Whether or not you agree with him, Iain is clearly a highly effective advocate for the Conservative Party and I'm sure will go on to play a significant role in national politics in years to come.
But now that this glaring injustice has been righted, it is perhaps timely to ask what on earth was achieved by leaving Dale off the list in the first place, other than to make the debate over the introduction of the A-list much more rancourous than it otherwise would have been?
All it did was foster a doubtless wrong impression among grassroots Tories that supporters of David Davis, or outspoken bloggers, or middle-aged men - or possibly even all three - were being victimised.
7 comments:
Blimey, Iain Dale and Adam Ricketts - a dream ticket if ever I saw one. Adam can whoo the young first time voters - and Iain can get to grips with their Mums....... and their Grannies.
Good luck to Iain. He says that it won't affect his blogging, but I wonder whether an MP, or even a cabinet minister in the next regime, could be so forthright and prolific.
Let's hope so.
Toque - you are hoping for the best - but I think are expecting the worse..... Iain is bound to start watching his peez and cooze, in favour of the Party line - and that is sad.
I left the following comment on Guido and I'll repeat it here in response to Alfie:
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Ultimately you may be right, but it will be at least three years, and probably longer, before Iain is in the position Boris was in, of having to choose between "journalism" (for want of a better word) and a frontbench career.
I reckon he'll be able to squeeze a fair amount of blogging into that time, and let's face it, if his blog continues to put on readers at the same rate as currently, by 2009 he'll have more than the Torygraph!
Another thing to bear in mind is that, such is the pace of technological change that, by the time Iain reaches the Cabinet/Shadow Cabinet, the whole blogging phenomenon will, in any case, probably have been overtaken by some new craze.
A lot of people seem concerned that Iain's blogging will deteriorate as he climbs the greasy pole, but I think Iain's blogging seems to have improved the further he's progressed up the Tory ladder. His Diary on the Politico's website (very much like a blog) during the 01 GE was just witless bitching (in the style of Amanda Platell) against Labour but, after he became a Tory PPC for Norfolk North at the last GE, he seemed to mellow no end. It's as if, since he realised his ambition (to stand for Parliament) he's become happier in himself, and a hell of a lot less snippy.
Or maybe he's just mellowed with age, and his beloved West Ham reaching last season's FA Cup Final.
Anyway, good luck to him. The House of Commons could do with a few people who've run something, as opposed to all the ex-researchers, speechwriters. Yes, I know he's written speeches for David Davis, but he ran Politico's before that.
And his titular chapter in Prime Minister Portillo was very funny (although Senor Portillo was not amused).
We shall see, but Iain seems to be a man of his word, so I have every confidence that he will continue to provide us with an excellent sand pit in which to play.
And the Spectator has gone to hell in the proverbial post Boris.
Really? Fraser Nelson's Politics column seems rather good. Pity about the website being laden with active x controls and other stuff, though.
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