Possibly in Tory terms ... the opposite measure to the way Luke Akehurst describes himself as a centre lefty and a moderate ... whereas in LP terms he is centre right.

LOL. I suspect that there will be some at 18DS having fits at this description. I wish I had thought of writing it.

As he uses the word 'Bong' in the title of the piece, I can only assume that's what he's been smoking before writing this piece.

Bob,

I think you need to realise that Doughty Street is not anywhere near as right wing as it was when we first started. With Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Peter Tatchell, Christian Wolmar, Zoe Phillips and Claire Fox all as presenters we have more faces from the left than we do from the right. Those people would not present for us if they thought we were a mouthpiece for the right.

What remains unchanged, however, is the Labour Party's lack of co-operation with the station. We continue to invite Labour MPs and other left guests onto the show, but it seems that somebody has told them all not to co-operate.

We've changed, can you say that the Labour Party will do the same and start letting its people onto the show to stand up for the left?

Mike

Mike, you'll be telling me next that Iain is a liberal Conservative. Do me a favour... you've included a few left people to try to boost a flagging audience prepared to watch Tories pat themselves on the back.

As for what the Labour Party does, you may be surprised to learn that they don't jump to my every command... or even listen to me, actually, but I very much doubt they issue any form of instruction.

Rouse: Does Iain Dale still play a central role either behind the scenes or as host? If the answer is 'yes' to either, then you've lost me.

If it is still run by Tories, then it is still a Tory front organisation trying to undermine the existing 'liberal bias' in the mainstream media. It is not meant to be 'fair and balanced' and Labour guests would be giving it a respectability it doesn't seem to deserve.