IAIN DALE: ANARCHIC SUPERHERO OR SELF IMPORTANT DREAMER?

18 Doughty Street is Iain Dale's lovechild and he is proud of it, in his mind it is the most subversive and hard-hitting of media-vehicles careering down the internet superhighway and smashing out through your screen and inta yer face! It's not all that, he thinks it's all that...but it ain't all that.

The concept, on the other hand, is excellent, it opens ones eyes to a world of options for aspiring film-makers and in this respect Iain Dale is right to be smug.

While Dale's smugness is a bit dementing, I have to admire his conviction. He knows that for an outspoken Tory to endear a crowd of Guardian-cradling, aspiring media types it's going to take something short of a miracle. Having Tory leanings myself I am maybe a less representative judge but the response from the masses was largely positive with guarded praise. I liked the way he said what he had to say without regard for whether he endeared himself or not. He had a point to make and he wasn't going to doctor his rhetoric to play to his crowd.

It's a pity then that 18 Doughty Street doesn't live up to his hype. Hopefully it will spawn a new generation of internet television and political programming (which he rightly pointed out has become saturated and boring) will reclaim its potency. His legacy could be great but he might have to get over himself first.