Politics

Say what you like about David Cameron, the man never stops trying to exceed expectations. I once thought that he’d never do anything sadder than giving his wife’s stylist an honour then running away from parliament like a child. Then he proved me wrong by publishing his memoirs. And now, demonstrating his unstinting commitment to the cause of his own humiliation, he has reinvented himself as a shoddy lobbyist. When he naffed off after making a horlicks of the referendum, Cameron warbled the usual shiny words about duty to the nation. It turns out he meant it: in these dark times, we all need a laugh, so we should thank him for cheering up a gloomy nation by means of his own embarrassment. Public service takes many forms.

As with almost every country around the world, India is busy dealing with the Covid crisis. But its parliament briefly turned its attention away from the pandemic in the last few days to another issue playing out thousands of miles away: a row at Oxford University involving an Indian postgraduate student. This no ordinary campus bust-up: the fallout could have big implications for the relationship between India and Britain. Rashmi Samant, who is the first child in her family to go to university, made history last month when a landslide victory saw her become the first Indian woman to head up the Oxford Student Union (OSU). But her victory was short-lived. Within days she was forced to resign after old Instagram posts were dug up.

Gibraltar has intermittently featured in the headlines in recent years amid repeated incursions by Spanish ships into the peninsula’s waters. The future of the Rock – which voted by 96 per cent to stay in the EU in 2016 – was subject to much speculation and briefing during the Brexit negotiations as Spain has long sought to reclaim the tiny territory. But could an even closer relationship with Westminster now be on the cards? A new poll for The Spectator by Redfield and Wilton — with a sample size of 1,500 — shows that the British people back Gibraltar having its own seat in the House of Commons by more than three to one.