Steerpike

The results aren't in, the votes haven't been counted, but you can still book a place at Tom Watson's election results party! An intriguing invite popped up in Mr S's inbox from none other than the deputy Labour leadership hopeful. Although Watson -- who is the odds-on favourite at 1/14 -- says he is holding the event regardless of whether he wins or loses, he has taken the bold step of booking out an entire pub come what may. Watson tells supporters about his party prep in an email. 'So win or lose on Saturday 12 September, after the result is announced, I'm having a party,' Watson writes. 'We've booked The Old Star on 12th September from 12pm. I'd love to see you there.

After a young Syrian child was photographed washed up dead on a Turkish beach, David Cameron has been the subject of much vitriol as members of the public and politicians alike urge him to do more to help refugees. However, it is a former Ukip candidate who has attracted the most furore on the topic. Peter Bucklitsch, Ukip's election candidate for Wimbledon, has taken to Twitter to claim that the boy's parents are to blame for his death because they tried to take him to Europe. Bucklitsch says three-year-old Aylan Kurdi was 'well clothed and well fed', and that he died because 'his parents were greedy for the good life in Europe,' adding that 'queue jumping costs': Unsurprisingly his comments have been met with uproar online.

With Alex Salmond currently engaged in a war of words with Nick Robinson over the BBC's 'disgraceful' coverage of the Scottish referendum, there is one former Beeb employee he can turn to in his time of need. Step forward Paul Mason. Mason -- who worked as Newsnight's economics editor before defecting to Channel 4 -- joined Salmond on stage at the Edinburgh book festival to plant a few blows in the direction of his ex-employer. Despite pleas from Nicola Sturgeon for the BBC to enhance its presence in Scotland with a BBC Scotland TV channel, the PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future author said the BBC's unionist values were part and parcel of the corporation: 'I'm absolutely sure that the BBC believes it is a unionist institution.

Oh dear. Although Lord Ashcroft said he would be pleasantly surprised if Anthony Seldon's biography of David Cameron offered anything more than 'a sanitised account' of his time in Number 10, an excerpt in today's Mail on Sunday should make interesting reading for Boris Johnson.

It's fair to say that the appointment of Ed Miliband’s ex-campaign director Spencer Livermore to the House of Lords hasn't gone down well in Labour circles. Harriet Harman was said to be in a battle to get a similar honour for her own press chief Ayesha Hazarika if Livermore got one, but her name was absent from yesterday's Dissolution Peerages. Now word reaches Steerpike that party members are questioning what exactly Livermore -- who also worked on Gordon Brown’s election-that-never-was back in 2007 -- is being rewarded for. While Mr S is yet to learn the answer, it is fair to rule out his election judgment. On polling day, Livermore wrote a blog claiming the BBC's exit poll looked 'wrong'.

It's official, Jeremy Corbyn has made it. Following in the lines of all the greats, the left wing messiah has inspired such fan devotion that people are genuinely bidding on items just because he may have touched them. The item in question is a a coffee cup that his lips allegedly once met: The seller claims Corbyn gifted her the political artefact following a talk he gave in Nottingham: 'Ok this is obviously aimed at a niche interest group but Jeremy handed me his empty coffee cup at tonight's gathering outside the Playhouse in Nottingham. I realise most people would have put it in the bin but I asked what would JC do and concluded that if people in need benefit, it would be ok. I hope he agrees or at least understands. So I am auctioning it to benefit Age UK Notts.

With reports starting to claim that the next global financial crisis is on the horizon, one could be forgiven for thinking it's all doom and gloom. So Steerpike was cheered to see that Labour's former king of spin Damian McBride is on hand to put everyone's minds at rest. McBride says that he has been preparing for the day for a while now: https://twitter.com/DPMcBride/status/635693335055876096 As a result, he's perfectly placed to offer a three-point guide on how to respond to the nascent crash. He says it's time to get cash out from your bank, stock up on bottled water and work out a safe meeting point among your friends and family: https://twitter.com/DPMcBride/status/635789840316022784 https://twitter.com/DPMcBride/status/635790013331079168 https://twitter.