18DoughtyStreet Talk TV Channel Trailer

Visit the 18DoughtyStreet Blog HERE. Thanks for all the comments on the thread below. I'll be replying to them later. Hope you enjoy this trailer. And for all of those who seem to think the channel is going to be biased towards one particular political party, watch out for our two female co-presenters - neither of whom is a Conservative!

A Few Links...

Dan Sabbagh, Media Editor of The Times, writes HERE about the success of right of centre blogs and the launch of 18DoughtyStreet Talk TV. Matthew Parris has an excellent half hour Podcast HERE from the LibDem Conference. Channel 4 News Morning Reports carries a brief interview with yours truly about 18DoughtyStreet HERE.

New Political Internet TV Station To Be Launched

18 DOUGHTY STREET TALK TV - POLITICS FOR ADULTS - GROUNDBREAKING NEW CURRENT AFFAIRS TV CHANNEL TO BE LAUNCHED ON THE INTERNET

10th October will see the launch of Britain’s first political Internet TV Channel. 18DoughtyStreet Talk TV will broadcast for four hours a night, Mondays to Thursdays, from studios in London’s Bloomsbury with a mix of live and pre-recorded programmes. It aims to break the mould of current affairs television with a mix of opinionated and controversial programming.

In a groundbreaking initiative the station is building a network of 100 nationwide and worldwide citizen journalist reporters, each equipped with their own camcorder, which they can use to film reports for 18DoughtyStreet to broadcast.

At the heart of the station will be a website of blogs and daily votes. Comments left on the blogs will shape the content of the programmes. The daily votes will help determine which news stories headline every programme. Programme presenters will have access to the blogs during live programming, with the viewer seeing the blog next to the live streaming screen on their computers. All programmes will be available for download after livestreaming.

The channel’s founders believe that conventional political TV has let down its audience by dumbing down political debate to the lowest common denominator. It believes that no political party truly understands the electorate’s disappointment with the current state of politics. It aims to be an anti-establishment channel – championing rebel opinions in all of the mainstream parties and constantly questioning authority.

18DoughtyStreet has recruited two of Britain’s most successful bloggers to be the main
presenters – Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome.com and Iain Dale, Britain’s best
known blogger.

Tim Montgomerie will present UP FRONT - a fair and opinionated news programme at
8pm every night - all based on the output of that day’s blogs.

VOX POLITIX WITH IAIN DALE will go out at 9pm. Dale will be joined by alternate
co-presenters Rena Valeh and Zoe-Ann Phillips as well as two sofa-guests. The show will
be a mix of news and discussion with the final half hour devoted to a thirty minute debate
on a news topic of the day.

Other programmes on the channel include...
• END OF THE DAY SHOW – Live one hour discussion show each night at 11pm – including a long preview of the following day’s newspapers
• ONE TO ONE – a 30 minute interview designed to restore the idea of serious discussion
• PARTY TALK – with Zoe Ann Phillips – a Monday night show previewing the week in politics
• BROUGHT TO BOOK – Iain Dale talks to guests from the world of political books
• SELL THE IMPOSSIBLE will task a panel of expert politicians and bloggers with the job of devising a strategy to sell controversial policies chosen by visitors to the station’s website.

There will also be specialist programmes – presented by anti-establishment campaign groups – that will spotlight the tax burden, the threat of terrorism and media bias.

The launch night of the channel will include an exclusive interview with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

Tim Montgomerie said:
“In twelve months political blogs have broken the monopoly enjoyed by the Westminster commentators but blogging is only the beginning of the new media revolution. Over the next few years internet entrepreneurs are set to storm the decaying fortresses of the mainstream media. They will offer a radical alternative to the BBC’s pretence of impartiality, its obsession with personalities and its unwillingness to commit serious amounts of time to the concerns of ordinary voters. Big businesses, self-important NGOs and timid political elites should also
start preparing their defences.”

Iain Dale said:
“This channel is all about politics for adults. It really will be by the people for the people. We’re not going to get stuck in the Westminster village. We’ll be talking about what’s really being discussed in the pubs and clubs, not what the metropolitan elite think ought to be discussed. We’ll be using our blogs to set our agenda, not focus groups. We believe that within the next twelve months people will start watching internet TV through their normal TV screens. Few people realise that every TV screen has a plug in the back to which a computer can be
connected. Within twelve months Tim’s blog and my blog have become two of the three most read political blogs in Britain. We aim to replicate that success with 18DoughtyStreet Talk TV.”

