Steerpike

What would Winston Churchill have made of the hysterical debate yesterday, which tried to boil his legacy down to whether he was a 'villain' or a 'hero'? Mr S wonders if the man who liberated Europe might have been amused at the situation, not least by being called a 'villain' by a shadow chancellor who thought it fit to wave Mao's little red book at the dispatch box. More clear, is that after all the rubbish talked about Churchill's life on the airwaves yesterday, including some awful Question Time responses, one man seemed to get the tone just right. Andrew Neil, introducing the political show This Week, gave this monologue on Churchill's legacy and the difficulty of judging historical figures by today's standards, last night:   https://twitter.

Winston Churchill is a war hero who saved Britain from the Nazis. At least, that is what many think of a man consistently hailed as one of the greatest ever Brits. Not so Chris Williamson. Instead, the Labour MP agrees with the shadow chancellor John McDonnell that Churchill was a 'villain'. Speaking on the BBC's Politics Live, Williamson also said Churchill was in the 'right place at the right time' when the war was won and whatever Churchill's achievements in stopping Adolf Hitler, 'some of the things he said' meant he was no hero. Mr S thinks it's a shame that Williamson doesn't take the same rigorous assessment of character when it comes to making his mind up about Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro...

Oh dear. Jeremy Corbyn was caught out last week after a video emerged of him claiming that the European Union was creating a ‘military Frankenstein’. It now seems as if that criticism of EU wasn’t a one off. Here is Corbyn making a speech at a rally in 2010 in which he says the EU must be ‘defeated’: https://twitter.com/rosskempsell/status/1095002665061412865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw He told the crowd: 'They – the worlds bankers – the international Monetary Fund, the European Union, are utterly united in what they want. Utterly united in deflation, suppressing the economy and creating unemployment.

Last year, there was much mirth when it was revealed that transport minister, Chris Grayling, had awarded a £14m contract for extra ferries between Ramsgate and Ostend in the case of no deal to ‘Seaborne Freight’ - a company which had no ships, and no record of chartering them. Suspicions that Seaborne might not be the most reliable continued to grow when the company was shown to have no trading history and appeared to have borrowed its website's terms & conditions from a takeaway company. Now it appears that scepticism of Seaborne might have been entirely justified.

Not for the first time, Nigel Farage is back. The former Ukip leader is backing a new Brexit party that has today been officially recognised by the Electoral Commission. The Brexit Party plans to field candidates across the UK and in any European elections, if they are held in the event of Article 50 being delayed or postponed. In the months after the referendum, the prospects for a pro-Brexit party looked to be limited. So, too, at the snap election in 2017, when both Labour and the Tories promised to deliver Brexit. But the backlash to Theresa May's Brexit deal, Labour's Brexit contortions – and Ukip's obsession with Islam – has given a new party breathing room.

As Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss has shown herself unafraid to say what she thinks. Whether it's the need to defend Conservative values, rallying against Michael Gove's wood-burning stove ban or poking fun at her current party's Brexit secretary related woes. On Monday night, Truss gave a speech to female entrepreneurs and founders in 11 Downing Street. In it, Truss spoke in defence of free markets, the need for a party to appeal to Generation Z and pointed out that the majority of venture capital money in the UK was given to all-male teams and compared that to the idea of a Bullingdon Club infused Conservative government – something that she said belongs in the past: 'I am the number one believer in free markets.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the left's rising political star. The 29-year-old is the youngest women ever to serve in the US Congress and her fan base is growing quickly online, so it's no surprise that Jeremy Corbyn wants to team up. But the Labour leader's cosy phone call with the Democrat has somewhat backfired. Corbyn said yesterday that it was 'great to speak' to Ocasio-Cortez, who returned the favour by tweeting that it 'was an honour to share such a lovely and wide-reaching conversation with you'. This seemed to be the start of great things, until a follower of Ocasio-Cortez pointed out Labour's ongoing troubles with anti-Semitism: Oh dear. It was good while it lasted...

When was the last time an EU leader gave an interview to British TV to talk about Brexit? If you're scratching your head to remember, you're not the only one. Andrew Marr raised just this point on his programme this morning, calling out the likes of Donald Tusk, Michel Barnier and Jean-Claude Juncker for their persistent failure to appear on his programme. Here's what Marr had to say: I just want to say one thing about our line-up of interviews. We are at a moment where negotiations with Brussels are absolutely critical and it has been a long moment. And week after week I get the chance to cross question British ministers and opposition politicians. And week after week, we ask the likes of Donald Tusk, Michel Barnier and Jean-Claude Juncker to answer questions as well.

Oh dear. It's been a rollercoaster for the European Research Group of late. Once heralded as the Machiavellis of Brexit, the group of backbench Eurosceptics have lately become the subject of some mockery thanks to their botched attempts to oust Theresa May as Prime Minister. However, things appeared to turn in their favour again this week when the group – led by Jacob Rees-Mogg – managed to get May to change her Brexit strategy – and confirm that she wished to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement. Alas Mr S suspects the turn of John Whittingdale on Channel 4 news in the aftermath will have done little to cement an image of professionalism.