Steerpike

Sunday at Labour conference was a trying affair. Beset by questions about whether Tory voters were 'scum' or not, many leading left-wing politicians sought out the fleshpots of Brighton to drown their sorrows. And where better to do that then at Dawn Butler's legendary Jamaica night, held this year in the gratifyingly sticky confines of Brighton's much-loved Pryzm nightclub? Just like party infighting and Piers Corbyn, Butler's Kingston knees-up has become a mainstay of recent conference shindigs. Activists, MPs, hacks and various hangers-ons all endured the half-an-hour wait to enter the bowels of Pryzm, accompanied by the rhythmic beats of a steelpan band.

Angela Rayner may not be a fan of Tory ‘scum’ – but it seems the deputy Labour leader doesn’t speak for all her party. Tonight at the Labour to Win rally, frontbench colleagues of the ambitious Rayner amounted a desperate rearguard offence to assure floating voters that they weren’t all that hostile to awful Conservative voters. First up was Peter Kyle, the shadow minister for schools. Mr S wondered whether his podium – in front of a crumbling southern pier – was the best spot to make the case for Labour winning Tory heartlands but the cheering rump of Blairite survivors seemed to miss the irony.

Quite soon, the word 'women' could be considered so dangerous as to be unutterable. That may seem hyperbolic, but Steerpike can see which way the wind is blowing. Even our most distinguished scientific voices are now shunning the w-word: The Lancet's controversial front cover 'Women' are out. That hateful word has been consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs — next to mod clothing and freedom of speech. All hail the Bodies With Vaginas (BWVs). And the Lancet can’t even offload the blame for this one on to the article in question.  To quote the scientist and body with a penis Max Planck, the truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents but by waiting for them to die. Science marches on, bigot.

Few journalists have been more celebrated by the liberal elite than Alan Rusbridger. The longtime editor of the Guardian for twenty years, a winner of the Marie Colvin prize for improving British journalism and a former head of an Oxford college: there are few baubles which have eluded his grasp. But now the Roy Greenslade scandal has cast a belated shadow over his former editor’s career. Back in 2014, Greenslade wrote an article in his capacity as the Guardian’s media commentator about Mairia Cahill in which he questioned her motives in going public about her sexual abuse at the hands of an IRA man.

A very undiplomatic row has broken out at the Foreign Office over the use of Chevening. The 115-room grace-and-favour residence has traditionally been used as the Foreign Secretary's country house but last week's reshuffle has caused a major headache for No. 10 after Dominic Raab was replaced by Liz Truss.  Raab, who was demoted from the role to be made justice secretary, believes that he has a claim to the property because he now has the additional title of deputy prime minister. But Truss, the new foreign secretary, believes that the property should go to her. The result? A Cabinet stand off. But now Steerpike learns that the row is not the only dilemma facing staff at Chevening.

'The House of Lords' remarked Clement Attlee is 'like a glass of champagne that has stood for five days.' But there's more vim and vigour in the current vintage and now peers are fizzing with righteous anger. The source of the outrage? Recent efforts by certain staff in the Palace to usurp what many feel are the traditional rights of members of the Upper House. A virtual Parliament with the advent of Covid has given self-styled modernisers the ideal chance to mount what traditionalists fear is a hostile takeover on the Palace of Westminster. Peers have already been subject to the indignities of the 'Valuing Everyone' sexual harassment training at taxpayers' expense – a move which saw the nonagenarian Betty Boothroyd probed by a parliamentary watchdog.

On Saturday it was the seventh anniversary of the Scottish vote on independence – how time flies. That contest saw a decisive ten point majority against separation; not that you'd know it from the way Nicola Sturgeon conducts her affairs. The SNP First Minister succeeded Alex Salmond in the post just weeks after the plebiscite and has spent most of her time in office talking tough and delivering little on making Scexit a reality.   In many ways it's a good thing the vote did not go the SNP's way. There's the whole 300 years of history shtick of course but as the calculations of the 2013 White Paper on independence make clear, not all of the predictions necessary for the sunlit uplands of an independent Scotland have managed to come true.

It's been a tough pandemic for all of us here in Britain. Lockdowns, supply shortages, over-zealous policemen and Matt Hancock's gurning face – there's been a shortage of joy these past 18 months. But now Mr S is delighted to discover there is light at the end of the tunnel: a forthcoming book bonanza by Covid experts – and Devi Sridhar – who have all somehow found time to pen books on the global crisis despite being proven wrong again and again. Below is Steerpike's guide to all the titles which won't be flying off the bookshelves in the forthcoming months.... First, we have the aforementioned Sridhar, who finally has a release date in May for her book: Preventable: The politics of the pandemic and how to stop the next one.