Steerpike

Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

Tuesday

Steerpike

Mark Gatiss: I based Sherlock’s Mycroft on Peter Mandelson

In the BBC's Sherlock, Mark Gatiss plays Sherlock Holmes's sly older brother Mycroft. Now the actor has revealed in an interview with the Radio Times that the person who inspired his performance is none other than Peter Mandelson. 'I based Mycroft on Peter Mandelson. It was explicit even before I was going to play him. Steven Moffat and I talked about how Mandelsonian Mycroft was... Conan Doyle says Mycroft is the British government. He’s the power behind the throne. Both Mandelson and Mycroft are the sort of people who, I think, would sit out a world war. [They would think] there's a longer game to be played.

Monday

Steerpike

Is Ian Katz plotting a return to ‘snooooozepapers’?

With Katharine Viner guaranteed a final round interview to be the next Guardian editor-in-chief after winning a staff ballot, rumours are circulating that her former colleague Ian Katz is the other horse left in the race. Hot goss: final two in race for Guardian editorship are now @iankatz1000 and @KathViner, insider tells me. — Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) March 13, 2015 Katz left his role as deputy editor of the Guardian to join the BBC as Newsnight editor in 2013. At the time, it was reported that he had grown tired of waiting for Alan Rusbridger to step down as editor. If it is the case that Katz is in the final two, his interview with the Scott Trust should be an interesting one.

Steerpike

Anti-capitalist protesters occupy wrong building

Hippies have invaded the heart of St. James's, occupying a building on Pall Mall to protest the evils of capitalism. Yet it seems they did not do their homework... 123 Pall Mall, where the invading lefties have hoisted their banners, used to be the home of the Institute of Directors - and they were the clear target of the campaign. However, the lease on the building was handed back by the IoD last summer, after an expansion at their headquarters down the road. The building is nothing to do with the business cheer leaders any more. An IOD spokesman tells the Spectator: 'We vacated this building six months ago, but there’s a chance there are some old Hayek or Adam Smith books left behind. Who knows, perhaps they’ll learn something.

Sunday

Steerpike

Green Party cancels black tie fundraiser following members’ revolt

The Green Party's fundraising ball was set to be an event to rival the Tory Black and White ball. Tickets to the lavish bash, which included a champagne reception, started at £500 with tables going for up to £15,000. However, after news of the planned fundraiser broke on Friday, party members complained that the the ball was at odds with the Green party's policy to redistribute wealth. Now, Mr S hears that the event has been cancelled as a result of the public backlash. 'After feedback from our membership, supporters and donors, the Green Party Executive decided not proceed with this event,' a party spokesman tells Steerpike. Green donors now have the chance to attend a more inclusive event.

Saturday

Steerpike

Steerpike competition: ‘MP Looking Normal’ contest

Politicians are always trying to appear normal, sincere and authentic. It’s not just Ed Miliband trying to decide which kitchen to pose in: every MP is always trying to craft an image of themselves as a man or woman of the people through carefully-posed Twitter photos. Mr Steerpike particularly enjoys shots of MPs enjoying themselves in their constituencies while buttering up a local business, and has a little black book of the best examples. Here are three very good ones: Getting Ready for Christmas today in Dover. Parking is free in Dover & Deal until 26th Dec thanks to @DoverDC pic.twitter.

Friday

Steerpike

Ed Miliband defends his two kitchens

Yesterday Mr S reported that Ed Miliband posed in his second kitchen for a BBC interview with his wife Justine, rather than his larger main kitchen. Now the Labour leader has come out in defence of his two kitchens, claiming that the smaller 'kitchenette' is his main kitchen. Speaking to the Birmingham Mail, Miliband says that he does have two kitchens but denies that he posed in the smaller one to give the impression that he was a man of the people. 'I think Justine would probably say she wishes I’d spend more time in the kitchen. The house we bought had a kitchen downstairs when we bought it. And it is not the one we use. We use the small one upstairs.

Steerpike

Wallace and Gromit creator not happy about Ed Miliband cartoons

Since the Times cartoonist Peter Brookes first drew Ed Miliband in the image of Wallace from Nick Park's cartoon Wallace and Gromit, the Labour leader has been unable to escape comparisons to the goofy-faced character. Now, the Evening Standard reports that Park is growing tired of its negative use in the lead up to the election. 'As a huge Labour supporter Nick hates the way they always depict Miliband disparagingly,' a source close to Park is quoted as telling the paper. 'The humour used is more often than not crude, and the main concern for Nick is the damage it is doing to Wallace and Gromit’s image as good, clean family oriented animated characters.

