Wes Streeting

Wes Streeting

Coming straight to Cheltenham from Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Wes Streeting joined me at Cheltenham Town Hall on Thursday afternoon to discuss his ‘memoir of growing up and getting on’. Wes took a packed audience through the book’s intriguing title ‘One Boy,...
Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee

At Cheltenham interviewing Polly Toynbee about her fascinating new book, ‘An Uneasy Inheritance’.  In part a biography of her distinguished antecedents, part memoir, part social history with a smattering of polemic, the book took Polly ten years to write. Whilst...
Hull’s memorial to lost Trawlermen

Hull’s memorial to lost Trawlermen

After more than twenty years, Hull’s memorial to lost trawlermen has finally been opened on St Andrew’s Quay. I was honoured to be asked to speak at the opening ceremony on Sunday, September 24th. Here I am the day before at the entrance to the memorial garden which...
Summer Newsletter

Summer Newsletter

I’m writing this in Crete, drinking a toast to you the reader from a taverna on the shores of the Libyan sea. We’re in Agia Gallini, where ‘One of Our Ministers is Missing’ is partially set. Indeed, one of my pleasant tasks on this trip is to present a copy of the...
Chancellor of the University of Hull

Chancellor of the University of Hull

On Monday I had the honour of being installed as Chancellor of the University of Hull.  Over the following four days I presented 2418 degrees to students in a range of departments including the Hull York Medical School.   My role is purely ceremonial but it was...
Probus Club

Probus Club

It’s a very rare occasion when I have to wear a tie these days. In Parliament it was a requirement. A gentleman (the loose description for male MPs) could not enter the chamber of the House of Commons without a tie, or a jacket for that matter. The rules have eased a...