Steerpike, Author at The Spectator

Monday

January 19, 2015

Will South Thanet care that Al Murray has a gig in Dartford on election night?

From our UK edition

On election night, Al Murray will not be in South Thanet as is the usual custom among candidate hopefuls. Instead, the 46-year-old comedian will be performing a gig in Dartford. Despite launching his campaign last week to run as a Free United Kingdom Party candidate in the same constituency Nigel Farage is vying for, Murray's comedy tour means he will be nowhere to be seen for the bulk of the night, though it's thought he will head there after his show. The Orchard Theatre's marketing manager Michelle May has confirmed that Murray is to go ahead with the gig. 'Al is 100 per cent committed to his spring One Man, One Guvnor Tour and will be going ahead with the Dartford show on May 7 and will travel onto South Thanet after,' May says.

Saturday

January 17, 2015

Steerpike

Burnham’s bill for hollow Hunt legal threat

From our UK edition

Ubiquitous Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has had to admit that he 'spent' £25,000 in a disastrous and embarrassing threat to sue his counterpart Jeremy Hunt. Burnham has had to declare donations in kind of £16,665 worth of legal services offered by Steel & Shamash, the Labour Party's solicitors, and £8,250 from Gavin Millar QC, a barrister who specialises in defamation proceedings. Students of North London Labour Kremlinology will be aware that Millar is the brother of Fiona Millar, the left-wing agitator and partner of Alastair Campbell. He was last seen taking down Tory MP Andrew Mitchell in the High Court.

Friday

January 16, 2015

Steerpike

Charles Moore puts Michael Gove’s ‘jazzy’ ringtone to the test

From our UK edition

Ever since Michael Gove was scolded at Cabinet for bringing his noisy mobile phone into the room, everyone’s been trying to find out what the ringtone is. Cabinet sources various described it to The Times as a ‘female ballad’ and a ‘Jazz FM-style comedown music after a heavy night out’. But the Chief Whip is refusing to reveal what the tune is.Last night Gove spoke at a Westminster dinner, and started his speech by announcing he was putting his mobile phone on silent. He then said that the ringtone would remain secret until someone worked out how to use the Freedom of Information Act to secure its identity. But then the former Education Secretary looked rather confused, and clutched at his pocket.

Steerpike

That’s Dr Vince Cable to you…

From our UK edition

After Vince Cable was ditched last week as the Liberal Democrat’s main economic spokesman, Mr S is pleased to hear that he still has some titles left to his name. Word reaches Steerpike that a number of staff working with the Business Secretary, who has a PhD in Economics, have been advised to refer to him strictly as Dr Vince Cable in written correspondence. ‘We were a bit surprised that Vince Cable won't do as that's what we are used to but it apparently has to be Dr Vince,' a mole whispers. A Liberal Democrats source says that far from coming as a request from the business secretary himself it’s official guidance that in formal correspondence politicians are referred to by their full title.

Thursday

January 15, 2015

Steerpike

Al Murray in Twitter spat with Ukip MEP

From our UK edition

Although Nigel Farage referred to his new political rival Al Murray as the first 'serious opponent' he has encountered in South Thanet, not all of Ukip are amused that The Pub Landlord is running for the seat their leader is after. David Coburn, the Ukip MEP for Scotland, has got himself embroiled in a Twitter spat with the Oxbridge educated comedian, accusing him of 'mocking the voters of Thanet South'. @DavidCoburnUKip @Independent did I go to a better Uni than you? Ah well — Al Murray (@almurray) January 15, 2015 @DavidCoburnUKip @Independent having a punt at my education not much better. — Al Murray (@almurray) January 15, 2015 @DavidCoburnUKip @Independent *your. There's that Uni education again.

Steerpike

Red Meat Month: Tory MP vs Peta

From our UK edition

After Mr S's 'Red Meat Month' article revealed the trouble brewing between Neil Parish and Peta's UK director Mimi Bekhechi over the Tory MP's proposal for a meat month in Parliament, the pair appeared on today's Daily Politics to try and put their beef to one side.

Steerpike

Peers demand PM lobbies President over haggis ban

From our UK edition

Patriotic peers have demanded that David Cameron raise the US haggis import ban with President Obama at the White House today. As Steerpike noted yesterday, the 1971 ban on the product is under renewed scrutiny in the run up to Burn’s Night, with Lord McColl demanding answers to great cheers in the House of Lords this morning. Apparently ‘this wholesome food is much better than the junk many Americans eat’. Tory peer Michael Forsyth even went as far as to demand that a special envoy on the matter be appointed immediately, and suggested the former First Minister Alex Salmond might be free to take the fight directly to the Yanks.

