Alastair's Blog

David Cameron is likely to feign indifference to Ed Miliband’s speech when asked about it, as he will be in the coming days. But he will be worried about it. When he PM was busy ‘decontaminating the brand’ of the Tory Party, there were a few notions that were central to that. One Nation was [...]

I missed Ed Miliband on the Marr programme and so, as is increasingly the case these days, I rely on twitter for a sense of how it went. According to some, Marr was a tad tougher than he tends to be on the other leaders, whilst the general reaction to Ed seems to have been [...]

Just as the media were looking for any signs of Vince Cable moving against Nick Clegg this week, so when we come to the Tory conference, there will be an even greater focus on Boris Johnson’s positioning vis a vis David Cameron. Boris, and the possibility of him being the next Tory leader and PM, [...]

In so far as our Prime Minister impinges upon today’s Labour media monitoring unit analysis of the day’s papers, it is via the revelations that he is to appear on a well-known American chat show, and that he is to ‘take to twitter.’ One of Mr Cameron’s closest advisors – no names but he is [...]

Remember the launch of Labour’s manifesto in 2001? No? Ok, well if I say ‘do you remember John Prescott thumping the bloke with a mullet hair cut?’ and possibly ‘do you remember Sharon Storer, the woman who took Tony Blair to task outside a Birmingham hospital?’ you might recall it better. But there was a [...]

A woman named Lucy Rocca recently sent me the following email. ‘I first became aware of your personal interest in alcohol issues in the UK, after watching your excellent Panorama programme about the middle classes’ growing binge drinking crisis, back in February. My business partner and I have both had personal struggles with alcohol but [...]

Here is a piece the Telegraph asked to do on Mitt Romney’s latest balls-up, his stupid comments on ‘victim’ Americans, and anti-peace Palestinians. We could be reaching the point of no return for Mr R. S and M. Two vital ingredients of any political campaign. No, this is not yet another examination of the Fifty [...]

Out early-ish today to do breakfast telly (sandwiched between discussions on Kate Middleton’s breasts and Cheryl Cole’s hair) on the Mental Health Discrimination Bill which is getting its second reading in the Commons right now. One or two people even more Labour tribal than I am got a bit antsy at my expressing support and [...]

I was really determined not to drone on about the Olympics any more, but having just been to City trader BGC’s charity day, I feel I have to. Because the Olympic spirit was alive and well and wafting around spreading its goodness whenever an Olympian or Paralympian ventured near. BGC has had a September 11 [...]

I’m writing this on the train to Manchester, where I will be downing a few plateloads of pasta, trying to get a decent sleep, then waking up to the prospect of a bike ride to Birmingham to help raise funds for the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research Pedal for Petrov campaign. As I do so, I [...]