Bob Stewart MP on Times Radio saying he’s backing Penny M because of her bravery. Asked for an example he says she bellyflopped a dive on the reality show Splash and then came back to dive again.
Been meaning to do this for a while and have a train journey so… everyone is always saying they have run out of podcasts. During one lockdown I started writing a list of every podcast I recommend (I listen to *a lot* of podcasts). Here’s a thread of them for general use:
Always utterly bemused after every press conference by people tweeting me insults themed around their view that I look young. Sir, I own three different types of eye cream, you are not going to upset me with that line of attack.
This week: a howl into the void about a government that has denied the young all the nice things conservatism promises, and instead of fixing this comforts itself by choosing to believe we don’t vote Conservative because we are Too Woke.
Imagine being a person who would think this. Then imagine being a person who would say this. Then imagine being a person who would go on TELEVISION and say this, Jesus.
Have just parted with - and I cannot stress this part enough - ✨£11.50✨ in a central London pub for a single G and T and a Diet Coke. I am capitalism’s clown.
So in professional news that I’m embarrassingly thrilled about, I’ll be taking up residence in the Sunday Times Magazine’s opening column for the foreseeable. Week one: I’ve written down every bit of advice I’ve learned in a decade of being an adult.
Durham Police absolutely doubling down tonight - they’ve taken the unusual step of naming Mr Cummings, and set out their conversation with his father.
Downing Street’s earlier statement said that Mr Cummings’s family had not been contacted by police.
Gal at university (off her tits at the time to be fair) once said to me ‘I’m so jealous of you because nobody takes me seriously because I’m pretty and cool, and you don’t have that problem’. It’s been nearly a decade and I’m still in awe at the brutality.
I think a lot about
@Dannythefink
’s wife’s observation that opinion columns are either obvious or rubbish.
This from Danny today is perfect, in that it is very much not rubbish, and it is obvious, but only once you’ve read it expressed so elegantly.
Lovely to contribute to The Times's International Women's Day article on women who inspire us.
I went for Laura Kuenssberg, and there are loads of other brilliant women picked by my colleagues too:
Briefly dropping my insistence on never being sincere on this website to say that I’ve loved The Sunday Times Magazine since I was a kid so to have the cover story is honestly such a joy.
Who is the whole 'girly swot' messaging meant to be appealing to?
I presume that - as a millennial woman with a degree - the answer is 'me', but every time I see it it just makes me want to take a spoon to my eyeballs.
One of those job news tweets:
Beyond excited to be able to say that - alongside my role as Political Correspondent at Times Radio - I’ll be writing a column for The Sunday Times, starting this Sunday.
(This is mildly unfair I know I do a weird fluttering thing with my eyes but I DONT KNOW WHY IT HAPPENS AND GOD DO I NOT HAVE THE TIME TO BOTHER TO FIND OUT)
After Downing Street denied the police were in contact with Dominic Cummings or any of his relatives, I asked Durham Police to clarify. Their spokesman has just got back to me reiterating their previous statement and saying he will not be elaborating. Police doubling down.
I spoke exclusively to Nadine Dorries for this week’s Sunday Times Magazine. She is one of the most interesting politicians around and far more than the viral clips you see on Twitter. A few highlights:
Column this week is a response to the avocado toasters who think that millennials should just reign in the spending on nice things and suddenly the entire economy would work in their favour
Prime Minister’s spokesman repeatedly refuses to say whether it is illegal to go for a walk with a friend while holding a coffee. Says he will get back to us later.
This is true. People in Hampstead don't have families. Very weird. I've been there. I've seen it. If you say the word 'family' on Hampstead High Street they chase you out brandishing their Le Creuset.
Day two of the National Conservatism Conference starts with organiser James Orr
“Faith, family, flag… Three ‘f’ words guaranteed to induce fainting fits from Hampstead to Hackney”
In the centre of Tiverton new Lib Dem MP Richard Foord and party leader Ed Davey have just walked through a blue door emblazoned with ‘it’s time to show Boris the door’. Foord is wearing a tie in Tory blue too.
In what I suspect will be my most controversial column ever, I have set out how to communicate in the digital age.
Never call unless someone has died. Never text ‘okay.’ or ‘right.’ unless you are starting a war. And more…
I see the biased mainstream media have once again left me off the Westminster power couples list. And for what? The tiny crimes of a) ‘not dating anyone in Westminster’ and b) ‘not being powerful’. Much to think about.
So tomorrow is my last day at Times Radio as I’m going full time at The Sunday Times as a Staff Writer.
I’ll still be doing politics stuff and the magazine column, but also some culture, interviews and anything else that looks interesting.
Spent several hours with friends yesterday allocating every object in the world as Brexit or Remain based on its vibes (Ketchup Brexit, Mayo Remain). Now my brain is broken and this is becoming the entire framework through which I conceive of reality.
Concept: if you’re enjoying working from home but worried about the impact it would have on the economy, send me the money you would have spent in Pret or at after work drinks and I will spend it for you at the pub.
Do Britons know the name of their local area’s Police and Crime Commissioner (if they have one)?
Yes: 27%
No: 73%
Majority of all age groups say no, ranging from 64% of 25-to-34-year-olds to 79% of 55-to-64-year-olds.
And for my col this week, 800 words of invective about the insane (*insane*) idea being discussed in government that over 50s should get a break from income tax
.
@RobDotHutton
and I inadvertently creating the publicity poster for a darkly comic Netflix series about a friendly man who gets murdered by his psychopathic housemate.
