The Prime Minister is on the Line
- 8 Dec 2012
So when you pick up the phone and the person say “Number 10 Switchboard here, can I put you through to the Prime Minister?” do you say… A) Can you hold on a minute while I get dressed? B) Remind me of his name again? C) If you really must D) Only if he’s offering a peerage E)...
Should We Really Buy Shares in George Osborne and Sell Balls?
- 7 Dec 2012
James Forsyth wrote in last week’s Spectator that now was the time to buy shares in George Osborne. I mentioned this to a Tory MP this morning, a mere 48 hours after the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. “Yes,” he said. “They’ve risen from 2p to 4p.” Cuttingly cruel. It is true t...
Zoe Williams Reviews Iain Dale in the Evening
- 29 Nov 2012
here's a quiet, arresting radio revolution going on at LBC between 7pm and 10pm Monday to Thursday. Putatively – and often – it's a political programme, a mellow but rufty-tufty panel-debate between Tory Iain Dale and his guests. That's all pretty straightforward: as Julie Bur...
Top 100 People on the Right 2012
- 1 Oct 2012
As delegates gather in Birmingham for the Conservative Party's annual conference, Iain Dale produces a list of the top 100 powerful figures within the Right. (-) DAVID CAMERON Prime Minister & Leader of the Conservative Party There’s no denying it, Camer...
Top 50 Liberal Democrats 2012
- 25 Sep 2012
Each year the Telegraph assemblies a group of experts to compile a list of the top fifty ranked members of the Liberal Democratic Party and it allies. The ranking is based on the panels judgement of the performance of the politicians over the past year. The great gamble of ...
A PR Lesson Andrew Mitchell Needs to Learn
- 24 Sep 2012
What on earth did he think he was doing? All Andrew Mitchell achieved this morning by talking to the assembled cameras was to give the story more legs. But perhaps it is wrong to blame Mitchell. After all, he was no doubt doing what he had been advised to do by the so called g...
Top 100 People on the Left 2012
- 23 Sep 2012
By Iain Dale & Brian Brivati Cometh the Labour Party Conference, cometh the new Guru. Aside from watching continuous reruns of Bill Clinton’s miraculous speech/sermon/lecture nominating Obama, the top two Ed’s in our list (Miliband and Balls) are still searching for the...
Why Mental Health Has Become Important To Me
- 13 Sep 2012
Mental health remains a subject most people find difficult to talk about. Unless they are affected by it, it’s not something talked about in polite society. Or they are bored by it. I’ve never suffered from depression, or any other form of mental condition, so I have slightly ...
The Carlton Cole Interview
- 17 Aug 2012
The last time I interviewed any West Ham players was back in the mid 1990s, when I spoke to Tony Cottee and Stan Lazirides. To be honest, I don’t find many footballers that interesting. Hanging around Upton Park hoping for a brief word with a player has never been my idea of f...
Manuscript: Talking Politics - Political Conversations With Iain Dale
- 12 Aug 2012
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Clegg's Bluff Needs To Be Called
- 6 Aug 2012
What follows is written more in sorrow than anger. I was a cheerleader for the coalition in the days it took for it to be negotiated. I take little pleasure in seeing it start to fracture. It was right for the country then, and it is now. But it can only work if both sides act...
The Greatest Sporting Night of My Life
- 6 Aug 2012
I never thought I could attend a sporting occasion which surpassed the 2006 FA Cup Final. And then along came this year’s Championship Playoff Final. Last night I attended the evening session of the athletics at the Olympic Stadium. Well, we all know what happened. It proved t...
Top Ten Ways the Olympic Ceremony Would've Been Different If It Had Been Organised by Aidan Burley
- 29 Jul 2012
Alf Garnett and Vera Lynn dance the Charleston, while the crowd is showered with food stamps and Bird’s custard. Twenty minutes of BUPA nurses jumping up and down on beds Czech athletes ordered to remove blue wellies and replace them with shiny jack...
Let's Reward the Olympic Volunteers With a Medal Too
- 29 Jul 2012
The Olympics are only three days old but one thing that has already shone through is the extraordinary job being done by the 70,000 or so volunteers who are ensuring that people enjoy the Olympic experience. And I am not just talking about those at the Olympic stadium. The tho...
Aidan Burley Was So Very Wrong
- 28 Jul 2012
I’ve just finished watching the Olympic Opening ceremony on Sky Plus, as last night I had to watch the pictures without sound, while I was hosting LBC’s Olympic opening ceremony programme. Why no sound? Well, because the BBC had the broadcasting rights, we were not allowed to ...
Tim Yeo Is The Unacceptable Face of Conservatism
- 24 Jul 2012
There’s a bitter row going on between George Osborne and Ed Davey about the level of subsidy given to renewable energy and wind turbines in particular The chairman of the Energy & Climate Change Select Committee, Tim Yeo, has waded in and attacked the Chancellor for wantin...
I've Reshuffled Cameron's Cabinet So He Doesn't Have To
- 19 Jul 2012
It is much to David Cameron’s credit that he is not a reshuffle addict. The fact is, he hates them. So it is little surprise that his first major reshuffle, predicted for early September, is much anticipated and is the subject of much speculation. Had it not been for Jeremy Hu...
North Norfolk Holiday Diary: Day 3
- 14 Jul 2012
Getting older has never really bothered me. Being 30 or 40 meant nothing. There was no mental anguish, no depression at the passing of my youth. So why is it that reaching the age of 50 this weekend feels something of a milestone? Last week I tweeted about how I was feeling a...
North Norfolk Holiday Diary: Day 2
- 13 Jul 2012
That really was just about a perfect day. We woke to bright sunshine, and that’s how it stayed all day, and boy did we make the most of it. Our dogs, Dude & Bubba are just one year old and have never been let of the lead. At home we have a lot of foxes on our land and the...
My Top 50 Favourite Tweeters
- 13 Jul 2012
I follow about 1,000 people on Twitter, an picking a Top 50 was almost impossible. In the end I decided that one of the main criteria would be to pick ones that made me smile, entertained me and informed me. I did think about not ranking them, but what’s the fun in that, and y...