Indeed. All parties are already mini-coalitions in themselves anyway.

That's a great idea. I could do Dorchester style afternoon teas and charge £70 in my semi-detached hovel.


That is very true but probably most media people are partisan which sort of distorts things.

We've already mentioned someone like JOB getting it in the neck for espousing a left-wing view, whilst being a person with a good salary, which I think is unfair. But by that same token, wouldn't it therefore also be logical to attack Ferrari, etc for having too much vested interest in interviewing a politician who would keep their high-end tax low and loopholes open?

Yes absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

All the main four daytime presenters irritate the hell out of me. It just so happens that Nick Ferrari is the only one I wouldn't mind conversing with. Well, Iain Dale too if I really had to but he chooses not to respond. O'Brien and I would find more areas of agreement but he would be behind even Julia. It's his attitude. I just don't like it - or him.

I asked on 13 November to Chin


On 31 January he replies !!

Unemployment hasn't fallen. Your government have taken e.g. workfare people and young people and people who have given up looking off the books. Real unemployment figures are a lot higher. Also people working zero hour or 16 hour contracts/ part timers aren't counted either. I have noticed more vacancies, however, but no luck so far.

I am only 99.9% perfect Martin.

Agreed. I'm not sure the vacancies has gone up that much though has it?

After going on to the universal Jobmatch system I really noticed just how many vacancies are ads for agencies harvesting CVs.

Good luck though Chin.

Absolutely.

We must never forget that the vast majority of benefits go on the retired and those who are in work, but who are not paid enough to survive.

All govt's manipulate or 'spin' the figures, but the reality is that the benefits bill is unlikely to drop at all, just change the type of benefit someone needs to receive. It allows govts to claim some kind of success, but it's only semantics. It also puts paid to this horrible stigmatisation of the 'something for nothing' nonsense that is doing the rounds. It's meant to change the public's psyche and let govt get away with more radical changes, and sadly our very own LBC is complicit in that, because it refuses to grow up and look beyond the Mail-style 'headlines of hate'.

And it is hate. Suicide rates are up. Disability hate crime is up. Homelessness is up. Etc.

Under Thatcher, they dropped the unemployment rate by actively encouraging people onto Invalidity Benefit (as it used to be called). Oh the bitter irony that such people are now being vilified for not being 'disabled enough'... by the same political party.

Regardless of politics, regardless of economic fairytales, the bottom line is that too many people are on or below the breadline. It is the first duty of a govt to protect its citizens. They are failing, choosing instead to blame those in need for other people's failings. And that is a kind of evil.

Must try harder !

Has Nick Farrari ever disclosed where he lies politically or does he like Ian Collins does, say he is politically neutral?

He was intending to run as an Independent for Mayor in 2007.

Telegraph quotes at the time:

Embarrassingly wrong on his mate Boris's appeal -

"To be honest, I am surprised Boris is running. He has everything to lose and nothing to gain.......I don't believe that he could win for the Conservatives in London. I don't say this nastily but he is an old Etonian, Oxbridge-educated, amiable, foppish buffoon. Who is going to identify with a toff MP for Henley-on-Thames? There is no common denominator, no touchstone that you can have with Johnson".

But a bit of the crystal ball about his mate Clegg -

"Politicians' stock right now is down there with premiership football players and prostitutes, and that is about right. They need to be taught a lesson. You can no longer come out every four or five years and say, 'Vote for us, we won't put up university fees.' Then they get into power and do it, using the whip system to get it through. That is gross lying. It is simple deceit. And people have had enough."

Personally, I think he would have loved to have been a Conservative candidate.

"Man of the People".

Does he need to? Put it this way. I don't think he'll be flying the red flag anytime soon.

I remember that about Ferrari. To be fair to him, I avidly remember a daily politics programme when it was first bought up that Boris Johnson was thinking of running and when Andrew Neil asked Michael Hestletine what he thought about that, Hestletine struggled to respond and came up with a rabbit caught in the headlights look and went "ehhhhhhhh"! I remember Nick Robinson who was listning from Central Lobby laughed out loud at Hestletine's response!

I sense that Ferrari is a conservative voter but he may have switched to Blair in 97 and 2001.

Interesting. Did he pull out when Boris showed good poll ratings? I think he did. The 1990s were my one lost decade re LBC so what you say about him and Blair could well be right. I'm pretty sure he doesn't like UKIP because they will split the Conservative vote this time. I don't mind him. It's J O'B and J H-B who get my goat.

Does he need to? Hmmm, well I think it would help if he hasn't already mentioned where he lies politically. We know where O' Brien and Dale lie politically so why not with Ferrari and the rest of them too?

I think Ferrari didn't go ahead with running for Mayor as I do not recall him being a candidate or being involved in any debates apart from the intitial reporting he was thinking of running. I didn't listen to LBC in the 90's nor early noughties either.

Another point on the London Mayor election of 2007, I remember David Cameron having a go at Tony Blair about something at PM Q's and Blair responded by reminding Cameron that he (Cameron) was going to do a reality tv show selection process for selecting the Conservatives London Mayor candidate and Blair said he wouldn't be doing that himself and it was a proper slam dunk put down by Blair on Cameron and the look on Cameron's face proved it! I think it was after that PM Q's when Andrew Neil asked Hestletine about Boris Johnson running for London Mayor!

IIRC NF never actually stood as a candidate. I think he just put out feelers to gauge reaction. I presume it wasn't as good as he may have hoped. On air, he said he decided against standing because he couldn't afford the pay cut !

I remember Jon Gaunt used to come out with the same line on Talksport. I often wondered that as a former bankrupt if he would have been allowed to have even stood as an MP but I never put that into him in any way as I did not want to hurt his feelings. From what I have read recently, I get the impression that if people are clear from bankruptcy orders, they can stand for parliament but I don't know for sure.

I wonder if Jon Gaunt still couldn't afford the pay cut? It seems from his twitter page he is now in a business with his brother(s).

On the whole, I think elected office is too much hassle, especially the case work and I don't think Ferrari would enjoy the case work that comes with elected office.

Gaunt was most likely cleared of bankruptcy a long time ago or he would have not have been complaining about the wage cut as the debtors would have been receiving it.

You'll find Nick Griffin would provide the more adequate answer as he's still at the helm of the BNP, still an MEP and has just been declared bankrupt.

LBC need to talk about other things when they go national as not many people are interested in politics.

The rules are different for MEP's than MP's when it comes to bankruptcy. It looks like that MEP's are allowed to remain MEP's even if they are currently subjected to a bankruptcy order where that doesn't seem to be the case for MP's.

Well they are getting record number of listeners in London. Is the rest of the country different?

I would have thought it was blatantly obvious. I didn't devise this blog, but it sums up NF in a nutshell.