Steerpike

Away from the gun-toting, field-romping antics of the dilettante Duke of Sussex, normal politics carries on as usual. And this weekend will see the first in-person Jewish Labour conference since 2018. Much has changed since then, when the party's antisemitism crisis was at its height. Chair Mike Katz reflected in Jewish News how, back then, the group was 'marginalised and ostracised by the Labour establishment under Jeremy Corbyn' but that 'the difference in our experience under Labour leader Keir Starmer is like night and day... he has acted to demonstrate zero tolerance of antisemitism.' Indeed, Sir Keir has been vocal on the issue, apologising to the Jewish Chronicle for the harm caused to Jews while he was a member of Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet.

How many people in Britain are transgender?  Until today, there hasn’t been an official answer to that question. New census data give us a number: there are 262,000 people living in England and Wales in March 2021 who ‘identified with a gender different from their sex registered at birth’, in the words of the Office for National Statistics. Making some broad assumptions for Scotland and Northern Ireland, we might therefore guess that the trans population of the UK is around 300,000. Which raises some slightly awkward questions for people and organisations who have been keen to suggest that the trans population is much bigger. Organisations like Stonewall, for example.

It’s safe to say that most Conservative MPs will want to forget about 2022: three Prime Ministers, four Chancellors and nose-diving polls to boot. But for one MP at least, it wasn't all bad. The Tories’ fortunes may have taken a drubbing, but unlike her party, Theresa May had a pretty successful year. Accounts published today show that in the year up until March 2022, the former PM’s eponymous company declared more than £1,186,000 in net assets – some £338,000 up on the previous twelve months. It’s all thanks to the Maidenhead MP's success on the speaking circuit, with her speeches regularly commanding six-figure sums. While her successors in No.

It’s Rishi Sunak’s big day today. All of Westminster is eagerly awaiting his first major speech since taking office in October. The Prime Minister is expected to set out his plans this afternoon to encourage pupils to study maths until the age of 18. But ahead of Sunak’s address, the hoary issue of Channel 4 privatisation has reared its head again, ruining No. 10’s carefully planned ‘grid’ in the process. Lewis Goodall of LBC has managed to get hold of a letter to Sunak from Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan. It outlines her recommendation against privatising Channel 4, concluding that ‘pursuing a sale at this point is not the right decision and there are better ways to secure C4C’s sustainability and that of the independent production sector.

It's not been the best few years for Sino-British relations, what with Huawei, Hong Kong and the whole Covid thing. So it was no surprise when, last month, Tower Hamlets council voted to block China's new 'super-embassy,' with councillors citing security fears and the concerns of local residents. The borough of Tower Hamlets is more than 38 per cent Muslim: many constituents were outraged by the ongoing atrocities by the Chinese Communist Party against Uyghur Muslims. The local authority's decision has been greeted with delight by many Sinosceptics – but not by some in the Foreign Office.

And you thought we'd seen the last of them in 2022. The new year kicks off with some old score-settling: for next week will see the publication of Prince Harry's pithily-titled memoir Spare (or Going Spare, quips one royal insider). As the title suggests, the book is expected to focus on the fraternal frictions between the runaway royal and his brother William. Other topics covered include Harry's hatred of the press (quelle surprise) and his reflections on Diana's death. And, in a delicious irony, Harry will be forced to give multiple media interviews to promote the book. Sadly, he has ducked the chance for a no-holds-barred, sit-down grilling with one of Britain's popular papers like the Sun or the Mail on Sunday.

Four Chancellors, three Prime Ministers, two monarchs – one hell of a year. We said that it would be difficult to top the Covid craziness of 2021: we were wrong. Partygate, Pinchergate, porngate, beergate, queuegate – the greatest hits kept on coming as Boris Johnson was washed away in a sea of sleaze and scandal. Next up was Liz Truss's 49-day interregnum, an inglorious experiment that did more to damage the cause of free markets than 100 years of Marxist dogma. And now, finally, we have Rishi Sunak, a living monument to social mobility as the UK's first Asian premier, and more importantly, its first Wykehamist Prime Minister since 1834. Truly, what an underdog. It wasn't all just Tory psycho-drama of course.