Steerpike

George Eustice has not enjoyed an easy time since being elevated to the Cabinet last year. The environment secretary has had a lot on his plate with the Brexit fall out, pesticide squabbles, a department dominated by Goldsmith allies and near-endless rows about free trade deals impacting Britain's food. This week a Cabinet row over talks with Australia has exploded out into the open with Eustice's faction concerned about the consequences for British farmers if trade secretary Liz Truss secures a tariff-free deal. Not for nothing is a new nickname for the hapless minister now doing the rounds: George Useless.

Amid much gloom in Westminster over the threat posed by the new Covid Indian variant, Mr S was intrigued to hear a counter blast of optimism this morning from an unlikely source – Professor Neil Ferguson.  The epidemiologist appeared on Radio 4's Today programme in which he said that this new strain appears to be less transmissible than some have previously feared as the 'curves are flattening a little' according to the 'most recent data.' Presenter Nick Robinson asked: Transmissibility is this key thing that you're looking to get the answer to.

Pitch: a struggling politician eager to make his mark. He's 10 points behind in the polls, leading a fractitious party and struggling to prove he is the charismatic, dynamic and likeable leader his country needs. From where does he seek salvation? That time-honoured tradition of the fly on the wall documentary. Such an outlandish proposal could soon be all too real, according to the Times today which reports a production company is in talks with Sir Keir Starmer about the proposal. Broadcasters have been asked if they would be interested in showing the programme which some Labour sources believe could be an 'effective way to broadcast Starmer's personality to a larger slice of the electorate.

There has been much talk in recent years about the prospect of a so-called ‘progressive alliance’ coming together to lock the Conservatives out of power. During the Brexit era commentators such as Neal Lawson and Polly Toynbee excitedly speculated on the electoral success a cross party coalition comprising Labour, the Liberal Democrat and Green parties could enjoy, based on their shared mutual values. Zoe Williams claimed of such a tactic: 'when it works, it often looks more like a landslide' while Caroline Lucas wrote an article titled 'progressive alliances are the future of British politics.

Rallies for Palestine were held across the country this weekend which meant of course a starring role for one Jeremy Corbyn. The former Labour leader was introduced on the London platform by comedian Alexei Sayle who – in a move that will hardly aid Jezza's bid to be readmitted as a Labour MP – dubbed Corbyn's successor Keir Starmer 'a little shitbag' to rapturous cheers from the crowd. Corbyn told the crowds that international action provides 'succour, comfort and support' to those suffering in the conflict as they chanted 'oh, Jeremy Corbyn' and threw roses as he took to the stage.

Earlier this month the columnist Sarah Vine revealed in the Mail on Sunday that education secretary Gavin Williamson had been the recipient of a tearful phone call from a student over last year's A-level results day fiasco. Now two weeks later Mr S can go a step further in revealing the barrage of critical correspondence Williamson received in the immediate aftermath of the crisis. Parents, teachers, MPs and pupils bombarded Williamson with emails, obtained via a Freedom of Information request, with one angry grandmother telling the education secretary she had ‘never witnessed such injustice in the education system’ after an algorithm was employed to determine students’ results following the cancellation of summer exams.

If a week is a long time in politics, it’s an age for George Galloway. Last Thursday, he was standing for the Scottish parliament under the banner of a party calling itself All for Unity. It commanded a princely 0.9 per cent of the vote Scotland-wide, suggesting the word ‘All’ was doing some heavy-lifting. Before Holyrood had even gathered to swear in its latest crop of MSPs, Galloway announced his Workers party GB would be standing in the forthcoming Batley and Spen by-election. During the Holyrood campaign, list candidate Galloway declared he would be giving his constituency vote to the Conservatives, prompting some to remark that ‘Gorgeous George’ had travelled far from his roots as a left-wing firebrand.

Oh dear. Labour has been forced to suspend a leadership candidate for the Unite trade union from the party after he demanded that Home Secretary Priti Patel be deported. Left winger Howard Becket is in the running to replace the incumbent Len McCluskey but somewhat overstepped over the mark on Twitter yesterday in his attempts to prove his socialist credentials. Responding to a Home Office attempt to deport two asylum seekers in Glasgow, Beckett wrote: 'Priti Patel should be deported, not refugees. She can go along with anyone else who supports institutional racism. She is disgusting.

This morning's Scottish Affairs select committee session got off to a rocky start when Tory leader Douglas Ross clashed with SNP chairman Pete Wishart. A buoyant Ross, who led his party to its best Holyrood results last week, kicked off by welcoming Scotland secretary Alister Jack and his mandarin Laurence Rockey to the committee but could not resist a swipe at the 'frankly inept and poor' Wishart who responded with similar gusto.

It appears the Queen has become the latest figure to be dragged into America's culture wars after attending the State Opening of Parliament on Tuesday.  Her speech, which set out the government's policies for the new parliamentary session, mentioned a bill to introduce mandatory Voter ID in British elections – something that has caused the monarch to become lionised by some Republicans who now view her as a champion against electoral fraud.  The Republican State Leadership Committee has done its best to herald Her Majesty as a fearless fighter in the war on woke, declaring: 'The woke cancel culture mob continues to call voter ID racist. Now that the Queen of England will require an ID to vote, will Dems cancel her too?