Iain Campbell Dale (born 15 July 1962) is a British broadcaster, author and political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. In 2005, he became the first openly gay Conservative candidate to contest a parliamentary election. He was the publisher of the magazine ''

Total Politics ''Total Politics'' is a British political magazine described as "a lifestyle magazine for the political community". It was first published in June 2008, and is distributed freely to all MPs, MEPs, peers, political journalists, members of the Sc ...

'' between 2008 and 2012, and the managing director of Biteback Publishing until May 2018. Since September 2010, he has hosted a regular discussion show on the radio station

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...

. He was named Radio Presenter of the Year at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards in both 2013 and 2016.

Early life and education

Dale was born in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...

and grew up in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Gr ...

, where he attended

Ashdon Ashdon, is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is about northeast of Saffron Walden and northwest from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the district of Uttlesford and the parliamentary constituency of Saffron Walde ...

County Primary School and Saffron Walden County High School. After a gap year in which he worked as a nursing assistant at the Werner Wicker Klinik in West Germany, he read German, linguistics and teaching English as a foreign language at the University of East Anglia; his course included a year in which he taught English at the gymnasium in

Besigheim Besigheim () is a municipality in the district of Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated 13 km north of Ludwigsburg at the confluence of the Neckar and Enz rivers. The town has many old buildings and a tow ...

. He was awarded an upper second class honours BA in 1985.

Career

Early career

Dale was a

research assistant A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, a research institute or a privately held organization, for the purpose of assisting in academic or private research. Research assistants are not in ...

to the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...

Member of Parliament Patrick Thompson (1985–87), the public affairs manager for the British Ports Federation (1987–89), a financial journalist with '' Lloyd's List'' (1989–90) and then the deputy managing director of the Waterfront Partnership and the managing director of the Waterfront Conference Company (1990–96).

Writing career

Dale wrote a fortnightly column for '' The Daily Telegraph'' from 2007 to 2009. He has also written for '' The Guardian'', '' The Independent'', '' GQ'', ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'', ''

Attitude Attitude may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value * Metaphysics of presence * Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a propo ...

'' and the '' New Statesman''. Between 2006 and 2013, Dale wrote a weekly diary column for the '' Eastern Daily Press''. In December 2018, it was announced that would contribute a new weekly column to both the ''Eastern Daily Press'' and its

Archant Archant Limited is a newspaper and magazine publishing company headquartered in Norwich, England. The group publishes four daily newspapers, around 50 weekly newspapers, and 80 consumer and contract magazines. Archant employs around 1,250 empl ...

stablemate, the '' East Anglian Daily Times''. Dale has written or edited 46 political books. This includes co-authoring, in May 2006, a book with fellow blogger

Paul Staines Paul De Laire Staines (born 11 February 1967) is a British-Irish right-wing political blogger who publishes the Guido Fawkes website, which was described by ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "one of Britain's leading political blogsites" in 2007.Graeme ...

(responsible for the

Guido Fawkes Guido Fawkes is a right-wing political website published by British-Irish political blogger Paul Staines. History In September 2004, Staines began writing an anonymous blog about British politics under the name of Guido Fawkes, an alternative ...

website) about alleged instances of sleaze from the Labour government since it took office in 1997. A second edition was published in June 2007. Dale has written histories of

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, ha ...

and

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

football clubs for Haynes Publishing, and in 2015, wrote a book called ''The NHS: Things That Need to be Said'' for Elliott & Thompson. His most recent book was co-edited by the former Labour

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

Jacqui Smith, and is a collection of biographical essays of every female MP elected to the House of Commons since 1918 entitled ''Honourable Ladies.'' A second volume was published in 2019.

Broadcasting career

Dale got his break in radio on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

, where he was the regular cover for

Andrew Pierce Andrew Pierce (born Patrick Connolly) is a British journalist, editor, author, broadcaster and political commentator. Early life Pierce was born in Bristol to a Roman Catholic Irish mother and an unknown father. He spent the first two years o ...

on ''Sunday Service'' with

Fi Glover Fiona Susannah Grace "Fi" Glover (born 27 February 1969) is a British BBC journalist and presenter who formerly presented the ''Fortunately'' podcast, '' The Listening Project'' for BBC Radio 4 and ''My Perfect Country'' for the BBC World Ser ...

and Charlie Whelan. He presented a documentary on how the BBC covers general election results, ''Counting Chickens'' on the night of the 2001 general election, 7 June 2001. He also presented

BBC Radio Four BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

's '' The Westminster Hour'', ''People & Politics'' on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...

and a number of episodes of '' What the Papers Say'' between 2010 and 2016. Dale was a stand-in presenter for the London radio station

LBC 97.3 LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcas ...

during the first nine months of 2010 after doing a couple of test programmes with other journalists. With

Gaby Hinsliff Gabrielle Seal Hinsliff (born 4 July 1971) is an English journalist. Early life and career She is one of the daughters of the actor Geoff Hinsliff. She attended Queens' College, Cambridge, graduating with a first-class degree in English. After tw ...