Wednesday

January 14, 2015

Steerpike

Could a Tory peer convince the USA to stomach imported haggis?

From our UK edition

Tomorrow, parliament will debate a topic of immense significance. Steerpike hears that Tory peer Lord McColl is planning on championing a great repressed minority, in a land that claims to be free. Not so much a political hot potato, rather a hot sheep stomach stuffed with the animal’s heart, liver and lungs. Since 1971 haggis has been banned in the States, denying the 24 million Americans who claim to be of Scottish descent (with varying degrees of credibility), from celebrating Burns Night properly. Behind the scenes there has been a long lobbying campaign to have the ban overturned, aimed at Defra and the US Embassy, and spearheaded by Ranald Macdonald, owner of Boisdale, whose four restaurants alone serve 4.5 tonnes of the offal stuff every year.

Steerpike

Bond villain Andrew Scott gets into the spirit of 007

From our UK edition

The last 007 film saw James Bond substitute his trademark vodka martini for a Heineken, after producers found a £30 million advertising deal with the Dutch brand too good to refuse. Thankfully, the next film Spectre will see Bond reunited with his martini as a result of a sponsorship agreement with Belvedere vodka. So Mr S was reassured to hear that Andrew Scott, who has been cast as the villain in the film, has been getting into the spirit of Bond ahead of filming. ‘I had a friend come to my house recently, and we drank martinis,’ Scott told Mr S at GQ’s London Collections dinner at Hakkasan. ‘By the end she was drunk and you know what she said to me? She said "you made the martinis too strong". I mean, how do you do that?

Steerpike

Neil Parish MP: In defence of ‘Red Meat Month’

From our UK edition

Dear Peta, Thank you for your recent letter objecting to my campaign to support British livestock farming and encouraging sustainable red meat industry. I read with interest your argument that consuming red meat is 'out of touch' and 'irresponsible'. I am sure the millions of ordinary Britons who have enjoyed roast beef or a shepherd’s pie will be surprised to learn that they are 'out of touch' and with good reason. The House of Commons recently organised a 'World Vegan Month' for restaurants on the estate to promote veganism. There is a World Vegan Month, World Vegan Day and National Vegetarian Week but nothing to promote responsible, sustainable produced red meat such as beef and lamb.

Steerpike

Food fight in Parliament: Forks clash over ‘Red Meat Month’

From our UK edition

Trouble is brewing in Parliament. First there was vegan month, which rattled the cages of the establishment's red-blooded males, and now a proposal for a meat month has led to beef between a Tory MP and Peta. The animal rights group have asked Neil Parish, who is chair of the All-Parliamentary Group on Animal Welfare, to reconsider his proposal for the carnivorous celebration, claiming the idea is 'grossly irresponsible'. Not put off by the hostile reception, Parish is pushing on with his plans for a 'Red Meat Month,' arguing it's only fair Parliament’s restaurants celebrate British meat in the same way they have embraced the green stuff of late. In an open letter sent to Steerpike, Parish has responded to Peta's criticism.

Tuesday

January 13, 2015

Steerpike

No dry January for the BBC’s finest

From our UK edition

It was no expenses spared last night at One Great George Street to toast the departure of long-time Andrew Marr Show editor Barney Jones. Most ‘leaving dos’ in journalism involve a few beers down the Dog and Duck but Aunty was an extremely kind benefactor, providing fine wines and canapés as well as music from Nick Lowe across three of the most expensive function rooms in Westminster. Three cheers for the licence fee! Ed Miliband and George Osborne were there, alongside half the cabinet including Danny Alexander and Michael Fallon. Andrew Mitchell and David Davis plotted in the corner while Harriet Harman and Peter Hain represented Labour.

Steerpike

The joke that stunted Alan Johnson’s career

From our UK edition

To the Oldie literary lunch where Mr S dined alongside the magazine's editor Alexander Chancellor and Alan Johnson. Talk soon turned to Johnson’s former boss Tony Blair, as the Labour politician recalled a joke that backfired spectacularly. ‘Probably the reason why I fell out,’ Johnson said, before stopping himself and tactically rephrasing. ‘Alex and I have been talking a lot about Tony Blair, who I tell a lot of stories about but they are all true and they’re said with affection.’ ‘But Tony didn’t like it when, do you remember when he had that heart problem and he had to go in to have an operation?