Thursday

Steerpike

Times columnist comes to the defence of ‘Two Kitchens’ Miliband

Mr Steerpike was interested to see Jenni Russell springing to Ed Miliband’s defence after Sarah Vine took a pop at his kitchen in the Daily Mail. Mrs Gove described his kitchen as ‘drab’ and said it made her want to ‘bring him over some fresh brownies’. Thankfully, as Times columnist Russell points out, this is not his main kitchen. It is in fact his ‘ functional kitchenette’: Ed Miliband's kitchen is lovely. Daily Mail pix: the functional kitchenette by sitting room for tea and quick snacks. — Jenni Russell (@jennirsl) March 12, 2015 Mr S imagines Russell is a fairly reliable source when it comes to the living arrangements of the Miliband family, given that the Labour leader is godfather to her child.

Steerpike

Miliband could teach Rusbridger a thing or two about meeting men on Hampstead Heath

This morning Alan Rusbridger received a police caution for ‘illegal use of a tripod’ on Hampstead Heath. The Guardian editor has since written a blog detailing his brush with the law. The London police have been trying to nick an editor for years. Today they got one - me http://t.co/IatiJR0ELR — alan rusbridger (@arusbridger) March 12, 2015 The incident began when a man took offence at photos Rusbridger was taking with David Levene. 'He ran down the hill shouting that I had no right to take pictures and I’d better effing delete them. As he got nearer he became a rather large and shouty speck, sweat beading on his bald head as he bellowed in my face. We were effing out of order.

Steerpike

CCHQ chaos as meeting invites go to Labour

Yesterday Mr S reported how Labour have enlisted the help of people with identical names to Tory leaders for their latest email campaign. Lame as it may be, they have at least managed to send their emails to the right people. Alas, the same cannot be said for the brains at CCHQ this week. Word reaches Steerpike that invitations meant for Conservatives have been winging their way to members of the opposition. First, a Labour MP's assistant received a call from CCHQ inviting her to help campaign for a Tory MP's marginal seat. When the Labour employee asked who they thought they were speaking to, the reply was Nick de Bois's office: 'It was very odd.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Labour’s lame ‘same-name’ email campaign

‘Labour has vowed not to feature Prime Minister David Cameron on billboards ahead of the general election,' reported the BBC last month. ‘The party said it would focus on issues rather than personalities. and not use negative personal campaigning.’ It seems that has not stretched to the party’s email campaigning though. Steerpike’s inbox has been inundated with fundraising emails from all of the parties, but a particularly naff example is doing the rounds today. Labour appear to have enlisted the help of people with identical names to Tory leaders to send out emails. Such as: I couldn't resist jumping on the bandwagon here! I'm a Labour Party member of 25 years' standing.

Steerpike

Gordon Brown’s jewellery gaffe at No.10

Sarah Brown has teamed up with Astley Clarke to bring out a bracelet to raise funds for her Theirworld children’s charity. At the jewellery launch at Mondrian London, the company's founder Bec Astley Clarke described how she first met Brown. 'Eight years ago when Astley Clarke was a slightly smaller business, I was sitting at my desk looking at web orders that had to be dispatched that day, and I got quite excited. One of the dispatches was going to none other than number 10 Downing Street. I thought to myself  "that is so sweet, the Prime Minister has taken time out of his busy schedule to buy his wife a romantic gift from Astley Clarke".

Steerpike

BBC catering is enough to make anyone resort to violence

Yesterday Jeremy Clarkson was suspended from Top Gear by the BBC following a 'fracas' with a member of staff. Today, the Telegraph reports that the incident occurred on set in Newcastle after the Top Gear presenter grew angry about the lack of catering arrangements for the crew, allegedly leading him to punch a show producer. While sources close to Clarkson deny any punch-up occurred, the BBC are still pushing ahead with plans to drop the remaining Top Gear episodes from their broadcasting schedule.