Editor’s Note
18DoughtyStreet Talk TV will broadcast from purpose built studios at 18 Doughty Street,
in London’s Bloomsbury. It will use the latest streaming technology to broadcast live programmes on the internet. All programmes will be available for later download so people can watch them when they want to. Programmes will also be podcastable either on video or with sound only. The channel will initially broadcast Monday-Thursday, four hours per night from 8pm until Midnight. It will initially only be available on the internet.

You can visit the 18DoughtyStreet Blog HERE.

Well Who'd Have Thought It...

[blogpuff] I'm told Andrew Neil told Daily Politics viewers on Tuesday: "Iain Dale's blog is the first one I read every day". I always said he was a man of discernment. [/blogpuff]

Ming Upsets LibDem Party Organisations

I didn't hear Ming's speech today so I won't comment on second hand reports. But I do know that Ming has succeeded in upsetting just about every Liberal Democrat party organisation going. Each conference the leader takes a tour of the exhibition stands. Ming offered himself for just 45 minutes, meaning that he only had time to visit the commercial stalls and skipped over all the party stalls which are traditionally visited by the leader. It's not a very sensible move upsetting organisations which have a lot of power within the party, are run by ordinary members, and have the ability to submit motions to conference. Tsk Tsk.

PS Click HERE to read why Alex Foster couldn't face staying for Ming's speech. He speaks for many of us who attend Party Conferences. Once you have heard one leader's speech, you've heard them all.

Policy Exchange Wins Think Tank of the Year

Prospect Magazine has awarded the prize of ‘Think Tank of the Year’ to Policy Exchange. Nicholas Boles has done a fantastic job in making Policy Exchange one of the leading centre right think tanks. Anyone who has read any of their publications will know that it is a think tank that literally throbs with new ideas and often thinks the unthinkable.

Accepting the award, Nick Boles said: “We at Policy Exchange are naturally delighted with this award. The UK, and London in particular, is very fortunate to have a policy community second only to the United States. The award is very much in tune with the spirit of the age. A decade ago, the centre-right was demoralised and perceived to be flagging intellectually. The rise of blogs such as Conservative Home and Iain Dale’s Diary, the renewed interest in what the Opposition is saying, and the award of this title are all confirmation that the centre-right is back with a vengeance.”

Quite.

Declaration of interest: I am a proud trustee of Policy Exchange!

EU Serf's Guide to New Labour EU Sellouts

EU Serf has a good post about John Reid's imminent sellout on our EU veto in crime and justice issues.

Will he or won't he? This is how it normally goes:

1. Wild eyed federast asks for powers
2. British government minister refuses point blank
3. Another federast asks again
4. Government minister looks into it
5. Opposition & Media kick up a stink
6. Meeting held, British Minister stands firm
7. Public forget the whole affair
8. Government caves in
9. Look for robust language tomorrow and a treachery at a later date.

Serf's got it just about spot on.

There May Be Trouble Ahead...

Oh dear. Guardian hack Ros Taylor has started away against the Guidomeister. Read THIS and be afraid. Very afraid.

She concludes... Guido Fawkes is a blog of its disillusioned, exhausted time; it's a blog for the tail-end of the Blair era and the alarming lack of engaging alternatives. It may be anarchic, but it's not revolutionary. Sorry, Guido. Do your worst.

Does she not remember that Guido once tried to blow up the Palace of Westminster? Guardian Towers in Farringdon Road would be a doddle.

UPDATE Fri: Mick Fealty aka Slugger O'Tolle comes to Guido's defence HERE. Guido is so far remaining an untypical staesmanlike silence. Maybe he's keeping his gunpowder dry.

