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Did an hour with my old friend Ian Collins on his Talksport show last night. Ian and I go back years to when he was a presenter and I was a newsreader on Invicta Radio in Kent and he’s always managed to combine a sharp political brain with the light touch of an excellent broadcaster. I was expecting to have to battle to persuade people why they should vote but all bar one of the callers was a committed and regular voter and she’d given up out of sheer disillusionment with politicians . Always hard to argue against that when people feel their trust has been betrayed. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone campaigning and canvassing in this election under promised and over delivered for a change,treated the electorate like adults and recognised the implicit contract between the voters and those who get our precious votes.

No doubt more on disillusion, betrayal and broken promises at the Institute of Ideas conference on March 20th where both David Seymour & I are speaking. IoI events are always stimulating, thought provoking and fun so we’re much looking forward to being part of this.

And, nice to be wanted after he snub from my local bookshop in Whitstable which isn’t stocking Why Vote because … ” we tend to sell remaindered books and customers don’t like paying full price. ” To which I say, sell the whole series on a special offer !

I literally bumped into Kevin Maguire, the Mirror’s political editor who commented on the fact that David Seymour and I had written ” a pamphlet”.
“It’s a book, not a pamphlet”, I harrumphed. And then got to wondering is there a definition of length or size for either? Pamphlets have been the mainstay of political and creative writing for years but is there something a bit infradig about a pamphlet – feels like junk mail or some health advisory stuff from the NHS. Is a pamphlet the printed version of a tweet ? Answers on a postcard perhaps.