Steerpike

In February Mr S reported that onetime Labour power broker Jon Lansman was set to stand for Cornwall County Council in May's local elections. Lansman, the founder of leftwing campaign group Momentum, left his party's national executive committee in December, swearing that 'My legacy isn't complete' with an afterlife in the politics of potholes appearing to be a fitting end to 40 years of leftwing activism. But now the onetime Bennite's bid for power appears to have collapsed after Lansman was left off the list of nominated candidates for the Mousehole, Newlyn and St Buryan electoral district.

Where Farage leads, Westminster follows. Last month it was revealed that the former Brexit party leader had joined paid for video app Cameo, where he charges £75 to record a clip of your choice. Now Steerpike can reveal that former Commons Speaker John Bercow has signed up too and is billing £82.50 for fans of the undersized, but never undersold, onetime parliamentarian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkdDZitIgTE The former Buckingham MP has already recorded his first lengthy clip which demonstrated that since standing down some 16 months ago, the loquacious former Tory has lost none of his verbosity. Bercow is listed on Cameo as replying within the hour with a bio that claims: 'As Speaker I served as chief officer of the House of Commons.

The team behind London's Crossrail are well used to attracting negative publicity. Last summer it was reported that the new Elizabeth line will open more than four years late and over budget almost £4bn than originally planned, having been originally due to start operating in December 2018. Now though the infrastructure wonks appear to have made a fresh blunder of a non-budgetary nature after erecting a two kilometre mural in Newham to cover the Elizabeth line. The artwork is called 'Newham Trackside Wall' and will be officially in July. But it appears that, unusually for Crossrail, the artwork has been delivered before schedule and is already enraging local residents with the poetry quotes it has chosen to describe the surrounding area: I love this area North Woolwich.

Tonight the Scottish National party released its latest party political broadcast on Twitter. Featuring a young red-haired woman sitting on a stool, striding around a stage, it flashes various images onto the back of a screen complete with melodramatic background tones. Ignoring the Scottish government's own record of the last 14 years on health, education, social mobility and every other matter of public policy, it asks: 'Who will care? When you see your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your grandpa and nan, how can we get governments that care about them. The governments that we can trust to work tirelessly for Scotland, day after day after day.' https://twitter.com/theSNP/status/1379484798251626497?

As a young man, Barry Gardiner planned to become an Episcopal priest, serving as secretary of the Scottish Christian Movement. Fortunately for the country however, Gardiner decided that first academia and then politics were his true calling, rising eventually to the giddy heights in government of being Gordon Brown's special representative on forestry and then Jeremy Corbyn's shadow trade secretary in opposition.  Having stunned Westminster with a one day wonder bid to be Labour leader, he returned to the backbenches last April where he has largely remained a dutifully loyal presence in spite of some social distancing rule breaking.

It has been a difficult few years for Remainer campaigner Femi Oluwole. Having failed to stop Brexit, secure a second referendum or prevent the Tories winning a majority in 2019, you might have thought the last four years would have chastened the 'Our Future Our Choice' founder. Not a bit of it. Oluwole, 31, is now turning his hand to journalism with the same aplomb that he brought to political campaigning. In a series of bizarre tweets this afternoon that sounded like outtakes from a Liam Neeson Taken sequel, Oluwole told Labour's team that he was 'currently writing an article which it's in your interest to stop' and added 'You have my number. You've got a few days to use it.