Steerpike, Author at The Spectator

Thursday

19 February 2015

Club wars: Robin Birley gives Ukip £55,000 while Annabel’s gives Tories £20,000

Mr S has just been flicking through the latest figures released today by the Electoral Commission, and was intrigued to see that in the last quarter Robin Birley, the half-brother of Tory MP Zac Goldsmith and New Statesman associate editor Jemima Goldsmith, has donated £55,000 to Ukip. This latest lump takes the millionaire's donations to Farage's self-styled 'People's Army' up to £120,000. In the lead up to the election, the club wars of London have taken a political twist. With Birley and his 5 Hertford Street venue now firmly in the Ukip camp, Mr S was amused to see deadly Mayfair rival Annabel's giving £20,000 to the Tories. The club's proprietor Richard Caring recently donated a night at the venue as a lot for the Tory Black & White Ball.

Steerpike

Drugs Live drama: Channel 4 vs Home Office

So far Channel 4's Drugs Live series has examined the effects of ecstasy while next month's installment will look into cannabis use. However, for those wondering which illicit substance will be next, the programme's host Dr Christian Jessen is unsure about the show's future. Speaking to Mr Steerpike at The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel premiere in Leicester Square, Jessen confessed that getting permission from the Home Office for each programme is proving a hard task. 'We're slightly limited by whether we can get the Home Office to give us permission because obviously these drugs are illegal so doing experiments on them requires all these complicated licenses. They're really difficult.

Wednesday

18 February 2015

Steerpike

Dippygate: Natural History Museum’s diplodocus sacrificed on the commercial altar

There was outcry last month when it was announced that 'Dippy the Diplodocus' is to be removed from the Natural History Museum's vast Hintze Hall, where he has been greeting visitors for the last 35 years. Instead a giant skeleton of blue whale will be suspended from the ceiling, in what they spin as an 'important and necessary change'. Officially, 'the blue whale symbolises' the museum's 'desire for people to be completely engaged in current issues about humans’ impact on the natural world and our chance to build a sustainable future.' Or so a spokesman of the museum says. However, a source tells of a more cynical explanation for the departure.

Steerpike

Al Murray tries to muster some funds for his FUKP campaign

The Conservatives held a Black and White Tie Ball earlier this month to raise funds for their election campaign, while Ukip are reported to have recently taken a princely sum from Richard Desmond. As for Al Murray, and his Freedom United Kingdom Party, the comedian has resorted to more humble methods to muster precious campaign funds. The Pub Landlord, who is vying for the same seat as Nigel Farage, is selling FUKP stickers and badges online to raise party funds. You can now show your support for #FUKP with party t-shirts, mugs, stickers and badges. Visit http://t.co/b9AYpj8HRe pic.twitter.

Tuesday

17 February 2015

Steerpike

Jon Snow on skunk: ‘I felt utterly bereft’

Jon Snow previously investigated the effects of taking ecstasy in a Channel 4 documentary. Now, in the interests of investigative journalism, the newsreader has been filmed taking skunk for a follow-up programme. Although Snow could not remember being filmed at the time, he has now written a blog detailing the identity crisis that occurred after he inhaled the strong strain of cannabis. 'I knew within five minutes, or so, of taking the first two balloons, that I had taken skunk. What was happening to me outstripped anything I have ever experienced. I have been passed the odd spliff of cannabis in the distant past perhaps a dozen times. But this of course in a social context, in which you probably only get two or three puffs of the thing.

Steerpike

Cathy Newman cancels charity appearance following mosque incident

After Cathy Newman falsely tweeted that she had been 'ushered' out of a mosque on an open day, she made a public apology and said that she was planning to to take a break from Twitter. This break appears to also stretch to parliamentary pancake races. The Channel 4 presenter's absence was notable at today's Rehab Parliamentary Pancake Race. Newman had previously been billed as the host for the charity race, which raises awareness of the need to support disabled people. We are delighted annonuce @cathynewman as Official Starter for the 2015 Rehab Parlimentary Pancake Race #Flip4Rehab http://t.

Monday

16 February 2015

Steerpike

Watch: Ed Miliband mucks up his lines

Ed Miliband appears to have found some safe ground for his party this week, attacking the Tories whenever he can over tax avoidance claims. If he plans to continue on this note, Mr S suggests that he picks his words with more care in the future. Speaking at the Welsh Labour conference on Saturday about his plan to launch an HMRC review, Miliband went off message rather badly. The Labour leader promised to ‘stand up for all those who stand in the way of the success of working families'. That couldn't be what he means, could it?