Steerpike

Alan Bennett shows how hypocrisy is a National issue

Alan Bennett announced on Radio 4 last week that 'hypocrisy' is the defining characteristic of the English. 'In England, what we do best is lip service,' he sighed, before going on to admit that even he is a hypocrite. While many have taken issue with his claim, Mr S was reminded of Bennett's words on a recent trip to the National Theatre. The playwright – a Primrose Hill millionaire who claims to hate rich privilege - has just penned a fluffy essay about soon-to-retire National boss Sir Nicholas Hytner (who just happens to have used public money to stage Bennett’s latest play People). The essay appears in programmes at the National and gushes that Hytner is: 'never the star of his own productions.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Jeremy Clarkson suspended from Top Gear

Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended from Top Gear following an alleged 'fracas' with a producer. What's more, there will be no episode airing this Sunday while the BBC looks into the incident. A BBC spokesman confirms the suspension: 'Following a fracas with a BBC producer, Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation. No one else has been suspended. Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday. The BBC will be making no further comment at this time.' While no more details are currently known regarding the incident, the news is likely to cheer Clarkson's critics who have been calling for his suspension for some time now.

Steerpike

Alan Rusbridger vs Max Hastings: round two

After Max Hastings wrote a column for the Daily Mail arguing that civil liberties groups should not get in the way of government security, Alan Rusbridger took the former Daily Telegraph editor to task for his comments. Speaking at a Big Brother Watch event last month, the Guardian editor offered up four reasons why Hastings was wrong to say that he could not 'imagine what harm can result from MI5 accessing the phone calls, bank accounts, emails of you, me or any other law-abiding citizen'. Rusbridger couldn't resist taking another pop at Hastings this morning for a column in today's Mail on the police 'witch-hunt' which saw Field Marshal Lord Bramall's home searched. In it Hastings asks: 'What sort of Britain have we created that such things can happen?

Steerpike

Tory whips found offering cash to MPs

A brave message from the Tory Whip's Office last night, that sent Mr S's pager buzzing: 'Some cash has been found on the stairs leading up to the Ministerial Corridor - If you think this maybe yours please contact the whips admin unit on 4333' There was not quite the stampede you might have expected from a group of MPs offered the prospect of easy cash, but then again our honourable members are spending most of their time in the shires as the election nears. Either that, or paranoia about the next Dispatches 'cash for access' sting is really setting in.

Steerpike

Knopa-gate: Could Crufts winner be stripped of her title?

This year's Crufts has been something of a doggy disaster with one canine competitor dead from an alleged poisoning and six more cases being investigated. Now, Mr S has got wind of a new scandal engulfing the dog competition. A petition has been launched calling for the winning Scottish Terrier Knopa to be stripped of her Best in Show award. However, rather than Knopa, who beat 21,000 dogs to the title, being at fault, it is the Scottie dog's handler Rebecca Cross who has provoked ire from the public. Viewers have complained after Cross, who is American, appeared to pick the dog up by the neck and tail. This is forbidden in Britain under show rules, and many see it as unnecessarily cruel to the animal.

Monday

Steerpike

Andrew Lansley snubbed – again – as Stephen O’Brien heads off to the UN

Poor old Andrew Lansley. When he quit as Health Secretary he was touted as Britain's next EU Commissioner - that didn't happen. In return for agreeing to stand down from parliament, he was promised another sinecure. David Cameron had been lining up his former Health Secretary (and former mentor) to become UN humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator. But Mr S understands that this idea was rejected by UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, because he didn't want Cameron's cast-offs. 'Ban didn't want a job like this being used as some kind of compensation,' says one well-placed source. 'He wanted to know: if Lansley isn't good enough for the Conservative Party why would be be good enough for the UN?

Steerpike

Commons sexism row: Barry Sheerman calls Esther McVey a ‘hard-hearted Hannah’

Things became heated in the commons today after Barry Sheerman told Esther McVey to stop being a 'hard-hearted Hannah' during a Department for Work and Pensions questions. The incident occurred after Sheerman voiced his concerns over the department's handling of the government's welfare reforms. McVey has taken none too kindly to the term, which is a reference to an Ella Fitzgerald song. The Conservative MP says that it is 'not the first time that the opposition benches have been like this to me'. Sheerman meanwhile insists his innocence, claiming it was not a sexist comment.