, he co-presented LBC's six-hour election night programme on 7 May 2010. In May and June 2010, he presented the Petrie Hosken,

Clive Bull Clive Bull (born 23 January 1959) is an English radio talk show host, best known for presenting a late-night show on LBC in London. Background Bull was educated at Dulwich College in south east London, between 1970 and 1977 where he was a lead ...

James Max James Max (born 20 May 1970) is a journalist, TV and radio presenter specialising in current affairs and business issues. He presents the Early Breakfast Show from 5am to 6.30am on TalkTV. He is a regular contributor to The Talk on TalkTV, The J ...

and

Jeni Barnett Jeni Barnett (born 24 March 1949 in London) is an English actress and TV presenter who grew up in Borehamwood. Acting career As an actress Barnett appeared on several TV shows, including ''Revolting Women'' (BBC2, 1981) and ''Doctors'', and has a ...

phone-in shows, and on 22 June 2010 fronted LBC's budget coverage. In late July 2010, Dale started a six-week stint on LBC covering for Petrie Hosken and

, which later turned into a regular show. Dale was the weekly evening presenter on LBC from 7 to 10pm until March 2013, when

took over. Dale instead replaced broadcaster

James Whale James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: ''Frankenstein'' (1931), '' The Old ...

as the presenter of the ''Drivetime'' show between 4pm and 7pm Monday to Friday. He continued to present the station's ''Sunday Politics'' show between 10am and 1pm each weekend for a further few weeks in March 2013 until

Andrew Gilligan Andrew Paul Gilligan (born 22 November 1968) is a British policy adviser and former transport adviser to Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister between 2019-22. Until July 2019, he was senior correspondent of ''The Sunday Times'' and had also served ...

took over. On 3 September 2018,

changed their autumn schedule: Dale moved to the evening show (7–10pm). Dale formerly presented ''Planet Politics'' on

Oneword Oneword Radio was a British commercial digital radio station featuring books, drama, comedy, children's programming, and discussion. The station was available in the UK via digital radio (DAB) and digital television ( Freeview DVB-T and Sky Di ...

Radio. He was also the chief presenter on the failed internet TV station

18 Doughty Street ''18 Doughty Street'' was a British internet-based political broadcaster that hosted a webcast as its chief product. It began broadcasting at 18:55 on 10 October 2006, from its studio at 18 Doughty Street in the Bloomsbury area of London, and ceas ...

. Dale was shortlisted for Speech Radio Programme of the Year at the 2013

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

, and then went on to win Radio Presenter of the Year at the 2013 and 2016 Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards. He won a Silver Sony for Interview of the Year at the 2014 Sony Awards for his interview with James from Woolwich, who was an eyewitness to the

murder of Lee Rigby On the afternoon of 22 May 2013, a British Army soldier, Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was attacked and killed by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London. ...

. Dale currently co-hosts a weekly political and current affairs podcast, entitled For ''The Many'', alongside Jacqui Smith. Dale has often appeared on television programmes such as '' Newsnight'', ''

The Andrew Marr Show ''The Andrew Marr Show'' is a Sunday morning talk show presented by Andrew Marr. It was broadcast on BBC One from 2005 to 2021. The programme replaced the long-running ''Breakfast with Frost'' as the network's flagship Sunday talk show when Davi ...

'', '' Jeremy Vine'' and '' Good Morning Britain''.

Blogging career

Dale wrote a blog titled ''Iain Dale's Diary''. It was nominated by ''The Guardian'' for the Political Blog of the Year Award in 2005. In July 2011, Dale started a collaborative blog site, ''Dale & Co'', with many contributors from the political spectrum, including himself. He continues to author a blog entitled ''West Ham Till I Die'', in which he writes on

. Dale writes a weekly diary column for the website ConservativeHome, where he also publishes his annual list of the '100 most influential people on the Right'.