Kennedy Refuses Ming's Handshake

The LibDems must be really thanking Paddy Ashdown for needlessly revealing that Charles Kennedy refused to shake Ming Campbell's hand after his speech on Tuesday. At a stroke, Ashdown demonstrated to us all that the wounds from Kennedy's overthrow are well and truly gaping open. I suppose Kennedy thought that if he shook Ming's right hand, his left might be used to stab him in the back again. Actually, what the refusal did was to display a petulance entirely lacking in his speech. If he truly does still harbour hopes of a leadership comeback he would do well to dispose of such things.

Spooks Plot Was a Real Coup

Spooks is one of my favourite programmes so I was really looking forward to the new series. However, greater love hath no man than he lay down his Spooks for the LibDem Conference. So I only got around to watching it last night. Was it worth the wait? You bet.

The two episodes were about a coup attempt by renegade secret service agents, a media mogul and the Cabinet Secretary. The bit I loved came during a fake News 24 news bulletin when BLOGGERS LEAD PROTESTS was on the strapline at the bottom of the News 24 screen. They then showed Mi5 officers watching a. series of impassioned pleas by bloggers for people to rise up against the coup. Sadly, Guido and Recess Monkey were nowhere to be seen. Already under house arrest as dangerous subversives I expect.

The plot was so convincing that I started thinking of the circumstances in which the fictional events portrayed in the programme could become reality. Democracy is a very fragile thing. Who was it who said something like 'dictators rely on good men remaining silent'?

The only bit which jarred was when the Cabinet Secretary blurted out: "I'm only a bloody politician, you know." Er, no actually, he' a civil servant. But then again, nowadays...

EXCLUSIVE: Meacher Weighs Up Leadership Bid

It may seem astonishing to you and me, but Michael Meacher, the man who in the late 1970s was regarded as Tony Benn's vicar on earth, is seriously weighing up a challenge to Gordon Brown for the Labour Party leadership. Well, perhaps more accurately, I should say he is considering challenging John McDonnell for the position of Leftie candidate who will be smashed by Brown/Johnson/Reid/Benn (delete as appropriate). Michael Meacher's career has been one long failure. When he took Blair's shilling he sold out to the left, who now regard him with utter contempt. His conversion to the green cause raises a hollow laugh among those who remember his years as Environment Minister when he appeared to be more concerned with holding on to his red boxes than doing anything meaningful for the wider green cause.

So, is this speculation on my part which can be dismissed as blog gossip? No. I know for a fact that Meacher has been discussing a leadership bid with at last two senior (but equally maverick) Labour MPs. He hasn't decided whether to go ahead yet, but he's got an ego which in the end will prevail, I suspect. What fun.

EXCLUSIVE: Kate Hoey Seeks Damages From Labour Party Members

Remember THIS story? Well I've been leaked the two letters above (click on the images to enlarge), which show that Labour MP Kate Hoey is seeking financial compensation, in her capacity as chairman of the Countryside Alliance, for the damage caused to the CA stand at the Labour Party conference last year by three Labour Party members.

She is seeking £1,000 from each of them. Nothing like a bit of fraternal solidarity! I understand the Labour Party has banned the three of them from the Manchester conference, so there can be no humiliating handover of cheques. What a shame. It seems the Countryside Alliance is again exhibiting at the conference. Let's hope their 24 hour security won't be [terrible pun] outfoxed [/terrible pun]... I'll just get my coat...

Seriously, Kate Hoey is a woman of great courage. I just wish she'd do just one more courageous thing. And I think you know what I mean.

Leading Unionist Defects to Conservatives

News from Slugger O'Toole of a defection to the Conservatives in Northern Ireland tomorrow. See HERE. James Leslie is a former Ulster Unionist MLA and according to Slugger he "was considered a highly talented junior minister with a solid local voter base". Northern Ireland Conservatives will be highly delighted.

More PodCasting Campery With Niles

When I was at the LibDem Conference I was asked to do a podcast with Alex Foster who runs Niles's Blog - one of my favourite LibDem Blogs. We even did a bit of it in German! There's also an insight into what happened on the casting couch a couple of weeks ago. You can listen to it HERE, courtesy of LibDem Voice.

Jenny Tonge Returns to the Gutter

I've never understood why people take Jenny Tonge seriously. Even most LibDems share my view of her. Yesterday she was at it again at a fringe meeting...

