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

Thursday

Steerpike

James Harding’s right: the BBC must do some ‘accountability journalism’, but on the Savile scandal report

Director of BBC News James Harding made a fascinating speech on Wednesday, setting out his mission statement for the Corporation's newsroom: ‘Let’s start with holding people to account. In the offices of our local radio stations and regional TV operations – the places where the BBC does so much of its best work – we should play to that particular strength: accountability journalism.’ Mr S lives and breathes 'accountability journalism'; it’s his eau-de-vie. But Harding seems to have a different understanding of the term than your humble correspondent.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: PM’s ping-pong

He's played with the President of the United States, and now the Prime Minister has enjoyed a game of ping-pong with schoolchildren on the final day of his visit to China to celebrate netting a series of business deals for the UK.

Steerpike

Leaders debates are on: officially

Westminster Christmas party season is in full swing. Half the Cabinet dropped by the Sky News bash at the Intercontinental last night. Mick Hucknall was also there, which was odd. The big news of the evening came when the head of Sky News, Jon Riley, confirmed that all three party leaders have now officially agreed to TV debates at the next election. Details were sparse because there appears to be deadlock over formats, timings and even the number of debates. The debates are on, though. Officially. In some form. It was a busy old evening for political-ornithologists. Tim Yeo lurked in the corner, looking glum. Chris Bryant refused to ‘twerk’ with Guido Fawkes.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Boris Johnson’s Christmas cheer

If only Boris Johnson had enjoyed as fun a day as his mannequin in Madame Tussauds. While the Mayor struggled with an IQ test set by LBC's Nick Ferrari, his waxwork was donning a cheery Christmas jumper for Save the Children's Christmas jumper campaign.

Steerpike

Russia’s take over of London is complete

There are so many Russians in London that they are able to pack the Royal Albert Hall for the launch of their own season. Bentleys lined South Kensington for last night’s Russian Debutante Ball. The Royal Philharmonic struck up some tunes, the Bolshoi danced and three of the most famous Russian tenors - Dmitry Korchak, Daniil Shtoda and Vladimir Galouzine - were in fine voice. 75 Russian debs waltzed their way into London society. The take over is complete. The irony was not lost on the ball’s organisers, who nodded to the somewhat frosty relationship between the UK and Russia currently. Mr S’s Russian is a little shaky; but, luckily, he had a translator on hand: ‘We are not an aggressive people, we love balls. We want to show that to the people of Britain.

Steerpike

Life imitates art at the Gay Hussar

The Gay Hussar, the Hungarian establishment favoured by socialists with a fondness for champagne, has been in difficulties. Mr Steerpike related a joke that was doing the rounds: drum roll please… a patrons’ co-operative might save the old place! Well, they’ve only gone and done it. Fans of goulash and Tokay are looking to raise £200,000 by Thursday. Tory boy Iain Dale has the details if you want to join. (What's that famous political gag about the right cleaning up the left's mess?) If the Hussar remains open, Mr Steerpike has a request: someone, please do something about the food.

Steerpike

RIP Leo Cooper

The publisher Leo Cooper has died aged 79. Cooper, who was the husband of novelist Jilly Cooper, had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for many years. His widow told me last year that the Spectator brought her husband ‘a great amount of pleasure’ in his later years. He remained a subscriber long after his illness was diagnosed. ‘He would read it cover to cover every week,’ she said. Mr S would like to pass on the Spectator's condolences.

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: David Cameron’s selfie shame

Another day, another selfie crime. This time, it’s our Prime Minister, who is currently in China, where he is leading the British trade delegation. He tweeted this picture of himself with entrepreneur Jack Ma and hashtagged the word ‘selfie’: Jack Ma took a #selfie of us together, which I promised to share! #UKChina pic.twitter.com/Uhx4QCI1On — David Cameron (@David_Cameron) December 3, 2013 Dave has made the classic selfie mistake though: he’s looking at the screen, rather than at the camera (unlike Ma, who is clearly well versed in taking photos on his phone). Unfortunately, Dave can’t even claim he’s a novice. He’s taken selfies before, like the one above from the Olympics. Other politicians are getting down with the kids too.

Monday

Steerpike

Champagne sales point to stable recovery at Gold Cup

Green shoots were visible in Newbury on Saturday for the 57th Hennessy Gold Cup. While brandy cocktails warmed the punters in the Fred Winter Suite, Rob Brydon and Martin Clunes chatted up Joan Collins, who, despite being the most famous person in the room, was wearing a name badge. Myleene Klass displayed a lack of class when posing for a photograph with Princess Anne. And Tinie Tempah might want to have a word with his tailor: the rapper’s trousers were cut off half way up his shin and he must have been freezing without any socks on. Mr Steerpike feared that he might have had one too many nips of the Paradis Imperial when he saw the diarist from the Times singing a duet of Memory with Elaine Paige. But I’m reliably informed that this actually happened.

Friday

Steerpike

Ground control to Major John

Sir John Major was beginning to make a habit of embarrassing Downing Street: by suggesting windfall taxes on energy companies and denouncing private school cliques. But he was on his best behaviour last night at the Institute of Directors’ annual dinner. He praised Cameron and Osborne for their ‘brave policy’, adding that their ‘unpopular policy’ had ‘been proved to be right’. He slammed Alex Salmond and the SNP. So far so good; but, when it came to Europe, the old dog reverted to being decidedly ‘unsound’.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Dave, the hairless ‘gringo’

Caitlin Moran once famously described David Cameron as looking like ‘C3PO made out of ham’, while his fans say that he has 'youthful good looks'. Either way, it does not help matters when the leader of the nation admits that he is unable to grow a moustache. Young Dave was praising his parliamentary colleagues' ‘Movember’ efforts at PMQs today. He said that the backbenches were full of ‘banditos’; but then admitted that he struggles with growth in that region. No wonder the Spanish are laughing at us.