Steerpike

Alex Salmond: Time for American citizens to enjoy haggis

Former First Minister Alex Salmond has backed Steerpike’s campaign to overturn the US haggis import ban, gleefully admitting it ‘looks like we might be getting somewhere.’ Welcoming last week’s developments, that saw Tory chairman Grant Shapps promise to make haggis a key part of the UK negotiations around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Salmond told Mr S on Friday: ‘Now that Tories have finally come round to the idea of haggis, perhaps they will come round to the notion of self-determination.’ Throwing his support behind the campaign, he cried: ‘It’s time for American citizens to claim their inalienable right to eat haggis.

Steerpike

Don’t be a tit Harriet – it’s for charity

Mr S witnessed an awkward moment for Harriet Harman before the microphones were switched on for Friday night's episode of Any Questions. During the off-air warm-up at BBC's Broadcasting House, Labour's deputy leader took umbrage with the fact that her water bottle had a pink lid, jumping to the conclusion that it was a dig about her much-maligned pink van. When it was delicately pointed out by a fellow panelist that the water brand in question was supporting a breast cancer fundraising appeal, she quickly made a big show of putting on her glasses and making sympathetic noises. It's not all about you, Harriet.

Steerpike

Kindred spirits? Nigel Farage wants Jean-Claude Juncker as his drinking buddy

Nigel Farage wrote in the Spectator of his struggle to complete Dry January, while Jean-Claude Juncker is reported to be partial to a glass of cognac to kick start the day. So it came as little surprise to Mr Steerpike that the leader of Ukip named the President of the European Commission as his preferred drinking partner. Asked by Jim Mellon of Master Investor who out of David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband, Jean-Claude Juncker, Hilary Clinton and Jeb Bush, he would most like to go for a pint with, Farage opted for Juncker. 'Oh Juncker every time, top man . I don’t agree with him politically, but I tell you something, he’s got a terrific sense of humour, he’s a real human being – very few people in politics are.

Steerpike

Tory MP accepts donation from banker who used same tax avoidance scheme as Jimmy Carr

With the Tories currently getting flak for holding a ball for the party's super rich donors in the same week queries were raised about their tax habits, Ken Clarke appeared on the Sunday Politics to deny any suggestions of wrongdoing. He did, however, say that a 'more defensible system' should be put in place with a 'donation cap' and state funding so parties do not become overly reliant on rich individuals. Until that happens it's business as usual for the Conservatives. According to the latest register of interests, Nicola Blackwood, the Conservative MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, accepted a £10,000 donation from George Robinson.

Saturday

14 February 2015

Steerpike

Tom Hollander’s disastrous dinner date with Joan Collins

When Tom Hollander met Joan Collin on the set of The Clandestine Marriage the pair hit it off. In fact, they got on so well that Hollander attended the Dynasty star's Christmas party alongside Conrad Black and William Hague, before receiving an invitation to stay with her in St Tropez. However, as Hollander writes in this week's edition of The Spectator, their friendship took a turn for the worse when the Rev actor called Collins to confirm a date. Collins was out at the time of the call so she rang Hollander back and left a voicemail for him. 'The next day I got a long voice message on my mobile. ‘Hi darling, it’s Joan here.

Steerpike

Tory Black & White Ball tempts Nancy Dell’Olio into politics

One of the more glamorous attendees of this week's Tory Black and White ball was Nancy Dell'Olio. The former girlfriend of Sven Goran Eriksson attended the Conservative fundraiser as the guest of Ivan Massow, the London mayoral hopeful. When Mr S caught up with Dell'Olio after the ball, it seemed the presence of political leaders was starting to rub off on her. 'It was good to be there, I enjoyed David's speech,' the Italian lawyer told Steerpike at the Fernando Botero Private View at the Opera Gallery, before talk turned to her own career. 'I'll tell you what, I could apply to change my passport, one of my passions is politics. My friend could become mayor, I could be something like an international cultural ambassador because London is the centre of the world.

Friday

13 February 2015

Steerpike

Guardian editorship: Staff ballot revealed

The names for the Guardian's staff ballot are in, and judging by the shortlist the publication could be close to following in the footsteps of the Economist by appointing its first female editor. Of the four candidates on the list, three of the candidates are members of the fairer sex. The four names selected for the ballot are: Emily Bell, former director of digital content for Guardian News and Media Katharine Viner, deputy editor of the Guardian Janine Gibson, editor in chief of the Guardian website Wolfgang Blau, director of digital strategy at the Guardian Rather surprisingly executive editor Jonathan Freedland, who had been a bookies' favourite, is not on the list. Neither is the publication's political editor Patrick Wintour.

