Today was the day I realised that Boris had it in him to be a first rate politician. You see, in my heart of hearts I have always wondered if he had the self discipline to get there, or even the passion. His speech this afternoon to the Conservative Conference was a barnstormer, laced with humour (but not too much), with real substance. It was a speech which said to me: "You can take me seriously. I'm in it to win it". The delivery was good and the content was good.
Following last week's list of Britain's 100 most influential people on the Left, Brian Brivati and I have compiled a similar list for people on the Right. The first installment (positions 100 down to 76) are published in today's Sunday Telegraph (short introductory article HERE, list and short profiles HERE). The rest of the list will be published over the next three days in the Daily Telegraph. I might as well say now that you will all disagree entirely with the position of every single entry.
Click on any of the images to enlarge them, then save them to your hard drive, upload the image to your blog provider and then insert the relevant code into the template. I'd like to provide the code myself, but haven't been able to work out how to do it.
The GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING 2007 is now available. You can buy it from Politico's (£9.74) or Amazon (£14.98). This is the final list which will be published on this blog (ok ok... I get the hint).
This is an extract from a speech given by Culture Secretary to the Royal Society on 13 Sept. Click HERE for the whole thing. If you must.Now, none of this is to say it hasn’t been a difficult year for television. It has. Of course, a politician talking to a journalist about trust is a bit like a City banker talking to a Premier League footballer about pay restraint. But, even if I’m in no position to teach broadcasters any lessons, the same thing applies to us both. In both politics and television, you devalue the only currency you have if you forfeit the trust of the public. I’m glad to see that there is a widespread recognition that something has seriously gone wrong and that it needs to be put right. Lessons need to be learned. But there is a right lesson and a wrong lesson to draw.
The right lesson is that broadcasters and producers need to respect their audience. You need to put your house in order, and if you don’t there will be a clamour for OFCOM and the BBC Trust to take further action. The wrong lesson is that this shows the public are now liable to give up on public service broadcasting. Actually, the episode shows the opposite: an idea is dying when it no longer warrants any comment, not when it provokes outrage. The public outcry showed that people still rely on broadcasting for accurate and truthful information.
Contrast that with people’s expectations of the internet, where people understand that not everything they see will meet the same high standards as they expect from TV and radio. It is in the very nature of that medium that people can say anything legal they want, and then be judged in the court of public opinion. At the end of a bad year, I don’t think the bell is tolling for broadcasting. I do think people feel let down. But you only get to feel let down if you hold something in high regard in the first place.
This morning James Purnell’s spokesman said that he had agreed to the fake photo but thought it was for internal use. This afternoon he is blaming the hospital, changing his story and pretending that he didn’t agree to the fake photo after
all. People will make their own minds up whether to believe the hospital or a Labour Minister but his position tonight looks entirely untenable.
I've just been talking to the elections officer.She in the middle of putting together the new electoral register, effective from 1st December. (Have you returned your form?) In my rural district there are about 105,000 voters, she currently estimates that 10,000 people have changed their addresses or are new on the role. But currently those new details don't stand. i.e. approx 10% of the voting population in this area are affected.If an election is called now Gordon Brown has to give 18 working days notice. Each of those 10,000 people will then need to be written to asking if they want their new details to be the ones that stand. If they do they have to write back with a deadline 11 working days before the election. (Not a lot of days there...) If someone has moved within the polling area they can still vote as if from their old address - but many may not have.
Like most people in politics or the media I am totally reliant on my laptop computer. Despite various people trying to wean me off Sony Viaos and telling me how wonderful Apple Macs are, I’m a creature of habit, and like to stick to what I know. I’ve had my current laptop for a year, but I know I should get a new one. How do I know? Because I can no longer see the letters on the keyboard. I was introduced to typing at the age of ten when my father bought me an old iron typewriter from Cambridge market. I spent hours as a teenager bashing out football league tables with two fingers – hitting the letter keys for all they were worth. The trouble is, I still type as if I’m using an iron typewriter. I may seem a gentle sort, but when I type I can be vicious.
Up at 6.30 for the Andrew Marr Show, Sunday. No time for breakfast. Dash to studio. Dash back. Enter hotel. Enter breakfast room. Nice table by window. “Tea please.” Huge meal – full monty. Up to my room, third floor. Can’t find room 3301. Foreign chambermaid says “not existing”. The fool knows nothing. I show keycard. Wrong hotel. Profuse apology. Hasty exit.Lovin' it.
In a further sign of turmoil and panic in the Conservative Party, Shadow Home Secretary and defeated leadership candidate David Davis has cancelled all his appearances at fringe meetings in Blackpool.I don't think I am breaking a confidence if I tell you that DD told me some time ago he wouldn't be speaking at any fringe events at this conference. So far from cancelling "all his appearances", he had never accepted any in the first place.
We have had ten years of record investment in public services and the
highest employment ever, as well as a new prime minister who was the most
competent chancellor, creating stability and a growing economy.
This would be the same Judith Symes who appeared before Poplar & Canning Town Conservatives a few short monthd ago wanting to be their candidate, and whose main pitch to them was how appalling Gordon Brown is.
She complains "elitism and exclusivity are at the heart of the party." What a hypocrite. She lives in one of the most exclusive riverside developments in Docklands - Free Trade Wharf on The Highway. How she can refer to "exclusivity" in Tower Hamlets from the decadence of her yuppie luxury apartment beggars belief. I doubt there will be many people in the Tory Party shedding tears about this. I certainly won't be.The GUIDE TO POLITICAL BLOGGING 2007 is published this week. Featured among the 288 pages are a myriad of blog lists. Now for the TOP 100 RIGHT OF CENTRE BLOGS. This list was compiled by a panel of 12 right wing bloggers. Bearing in mind who they chose as Number 1 I should make clear that I had no part in it!
