Steerpike

The Scottish Parliament today met on a motion of condolence for the late Duke of Edinburgh. But while the main party leaders including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Tories' Ruth Davidson paid eloquent tribute to Prince Philip's seven decades of public service, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens felt no such compunction. Patrick Harvie told Holyrood that his party had considered boycotting the Holyrood tribute and criticised Prince Philip’s 'extreme wealth, privilege and status' by pleading that it would have been 'wrong to give a performance of feelings not sincerely felt.'  https://www.youtube.com/watch?

David Cameron broke his silence last night on the Greensill affair after more than a month without comment. The statement of the Tory prime minister has failed to quell questions as to whether he acted improperly in his approaches to various ministers, with Number 10 today announcing an independent investigation – something Boris Johnson no doubt enjoyed. It seems fair to say that Cameron has been a less successful ex-PM than he was as premier, having seen his UK-China fund run into the sands, his memoirs fail to match his predecessors and his National Citizen Scheme facing calls to be defunded.

It was just a fortnight ago that the BBC's grumpiest new presenter Simon McCoy announced he was off to join GB News after 17 years at the Beeb. It has not taken long for the onetime viral iPad star to fire his first salvo at the Corporation's editorial choices, taking aim on Friday to criticise Auntie for running blackout tributes to the late Duke of Edinburgh. McCoy, who is renowned for his apathetic reportage on a generation of royal births, took to Twitter to complain about the saturation coverage, prompting a stand off with current BBC presenter Martine Croxall. https://twitter.com/MartineBBC/status/1380607017065254922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/SimonMcCoyTV/status/1380609606100119559?

Following the sad news on Friday of the Duke of Edinburgh's death, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey tweeted out his condolences writing that 'As a mark of respect to the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen and the Royal Family, the Liberal Democrats are suspending the national election campaign today.' A civil gesture of commemoration, one might think. But while the party's leading MPs like Layla Moran and Alistair Carmichael are following the example of ministers in respecting a media blackout until after the funeral, no such restraints are on local activists out campaigning across the country throughout this weekend.

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.

Oh dear. Britain’s most read newspaper Metro caused something of an overnight storm with the first edition of its front page. Splashing on the easing of lockdown restrictions on Monday, its headline read ‘The Glorious Twelfth’ underneath a dramatic shot of projectiles being thrown at the peace wall in Belfast titled 'Bad Old Days are Back' ‘The twelfth’ of course has some powerful resonance in Northern Ireland, to celebrate the triumph of the Glorious Revolution and victory of the Protestants of King William III over the Catholic King James II at the subsequent Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Every 12 July the Orange Order marches its members through streets across the country — something of which Metro has clearly been previously aware.

Oh dear, it all seemed to be going so well for the ‘Northern Independence Party’, a Corbynite breakaway outfit standing in the Hartlepool by-election. Despite appearing to think that Norwich is a northern city, and the pretty embarrassing use of a whippet on its logo, the party had managed to field a former Labour MP in Hartlepool and was receiving some favourable coverage in the left-wing and national media. Unfortunately though there seems to be trouble at t’mill. Last night, the party announced that because it had failed to file the correct forms with the Electoral Commission on time, it would not be on the ballot paper in Hartlepool.

Back in October the House of Commons gift shop announced some exciting news: copies of the parliamentary art collection would now be on sale as prints on demand. At last, politicos across the nation could take a little bit of Westminster's heritage home with them with prices starting at £15 for a William Wilberforce or Baroness Hayman print and rising all the way up to £100 for one of the magnificent Water over Westminster artwork. Mr S thought it would be fun to find out who the public wants hanging on their walls and establish which of the nation's politicians came top in the Christmas sales.

Oh dear. After weeks of unedifying rows over Europe's vaccine procurement disaster, two top Brussels' officials are now embroiled in a new diplomatic incident. On Tuesday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel paid a trip to Ankara to meet with Turkish leader President Erdoğan. Unfortunately the three hour long discussion on issues such as women's rights got off to a bad start when von der Leyen was denied an armchair beside Erdoğan as the discussions began, being instead confined to a sofa opposite Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu.

Corbynista Laura Pidcock has always had something of the reverse Midas touch when it comes to politics, managing to lose both her council seat in 2017 and then her safe parliamentary constituency in 2019. Now it seems Pidcock's run of form has even extended to her long time partner Daniel Kebede who works for the National Education Union.Kebede took to Twitter last night to complain he has now been 'removed' from his party's membership for voicing support for the Northern Independence Party's candidate in the Hartlepool by election, writing: 'What can I say? If you're in Hartlepool, #VoteForThelma Reject the Westminster establishment.' Kebede though is maintaining a 'you can't fire me, I quit' defence and says he resigned last year but the party had clearly not got the memo.

Trade union Unite are back in the news again after a brief hiatus following the end of the Corbyn melodrama last year. Outgoing general secretary Len McCluskey is facing questions about the £98 million of members’ money spent on building a four star Marriott hotel complex and conference centre in Birmingham which will house union offices. Despite a reported initial estimate of £7 million, the building costs ballooned to £57 million before construction began, with the key contract being awarded to Flanagan Group — run by McCluskey ally Paul Flanagan. This morning ‘Red Len’ showed he still has plenty of life left in him as he hit back at the ‘hostile media’ for a ‘disgraceful smear campaign.

Last month the Downing Street Twitter account released a sixty second trailer for a forthcoming film heralding the triumphant success of Britain’s vaccine story. Titled: ‘A Beacon of Hope: The UK Vaccine Story’ with the tagline ‘Extraordinary. Unexpected. Fantastic’ the brief clip featured Chris Whitty, Patrick Vallance, Jonathan Van-Tam and other familiar faces from the Covid press conferences talking about how the UK raced ahead of other countries in the battle to vaccinate its population. https://twitter.com/10DowningStreet/status/1369663017890222084?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Four weeks on and no further details about the home-made film are yet to be published.