Other work

In 1997, Dale opened Politico's Bookstore and Coffee House in Westminster, selling political books, memorabilia and novelty items. The shop spawned sister publishing and web design businesses that shared the Politico's brand. In 1998, he expanded his operation with the creation of a publishing division, Politico's Publishing, which he sold to

Methuen Publishing Methuen Publishing Ltd is an English publishing house. It was founded in 1889 by Sir Algernon Methuen (1856–1924) and began publishing in London in 1892. Initially Methuen mainly published non-fiction academic works, eventually diversifying to ...

in 2003. In 2004, he announced the closure of his bricks-and-mortar outlet and relocated his business to Kent as a mail-order operation. Later that year, Methuen re-opened his former premises as the Westminster Bookshop. In 2006, Dale sold his Politico's Bookstore business to Harriman House. In 2012, he relaunched Politico's online as part of his Biteback Publishing business. He was also the publisher of ''

'' magazine from June 2008 until its sale to

Dods (Group) PLC Merit Group plc is a British publishing holding company founded in 2001. It is company number 04267888. Its largest shareholder is the Conservative politician and businessman Lord Michael Ashcroft. It was formerly known as Huveaux plc (from 20 ...

in December 2012.

Political career

In May 2005, Dale stood in the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

as the

candidate for North Norfolk, losing to the Liberal Democrat incumbent,

Norman Lamb Sir Norman Peter Lamb (born 16 September 1957) is a British politician and solicitor. He was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for North Norfolk from 2001 to 2019, and was the chair of the Science and Technology Select Committe ...

. Subsequently, Dale acted as the chief of staff to the losing leadership candidate David Davis in the run-up to the 2005 Conservative Party leadership campaign. In August 2006, it was confirmed that Dale had been added to the

Conservative A-List The Conservative A-List or Priority List was a list of United Kingdom candidates drawn up by Conservative Central Office at the behest of David Cameron after his election as party leader in December 2005, aimed as a means of broadening the num ...

of candidates to fight the next general election. He unsuccessfully applied for the Conservative candidacy for the safe seat

Maidstone and The Weald Maidstone and The Weald is a constituency in Kent represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Helen Grant of the Conservative Party. She succeeded fellow party member Ann Widdecombe, who had held the seat since it was ...

.Public Service Announcement
Iain Dale's Diary In October 2009, Dale ran for selection for the Conservative safe seat of

Bracknell Bracknell () is a large town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the Borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Reading, south of Maiden ...

in order to succeed

Andrew MacKay Andrew James MacKay (born 27 August 1949) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Stechford from 1977 to 1979, East Berkshire from 1983 to 1997 and for Bracknell in Berkshire fro ...

, who stepped down at the 2010 general election. Dale came third in the run-off ballot behind

Rory Stewart Roderick James Nugent Stewart (born 3 January 1973) is a British academic, diplomat, author, broadcaster, former soldier and former politician. He is the president of GiveDirectly, a visiting fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for ...

and the eventual winner Philip Lee. On 17 June 2010, Dale announced on his blog that he was resigning from the Conservative Party candidates list and would not be standing at any forthcoming parliamentary election. On 14 December 2010, Dale announced that he was quitting both blogging at ''Iain Dale's Diary'' and party politics. In the

2016 EU referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

, Dale voted for "Leave".

Electoral history

Personal life

Dale has been openly gay since he was 40. He entered into a civil partnership with his long-term partner John Simmons on 15 June 2008 at Wadhurst Castle in East Sussex which was then converted to a marriage in 2015. They have been together since 1995 and live in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Before Dale met Simmons, he lived in Walthamstow, east London, for six years from 1988.

Police caution for assault

On 24 September 2013, Dale became involved in a scuffle with Manchester pensioner Stuart Holmes, an

anti-nuclear The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, nationa ...

protester, on the

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

seafront. Holmes' placard had appeared on-screen behind

Damian McBride Damian McBride (born 1974) is a British political advisor. He is a former Whitehall civil servant and former special adviser to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. McBride began his civil service career at HM Customs and Excise. He worked wit ...

, during an interview with McBride on breakfast television, coinciding with the Labour Party annual conference there. McBride, a former special advisor to

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

, is one of Dale's authors at Biteback Publishing. Dale, who was not involved in the television interview, attempted to physically remove Holmes from the shot, resulting in the two men grappling on the ground. On 26 September, Dale accepted a police caution for the assault. Sussex Police had interviewed both men about the incident. Dale subsequently posted an apology "to Mr Holmes, Mr Miliband hen-Labour Party leader the Police, my family, friends and colleagues".

