5 Oct 2013
Shocked. I say, I’m shocked. This was a picture taken on one of the commercial stands at the Tory Party Conference. Sadly I have no idea what the real context is. Maybe just as well.
ConservativeHome Diary Week 25: George Osborne is a Kewl Dude
- 4 Oct 2013
Manchester proved to be a much quieter week for me than Brighton was (ahem). It has to be said that virtually everyone I met made some joke or other about the “incident”, as if they thought they were being entirely original. Still, I had half thought I might well be totally sh...
Speech to the Tory Pride Dinner in Manchester
- 4 Oct 2013
On Tuesday night I gave the after dinner speech at the Tory Pride Dinner in Manchester. Several people who weren’t there have apparently been told about it and asked if I would put it on the blog, so here goes. I have removed all the jokes and smut, though, which formed about ...
Top 100 People on the Right 2013
- 1 Oct 2013
Each year the Telegraph assembles a group of experts to compile a list of the top 100 most influential people on the Right. Meeting this year in the Westminster Intercontinental – the new hangout of choice for politicos – the panel judged the performance of right-wing politico...
Top 100 People on the Left 2013
- 28 Sep 2013
Labour may be beginning to flat-line in the polls, but there is no shortage of new names and rising stars to inject what seems to be currently missing in from Labour’s front-bench. So food for thought here for Ed Miliband, who topped the poll, despite his poor personal poll ra...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 24: Not a Week I'd Care to Repeat
- 27 Sep 2013
Well, it’s been quite a week. And not one I’d care to repeat. If you missed what shall now forever be referred to as “the incident” I couldn’t be more pleased. I’ve declined all interviews about it and would love to send it to hidden depths of my mind, never to be talked about...
Top 50 Liberal Democrats 2013
- 26 Sep 2013
Each year the Telegraph assembles a group of experts to compile a list of the top fifty ranked members of the Liberal Democrats. Meeting this year in the Westminster Intercontinental – the new hangout of choice for politicos – the panel judged the performance of Lib Dem politi...
Statement and Apology
- 26 Sep 2013
Following the incident on Brighton seafront on Tuesday morning, I have today voluntarily attended Brighton police station where I accepted a police caution. The police have informed me they now regard the matter as closed. I want to thank them for the fair and courteous way th...
How Newspaper Book Serialisations Work
- 22 Sep 2013
Many people don’t seem to understand how newspaper book serialisations work, so let me try to explode a few of the hoary old myths that have been regurgitated in the last few days. Even journalists from newspapers which bid for the Damian McBride serialisation don’t seem to ge...