Former Tory spin doctor Amanda Platell tells Dan Carrier why she dislikes Prince William and Sven

I AM not a Tory,” declares Amanda Platell. “I am a conservative, with a small ‘c’, and for me there is an important difference.”
The former newspaper-editor-turned-William-Hague’s-spin-doctor-turned-columnist-turned-TV-show presenter is known for her uncompromisingly right wing views – and if Hampstead liberals wear beards and sandals, then the archetypal Hampstead conservative would look a little like Platell: beautifully turned out in a fur coat and red leather gloves and a big, contented-with-her-lot smile.
And despite growing up in the expanses of western Australia she defines herself as an English conservative. She settled here after visiting as a backpacker in 1986 when suddenly Perth seemed rather a long way away.
“This isn’t what being a Tory is all about,” she says as she settles into a corner seat in the Magdala Tavern in South Hill Park, which she calls her local. There are pubs closer to her home in Pond Street, Hampstead, but the Magdala is the swankiest within walking distance and for a woman who confesses she likes ‘nice’ things – her Audi TT sportscar is a favoured possession – the Magdala’s quiet chatter is a more comfortable backdrop than other boozers.
“It’s a world where you look after the people who can’t look after themselves, but you do not look after the bludgers,” she explains.
A bludger? “Bludger is Aussie slang for spongers,” she says. “If you fall flat, you pick yourself up. You are the only person who can help yourself.”
But what about the moral tenet of doing unto others as you would want others to unto you? Wouldn’t she want a safety net for herself or her loved ones if times were hard? Sort of – as long as it doesn’t mean the state infringes on your life.
“I want a small state and the independence to spend my money on whatever I want to spend it on,” she adds.
“My view of the world is to believe in family and individual endeavour.”
To catch Ms Platell’s words of wisdom, you now have to buy the New Statesman, or occasionally inside the paper that mirrors her political point of view, the Daily Mail.
But her views can also be heard on Channel Four, where she fronts a talk show with Piers Morgan. “I always wanted to be a journalist, despite my mum saying you’ll end up smoking, drinking and divorced,” she says.
She has given up cigarettes and met a man she describes as her partner for life. She drinks – but two out of three isn’t bad.
And now print is not the main stay, she is enjoying the kudos of having a telly show.
“My niece thinks because I am on the TV I must be a millionaire,” she jokes.
But things were not always so rosey.
“I have been sacked before and no doubt I will be again,” she says.
“I spent my first year in South End Green unemployed, doing very little. I’d been sacked from the Express after I ran a story about Peter Mandelson’s boyfriend.”
And she can share her experiences with former Mirror editor Piers Morgan. “We are the sacked journos’ club,” she explains. “I have known Piers for 10 years: we get on well, despite him describing me as a right wing dominatrix. He’s just lucky my dad didn’t see it – he’d have something to say about that.”
She is overjoyed by their teamwork – and believes she could be one part of a new Richard and Judy-esque double act.
“The highest expectation was to get 500,000 viewers – after all, we are up against Strictly Come Dancing,” she says seriously. “The second show pulled 600,000 and the third got 800,000, so we’re happy.”
Amanda says she is rapidly getting used to the off-the-cuff nature of TV rather than the slow burn process of writing columns.
“I have a big mouth, so I suit TV,” she jokes.
“If you are in the public eye, you are fair game,” she says.
Even the usual Mail pin-up Prince William is not exempt from a going over. “He is a PR disaster and the monarch’s biggest liability,” she says. She described Sven Goran Erikson as “hugely vain, boring and with exceptionally bad teeth”.
When asked if Erikson should be criticised for his dental hygiene and not his failure to produce a decent national side, she rolls her eyes. “What an incredibly dull world we would live in if football’s what you talk about when you discuss the England manager,” she says.
And she is ready to take brickbats as well as plaudits. “I’m fair game too – my head is above the parapet. I think carefully about things before I write them. I have been on both sides of the fence, but I hope no one ever accuses me of sitting on it.”
It’s her interest in other people that has made her the journalist she is. “I’m nosey,” she admits. “When the Terminator walks into a room he analyses everything – that’s me. When I am on Hampstead Heath I look at the women. I analyse them. And then I go home, inspired to write about them.”