Steerpike

As the nation goes into mourning over the death of David Bowie today, one radio presenter appeared to be having trouble even taking the news in this morning. In fact when the newsreader Fiona Winchester's read the news for Heart FM in Scotland during a morning bulletin, she seemed to have a world exclusive on her hands. https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/newsreader-accidentally-announces-death-of-david-cameron-instead-of-david-bowie 'David Cameron has died,' the Scottish presenter declared. However, the penny soon began to drop that she had not actually meant to say the Prime Minister's name.

Oh dear. It's safe to say that last week was not a great week for Jeremy Corbyn after the Labour leader found members of his party on the verge of revolt following his so-called 'revenge reshuffle'. His decision to sack members of his Shadow Cabinet led to resignations from Shadow Ministers as party members criticised his decision to move Emily Thornberry -- who is anti-Trident -- into the role of Shadow Defence Secretary. However despite this the Labour leader appears to be on fighting form.

The British National Party found itself back in the news today after years in the wilderness. However, it was bad news once again for the beleaguered party -- the Electoral Commission had removed them from the register of political parties. While the decision was met with cheers by many, it hardly came as a surprise given the party's difficulties in recent months. In the general election, they fielded only eight candidates as their vote share dived by 99.7 per cent. Despite this, the celebrations may have been somewhat pre-emptive as the party have now hit back. They says that they are definitely not over. Instead, they simply encountered a 'small clerical error' which led to the party being knocked off the electoral register list.

It's safe to say this week hasn't been the best for Labour. As well as a never-ending reshuffle saga, Corbyn was accused of 'low-level non-violent misogyny' over the lack of women in the top roles in his Shadow Cabinet by Labour MP Jess Phillips. So with the cabinet officially reshuffled, brains at Labour HQ decided it was time for a very special announcement: they had increased the number of women in their Shadow Cabinet by one! A press release entitled 'NEWS FROM LABOUR: Following the reshuffle women now occupy 17 out of the 31 shadow cabinet positions' was sent around which included the number of women in both the shadow cabinet and the ministerial teams.

Labour has found itself on the verge of a civil war today as a number of MPs have turned on their dear leader over his Shadow Cabinet reshuffle. After weeks of conflicting briefings in the media, it was Corbyn's decision to axe Pat McFadden which proved to be a particular sore point amongst Labour MPs as two shadow ministers resigned in protest. This was in large because McFadden claims he was sacked over his comments after the Paris terrorist attacks when he asked David Cameron to confirm that the actions of terrorists could not be dismissed as a reaction to the actions of those in the West. At the time, it was clear McFadden was referring to controversial comments from Stop the War which were later deleted.

In December, Julie Burchill had lunch with Jess Phillips MP, and decided in an article for Spectator Life that the gobby Brummie had the balls to drag the Labour party back from Korbyn’s Keystone Kommunism. It now seems that Phillips agrees. Speaking on Newsnight last night, she admitted - over a pint - that she was indeed interested in the role: 'Yes, absolutely I would consider doing it, a long time in the future. It’s not something I’m planning on doing any time soon but it’s absolutely something I would do in the future, yes.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?

When Jeremy Corbyn formed his Shadow Cabinet after he was voted in as Labour leader, he soon became the subject of much mockery in the media. This wasn't so much because of his appointments, but because his late night discussions about who to appoint were overheard by loitering hacks who then published the private discussions. This even included the conclusion from Team Corbyn that they were 'taking a fair amount of s--- out there' regarding the lack of women in senior positions. With Corbyn's much-hyped -- and much-briefed -- 'revenge reshuffle' seemingly now on, Mr S is pleased to hear that he has learnt from his past mistakes. The Labour leader has just ushered a number of loitering lobby hacks from outside of his office, politely asking them to move somewhere else.