Steerpike

It's less than a week until MPs return to Westminster after a summer full of llama drama and Afghan disaster. But as our elected leaders gear up to debate the great issues of state once more, Steerpike has unearthed figures which suggest Parliament's foundations are not as solid as they would like to think. Whether it's asbestos, falling stonework or the risk of incineration, all too often the Palace of Westminster resembles a house of horrors. Mr S has obtained a copy of the most recent parliamentary 'Asbestos Management Survey' – drawn up between July 2019 and April 2020 –  and it makes for depressing reading.

The bars at Parliament have played host to many scenes over the years – plots, arguments, merriment and even fisticuffs – but rarely to an empty house. But for much of Covid, the watering holes of Westminster have been remained closed, in line with government guidance. And now Mr S has found that the restoration of our liberties and the collapse of Covid cases has failed to prompt a surge in sales; sobering news when one considers how some within the estate are itching to close its taverns. A list of the top 100 bar items sold between January to July reveals a dismal return of 2,967 items sold for an estate which employs approximately 3,000 people. Clearly, many are still reluctant to shed virtual working and mix in the fleshpots of SW1.

The not-so-great and good of the onetime Labour left were out in force last night, as members of Labour Against the Witchhunt (LAW) held a Zoom meeting to determine whether they should create a new party. A motion put forward by Tony Greenstein – who last month declared himself bankrupt after losing his "notorious antisemite" legal battle – called for 'a socialist movement' to 'keep activists in the Corbyn Project together, with a view to forming a distinct socialist party in the near future.

Few groups better embody Boris Johnson's philosophy of 'cakeism' than the Scottish Greens. The party is both pro-having cake and pro-eating cake; committed to tackling 'fuel poverty' while opposing both fossil and nuclear energy, releasing adverts demanding an end to hardship and penury while disparaging economic growth. Now though the party seems determined to take the biscuit. Having struck a power-sharing agreement with the SNP, the Greens face the luxury of being in both government and opposition at the same time. As former Green MSP Andy Wightman has pointed out, the deal is functionally a coalition, allowing the Greens to have access to the resources of the civil service, via two junior ministerial roles and two dedicated special advisers.

It's silly season in Westminster – the period between different parliamentary terms dominated by frivolous news stories. And while July and August have tragically been enlivened by the collapse of Afghanistan, the acres of coverage devoted to Geronimo the alpaca typified a gloriously ignoble tradition of the British press. In such circumstances, Mr S thought it the perfect time to gather together a list of the silliest reasons why Freedom of Information (FOI) requests have been rejected, ahead of a forthcoming parliamentary inquiry into how Whitehall handles them.

Michel Barnier last night revealed he intends to run in next year's French presidential election. The former EU chief Brexit negotiator told TF1 television last night that he wanted to replace Emmanuel Macron to 'change the country,' citing his long experience in politics as giving him an edge in the race.  Barnier's role in the withdrawal negotiations will be central to his claims on the top job, with the former French foreign minister boasting of his years spent working 'with heads of state and government to preserve the unity of all the European countries. One can only imagine the reaction in No.10 to the prospect of Barnier strolling up Downing Street again to negotiate with Prime Minister Johnson.

As George Eustice struggles to kill Geronimo the alpaca, his Cabinet colleague Ben Wallace is facing a different fight with the animal rights lobby. Faced with the calamity of Kabul, the end of Afghanistan and the potential disintegration of the Western alliance, you might have thought the Defence Secretary already has enough on his plate.  But now the former Scots Guard officer has incurred the wrath of over-zealous zoophilists over the Ministry of Defence's refusal to allow a charted plane to evacuate animals out of the country. The animal lovers in question belong to the Nowzad sanctuary, which rescues donkeys, cats and dogs in Afghanistan.

Glasgow: the second city of the Empire, onetime shipbuilding capital of the world, home of Adam Smith, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and John Logie Baird. But for a great metropolis which gave us television, ultrasound and Alex Ferguson's football genius, the city's leadership has all too often failed to live up to its illustrious past.  The council's current leader Susan Aitken is a perfect case in point. Swept to power in 2017 on the SNP tidal wave that engulfed Labour's last bastions, Aitken's four-year reign has been characterised by arrogance, incompetence and mismanagement.

It's happened again. Less than a fortnight after anti-vaccine protestors managed to storm the wrong BBC building in White City, a similar demonstration has occupied the lobby of the ITN studios on Gray's Inn Road, Farringdon. Judging from social media, at least some of those involved appear to believe they have occupied the Daily Mail newspaper offices – actually located in Kensington some four miles away.  https://twitter.com/SubjectAccesss/status/1429783118693781505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Footage uploaded today show dozens of protestors thronging the lobby of the building which is owned by ITN and provides news bulletins for the ITV and Channel 4 stations.

At the end of last year, Australia was lauded for its success in containing Covid-19. The country’s borders had been quickly closed; interstate travel restricted and resources diverted to tracking down cases. In the deluge of praise that followed, outlets like the Washington Post ran gushing features on the country’s ‘pandemic success story’ ‘putting faith in science’; America’s top doctor Anthony Fauci hailed it as the ‘epitome of success.’ But eight months on and a different picture emerges. Covid has had an unfortunate habit of finding the weaknesses in a country or health system and in Australia the precious time gained last year was largely squandered on a widely-criticised vaccine roll out.