Is Soho dead? To find out, I decided to replicate Tom Baker’s famous Sunday Times Life In A Day, in which he engages in a 15 (ish) hour pub and restaurant crawl through golden era Soho. Could it still be done? More pertinently, could I hack it? 👇
‘Back in the day of the York Minster, you could be barred for being boring, but never for being drunk.’
@CharlotteIvers
steps back into seventies Soho, trying to live — and drink — like the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker.
Wrote about having anorexia as a teenager, and not having it now. I never think about it, so I never write about it. But I decided last week it might be helpful for the reasons below.
Being Chairman of the 1922 Committee is just the chicest job isn’t it. What do you do? Oh yeh I’m the All Knowing Harbinger of Death. Chic. Can’t argue with it.
Apropos of nothing, if someone says ‘it’s raining’ it is the job of journalists to look outside, see if it’s raining, then report if there’s rain or not. Not to tweet ‘ooh if it’s raining that would be very bad! 👀’
Half asleep in bed this morning listening to the Today Programme. Heard the words ‘here’s our political correspondent’ and sat up bolt upright in a panic because I thought I was listening to talk and was about to be on air. Having a normal one.
Would just like to say that the day after the 2019 election I said on the radio that Claire Coutinho would be the first of that intake into the cabinet. God I know nobody cares but me, but I’m telling you anyway because I am thrilled with myself.
Confirmed:
Claire Coutinho MP as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero;
David Johnston OBE MP as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education.
Had to make a phone call in French yesterday to book a restaurant. Took hours to psych myself up. All going so well until they asked for my phone number and I realised I was going to have to count up from 1 each time to remember the numbers. Mortifying. Still thinking about it.
Last day working with the kindest man in broadcasting
@EamonnHolmes
. What a privilege to have worked with someone who is not only a legend, but has also always gone out of his way to teach and provide opportunities to others.
In the paper this week talking about STUDENT LOANS which are basically an aspiration tax, and absolutely hammer professionals who pay much more in total than eg hedge fund guys or people with rich parents.
Thinking about Agnes today. It’s an odd feeling when your job is writing about your own life, but the thing you think about most is something you would never write in a magazine. Still, I want everyone to know how great she was, so here’s what I wrote the day after she died.
I love Agnes so much. I’ve never met anyone so kind. She cared so deeply for me, for her friends, for everything. She made me a better person. And fuck she was funny.
The first thing she ever said to me was ‘you don’t know me but we are going to be best friends’. She was right
Agnes Mary Frimston, the love of my life, died Friday night aged just 35. We don't yet know why. She was the kindest, funniest, most beautiful and all round best person I have ever known, and she was adored by pretty much everyone who ever met her. I loved her so, so much.
please stop asking me if I ate The Times’ Expensive Fridge Chocolate i did not eat The Times’ Expensive Fridge Chocolate although i accept i have the vibe of someone who might have done
In the Sussex countryside, an organisation is being investigated by Ofsted for running a potentially illegal school: but Ofsted can’t legally enter. This weekend they held a conspiracy festival full of children. I went and was horrified by what I found.
Social media platforms die when they are no longer cool. Musk is doing a very good job at kicking twitter towards that point. Column this week is about that.
Double Ivers for your money this week as the excellent
@rcolvile
is away. I’ve written about why young people don’t feel inconvenienced by the strikes. We have priced inconvenience into our dealings with the British government already.
Entering the next phase of my attempt to replicate in full the life of Boris Johnson*. Tomorrow 9pm, BBC 1.
*(this is a joke I have no desire to get fired by The Times. having said that, tomorrow could be the thing that does it)
Oh no! Your boyfriend has started a podcast. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us. In fact, it happens to all of us in the end. Luckily there I have written this handy guide in
@The_Fence_Mag
to help you through it.
If you’re following me thanks to this fun tweet I hope you know I need you to stick around when I drop a thousand words on Tory Party internal processes. Got to take the rough with the smooth with this account.
NEW: Boris Johnson's Rule Of 6 has a controversial exemption - for grouse shooting and similar field sports.
Upto 30 people can gather to hunt with guns cos classed as a licensed outdoor sport.
EXCLUSIVE: Cab Office drafted special meeting on exemption
Have spent a pleasant afternoon thinking what I would do if I had parliamentary privilege. 'Charlotte please, this is just DEFRA questions' the speaker begs me, tears in his eyes, as I flip over to my forth page of notes headlined 'enemies (cont.)'
Just absentmindedly said ‘thanks, love you’ to the guy who works at the corner shop next to my office, so I’m going to need a job and also perhaps a new passport
Notes from the frontline of the greatest show on earth. Plus the elephant in the big tent: whoever wins is going to have a bad time, and so is the country.
You can keep your beautiful sunrise wild swims - it’s a pound for the locker and a vending machine KitKat for me. I wrote about my great love for council swimming pools for the New Statesman:
please stop tagging me in your angry videos about this on instagram. i cannot stress enough the extent to which I am not watching them. all i do on instagram is watch videos of people icing cakes. you cannot change me.
"It doesn't feel particularly like justice for me"
Journalist Charlotte Ivers gives her view on the jailing of a mother who induced an abortion after the legal limit and warns about importing a fight from America into a "settled debate" in the UK
#bbcqt
Q: Where does the Conservative Party’s lack of ideas come from?
A: They haven’t had a proper debate since Davis V Cameron - because they are too efficient at moving on and winning. They are stuck in 2005.
On 24th December I’ll be presenting Times Radio early breakfast (in for the excellent
@CalumAM
) - and also a couple of dates in Jan too. Early birds - please do tune in for my first presenting gig. Would love to have you there.