Steerpike

Congratulations to Amol Rajan, who adds the mantle of University Challenge host to his burgeoning portfolio of BBC jobs. Rajan will succeed Jeremy Paxman in the role when the latter steps down this autumn after 28 years hosting the show. On current trends, Mr S estimates the former Independent editor will have held every top job in the British media by the year 2024... Already there have been fears as to how well the new appointee can fill Paxo's formidable shoes though. Kate Phillips, the BBC’s director of unscripted insisted that 'If future student contestants think they’ll get an easier ride with Amol taking over, they can think again.' We shall see.

The Tory leadership teams rolled into Belfast this afternoon, clad in metaphorical red, white and blue and eager to display their unionist credentials. But while all eyes were on Ulster, elsewhere the real scrap was happening at the Conservative Environment Network where proxies were battling it out for the two final contenders. In team Truss's corner was Lord Goldsmith, the former MP now ensconced in ermine, while George Eustice, the soon-to-be-departed Environment Secretary, did the honours for Rishi Sunak. The two men have both been jousting for their patrons but there was little sign of courtly behaviour on show. Eustice, who serves as Goldsmith's boss in the department, accused Truss of refusing to recognise the importance of animal welfare in post-Brexit trade deals.

The New York Times has never been shy about sharing its opinion – especially when it comes to bashing Britain. In recent years, Mr S has greatly enjoyed reading the London dispatches from America's least reliable news source, in which Brexit Britain is re-imagined as an autocratic archipelago where plague-riddled, rain-drenched, swamp-dwelling subjects devour legs of mutton and fascistic propaganda. But now, Steerpike has rare cause to bemoan the 'Gray Lady's' absence. For the NYT, whose staff proudly consider it to be the world's leading liberal newspaper, has been strangely quiet on an area of intense local concern. The stabbing of Sir Salman Rushdie shocked the world last Friday, with expression of condemnation and solidarity being issued across the world.

Cast your mind back to 2020. Back then, in the dark days of Covid, a ray of light was apparently offered in the form of New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern. Here, we were told, was the shining beacon of hope, the solution to all our ails. A ‘zero Covid’ approach and a total national lockdown; closed borders and open hearts. Across the country Guardianistas gushed praise and oozed platitudes: here, at last, was the ideal model of a sensible, liberal, centrist leader. Fast forward two years and all that has now changed. First Ardern managed to irritate both right and left with her clampdown on immigration and complacency on China.

Something funny is in the water in Oxfordshire. In recent months councillors there have embarked on a spree of unorthodox eco-measures, no doubt encouraged by the Green party’s gains in local elections. Back in March, TV star Jeremy Clarkson led a protest of farmers, enraged by the County Council’s decision to only provide ‘plant-based’ food at council meetings, even though it cost taxpayers more. And now, Mr S has discovered the latest taxpayer-funded wheeze: a new website called ‘Climate Action Oxfordshire’ with some intriguing advice for the local subjects who funded it.

Poor Rishi Sunak. Membership polls put him 30 point behind Liz Truss but there's still three-and-a-half weeks to go in the Tory leadership race. The former Chancellor is being forced to spend his summer traipsing around the country, trapped in some hideous purgatory, waiting for the sweet release of 5 September to halt the seemingly endless number of hustings, debates, interviews and meetings. But it seems the longtime heir apparent is having as much luck online as he is offline. Mr S has done some digging and Sunak has spent more than two-and-a-half times has much as Liz Truss on Facebook adverts, for all the good that it has done him. During the course of the campaign Sunak's two pages have spent a combined total of £15,800 compared to Truss's £6,000.

Oh dear. David Lammy is in hot water yet again. With six figures' worth of outside interests, it can be hard to keep track of all those extra payments. And now the Shadow Foreign Secretary's media outings have tripped him up once again, thanks to no less than 16 occasions in which he did not declare payments on time. They include a number of commercial radio shows and Black History Month speeches, with a total value of more than £35,000. Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, opened an investigation on 15 June. The rulebook states MPs must declare any interest that may reasonably be considered to influence their actions within 28 days.