Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike
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Roy Greenslade’s confession last month that he was a dedicated supporter of the IRA during the Troubles has not gone down well on Fleet Street. Greenslade secretly wrote for the republican newsletter An Phoblacht and provided bail surety for an IRA man accused of involvement in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing. He wrote in the
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After facing widespread political condemnation, the Metropolitan Police has defended its handling of the Clapham Common vigil on public health grounds. Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball said that ‘Police must act for people’s safety, this is the only responsible thing to do. The pandemic is not over and gatherings of people from right across London and beyond,
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Oh dear. Ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell Oprah interview aired, a debate has been underway in the press over allegations of racism in the monarchy. So Mr S read a comment piece on the progressive newspaper-turned-website the Independent with intrigue. With the eye catching title: ‘I’m a black British member of the aristocracy – I know what
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Eddie Izzard is a serial election loser, but try telling her that. The comedian has tried – and failed – three times to win a place on Labour’s National Executive Committee. But not put off by getting fewer votes than a man disowned by Momentum over anti-Semitism allegations in her last outing, Izzard wants to try again.
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So, farewell then, The Mash Report. This morning the Sun reports that the newly appointed BBC director general Tim Davie has ordered the axing of the notoriously unfunny BBC Two show after four series. The show’s creators were told at the time of the appointment to find a better balance of targets than ‘digs at the Tories’. Not
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In the wake of last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, a number of leading British private schools announced plans to decolonise their syllabus. Winchester, Fettes, Ampleforth and St Paul’s Girls were all reported to be ‘formulating new approaches’ to teaching about Britain’s colonial past and whether subject curriculums were inclusive enough. Now Mr S can reveal that the Haberdashers’ Aske’s schools are
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In the wake of Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview, much American comment has been focused on the beastly British tabloid press. Reader’s Digest was typical in claiming that the UK press is ‘notoriously aggressive, some may say to the point of violating laws or the most primitive of standards’. Others focused on the headlines about
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Harry and Meghan are famously protective of their privacy and as a result hostile to those media outlets they don’t personally seek out. But of all the British broadcasters, ITV are regarded as having the best links with the estranged royal couple. News at Ten anchor Tom Bradby is known to be a friend of the
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Statues toppled, buildings renamed — last summer’s BLM inspired iconoclasm changed the face of streets and landmarks across Britain. Surely though this reckoning with the past was merely restricted to the physical manifestation of our shameful past? Apparently not, according to the director of Kew Gardens. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Richard Deverell has today spoken of his
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Universities have traditionally played an important role in preparing young people for a life outside academia. These days, though, it appears that many institutions are more interested in lecturing their academics than teaching students – especially when it comes to using the right kind of language. That perhaps explains why the University of Manchester released
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Trebles all round at the New York Times after another dose of anti-British bile. Mr S last week noted that the Gray Lady’s news reporting of Covid in the UK mixed misrepresentation with outdated figures. This week the newspaper has followed this up with the inevitable crowing comment piece to follow Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview. Titled
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Oh dear. Following up this afternoon’s PMQs at which Keir Starmer led on the issue of nurses’ pay, the Labour Party have tonight tweeted a new attack ad featuring a nurse in her branded lanyard. Calling the proposed one per cent pay rise ‘a complete slap in the face’ she says ‘we feel completely betrayed’ adding
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‘Extraordinary. Unexpected. Fantastic’ is the tagline for the latest drama out of No. 10 Downing Street. Only this time the stars are not Carrie and the Vote Leave crew but Patrick Vallance, Chris Whitty, Kate Bingham, Jonathan Van-Tam and the other civil servants behind the UK’s vaccine programme. A brief 51 second clip was released this afternoon
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Britain has sunk into a vicious bout of ‘vaccine nationalism’ — that is, at least, according to European Council president Charles Michel who made the bizarre claims last night. Those in Westminster have been less than impressed by the Eurocrat’s bold claims that the UK is undermining the bloc’s vaccine plans, with Dominic Raab ordering EU officials
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First there was the Union Unit, then there was the Internal Market Act. Now Mr Steerpike can reveal the latest weapon of Tory MPs to fight the Scottish Nationalists: Union Jack face masks. A number of the new 2019 intake have been seen proudly sporting the emblems in the chamber to counter SNP members wearing the
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PA Media are now reporting that the Duchess of Sussex did formally complain to ITV over Piers Morgan’s comments on GMB amid concerns that his comments may affect others attempting to deal with their mental health problems. The Good Morning Britain co-host quit last night, with a spokesman for ITV subsequently refusing to deny that the pregnant royal had
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Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has blasted claims by a senior Eurocrat that the UK is hampering the bloc’s vaccine rollout, calling the questionable assertions ‘completely false’. Charles Michel, president of the European Council, initially argued that Britain had imposed an ‘outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components’ leaving the country in an EU blog
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World Book Day was last Thursday and now a leading German publisher has belatedly marked the occasion by pulping copies of a children’s picture book. Its crime? Saying something that is almost certainly true: that Covid-19 originated in China. ‘A Corona Rainbow for Anna and Moritz’ was published to help kids understand the impact that Covid-19
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Oh dear. Things got rather heated in the GMB studio this morning when discussing Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Oprah interview, which aired in the UK last night. On the show, presenter Alex Beresford laid into Piers Morgan for his treatment of Meghan, and suggested that his behaviour had been ‘absolutely diabolical’. This appeared to get
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Oh dear. Not content with having claimed that baby Archie was denied his rightful title, last night’s interview with the Sussexes saw them boast of having conducted a secret marriage with the Archbishop of Canterbury three days before the public ceremony in May 2018. Meghan told Oprah: ‘You know, three days before our wedding, we