Steerpike

Cui Bono? George Osborne’s video shame

Poor, dear, awkward George Osborne. Just when he seems to be doing things right — the economy, for instance — he gets something wrong. Very wrong. In The Spectator this week, James Forsyth reveals that, at Matthew Freud's now notorious 50th birthday bash, when Bono and Bob Geldof sang a duet, Osborne insisted on whipping out his mobile telephone and filming the performance. Just what the Chancellor was doing there is one question. But if this were a 15- year-old and not, er, the Chancellor, his Bono-worship might be endearing. Perhaps the proper response is one of pity. But politicos are not a forgiving bunch.

Steerpike

We’ve got to hold on…

Hats off to the Duke of Cambridge for joining Jon Bon Jovi and Taylor Swift on stage at Kensington Palace last night for a sing-along of 'Livin' On A Prayer'. The Winter Whites Gala was raising money for Centrepoint homeless charity. It's the taking part that counts.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Blow to domestic goddess as cocaine allegations surface

Allegations that Nigella Lawson used cocaine and prescription drugs on a habitual basis have emerged in court today after the trial judge lifted a reporting restriction. Lawson's former personal assistants Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo are accused of fraud by Charles Saatchi, Lawson's former husband. The court heard, in pre-trial hearings, evidence for the defence which apparently shows that Saatchi accepts the Grillo sisters' argument that Lawson had allowed them to spend more than £300,000 on the proviso that they did not divulge details of her drug use to him.

Steerpike

Dave spices up the ‘Curry Oscars’

You know how it is, you pop out for curry and a pint, and you end up pledging to soften Britain’s immigration rules live in front of a global TV audience of millions. Speaking at the packed British Curry Awards in Battersea on Monday night, David Cameron told a thousand restaurateurs: ‘Like any industry this one faces its own specific challenges and I know that there have been questions on immigration and getting chefs with the necessary experience. So let me promise you this, we will work through this together. We'll continue to help you get the skilled Asian chefs you need.’ Interpreting this concrete pledge, the agency wires reported this as a policy announcement, though it had been toned down by the time the curry was served. With a £3.

Monday

Steerpike

Shapps and Desmond bond at Conservative Friends of Israel lunch

It’s hard enough to get Tory MPs through the same division lobby, let alone  to get them to sit around the same table. So when government ministers William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Grant Shapps, Esther McVey and Francis Maude join prominent backbenchers Robert Halfon, Charlotte Leslie and Nigel Evans, plus 150 of their colleagues, for lunch, you know it’s serious. The Conservative Friends of Israel annual jamboree, held today, was an impressive feat of logistics if nothing else. With the Foreign Secretary fresh off the plane from Geneva, it was always going to be a tough gig selling a nuclear deal with Iran to supporters of Israel.

Steerpike

‘Directionless and drifting’ Ed Miliband ‘regrets nothing’

Seasoned Miliband observers learned relatively little about the Labour leader from his appearance on Radio Four’s ‘Desert Island Disks’ on Sunday. The programme addressed Ed’s biggest weaknesses head on - namely that he is a bit of a nerd who knifed his brother and comes from aristocratic Marxist stock. The music told its own story. David Miliband has fled across the Atlantic; but Édith Piaf has told Ed that he should regret nothing. A-ha’s ‘Take on Me’, coupled with tales of never pulling down at the disco, played up to Ed’s nerdiness. ‘Jerusalem’ was included to mark his ‘lodestar’ father Ralph; a man who ‘loved this country’ seemed a little meretricious though.

Friday

Steerpike

Is the real anti-Cameron brigade the Brady bunch, plus Adam Afriyie?

In September 2012 Mr Steerpike revealed that 14 Tory MPs had signed letters to Graham Brady, the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, calling for a leadership challenge to David Cameron. Today, Adam Afriyie, the alleged leader-in-waiting (who has not written to Graham Brady), called a vote on his amendment to James Wharton's EU Referendum Bill. The amendment is designed to bring forward the plebiscite to 2014, because it’s Afriyie’s belief that delaying the vote until 2017 will cost the Tories the next election. Mr Afriyie won just 15 votes. A coincidence? Probably not, but it’s certainly a telling sign of just how small the real anti-Cameron brigade is.

Steerpike

Kevin Pietersen gets a local welcome at the Gabba

Every cloud has a silver lining. The slaughter of the England batting line-up at the Gabba killing fields overnight was painful; but the video above will lighten the mood. Watch how the Australian fan offers a miniature souvenir bat in peace, hoping that the great KP might sign it… and then listen to Kevin's old captain Andrew Strauss cackling in the background. Priceless.

Thursday

Steerpike

Did anybody expect the old Pythons?

You wait thirty years for a reunion and the moment one is announced, you wish the idea would shrivel up and die. Purists look away now. I’m not sure you are going to like the Monty Python reunion, announced today for 1 July 2014 at the soulless cavern that is the O2. Opening with an unfunny Boris impersonator, a bad joke about Meryl Streep, and a moderately amusing gag about Qatar winning the bid to host the show, things didn’t get any better. Not even with a cry of ‘nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!’ when the first hack to ask a question ‘just happened’ to be Spanish. The negative body language made things clear: relations are frosty between Terry Gilliam, John Cleese and the other three surviving members.