Steerpike

Nick Robinson vs Russell Brand: Round Two

From our UK edition

Last week Nick Robinson took a swipe at Russell Brand's call for the public to refrain from voting, claiming that it could undermine democracy. He went so far as to say that in a choice between quitting the BBC and defending democracy he would choose the latter. Happily it didn't come to that and instead the BBC's political editor got to pester Brand on Radio 4 in the first episode of Can Democracy Work? During the programme Brand is asked by a member of the public why if he has such a problem with today's politicians, he won't stand for parliament himself. ‘I’d stand for parliament but I’d be scared that I’d become one of them,’ the comedian replies.

Steerpike

Why Mo Ansar won’t jog on

From our UK edition

Mr S's favourite 'rent-a-quote' Mo Ansar appears to have missed the message in a Twitter spat with our own Alex Massie. Ansar, who was a planning manager at Lloyds-TSB in Winchester until 2006, has reinvented himself as the 'voice of Islam' in recent years. He may, however, want to try thinking before sharing opinions in the future... #Newsnight awkwardly and gratuitously shows a print out of the #CharlieHebdo cover. Adults know the difference between could, and should. — Mohammed Ansar (@MoAnsar) January 12, 2015 @alexmassie I should jog more, generally. Not entirely sure what your point is here, other than one about jogging.

Steerpike

F***gate: How will the Tories deal with Flick Drummond’s campaign posters?

From our UK edition

Flick Drummond’s campaign to win a Conservative seat in Portsmouth South has hit a bump in the road. Word reaches Mr S that plans for a set of campaign posters for Flick had to be revised after the Conservatives realised that from a distance the poster could be misread as -well, another word starting in F. The issue appears to be with one particular set of Conservative election posters which has the candidate's name all in upper case and white font. [caption id="attachment_8965352" align="aligncenter" width="520"] The most recent Tory campaign poster from the Rochester by-election[/caption] When you put Flick Drummond’s name in this format, as Mr S did in the mock-ups shown, there is a rather unfortunate effect if viewed from a distance...

Monday

January 12, 2015

Steerpike

Ed Miliband’s dinner date with Amal Clooney

From our UK edition

Ed Miliband's popularity may be at an all time low, but the leader of the Labour party is at least now moving in A-list circles. The Telegraph reports that Miliband recently enjoyed a supper at the mansion of Geoffrey Robertson QC, the human rights barrister, which both George and Amal Clooney attended. Mrs Clooney is a barrister at Doughty Street, Robertson's chambers. While the quality of Miliband's general dinner party chat remains unknown, he is thought to have discussed with the Hollywood couple proposals for 'fresh sanctions on Vladimir Putin's regime' following the case of Sergei Maginitsky, the Russian whistleblower who died after months of beatings in prison.

Steerpike

Margaret Hodge’s oily donation

From our UK edition

Despite being the heiress to a steel fortune, Margaret Hodge never stops criticising multinational corporations over their tax affairs including the use of offshore havens and complex company schemes that befuddle the taxman. BP, for example, reportedly has 85 subsidiaries in a variety of tax havens built up over many years. That has not stopped moaning Margaret taking a hefty £8,000 donation from Bryan Sanderson. Who is he? Well, he is the former BP director, who worked at the company for over three decades.

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Boris Johnson and Evgeny Lebedev sleep rough

From our UK edition

Has the Mayor of London fallen on tough times? Mr S only asks after this photo landed in his inbox. On further investigation it transpires that Boris Johnson and Evening Standard owner Evgeny Lebedev had a sleepover on the streets of London on Friday night as part of the paper's pledge to support charities ABF The Soldiers' Charity and Veterans Aid.

Steerpike

Eddie Redmayne reigns as king of the Hawkings

From our UK edition

Mr S’s colleague Tanya Gold writes in this week’s issue of The Spectator, that Eddie Redmayne is ‘very good’ in The Theory of Everything even if the Stephen Hawking biopic fails to mention that the physicist was ‘a very bad husband indeed’. Script issues aside, the judges at the Golden Globes were also won over by Redmayne's performance, awarding the Old Etonian the gong for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama). In his acceptance speech, Redmayne found time to praise both Hawking and the physicist's former wife Jane, on whose memoir the film is loosely based. ‘Stephen, Jane, Jonathan and the Hawking family allowed us into their lives and entrusted us with their story,’ he said.