Further to my previous post, which mentioned Forest’s Stand Up for Liberty shows at The Comedy Store in Manchester, I don’t think I’ve ever told the full story of the 2013 event.

After the success of the 2011 show, I was keen to do it again when the Conservatives returned to Manchester two years later. But this time I wanted to make a whole evening of it and organise three back-to-back events, including Stand Up for Liberty, and promote them under one umbrella - The Liberty Lounge.

I can’t think many people will be dismayed by the BBC’s decision to cancel Live At The Apollo.

The consensus on my social media timeline (which I accept may not be universally representative) is that the long-running show lost its way a long time ago, but I was pleased to see ‘heavy metal comedian’ Steve Hughes mentioned by several people as an example of what the show has been missing.

The header on this blog features a photo of me and comedian Simon Evans at the Forest Annual Lunch in 2023.

It was taken on the cigar terrace at Boisdale of Belgravia and it’s one of my favourite images because it captures the essence of that event - people enjoying themselves.

As some of you know, I am a huge fan of XTC, the title of whose 1979 single (‘Making Plans for Nigel’) has been referenced in a bizarre dispute between Reform's Nigel Farage and the Green Party’s Zack Polanski.

As I understand it, Polanski shared a social media post that included multiple images from a Green Party event, one of which was a photo of a man wearing a t-shirt that featured an illustration of a French-style guillotine accompanied by the words ‘We’re only making plans for Nigel’.

It was reported last week that Restore Britain, the ‘far right’ party led by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe, ‘wants to bring back smoking in pubs’ which is technically true, but the proposal is actually a little more nuanced than that.

According to one report, a Restore Britain Government will allow pub landlords and other venue owners to install a smoking room. "If adults want to smoke inside a contained room, and the landlord is happy to provide that, then it's none of our business. Crack on.”

Just back from a seven-day cruise aboard Cunard’s Queen Victoria.

We flew to Rome and boarded the ship at the port of Civitavecchia, which is about an hour’s drive from the airport. First stop was Livorno (Italy), followed by a day at sea, then La Seine-sur-Mer (France), Ajaccio (Corsica), another day at sea, and, finally, Valencia (Spain) before we disembarked at Barcelona and caught our flight home to Gatwick.

I’m currently reading Iain Dale’s very enjoyable memoir, Have I Said Too Much? My Life in Politics and the Media.

Today Iain is arguably best known as a political commentator and the presenter of a long-running show on LBC, but his career has taken numerous twists and turns, and there have been so many ups and downs (and tears!) it’s hard to know where to start.

A few weeks ago someone suggested I might like to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) currently taking place in London.

CPAC is an American organisation whose conferences bring a touch of American razzle-dazzle to the political sphere. The GB version – led by Liz Truss – was supposed to bring the same energy to the UK but I wasn’t really attracted by the list of speakers.