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
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Ed Miliband struggled to reach ‘the journalistic community’ at his big speech and press conference today. ‘Where’s Sky, ah there, Mark isn’t it?’, asked Ed. ‘Alistair’ came the reply. Not content with this faux pas, Miliband failed to recognize the BBC’s Nick Robinson and managed to slight Channel Four’s pompous political editor Gary Gibbon. And
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Hacked Off are feeling pretty hacked off. John Prescott has resigned as a Privy Councillor, depriving the Queen of his advice. And why? Because the press has come up with its own plans for regulation, and the enemies of press freedom hate it. Mr Steerpike enjoyed last night’s debate between Hacked Off’s Brian Cathcart, a
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Mr Steerpike was impressed to see that Ed Miliband took on the ultimate power walk this morning on the way to his Big Speech on trade unions.
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The prime minister’s appearance at Wimbledon yesterday, and his invitation of Andy Murray to Downing Street, has got some miserable lefty tongues wagging. No doubt they are livid that the ‘Curse of Cameron’ has lifted, while the memory of Gordon ‘Jonah’ Brown putting the mockers on British sporting endeavour lives. Moaners will always moan that our
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Forget the expressions of joy and pain flitting across Kim Sears’ and Judy Murray’s faces as Andy served, volleyed and leapt to win Wimbledon: David Cameron and Alex Salmond’s reactions to the match were far more entertaining. Cameron seems to have spent more of the afternoon looking behind him to check what it was that
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The Wimbledon men’s final is now underway and the glamorous (Victoria Beckham, Colleen Rooney) are being joined by the wannabe-glamorous (Miliband, Cameron and Salmond). Mr Steerpike noted Dave – who was gladhanding all and sundry on the way in – was coldshouldered by Salmond. The curry king – who had also been quick to stand
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Lib Dem MP Martin Horwood resigns from Unite after taking offence at jokes made by Labour MP Ian Davidson about ‘snivelling liberals’ in the House of Commons. Here is the exchange: Ian Davidson: Well, the Whips have been to see me and they deployed the ultimate threat. They said, “If you think of voting for
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Last night, a terrific party was held in Old Queen Street for The Spectator. Our editor Fraser Nelson, looking a little bleary eyed two days after the birth of his third child, still somehow managed to smile at Pippa Middleton, our sports and adventure correspondent. Here is a selection of photos from the bash, courtesy
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Lord Bell, AKA the King of Spin, made some noise at the annual Freedom Dinner (established by libertarians to mark the anniversary of the smoking ban) last night at Canary Wharf’s cavernous Boisdale. He had stern words for the anti-tobacco lobby: ‘There is not one shred of scientific evidence of the existence of passive smoking
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The Washington Post has had a crack at Mr Steerpike’s favourite game: trashing the Guardian. Full marks to them for a knock out job. The Post describes Britain’s most sanctimonious rag as ‘a newspaper that’s small and underweight even by British standards’. ZAP! Then the Groaner really gets it where it hurts: ‘… the Guardian has its own sacred cows.
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Handbags at the ready in the Department for Work and Pensions questions in the House of Commons this afternoon, as Gordon Brown’s former lick-spittle Ian Austin attacked the government benches for never having gone hungry. Something, of course, that the shouty MP for Dudley is somewhat of an expert in. In 2007 he was among
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The ‘global race’ has taken the prime minister to Kazakhstan. This peculiar choice of pit-stop has left him open to the charge that his precious time might be better spent than by hobnobbing with Borat. The PM did little to dispel this criticism when he addressed an audience at Nazarbayev University in Askana. Cameron, a PPE graduate, tried
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Mr Steerpike is dying to hear Coffee House readers’ captions and comments on what was exciting Ed Miliband so at this recent event.
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Margaret Thatcher’s death has reinvigorated her devout following in the Conservative Party. The current Prime Minister was wise to give the House of Lord’s terrace a wide berth last night. It was packed out for the summer party of Conservative Way Forward. This is the pressure group that was established to preserve ‘the lady’s legacy’.
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Not for the first time, grumpy actor and Obama fan-boy Alec Baldwin has lashed out at the press and left Twitter in a huff. Baldwin has let rip at the ‘toxic’ showbiz coverage of the Daily Mail, after they accused his pregnant wife, Hilaria, of tweeting during James Gandolfini’s funeral. Baldwin likes to have a
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What were David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband chortling about at Buckingham Palace this week, Mr Steerpike wonders?
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Eric Pickles is a very popular figure around Westminster. This picture explains why. It is also 1,000 times funnier than the knackered ‘Eric Pickles is a fat northerner’ jokes that some of his witless cabinet colleagues crack on a habitual basis.
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The old boys of Dulwich College have closed ranks, if their online presence is anything to go by. I hear that super-sleuth Michael Crick has been digging into the past of Ukip leader Nigel Farage. The pinstriped soak’s old girlfriends and early career in the city are of interest to Crick, but his main focus
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One of the pleasures of Mr Steerpike’s job is stumbling across little photographic gems like this shot of Michael Gove, above. It would be selfish not to share them with Coffee House readers and ask for their thoughts and suggested captions in these Coffee Shots posts. So do post your comments below, and if you
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The PM was keeping his enemies close at a Tory fundraiser last week at Old Billingsgate Market. Dave exchanged uneasy smiles with his deadliest rival, Boris, who was seated on the same table as him. And something else seemed slightly fishy at the former herring exchange. Guests noticed that there were rather fewer tables than