Andrew Rawnsley to front 18DS Successor

A few more details about the successor to the late lamented 18 Doughty Street have emerged. ConservativeHome revealed yesterday that The Observer's Andrew Rawnsley is to be the editor in chief of PoliticsHomeIndex.com. This is certainly quite a coup for them. When Rawnsley's Sunday political programme was axed I approached him to become involved in 18DS, so I am pleased it has come to fruition.

I understand that former BBC political journalist Nick Assinder, who left the corporation last year, has also joined the company. Apart from ConservativeHome's Tim Montgomerie, Martin Bright, political editor of the New Statesman is also involved the initiative, which is intended to be politically balanced. The project is being run by Freddie Sayers, who is an occasional contributor to The Spectator and a close friend of the Clintons. I understand PHI is being billed as a 'Bloomberg for politics' and will aggregate all the latest political news stories in one place. It's very much a news based site and unlike 18DS will have no original programming content. A major part of its appeal is based on a daily opinion poll (called the PHI - The PoliticsHome Index) of 100 Westminster insiders.

I'm not sure exactly when it is launching fully but I really wish it well and hope that it will fill a niche in political life on the internet.

More on ConservativeHome and Puffbox.

PS. Just to be clear, I left 18 Doughty Street at the end of November. I have no involvement in the new project and am not part of the PHI poll of Westminster insiders - in case you were wondering!

New IPTV Set Top Boxes Soon to Released

I've just had a demo of the new IPTV set top boxes. These mean that all you lucky people will all soon be able to watch 18 Doughty Street through your own television rather than on a computer screen. The picture quality is incredible. Apparently they will be available through PC World and other outlets within a couple of months and be priced at around £100.

Richard Sambrook on 18 Doughty Street

Tonight at 9pm on 18 Doughty Street I will be interviewing Richard Sambrook, Director of the BBC World Service & Global News. In June and July 2003, he defended the BBC's story that the British Government had knowingly exaggerated claims over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in the September Dossier. If you have any questions from Richard, please leave them in the comments or email them to studio@18doughtystreet.com

UPDATE: You can see the interview HERE.

At 9pm on Wednesday we have another episode of COUNTERFACTUAL. I'll be joined by Robert Waller to discuss 'what if the 1903 Gladstone-MacDonald' pact had never happened and looking at Lib-Labbery down the years. Liberal historians Mark Pack and Duncan Brack will also be on the panel.

On Thursday from 9-11pm we'll be broadcasting a special Live Local Elections Preview programme, which will also look at the Scottish and Welsh elections. Among the guests are Welsh elections expert Joe Allen from Morgan Allen Moore (Cardiff) and the editor of Wales Elects 2007, Labour psephologist David Boothroyd from Indigo Public Affairs and former Conservative Director of Campaigns David Canzini.

And finally, last night I recorded an interview with the Secretary General of the Patriotic Democratic Front, Nigeria's governing party. We talk about the upcoming presidential election, corruption and the failure of African countries to do anything about Zimbabwe. You can see the interview HERE.

Something for the Weekend...

In case you have a quiet weekend ahead and have nothing better to do, here are links to some of the best programmes we've done on 18 Doughty Street this week. Can I recommend the two interviews with John Nott to you?

Brought to Book: Mike Smithson from Political Betting.com

Brought to Book: Francis Elliott & James Hanning on David Cameron

Brought to Book: Sir John Nott

One to One: John Nott on the Falklands War

Blogger TV with Stephen Tall, Andy Mayer & Chris Ames

An Hour with Mark Prisk MP

World View: Kosovo

Your Money: The Lyons Report

The World Ending in March: Light political satire with Ian Stone & Ayesha Hazirika

Culture Clash: The Queen & Children of Men

Issue of the Hour: Internet Security

Britain & America: The Crisis in Darfur

18 Doughty Street Highlights This Week

I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of some programmes we showed on 18 Doughty Street this week, which you might want to dip into if you're having a quiet weekend.

Interview with Ken Wales, producer of Amazing Grace

Interview with Humfrey Malins MP on drug rehabilitation

Interview with Robin Harris, author of Talleyrand

Interview with Ruth Lea, Director of Global Vision

Andrew Mitchell's report from Burma

Wolmar's World - Christian Wolmar & Guests

Talking with Tatchell - Peter Tatchell on Solar Power

Interview with Brian Monteith MSP

Budget Special with Nick Palmer MP, Mark Francois MP and Lord Newby

Blogger TV

Ralph Harris Memorial Service

End of the Day Show - 'The 'Airplane' Special

World View - The End of Mugabe?

Culture Clash - Amazing Grace & 300

Viral Advertising: It's the Future and it Works

18 Doughty Street's WORLD WITHOUT AMERICA advert seems to have been rather a hit.

* Today it is the second most popular political video on Youtube
* It is the 23rd 13th most viewed video on Youtube today
* It is the 20th 12th top rated video on Youtube
* It has been viewed 30,00077,817 124,876 times on Youtube and 25,000 times on our own website
* It is the sixth most favourited video on Youtube today
* It has 770 1948 comments on Youtube
* It is the most commented on video of the day in the political section
* It is the third most commented on video on the whole of Youtube today
* Fox News (the real one) are featuring it tonight

Viral marketing, eh?

