Dizzy discovers plans for Labour alternative to 18 Doughty Street

The excellent Tory blogger Dizzy, who is also an Evertonian (of course) has discovered plans for an alternative to 18 Doughty Street coming from a Labour point of view.

As ever, Dizzy shows us just what a great blogger he is.

That Paddy Ashdown interview on 18 Doughty Street

Paul Walter has already written in praise of Paddy Ashdown and his interview in 18 Doughty Street. He does have a lot to say that is interesting (I have always found Paddy engaging) and he has an interesting take on events surrounding Gordon Brown's "offer" to him of a cabinet position.

It's well worth a look.

Exclusive - Iain Dale to take on Norman Lamb again

After Iain Dale's first encounter with Norman Lamb, two local council by-election defeats in North Norfolk for the Tories followed by a 10,606 vote mauling at the General Election in the North Norfolk constituency, some might expect Iain to have learnt his lesson. But no, Iain is set to take on Norman lamb, Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk again.



It is, not as first seems though as Iain will this time take Norman Lamb on in the confines of the 18 Doughty Street studio this Tuesday 12th June at 10pm.


It is an interesting situation with an MP being interviewed by the person who wanted his job. But it makes it all the more interesting when in this case, Iain knows Norman well, but Iain also suffered one of the Tories worst results in terms of electoral swings at the 2001 election.


I'm sure it will certainly be worth watching just to see how they get on and how aggressive Iain chooses to be in his line of questioning.

Chairman of Electoral Commission pulls out of Iain Dale interview - Draw your own conclusions from this

Iain Dale mentioned some time ago that he was going to be interviewing Sam Young, Chairman of the Electoral Commission on his show on 18 Doughty Street. Now, all of a sudden, he has pulled out of the interview.
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The question has to be asked, why do this right now ?


Could it be the debacle over the Scottish elections ? Might it be the farcical way in which local election counts have been carried out in some districts using less than transparent electronic methods of counting ?


Whatever his reasons are, it is a shame that a public servant is avoiding this important opportunity for questions to be put to him. 18 Doughty Street's audience is a highly educated, politically sophisticated one and it is the ideal method for proper searching questions to be put to him. I know from Iain Dale's comments that he was looking forward to asking those important questions that need to be answered.


As it stands, it appears that Sam Younger is simply wimping out, and given the problems at the moment, it is a disservice to everyone who is interested in protecting democracy and cares about politics.

18 Doughty Street is turning in to 18 Tory Street

I've tried hard to give 18 Doughty Street the benefit of the doubt since it started, and I had, on the whole, thought it had done its best to follow some sort of middle way.

Quite clearly all the money behind 18 Doughty Street is Tory, and aside from some token "lefties", the main presentation "anchors" are Conservatives too. Now 18 Doughty Street has had some semblance of balance by at least having lots of non-Tory guests, although Tories still outnumber guests from other parties by some distance. However, I've no great problem with that.

What I do have a problem with is 18 Doughty Street running attack ads on themes that can only really benefit the Tories.

The first attack ad that I saw was against state funding for local parties. Clearly an issue the Tories have opposed for some years. It goes without saying that the Conservative Party would have been pleased with this ad.

Now, its attacking Ken Livingstone. It's not that they've attacked Ken, of whom I am no fan, but I gather that people who back 18 Doughty Street have also been linked to Tory mayoral candidates, so this starts to smack of the worst type of American negative campaigning. What is worse though is that it appears that 18 Doughty Street is starting to become the vehicle for political campaigning, and in particular, Tory campaigning, that we were all told it would not be.

I'd refer people to Iain Dale's article about the latest attack ad as the comments make some interesting points better than I can.

It's a shame that 18DS is losing credibility by running these attack ads as the principle of the channel is a good one. I'd be interested to read what others have to say on this issue.