Steerpike

Much has written about the Rod-gate Durham drama since Friday night. Whether it's 'literally shaking' students compiling Twitter threads about their shock or breathless write-ups in our paper of record, it appears that a five minute speech from The Spectator's Rod Liddle is all that's necessary to trigger a full-blown free speech row. Angry undergraduates are set to hold a campus protest at Durham later today, with others now demanding content warnings for all after-dinner speakers.  But now, after maintaining a (relative) silence these past five days, the man at the centre of the controversy has decided – in the immortal words of Oprah Winfrey – to speak his truth.

It hasn’t been a great 24 hours for Downing Street. Under fire for its lockdown-busting Christmas party, facing fury over the Afghanistan debacle, surely solace could be found from the fray in the rarefied atmosphere of the House of Lords? Sadly not, for yesterday their noble lordships turned their aristocratic fire on the government’s Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill. The flagship legislation, which Mr S has covered extensively, is designed to protect helpless creatures and recognise they can feel pain by creating a new super-committee to judge the effects of government policies. Lobsters and octopi are to now be included; ministers forced to do morning media rounds are sadly not.

Away from the shenanigans of Downing Street's Christmas parties, another festive bash was being held last night just down the road in Westminster. Mr S was among those at One Birdcage Walk enjoying the hospitality of the Adam Smith Institute's annual shindig, where Lord Frost enlivened the evening with a stalwart defence of free-market principles against the tide of interventionism. Britain's Brexit supremo raised some eyebrows in No. 10 last week with his comments at the Thatcher Conference on the need to diverge quicker from the 'European social model' adding 'I agree with the Chancellor – our goal must be to lower taxes.

Certain dates will go down in the annals of Brexit: 23 June 2016, 12 December 2019 and 31 January 2021. To that pantheon can now be added 6 December 2021 – for today is the day that Mark Francois, a proud Brexiteer and longtime member of the European Research Group (ERG), released his memoirs titled 'Spartan Victory: The inside story of the Battle for Brexit.'  Steerpike was among the first to get their hands on a copy, with the 464-page tome centring on Francois's life and the events around the 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Below are some of the highlights that caught the eye of Mr S, as he manfully relived those dark days of Meaningful Votes, Change UK, Olly Robbins and the Cooper-Boles amendment. 1.

The University of Durham has boasted many distinguished students over the years: Sir Harold Evans, Justin Welby, Andrew Strauss and even the worst 007, George Lazenby. But it seems the current crop of angry undergraduates are not so keen on old-fashioned notions of argument and debate. For Friday night saw the good neophytes of South College attempt to cancel a guest at their Christmas formal, a man quite well-known to Mr S: none other than The Spectator's own Rod Liddle. Steerpike is yet to get Rod's account of the incident but plenty has been said already by the protagonists in this early Christmas pantomime.

It's the most wonderful time of the year – except if you're working in Boris Johnson's press office. Much has been made in recent days of No. 10's lockdown shenanigans, amid reports that Boris Johnson's aides threw a party last December when London was under Tier 3 restrictions, which banned mixing between households. According to the Daily Mirror, about 40 to 50 Downing Street staff packed 'cheek by jowl' into a medium-sized room in the No. 10 bunker for a 'boozy' Christmas shindig – a bit like Downfall, but without the hope. Naturally, such claims have prompted an outpouring of anger, indignation and disgust from the usual suspects of the permanently enraged brigade.