Steerpike

It's been a tough few years for poor old Hillary. Since losing the 2016 contest to Donald Trump, the 'most qualified candidate in history' has mostly dedicated herself to collecting honorary degrees and blaming the Russians for Brexit. But now the former Senator has sallied forth for her biggest blunder since Benghazi to present her own 'Masterclass' on the skills she's developed throughout her career. Lesson one: how to lose a presidential election. In a short trailer released yesterday, Clinton gushed about how she intended to publicly read for the first time the victory speech she would have given had she not, er, lost to Trump.

For Boris Johnson, every day seems like a season finale. Just this morning the Prime Minister has been pilloried with questions about parties, seen his wife Carrie give birth for the second time and landed Tory members with a £17,800 fine for his Downing Street flat renovation. The Electoral Commission concluded its eight month probe into how the refurbishment was financed by accusing the Conservative Party of failing to 'keep a proper accounting record' around the £52,000 donation from Lord Brownlow to pay for the work. A Tory spokesman has said the party is considering whether to appeal and will make a decision within 28 days. Even if his party decides not to appeal, the PM's troubles on 'flat-gate' are by no means at an end.

He’s only been at the health department for less than six months but has the Saj already gone native in the role? Steerpike hoped that the fetishisation of lockdowns, restrictions and social distancing had disappeared with the ejection of Matt Hancock from government. But last night the panicked package of measures in response to the Omicron variant has many backbench Tories in a state of near fury, with one messaging Mr S to complain that Plan B is 'simply awful.' Fortunately, while Boris Johnson appears to now be a fully signed-up member of the Blob – telling his press conference that ‘we’re going to need to have a national conversation about the way forward’ on the unvaccinated – there are signs of some resistance within the government.

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.