Steerpike

There was much joy in Parliament earlier this month at the first in-person State Opening of Parliament since 2019. But the return of pomp and circumstance to the Palace of Westminster wasn't universally applauded. Some doomsters took to Twitter to bemoan the sight of Prince Charles sat besides the Imperial State Crown while reading the Queen's Speech about the cost of living. And it seems such critics are found in the Commons too, for Plaid MP Hywell Williams has paid down a parliamentary question asking about the cost of all the pageantry to the taxpayer. According to Sir Charles Walker – the chairman of the House of Commons Commission – a record £228,978 was spent by parliament on last year's Queen's Speech.

Twitter may not be the real world, but it sure does set the conversation in Westminster. Commentators once spoke of 'the ground war' of activists on the ground and the 'air war' of broadcast interviews, but increasingly social media is where battles are fought and won. This week an audit in the States found that nearly half of Joe Biden’s 22.2 million Twitter followers are bogus, according to a study by software firm SparkToro which reported that 49.3 per cent of the president’s followers are 'fake followers'. SparkToro has defined 'fake followers' as 'accounts that are unreachable and will not see the account’s tweets (either because they’re spam, bots, propaganda, etc. or because they’re no longer active on Twitter).

At long last the Metropolitan Police has concluded its four month long investigation into the Downing Street lockdown-breaking parties. A team of 12 detectives working on Operation Hillman sorted through 345 documents including emails, door logs, diary entries and witness statements, 510 photographs and CCTV images and 204 questionnaires. And the results of this are now clear to see, with 126 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) being issued for eight events – nearly 1 per cent of the total Covid FPNs handed out by the Met during the pandemic.

Making his way home from Westminster the other night, Mr S was intrigued to see a new series of eye-catching posters on the Tube. ‘Staring', it screamed 'Intrusive staring is a form of sexual harassment and will not be tolerated.’ It's part of an ongoing campaign by Sadiq Khan's Transport for London (TfL) to get commuters to behave better: hardly surprising given that more than 19,000 crimes were recorded on the capital's public transport last year. Given TfL is effectively broke post-pandemic, Steerpike wondered just what this all cost.

The recent turmoil in the Tory party has only been surpassed by that in Boris Johnson's No. 10. Various faces have come and gone during the Doctor Who style-regenerations these past three years, from Eddie Lister and Dominic Cummings to Dan Rosenfield and Allegra Stratton. One of Johnson's four director of communications who fell by the wayside was Lee Cain. His role as head of broadcast for Vote Leave in the Brexit referendum secured him a series of special advisor roles, culminating in the top media role in Downing Street. Since quitting his post at the end of 2020, Cain has returned to the world of the private sector. Political fall-outs don't always end well for those involved but the top spinner seems to be doing rather well.

Where would we be without Ofgem, eh? Amid soaring energy prices and a cost-of-living crisis, the energy regulator this week unveiled its latest wheeze to help struggling households: updating the energy price cap every three months, rather than six, to try to avoid price shocks.  The cap – which is the maximum price per unit that suppliers can charge customers – is currently updated twice a year in April and October. Ofgem's announcement came after a typical energy bill jumped last month from £1,277 to £1,971 and is forecast to soar a further 32 per cent when the cap is revised again in October. And, for those on prepayment meters, the price of energy has now risen by an average £708 to £2,017 a year. Gulp!

Much like the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the post of Information Commissioner is one of those intriguingly named but largely under-explored positions in British public life. Created in 1984, the post brings with it a tidy £200,000 a year salary and an office comprised of more than 500 staff. Its job is to 'uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.' You might therefore think that the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) would be interested in freedom of information given that the existing legislation – which came into force in 2005 – is being undermined by secrecy-loving Whitehall departments. Not a bit of it.

Crisis, what crisis? Beset by domestic problems of their own making, the SNP government at Holyrood now has to face a difficult international climate too, amid rising tensions abroad and economic troubles around the globe. So, what better time for the country's embattled First Minister to duck questions on ferries and sleaze by jetting off to Washington to rub shoulders with some of America's more pliable politicians. Unfortunately it seems that a change of scenery still hasn't cured Nicola Sturgeon's habit of tampering with the truth.

Oh dear. It seems that the sainted Sturgeon has slipped up again. Much as Jesus was betrayed by his disciple, so too has the Blessed Nicola been let down by one of her own. In this case, it's Fergus Ewing – scion of the First Family of Scottish nationalism. The former rural economy secretary stands accused of bullying civil servants: allegations which Sturgeon government's has now been forced to investigate. That probe is believed to have concluded but (quelle surprise) the First Minister is refusing to disclose the outcome of the inquiry, citing 'data protection laws' as the reason why she is unable to discuss the case. What a convenient excuse for Sturgeon. It is, however, not a terribly plausible one.

Boris Johnson has sought to reboot his premiership this week, unveiling a package of eye-catching measures as he tries to calm Tory tensions about last Thursday's election results. Such efforts though have been somewhat undermined by the announcement of the Metropolitan Police today that another 50 fines have been dished out to Downing Street staff over partygate.  Yet even before that, there were signs that the Queen's Speech on Tuesday hasn't gone down quite as well as expected. For one of Steerpike's spies has got in touch with a briefing from the bright young things over at Conservative Central Headquarters which was found lying in the House of Commons tea room.