Steerpike

Conservatives invite Dubai prisoner David Haigh to attend Tory campaign day

Conservative HQ might want to think a bit more carefully in the future when it comes to the guest list for their events. Mr S only makes the suggestion after they asked a businessman who is currently in jail in Dubai to attend an event happening this Saturday. A tweet from the Conservative's Team 2015 account saw them reach out to David Haigh asking him to RSVP to the campaign day in Elmet and Rothwell for Alec Shelbrooke MP. It will be hard for Haigh to attend tomorrow. At present he is in a cell in Dubai after he was accused of a £3m fraud. The former managing director of Leeds United was arrested last year when he attended a meeting in Dubai at a subsidiary of Gulf Finance House, where he had previously worked.

Thursday

12 February 2015

Steerpike

PinkVanGate: Harriet Harman denies telling Karen Danczuk to join Girls Aloud

Yesterday Harriet Harman claimed that Labour's pink ‘Woman to Woman’ van is not patronising after a public backlash saw the feminine choice of colour ridiculed online. Now the deputy leader faces further backlash, after Karen Danczuk accused Harman of patronising her when they first met. The Labour councillor and wife of Simon Danczuk claims that Harman told her she was too pretty to be in politics and instead suggested she join the pop band Girls Aloud. When I first met Harriet Harman she said I was far too pretty to be interested in politics & should be in Girls Aloud. KD — Cllr Karen Danczuk (@KarenDanczuk) February 11, 2015 Harman has now come out to deny that she ever said such a thing.

Steerpike

Grant Shapps: Haggis is not terrorism

Haggis was on the menu at the Tories' Black and White Ball on Monday, and now it's on the political agenda too. In an otherwise dry speech on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership at the Institute of Directors this morning, Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps threw his weight behind Mr Steerpike's campaign to have the US import ban on haggis overturned: 'It is quite literally a criminal offence, for a British farmer to sell certain products to the largest economy on Earth, even if American diners want to enjoy these dishes. President Obama - whose family tree is said to go all the way back to a 12th-century king of Scotland - has never in his life been able to buy an authentic Scottish haggis for his family, not even on Burns night.

Steerpike

Confirmed: Inside the Commons will reveal ‘rift’ between John Bercow and Robert Rogers

Speculation has been rife that John Bercow's decision to let cameras into the commons for a BBC documentary will backfire on him. Reports have claimed that the Speaker of the Commons is to be depicted in a negative light in the series, Inside the Commons. Given this, Bercow has so far got off remarkably lightly in the first two episodes. However, Mr S hears that this should all change by next week, with the documentary maker Michael Cockerell confirming that Bercow's 'rift' with Sir Robert Rogers will be explored in depth. 'You will have to watch the series, but you wouldn't expect me as a journalist not to deal with a fascinating story that happened on our watch.

Steerpike

Middle-aged non-smoker for hire: Sebastian Faulks looks for work

Sebastian Faulks has just finished work on his latest book, Where My Heart Used to Beat. Rather than go on holiday now the deadline has been met, the Birdsong author is on the look out for a nine to five job. Writing in this week's edition of The Spectator, Faulks says he is open to pretty much anything so long as the job comes with a decent level of office gossip, the opportunity to lunch and the chance of promotion. 'I have now spent almost a quarter of a century alone in a garret staring at a blank wall and I think it has driven me a bit mad. I’ve done my stint. I need to have a job again now. I want colleagues, gossip, promotions, lunches and a PAYE packet in a grey windowed envelope, with tax and National Insurance deductions already made.

Steerpike

Lord Cashman inherits his late partner Paul Cottingham’s estate

After Paul Cottingham passed away last year following a battle with cancer, Ed Miliband led the tributes for the long-term partner of Lord Cashman. Miliband, who described the pair as the 'Posh and Becks of the Labour Party', said that he felt deeply privileged to have known Cottingham, who was a human rights activist. Now Mr S can disclose that Cottingham left an estate worth £75,000, according to figures released by the probate office in London. As there was no will, Cottingham's civil partner Lord Cashmam will inherit his estate under the rules of intestacy.