Articles tagged Diary:
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 23: Bonking LibDems & Their Leaks
- 20 Sep 2013
The poor old LibDems suffered from two rather embarrassing email incidents during their conference. The first was when a press officer sent their entire “Lines to Take” to the media instead of their MPs. MPs and ministers were given a checklist of five things to mention in eve...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 22: Why I'm Supporting my Friend Nigel Evans
- 14 Sep 2013
It’s difficult to say much about the Nigel Evans case without prejudicing his trial, but one thing is for certain. Over the last few months he has found out who his real friends are. And that will be even more the case over the months leading up to his trial. I know several pe...
ConservativeHome Diary Week 21: UKIP - The Bi-Sexuals of British Politics
- 6 Sep 2013
READER WARNING: There’s more than the usual dose of smut in this week’s column. This week I have been chairing three panels for the Daily Telegraph with the aim of compiling the Top 100 people on the right, left and the Top 50 Liberal Democrats, all of which will, as usual, b...