Iain Dale’s diary

On Thursday, as I mentioned in my previous post, I was in Birmingham to finalise plans for our forthcoming events at the Conservative conference.

When the Tories were last in Birmingham, two years ago, Forest hosted a drinks party that attracted 500 guests.

How many were drawn to the event by our guest speaker, LBC presenter (and former Conservative PPC) Iain Dale, I don’t know but I do know that Iain felt rather intimidated by the experience because he tweeted as much.

Anyway, I was thinking about that this morning when I read, on Iain’s blog, 7,000 words from a personal diary he started to write in 2002.

He abandoned it after only a few months which is a pity because it’s a really entertaining read, reminiscent of Gyles Brandreth’s Breaking The Code: Westminster Diaries which is a favourite book of mine.

It also (and this in no way influences my opinion!) includes two references to me:

Monday 21 October
Had a meeting with Simon Clark this afternoon. The main thing to come out of it is an idea to put to Associated Newspapers about launching a rival to The Spectator. Could be interesting.

Friday 25 October
Had lunch yesterday with Jane Mays from the Mail. Ostensibly to sound her out about whether Associated might be interested in launching a rival to the Speccy. This arose out of a talk with Simon Clark on Monday about how we could take the Politico magazine to the next stage. She seemed quite keen, but not sure if anything will come of it.

Nothing did come of it but if I have time tomorrow I might explain the background to these entries.

Meanwhile do read the whole thing. These extracts don’t really do Iain’s embryonic diary justice. The rest is far more interesting!

See ‘Six weeks in the autumn - my very personal diary from 2002’ (Iain Dale).