I have a reasonably good relationship with Iain Dale. We met for coffee this week, and might well work together on some things in future. So I’m no knee jerk Iain Dale hater. At the height of the e-mail furore (how long ago it seems…), Iain libelled Tom Watson in the National press. Iain apologised at

In an earlier post, I referred to this exchange, where Iain Dale's lawyer tried and failed to specify an example of libel on my website after accusing me of repeated libel: L: So far as I'm concerned, it is plainly...

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Anthony Barnett (London, OK):  The new issue of Total Politics is out and well displayed in W H Smiths in Victoria (but not yet on its website). It has an exchange over whether there should be fixed term parliaments which includes a piece Iain Dale asked me to write some time ago - it is a very pleasant surprise to open a magazine and find you have written in it! The exchange is a bit awkward as I...

This evening I have been at a gala fundraising dinner for Policy Exchange at Vinopolis near London Bridge. Boris Johnson was the guest speaker and he put in a bravura performance - just the right mix of Borisisms and political meat. Nicholas Boles can be justifiably proud of what he created all the way back in 2001. A lot of people along the way have helped make Policy Exchange the biggest and arg...

My first post titled Irony was quite good, and involved Iain Dale. But this one is a cracker. And involves Iain Dale again. Tom Watson… Mr Watson complained of an article by Iain Dale, headed “Smears, glowering henchmen-like the Nixon White House” published in the Mail on Sunday on 12 April 2009 in which it was stated

Well done to Nick Clegg for becoming the first major party leader to take on Policy Exchange over its unscrupulous approach to Islam. (hat-tip Sunny Hundal) In a statement carried by the PoliticsHome website on Friday, Clegg criticised the think-tank over for a privately circulated briefing against the Sunday's Global Peace and Unity event in London. The Policy Exchange briefing I have seen seeks ...

Here's an interesting postscript to Nick Clegg's attack on Policy Exchange for privately briefing against the Global Peace and Unity event in London. One of the organisations cited by Policy Exchange, the Society of Americans for National Existence, has objected to my characterisation of them in a post at Spinwatch. On their blog a SANE staffer writes: In this link the leftist Brits continue to b...

"Dear Iain Dale, I think Nadine Dorries is a twat. This doesn't mean I think you're a twat. But as it happens, I do." - Anton Vowl 1. According to lawyers acting for Iain Dale, I am not mad/insane and...

The Iain Dale Fan Club started at midday on April 16, 2009, after Iain Dale stood by an allowed me to be smeared as a paedophile, refused to discuss that, banned me from the comments on his website for daring...