Nicholas Boles Steps Down from Policy Exchange

Anthony Browne, Chief Political Correspondent of The Times, will take over from Nicholas Boles as the Chief Executive of Policy Exchange. Nicholas is leaving the award-winning Think Tank to concentrate on his bid to be Mayor of London. He's now gone from 'listening' to 'running'. He's a very credible candidate and I wish him well. Talking of the mayoral race, I'll be interviewing Steve Norris tonight on 18 Doughty Street at 9pm.

Anthony Browne was the Brussels Correspondent before he moved to Westminster and will be a considerable loss to the paper. I understand that he used to be a Labour supporter, then joined the Conservatives but isn't attached to any political party at the moment.

I became a Trustee of Policy Exchange when it was formed in 2001. I've been delighted to see it grow to become one of the most influential think tanks in the country. Its expansion has been largely drive by one man, Nicholas Boles. He's exactly the kind of inspirational leader who commands loyalty from his colleagues and staff without ever having to ask for it. He's someone I'm delighted to call a friend.

Footnote: It seems the right time for me also to step down as a Trustee. I'm sure it will come as a great disappointment to all the conspiracy theorists out there, but I haven't actually been able to attend a single Policy Exchange Trustees meeting for eighteen months due to diary clashes. I think it is now a good time for Policy Exchange to appoint someone as a Trustee who will be able to commit more time than I have been able to recently.

UPDATE: Message to the anonymous trolls who are spouting their usual guff about Policy Exchange. Save yourselves the trouble. If you can't be bothered to identify yourselves, your comments won't be posted. And that goes for anonymous posters in general. If all you want to do is slag people off, go and do it elsewhere.

Politics for Adults: A World Without America

This is the fourth of 18DoughtyStreet.com's weekly adverts. At a time of rampant anti-Americanism this ad - produced with BritainAndAmerica.com - aims to remind the world of the great economic, technological and political benefits that the US has brought to the world. Click HERE for the page on 18DS.

UPDATE: The viriol against America displayed by some people in the Comments section of this post demonstrate why this Advert needed to be made. There is a disturbing level of anti-americanism in this country at the moment and someone needs to put the case for the defence. Whatever its faults, America is a beacon of freedom and has saved democracy three in the last century - twice from German tyranny and once from the Soviet jackboot. Some of the comments in this thread are from people who ought to know better.

Politics for Children

Courtesy of Beau Bo D'Or

Let no one say we don't have a sense of humour...

Ken Livingstone: The Movie

Click HERE to view the 18 Doughty Street commercial attacking Ken Livingstone. Click HERE to view the sources for every allegation made.

This is the third ad campaign from 18DoughtyStreet.com and this week's two minute ad attacks the high spending, low delivery record of London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Everything the advert says is sourced here. After you have watched the video please help to bring this campaign alive by forwarding it to friends using the 'Email this page to a friend' button. We do not have Ken Livingstone's £100m PR budget and the ability to put this advert into cinemas and on to billboards but with your help we can put a link to this ad into tens of thousands of email in-boxes.Also by registering on 18DoughtyStreet.com you can receive an email alert when we launch next week's and all future campaign ads. You might also like to watch 18DoughtyStreet.com's two previous commercials: one asks What will they tax next? and the other targets the 'conspiracy' of the main political parties to extract more money from taxpayers in order to pay for their campaigning expenses.

Next week's ad will attack arms sales to unsavoury regimes with bad human rights records. Click HERE to give us your script ideas.

A Glimpse (or an Eyeful) of Nadine Dorries's Thighs

This is why I now read Nadine Dorries's blog every day...

I finally saw my interview with Iain Dale last night. View The Interview Here. What a porker! TV really does put on twelve pounds. Those thighs! They looked the width of an average cruise liner – stockings, fashioned by Cammell Laird!!

And that was just Iain Dale………

Boom Boom. She shall now forever be known to me as 'thunder thighs'!

(Don't) Vote for Ken

The next campaign advert which 18 Doughty Street is making concerns Ken Livingstone. If you'd like to vote for one of the three idea click HERE.

Lords Slams EU Commission on TV Regulation

A report published today by the House of Lords European Union Committee criticises the Commission’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive for its attempt to introduce ‘burdensome and inappropriate’ regulation which could damage British industry. The EU’s proposals would see ‘television-like’ new media services like 18 Doughty Street come under the same European regulatory framework as traditional broadcasting.

The European Commission argued that these ‘new’ broadcasters are competing for audiences and advertising revenue with traditional broadcasters and so should be subject to the same rules. The Lords Committee are firm in rejecting this position. They argue that is not the role of regulation to protect established broadcasters from new competition operating under different business models. The Committee suggest it would be preferable to liberalise the provisions on advertising for established broadcasters rather than seek to extend existing provisions to new media services... They point out that enforcement of the proposed Directive will be fraught with difficulties particularly as the range of new media continues to develop and expand, and the definition of the services covered may not offer sufficient legal certainty. The Committee are particularly concerned that the EU’s proposals could force new media broadcasters to move their base of operations away from Europe and broadcast into the EU from a non-European base where they would be exempt from the Directive. This would be particularly damaging to the UK that has a thriving new media industry.

For the history of this issue and the disgraceful record of some Tory MEPs, including Christopher Beazley, on supporting further regulation, click HERE and HERE.