Monthly Archives: June 2009

Entertaining in small doses, but not all that bright and ultimately tiresome. Justin Forsyth suggests that the David Cameron should make personal attacks on the Prime Minister indirectly by using Shadow Cabinet proxies to do his dirty work and thus … Continued

On Saturday I had the chance to do a panel discussion about George Orwell, largely as a result of my near miss at the Orwell prize for blogs earlier in the year. It was an attractive offer, not least because … Continued

Personally, I don’t think it’s particularly unreasonable for any political party to refuse to put down precise spending markers at the absolute bottom of a recession. There’s an argument for doing so – you could then say “this is what … Continued

Having lived through dozens of such launches, I understand the scepticism of an un-named “senior whitehall official” quoted in the Financial Times about the efficacy of the issuing of endless policy documents (I’m also dryly amused at the cynicism of … Continued

Tedious Personal Info alert: I have just been entered into the 2010 Brigton Marathon. Your second marathon is a much bigger deal than your first, imo. Lots of training lies ahead.

Spare a thought for 24 hour news presenters. It must be awful having to witter on about Michael Jackson for hour after hour with nothing actually happening.

“Hands off the people of Iran” or Hopi for short, is not my type of organisation. I always feel distinctly uncomfortable whenever i’m told that supporting the values of democracy, liberty and fraternity means that I should oppose actions by … Continued

Two interesting things today – first Labour’s latest online ad on spending claims – and the Guardian’s discussion of Labour’s own spending claims You can see the Labour Ad here: The Guardian’s argument, in being… constructively critical of the Labour … Continued

I see Iain Dale did one the other day, and Paul Staines is doing a couple too. I’m tempted to say People, bloggers, journalists. Please don’t waste your time with this stuff. Honestly. But then I realised I’m also going … Continued

“Getting it” is clearly the phrase du jour. Everyone from David Cameron to Parmjit Dhanda to Janet Daley has views about whether politicians, journalists or the man in the street “Gets It”. But what on earth is “getting it”? I … Continued