Bibliography

Iain Dale has edited, compiled or written over forty books: *''Unofficial Book of Political Lists'', Robson Books, 1997 *''As I Said to Denis: The Margaret Thatcher Book of Quotations'', Robson Books, 1997 *''The Blair Necessities'', Robson Books, 1998 *'' Bill Clinton Joke Book'', Robson Books, 1998 *''Tony Blair New Labour Joke Book'', Robson Books, 1998 *''Dictionary of Conservative Quotations'', Politico's Publishing, 1999 *''Wit & Wisdom of Tony Banks'', Robson Books, 1999 *'' Labour Party General Election Manifestos 1900–97'', Routledge 1999 *''

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

General Election Manifestos 1900–97'', Routledge, 1999 *'' Conservative Party General Election Manifestos 1900–1997'', Routledge, 1999 *''Memories of Maggie'', Politico's Publishing, 2000 *''

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

New New Labour Joke Book (2nd ed)'', Robson Books, 2000 *''Directory of Political Lobbying'', Politico's Publishing, 2001 *''Directory of Political Websites'', Politico's Publishing, 2001 *''Directory of Think Tank Publications'', Politico's Publishing, 2001 *''Memories of the Falklands'', Politico's Publishing, 2002 *''Prime Minister Portillo & Other Things That Never Happened'', Politico's Publishing, 2003 *''Times Guides to the House of Commons 1906–10'', Politico's Publishing, 2003 *''Times Guides to the House of Commons 1929–35'', Politico's Publishing, 2003 *''Directory of Political Lobbying'', Politico's Publishing, 2003 *''Politico's Book of the Dead'', Politico's Publishing, 2003 *'' Margaret Thatcher: A Tribute in Words & Pictures'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005 *''Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze'', Politico's Media, 2006 *''Big Red Book of New Labour Sleaze'', Harriman House, 2007 *''500 of the Most Witty, Acerbic & Erudite Things Ever Said About Politics'', Harriman House, 2007 *''Guide to Political Blogging in the UK'', Harriman House, 2007 *''Little Book of Boris'', Harriman House, 2007 *''Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging 2008–9'', Total Politics, 2008 *''Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging 2009–10'', Biteback Publishing, 2009 *''Total Politics Guide to the General Election'', Biteback Publishing, 2009 *''Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging 2010–11'', Biteback Publishing, 2010 *''Margaret Thatcher: In Her Own Words'', Biteback Publishing, 2010 *''Talking Politics: Political Conversations With Iain Dale'', Biteback Publishing, 2010 *''West Ham United: When Football Was Football'', Haynes Publishing, 2011 *''Prime Minister Boris and Other Things That Never Happened'', Biteback Publishing, 2012 *''The Bigger Book of Boris'', Biteback Publishing 2011 *''Memories of the Falklands'', Biteback Publishing (March 2012) *''Norwich City: When Football Was Football'', Haynes Publishing (April 2012) *''The Margaret Thatcher Book of Quotations'', Biteback Publishing (August 2012) *''The Blogfather: The Best of Iain Dale's Diary'', Biteback Publishing (December 2012) *''Memories of Margaret Thatcher'', Biteback Publishing (April 2013) *''Politico’s Guide to the 2015 General Election'', Biteback Publishing (September 2014) *''Seat by Seat'', Biteback Publishing (February 2015) *''Gay Shorts (Collected Attitude Columns)'', Biteback Publishing (February 2015) *''The NHS: Things That Need to be Said'', Elliott & Thompson (February 2015) *''Prime Minister Corbyn and Other Things That Never Happened'', Biteback Publishing, (September 2016) *''The Honourable Ladies Volume 1: Women MPs 1918–1996'', Biteback Publishing (September 2018) *''The Honourable Ladies Volume 2: Women MPs 1997–2019'', Biteback Publishing (November 2019) *''The Big Book of Boris'', Biteback Publishing (October 2019) *''The Bernard Ingham Diaries: The Slow Downfall of Margaret Thatcher'' (ed. Iain Dale), Biteback Publishing (June 2019) *''Why Can't We All Just Get Along'', HarperCollins (August 2020) *''The Prime Ministers 1721–2020: Three Hundred Years of Political Leadership'', Hodder & Stoughton (November 2020) *''Prime Minister Priti & Other Things That Never Happened'', Biteback Publishing (July 2021) *''The Presidents 1789–2021: 250 Years of American Political Leadership'', Hodder & Stoughton (November 2021) *''On This Day in Politics - British Political History in 365 Days'', Allen & Unwin (October 2022)

References

External links

*
Iain Dale's Diary blog
' *
Iain Dale personal website
' *
Iain Dale on LBC
' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dale, Iain 1962 births 20th-century English businesspeople 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English non-fiction writers 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century English businesspeople 21st-century English male writers 21st-century English non-fiction writers 21st-century LGBT people Alumni of the University of East Anglia British gay writers British male bloggers Businesspeople from London Conservative Party (UK) parliamentary candidates English bloggers English book publishers (people) English male journalists English political writers English radio personalities Gay politicians LBC radio presenters LGBT businesspeople from the United Kingdom LGBT journalists from the United Kingdom LGBT politicians from England Living people People from Cambridge People from Royal Tunbridge Wells People from Saffron Walden The Daily Telegraph people West Ham United F.C.