Steerpike

Another day, another ridiculous revelation emerges about the Scottish government. This time, it's civil servants who are in hot water for splashing taxpayers' cash on laser tag, Swingers (no, not that kind) crazy golf and a trip to Edinburgh Zoo. Public cash was also used to foot a £375 bill at Brewhemia, dubbed Scotland’s 'beer palace'. The embarrassing details emerged a day after it was reported that £55,000 of taxpayers' money was used by the SNP to build a library collection – including the purchase of 22 copies of ‘How To Run A Government’. But while these books could have made useful reading for Nicola Sturgeon, Mr Steerpike finds it hard to justify the use of his cash on Play-Doh, on which the Scottish government spent £50.

As if there aren’t enough questions about the SNP’s spending habits, it turns out the Nats have been using £55,000 of taxpayer’s money to fund their library collection. An investigation by Labour has unearthed some rather amusing revelations about the SNP’s reading list, not least that the party has been busy educating itself with books on, er, ‘How To Run A Government’. That might have come in useful 16 years ago… Public funds were used to purchase 22 copies of the book – almost enough prints for every member of Humza Yousaf’s cabinet. Mr S allowed himself a chuckle at the irony of the book's tagline, which reads: ‘...so that citizens benefit and taxpayers don’t go crazy’.

Can Matt Hancock sink any lower? Considering that only last year he lost the whip for abandoning his constituents to appear on I’m a Celebrity, and before that had his lockdown-busting affair exposed to the world, you would probably think not. Even so, the former Health Secretary has managed to once again plumb new depths, this time after turning his talents to lip-syncing. In a video released on his TikTok account this week, Hancock can be seen in a white shirt and shorts on a beach in an undisclosed location, singing along to the song ‘I’m just Ken’ from the recently released Barbie movie.

Having previously been known simply as ‘that footy pundit off the telly’, over the past year Gary Neville seems to have been trying to manoeuvre his way into politics. The former Man Utd captain signed up as a Labour member, conducted a cringeworthy Q&A with Keir Starmer at last year’s party conference, and has consistently called for the Tories to be removed from office. But is Neville a true comrade of the workers' movement? Mr S thought he'd do some digging into the right back's past... Qatari hypocrisy Having been a consistent critic of the Qatari government, their human rights' abuses and stance on gay rights, Neville then, er, became a fully paid-up member of Qatari state media by agreeing to be a pundit at the 2022 World Cup for beIN Sports.

Taylor Swift mania has hit Los Angeles this weekend as the best-selling songstress takes her sold out Eras tour to the Sunny State. It means local residents are on high alert that there is a chance they cross paths with Swift. So spare a thought for the young woman who headed to an early morning Taylor Swift-themed spin class only to see security everywhere. In a video on TikTok, she explains that she had the 'biggest heart attack of my life': 'my mind immediately goes "holy sh-- Taylor Swift is about to be riding in my 7am Soul Cycle class"'. Alas, it wasn't to be. Rather than Swift, the 'VIP' in question was none other than... Rishi Sunak. 'Turns out it was the Prime Minister of the UK. Apparently he's a Swiftie,' she explains in the video. https://www.tiktok.

As the earth orbits the sun and leopards avoid changing their spots, so Eddie Izzard is again attempting to become a Labour MP.  This time the comedian and actor, who also goes by the name Suzy, is standing to become the Labour candidate to replace Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion. In 2022, Izzard tried unsuccessfully to become the candidate for Sheffield Central; and in 2016 and 2018, Izzard ran to be on the Labour National Executive Committee, failing on both occasions.  An all-too-slick Twitter video announced Izzard’s candidacy, and Mr S wonders at the cost and production value, considering Izzard has not even been selected as Labour’s candidate. A timetable for Labour’s selection process has not yet been set out.

Dear oh dear. Things haven’t been going well for for the Green party lately and now they’ve just got a whole lot worse. The Green's first UK parliamentarian and former leader of the Scottish Greens Robin Harper has quit the party, announcing that the Greens have ‘lost the plot’. Mr S wonders how long it took him to notice – has he been living under a rock? In a scathing letter written to his successors ‘after lengthy consideration’, the octogenarian let loose on the party he’s been part of for decades.

Well, well, well. After almost three years of Margaret Ferrier’s Covid breaches coming under the spotlight, the SNP MP has finally been ousted from her seat in Rutherglen and Hamilton West. In the end, 11,896 people in her constituency – 14.7 per cent of eligible voters – physically signed the recall petition to eject her, a little over the 10 per cent needed.