Steerpike

Baroness Hale has evidently been enjoying life since retiring as President of the Supreme Court in January last year. Hale, once dubbed the 'Beyoncé of the legal profession,' became the toast of Remainers everywhere after her withering slap-down to Boris Johnson's prorogation bid in 2019.  Now ensconced on the lecture circuit, the former academic has spent the past eighteen months being showered with those baubles beloved of the establishment: academic honours galore, an Oxford fellowship, a gushing interview in the New Statesman, the obligatory slot on Desert Island Discs and, of course, a book deal with a leading London publisher.

Boris Johnson might insist that the UK will not ‘pitchfork’ Chinese investment but it seems not everyone in government agrees. Liz Truss, the new Foreign Secretary, has made headlines today for saying what many on her back benches believe — that Britain cannot be dependent on China and allow it a role in our nuclear plants or the G7.  That fundamental divide on how to approach Beijing is not merely confined to Westminster, but rather something that extends across industry, civil society and of course, academia. One of the ways the Chinese Communist Party has sought to extend its overseas cultural influence is by Confucius Institutes.

Irony was officially pronounced dead this week after disgraced MP Claudia Webbe launched an attack on 'wrong, bad and exploitative' bosses. Webbe is facing a possible jail sentence after being convicted of harassment last week but is still merrily carrying on as if nothing has happened, regularly launching Twitter attacks on the government and blithely ignoring all calls to resign — even those from the official Labour press office. https://twitter.com/ClaudiaWebbe/status/1451520225573281812?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Still, even Mr S was surprised to learn of Webbe's latest act of brazenness.

Is Laura Kuenssberg’s time as BBC political editor coming to an end? That’s the suggestion tonight after the Guardian reported she is in talks to step down from the role and move to a plum gig hosting the Today programme.  Rumours of Kuenssberg’s impending departure have been circulating around Westminster for some time now to little avail. But this time it is being talked up as part of a wider shake up of the Beeb’s lead presenters, with Jon Sopel recently announcing he is ending his US beat and returning to the UK. Rumours of Kuenssberg’s impending departure have been circulating around Westminster for some time now Kuenssberg’s time in the role has not exactly been smooth sailing.

Is it time for another lockdown? Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, is urging ministers to implement sweeping 'plan B' winter measures, saying that immediate action is required to prevent the NHS 'stumbling into a crisis' arguing that 'we should try to achieve the kind of national mobilisation that we achieved in the first and second waves, where the public went out of their way to support and help the health service.' Similar arguments were made to justify the first lockdown - with apocalyptic SAGE scenarios suggesting hospitals would be overwhelmed with a need for 138,000 ventilators (vs a supply of 6,800 ventilators) with a potential need for 72,000 ventilators by November.

The world is gearing up for COP26, the UN's climate change conference in Glasgow, due to be held in less than a fortnight's time. Ahead of the eco-jamboree, ministers and mandarins have been busily telling the rest of us how to live, with the Treasury today unveiling the truth about how much going green will cost: the Net Zero target means by 2030 we can expect to pay £45,000 for a new electric car while the replacement for a gas boiler by 2035 should be between £6,000 to £10,000. Ooft. Still, while the government has suggested saving the planet by not rinsing plates before putting them in a dishwasher or freezing, rather than throwing out, half-used loaves of bread, other Whitehall apparatchiks seem far less keen on such measures.

Did the Johnson clan breach lockdown rules last December? That's the question being asked in Westminster today after a profile in Harper's Magazine of Carrie Johnson reported that her close friend Nimco Ali spent Christmas in 10 Downing Street with the couple, despite pandemic restrictions on holiday gatherings. At the time, London was under Tier 4 Covid rules which meant Christmas bubbles were scrapped at the last minute and individuals advised to limit their social interactions as much as possible. When the claims first emerged, they received a furious slap down from all sides. A No. 10 spokesman announced that the Prime Minister and Mrs.

Following the murder of Sir David Amess on Friday, there has been much discussion about the level of security for MPs and their staff. Amess was the second parliamentarian to be murdered in five years while out meeting constituents, following the assassination of Jo Cox in 2016, the attack on Stephen Timms MP in 2010 and the death of Andy Pennington, assistant to Nigel Jones MP, at his constituency office in 2000. Not for nothing did the security budget for MPs spiral from £170,576 in 2015/16 to £3.5 million in 2018/19. And while much of the debate so far has focused on abuse targeted at elected representatives, their staff in Westminster and constituency offices also face numerous threats, trolls and attacks.

As every pub-bore politico knows, betting markets tend to be more reliable indicators of election outcomes than the pundits and even the polls.  That is why the latest odds on America’s 2024 presidential elections strike Mr S as worth noting. Donald J. Trump yesterday become favourite on Betfair to be the 2024 Presidential winner, with his ‘shortest odds ever’. According to the betting exchange, Trump has a 21 per cent chance of winning. President Joe Biden, who is plummeting in the polls, has fallen to 19 per cent. Elsewhere, Vice President Kamala Harris has a 13 per cent chance of victory —which reflects the widespread theory that she will at some point take over from the doddery Commander-in-Chief.

It's not just Glasgow currently overrun with rubbish. Down in Brighton, the right-on Green brigade there have found themselves in something of a bin-related disaster following industrial action by local refuse collectors. Streets are now overflowing with dozens of black sacks, with rats being spotted and horrendous smells reported as garbage piles up by the kerb. The city's local newspaper even ran a picture of an abandoned sex doll on its front page story, urging those involved to 'stop the bin strike for her.' Talk about an issue blowing up... https://twitter.com/SteveNickSmith/status/1448610967571554305?