Steerpike

Last year it was a bicycle, this year it's a dove. Yes, Jeremy Corbyn has refrained from using a photo of himself for Labour's annual Christmas card for a second year: However with May, too, opting for an illustration, Mr S is beginning to miss the Cameron and Miliband years.

Oh dear. Today Jeremy Corbyn tried to move the conversation from Labour's bad polling to human rights, with a speech to mark International Human Rights Day. However, while Corbyn wished to speak about championing women's rights across the world, Peter Tatchell and anti-war campaigners had other ideas. As the Labour leader spoke at Methodist Central Hall, Tatchell interrupted to accuse of Corbyn of not doing enough to condemn the actions of Russia in Syria: https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/807537203018510336 'What is happening in Aleppo is a modern-day Guernica. We haven’t heard the leader of the Labour party speak out enough to demand UK air drops to besieged civilians who are dying in their thousands.

Although David Cameron tended to put a photo of himself and his wife Samantha on the front of his Christmas cards during his tenure as prime minister, Theresa May takes a different approach. Today the Prime Minister has released her official Christmas cards for 2016. Following her annual tradition as Maidenhead MP, May has chosen cards designed by children in her constituency: However, Mr S is concerned that one of the cards could only add fuel to the fire in the ongoing turf war between Larry the No. 10 cat and Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat. Given that Larry is a tabby cat, it looks as though Palmerston is the feline to make the cut this year...

In today's Article 50 debate, MPs from across the House offered their two cents worth on what Brexit means. However, one Remain MP got more than they bargained for when they sparred with Brexiteer Bill Cash in the Chamber. After Cash argued that the vote for Leave was perfectly clear, Ken Clarke intervened with a counter argument. The Tory grandee accused Cash of double standards over referendums. Pointing to the 1975 referendum on Europe, Clarke said that Cash had argued that referendum was 'purely advisory': 'He will recall, he and I took part in a referendum in the 1970s when he was no doubt saddened to find he was on the losing side.

Here we go again. As Paul Nuttall tries to prove that Ukip is a professional party on the path to electoral success, he may wish to have a word with his party's campaigns team. With Ukip fielding a candidate in the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election, Nigel Farage headed there today to do some broadcast in support of his party. Alas, the campaign banner he stood behind had a glaring error. It read 'Hykenham' rather than 'Hykeham'. In future, Mr S suspects it's worth double checking the spelling of the constituency before printing the campaign merchandise.

In 2011, when the Liberal Democrats’ poll ratings had fallen to 10 per cent, Nick Clegg ordered a rebranding exercise, even looking at whether the party's name should be changed to distance the Lib Dems from their betrayal on tuition fees. Today, the Lib Dems are still polling around 10 per cent (on a good day). But what about the name change? On the Sunday Politics Clegg offered up a vision of Brexit that would mean staying in the single market and the customs union, paying into the EU budget, keeping free movement and accepting the supremacy of the European Court of Justice – prompting Andrew Neil to say: ‘Your party's called the Liberal Democrats. Many people watching this will think maybe it's time for a rebrand.

Throughout the EU referendum campaign, Nicholas Soames stood firmly on the side of Remain -- warning that a vote to Leave would be a 'terrible mistake'. Since the nation plumped for Brexit, Soames has called on the hard Brexiteers to keep their options open with regards to the deal. When Iain Duncan Smith penned a ConHome blog critcising Remain-ers for demanding the UK stay in the single market, Soames likened it to 'watching an arsonist return to the scene of his crime because the flames aren’t big enough'. So, Mr S was intrigued to be passed an invitation from Soames to his fellow MPs. He has asked any comrades who think Britain should be 'seeking the most sensible Brexit' to come to his office next week to discuss.

After Ukip's new leader Paul Nuttall said he planned ‘to replace the Labour party and make Ukip the patriotic voice of working people’, Jeremy Corbyn's party are under pressure to re-connect with their traditional working class voters. With that in mind, Stephen Kinnock appeared on the Today programme on Tuesday to talk Labour and immigration. In an interview with Sarah Montague, the Labour MP -- and the son of Neil Kinnock -- began by conceding that his party had made 'the huge error of failing to talk enough about immigration' and have therefore allowed Ukip to 'step into that place'. So, what is Labour's plan of action?