"The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they have probably got a certain grip on our party"

In January 2004 Tonge was was sacked as a front bench Liberal Democrat spokesperson after expressing support for Palestinian suicide bombers. Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and BICOM are nbow calling for her to be sacked from the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party (she's now a Peer).

Gavin Stollar a spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel said: "Jenny Tonge's original support for suicide bombers in Israel got her sacked from the frontbench. I think her vulgar repetition and rhetoric means that her position within the party needs to be seriously reviewed.”

Jeremy Newmark, Chief Executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, said: “Two weeks ago an independent Parliamentary Inquiry warned of linkage between this kind of discourse and themes common to antisemitism. Jenny Tonge has provided shocking evidence that the Inquiry was right to be concerned. Conspiracy theories of this nature provide a breeding ground for the politics of hatred. The Liberal Democrat leadership must take action.”

Ben Novick, a BICOM spokesperson said: "Unfortunately, we are not surprised by Jenny Tonge's comments, but we are still shocked. At a time when suicide bombing and terrorism is affecting many liberal democratic societies across the world, it is truly shocking to hear a Liberal Democrat parliamentarian espouse such sentiments.”

I think any comment from me is superfluous. But feel free to fill in the blanks. Jenny Tonge is a ******* ****** *** ***.

Charles Kennedy Back as LibDem Leader According to LibDems Website

As you know, I've had quite a good time at the LibDem conference this week. I wasn't going to bother turning up tomorrow for the Leader's Speech, but the LibDems seem to have had a change of leader without me noticing. Click HERE and scroll down the agenda to 11.30am...

11:30 - F49 Speech by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP
Chair: Simon Hughes MP (President of the Liberal Democrats)
Aide: Duncan Brack (Chair, Federal Conference Committee)

Perhaps Ming got bad news from the Electoral Commission Doctors Stand which he visited this morning (see pic).

PS Just my little joke - it's the 2005 agenda, which for some reason is still on the LibDems website!

John Reid does a Brian Hanrahan

In the Spectator tomorrow, John Reid doesn't rule himself out, but he doesn't rule himself in...

"I don’t think anybody at this stage has to rule themselves out. I think we’ve got time just to take stock of the approach, the strategic position of the party and policy priorities, and I think that people will find, looking at the lessons of the last few weeks, that unity will be at a premium and that actually people want to work together more closely. I don’t think people have to take that decision at this stage. I have said all along that I will not make any statement in any case until Tony Blair has announced he’s going or when he’s going."

Funny that, I thought he had...

Blog Threatened by Greenwich Council Heavies

Remember all the fuss about AEG and the Dome? Greenwich Council have now threatened the GreenwichWatch Blog which first uncovered AEG's misrepresentation of the Greenwich chaplaincy. See HERE. Delighted to see GreenwichWatch are taking the Council's threats so seriously. So seriously that the blog now has a new strapline - see above.

Send the Sandwell One!

Bob Piper is obviously being categorised along with me as security risk. See HERE. Outrageous. Even if I can't go to the Labour Conference BOB MUST GO! He'd cause far more trouble than me.

Simon Heffer Should Read His Own Newspaper

Tim Montgomerie has an article on ConservativeHome today having a go at the Telegraph.

It's amazing that this morning's Telegraph has no mention of the Built to Last referendum result or the drop in Tory membership. The Torygraph is in danger of losing its status as the party's house journal.

Well let me add grist to Tim's mill.

Simon Heffer has his usual dig at the Conservatives today in his ranting column, alleging that politicians have remained silent on the prospect of a veto on home affairs issues in the European Union. Read his piece HERE. He implies the only people to take this seriously are the Freedom Association. Wrong. He should read his own newspaper (see HERE). A page 2 article says...

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said he was "astonished" that such a move was even being considered, after Geoff Hoon, the Europe minister, refused to rule out moving to majority voting in decisions on EU police and judicial co-operation. In a furious letter to John Reid, the Home Secretary, Mr Davis said: "To surrender the veto would directly contradict the pledge given by the former foreign secretary that 'there is no plan, proposal or intention to slip elements of the constitution through the back door'."

It makes you wonder, doesn't it. If Simon Heffer can't even be bothered to read his own newspaper or know what's going in the news pages, why on earth should we?