Steerpike

The Liberal Democrats were once the progressive voice of fiscal restraint. Not anymore. Leadership hopeful Ed Davey has tabled nearly 130 written questions over the last two weeks in a bid to generate some much-needed coverage – costing an estimated £140 a pop. According to Mr Steerpike's back-of-a-fag-packet calculations, these often pointless interventions set the taxpayer back a cool £18,000. Probing questions include a request for information about artworks depicting slave owners around the parliamentary estate, allowing the Lib Dem bigwig to moan to the Mirror about Britain's 'shameful' past.

How did Britons enjoy this recent bout of nice summer weather? Many people certainly headed to a nearby beach. Some opted for a local park, National Trust site or countryside walk. And many people stayed at home in the garden on a sun lounger. Mr Steerpike is fairly confident though that sun-kissed Brits did not crowd into swamps this past week. Someone should probably have a word with the New York Times then, who today claimed that: ‘Britons have coped with a summer heatwave by jamming into beaches, city parks and swamps’ https://twitter.com/hudson_roe/status/1277491126690353152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw According to the paper, who seem to think Brits are some sort of amphibious creatures, we ‘cavorted by the hundreds in swamps and streams’ this week.

Is Israel to blame for the tragic killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota this year? It’s not a question that has crossed many people’s minds as protests have swept across America in reaction to the unarmed man’s death. For certain sections of the left though, a connection with Israel can always be found. It certainly seems that way for the actress and full-on Corbynista Maxine Peake. Peake gave an interview with the Independent today, in which she claimed that: Systemic racism is a global issue… The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.

Today, the UK Independence Party announced that Freddy Vachha will become the newest leader of the party. Vachha has been Ukip’s London Regional Chairman since 2016 and takes the reins from Richard Braine, who resigned just weeks before the general election last year after clashing with the party’s NEC. For those who’ve struggled to keep up, Vachha becomes the sixth leader of the party since Nigel Farage stepped down in 2016. At the leadership announcement this afternoon in front of Churchill’s statue in Parliament square, Vachha read a speech from his phone out loud, and said it was ‘time for Ukip to get back to business'. Mr S was most intrigued though by Vachha’s action-packed CV.

No one seems to think Boris Johnson has handled this crisis particularly well. But who might have done a better job than him? According to the Great British public, the answer is obvious: Mrs Thatcher.  A poll carried out by Redfield & Wilton Strategies suggests that 34 per cent of people think that Maggie would have handled coronavirus better than Boris – beating any other modern PM. Whatsmore, 47 per cent of those in the north east said Thatcher would have done a better job, the highest proportion out of any UK region.  Until the last election, just three of the 29 constituencies in the north east voted in a Tory MP. Boris Johnson managed to achieve the best result for the Conservatives there since 1959, returning 10 Tories to the Commons.

Oh dear. It seems Matt Hancock has forgotten his own rules. Shortly before PMQs this afternoon, the Health Secretary was spotted slapping a chum on the back in a blatant breach of the two-metre distancing regulations.  Less than a minute later, Hancock again disregarded his ministry's own guidance when he leaned in to have a chat with another MP. Perhaps Hancock could use the Ferguson defence and plead immunity given the fact he has already had the virus. Then again, that didn't end too well for professor lockdown... UPDATE Hancock has now released a statement apologising for the breach, saying:  I'm so sorry for a human mistake on my part.

Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has caused a bit of a storm in the Westminster bubble this morning – the 22-year-old's plea to the PM to extend free school meals into the summer holiday has not gone unnoticed.  As Katy Balls writes this morning, there is a growing feeling among Tory backbenchers that the cost of the scheme is small compared to the negative PR generated from falling out with a world-class footballer.  But it seems the secretary of state for the department of work and pensions didn't get the memo. Thérèse Coffey decided to fact check one of Rashford's tweets, pointing out that it's illegal for water companies to cut off customers' supply. https://twitter.com/theresecoffey/status/1272789819354161152?

Yesterday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that he was forming a new commission to investigate the landmarks, street names and statues of the capital, to see if they should be knocked down or renamed because of their racist past or links to the slave trade. The announcement came after a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down in Bristol by Black Lives Matter protestors this weekend. Khan’s ‘Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm’ will examine various sites across London to see if they reflect the diversity of its population, and the mayor has indicated that it is not appropriate for certain figures to be memorialised in future.

London mayor Sadiq Khan promised today that he will begin the process of pulling down ‘inappropriate’ statues around London – after Bristolians dumped the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in the river at the weekend. To investigate London’s landmarks, Khan has created a ‘Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm’ which will review statues and street names in the capital to make sure they reflect the diversity of its people. Khan said he expected the commission to find that it’s ‘not appropriate to be memorialising, or to be celebrating’ certain figures, especially those with a racist past and links to the slave trade.