Steerpike

Regular readers of Steerpike may recall last month the 150 Oxford academics who made headlines by boycotting Oriel College and refusing to teach its students in protest at the decision to keep up a statue of Cecil Rhodes. At the time Mr S published a full register of the names of academics backing the stunt, with top of the list being none other than Kate Tunstall, head of the self-styled 'People's Republic of Worcester College' alongside five other members of the same college.

We don't hear much from Diane Abbott these days. Since leaving the front bench in April 2020, the former shadow home secretary has largely dedicated herself to writing her forthcoming memoirs: 'A Woman Like Me' due in all good book stores next summer. But this weekend the Mojito swilling backbencher returned to the fray with a pointed intervention on Keir Starmer's visit to Northern Ireland. Responding to Starmer's claims that Labour would campaign for Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK in any future border poll, Abbott weighed in to amplify the comments of fellow left-winger Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Brighton's answer to Citizen Smith.

Peterborough has become something of a political lodestar for Keir Starmer's Labour. The Cambridgeshire city hosted the launch of the party's 'Jobs, Jobs, Jobs' campaign last July and provided one of the few bright spots on local election night this year, helping to elect the area's first Labour combined authority mayor in Nik Johnson. The Economist even interpreted the result as an indication of the Brexit realignment, with southern, affluent areas appearing to countenance voting Labour for the first time in a generation.

It's difficult to keep up with James Dornan these days. Whether it's accusing Lothian Buses of discriminating against Catholics or failing to release information that exonerated Rangers football club, the gaffe-prone Glasweigan has earned himself earned the reputation of being a one man wrecking ball to harmonious community relations.  Not for nothing has Steerpike christened him the 'Hate-Finder General.' But now it seems Dornan has been spreading his own brand of hate, judging by a tweet he sent yesterday to Jacob Rees-Mogg who tweeted his support of the Borders Bill to tackle small boat Channel crossings.

Speak to battle-scarred Tory veterans of the 2017 snap election and they'll regale you with horror tales about animal sentience. A little-noticed vote to reject the inclusion of the subject in the Withdrawal Bill quickly blew up into one of the major election issues, with the Independent running viral articles on the subject with inflammatory headlines that were widely shared all over social media sites. Some still credit the issue with helping to denying Theresa May her much-craved majority in that election. In the years since then the Conservatives have handled the issue of animal welfare with extreme caution, well aware of its political volatility.

The appearance of Dominic Raab before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee yesterday got somewhat overlooked in all the drama about lockdown and football. While the session was fairly routine, with Raab largely able to bat aside questions from committee chairman and No. 10 nemesis Tom Tugendhat, it will mostly be remembered for a moment of sheer vacuousness from Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe. In an exchange with Raab, Webbe, who was suspended from the Labour party last September after being charged with harassment, tried to put the Foreign Secretary on the spot over Belarus. Unfortunately after a few brief sentences between the two it became apparent that Webbe did not have the slightest clue about the legal action she was calling for, or the reasons she was calling for it...

Jon Ashworth is one of the great survivors of the Labour front bench, having held the shadow health brief for some four and a half years under successive leaders. But given this morning's media round, how much longer will he be remaining in post? Responding to the government's announcement yesterday of the end of social distancing restrictions, Ashworth gave a tetchy interview on Radio 4's Today programme in which he levelled the charge of 'recklessness' at the government. He told presenter Mishal Husain 'I don't think any avoidable deaths are acceptable, that's why I would always want to put in place mitigating precautions to try to save people's lives.

Most eyes in Westminster are on the future, ahead of next week's looming July 19 unlocking. But for one man at least, attention is focused on the past and how the world became engulfed in the Covid quagmire. Matt Ridley, the journalist, businessman and member of the House of Lords, has been using his pen throughout the pandemic to ask questions about the origins of the coronavirus – including within these own pages.  Now the peer's seat in the Upper House has been roped into the cause too.

As July 19 looms ever closer and the football appears to be (finally) coming home, it appears that not even Tory MPs are exempt from experiencing the feel good factor. There was a boisterous mood in the Commons today as parliamentarians returned to hear the newly appointed Health Secretary read the last rites for the two metre rule after 16 months of Covid guidelines.  The usually composed Javid even broke into a smile after one spontaneous heckle. Declaring to the House that 'We will revoke all social distancing guidance including the two metre rule – except, for some specific–' the minister was briefly interrupted when one (unknown) Conservative backbencher cried out 'Hallelujah!

Throughout the pandemic, few things have been certain but Devi Sridhar’s omnipresent opining is one of them. The Scottish Covid advisor has rarely been off our screens during the pandemic, becoming something of a pin-up girl to the SNP for her repeated jibes at the Westminster government, her demands for more power which Holyrood already had and her effusive praise for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘wise words’ and ‘strong leadership’. Not to mention of course her suggestion that an independent Scotland would have done better against Covid. The appointment of a new UK Health Secretary in Sajid Javid offered Sridhar a fresh target to aim at.