The New Statesman.

Peter O'Born is a journalist and author.

Previously, political editor of The Spectator and a commentator at The Telegraph,

he's now a columnist at Middle East Eye.

His latest book is complicit and documents the relationship between the British and Israeli states

in the context of the war in Gaza.

Hello, Peter.

Good morning.

Let's start things off with your earlier professional life.

I mentioned a couple of the publications there at the top.

Obviously, conservative, right-wing in their outlook.

Would you still describe yourself as a conservative?

Yeah, it's a very good question, I mean, because I certainly do.

There was a great column in The New Statesman by James Fenton, the poet, when he was, you may have forgotten,

you may not have known that in the mid-70s, late 70s, he was the political correspondent.

And there was this great moment when Paul Johnson, who had been a magnificent editor of the New Statesman, suddenly converted to Thatcherism.

And Fenton's intro, I still remember it, is he had the analogy of being in a railway station and you're sitting there, you've got your seat,

you're by the window, and you see the other train leaving.

And then suddenly realized, no, it's not the other train that's leaving,

it's you that's leaving.

He was a poet, he did it beautifully.

Now, the question is, have I left the Conservative Party

...