Steerpike

Norman Baker was dispatched to the Home Office at the last reshuffle in order to have a strong liberal voice in the department; it was felt that the Tories' favourite Lib Dem, Jeremy Browne, had been too 'right wing'. Baker promised to give a 'clear, liberal input' from day one. Funny, then, that he is overseeing the reclassification of Ketamine from Class C to Class B, especially as Nick Clegg has said that Britain needs to look again at drug legalisation after his recent fact-finding trip to Columbia. For the uninitiated, Ketamine is a horse tranquilizer that has somehow been labelled as a 'dance drug'.

Nigel Farage has been warning of a 'deluge' for some time: it's just that he was talking about migrants, not rivers. But the Ukip leader is never one to avoid capitalising on a crisis, so here he is yesterday, visiting flood-stricken Burrowbridge.

Downing Street comms supremo Craig Oliver texted ‘could this be the start of a beautiful new relationship?’ to a Telegraph executive when Tony Gallagher departed as editor of the once staunchly Tory broadsheet. It seems that Michael Gove did not get the memo, though. Gove dropped by Telegraph towers on Buckingham Palace Road yesterday to give an interview, after which his government chauffeur contrived to drive his car into the side of the building – something many an MP must wish they could do after the Telegraph-led expenses scandal. A witness tells me: ‘he actually dealt with it very well’. After checking on his driver, Gove cracked a joke about the car being fine because Jags are built in Britain.

The leading article in last week’s Spectator, which urged Tory rebels to stop rebelling for the sake of it, has upset many gentlemen of the shires/backwoodsmen. The right-wing rump believes that their crusades against the liberal menace and the EU are far more important than Cameron's party management or coalition realpolitik. So imagine their indignation when copies of the article were sent to them anonymously via the internal parliamentary mail system. One recalcitrant MP – Andrew Percy – suspects that this might be a new tactic of the whips – keen to instil some order in the ranks. If so, Mr S recommends that the whips buy each MP a (very reasonably priced) subscription to the magazine. It would certainly save them the time and hassle of photocopying.

There were lots of sniggers at the back when Ed Miliband failed to make the list of the Most Connected Men in Britain, drawn up by Editorial Intelligence for GQ. Plenty of Labour stooges did make the list, so we can reject claims of bias. Ed’s grumpy spinmeister Tom Baldwin is on it, as is Shadow Education Secretary the Hon. Tristram Hunt. Even David Miliband, who has left these shores, made the cut. Now, call Mr S an old cynic but it seems that more column inches have been devoted to Ed not being on this list, than would ever be given over had he scraped on. If only Labour were this good at this spin malarkey.

Ed Miliband certainly looks a little shifty as he examines the products of Five Points Brewing Company in Hackney. Mr Steerpike is very keen for readers to suggest what he's up to. Captions in the comments please.

The killjoys at the Department for Communities and Local Government have quashed an (admittedly rather hopeful) attempt by Bob Stewart MP to allow politicians to vote from the pub. Colonel Bob asked if Eric Pickles might bring forward legislation that would let councillors ‘attend’ meetings remotely. Sadly, junior minister Brandon Lewis was having none of it: ‘I note that this ill-conceived idea to allow councillors to vote from the pub or while watching television was endorsed by Labour ministers in Whitehall... Ministers in this government do not support this measure and have no plans to bring forward similar legislation... Such a move would risk weakening the clear local accountability and transparency of conducting council business in open public meetings.