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

Monday

Steerpike

Ian Austin: Hunger expert

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 the 32 MPs to claim the full £400 in cash available  - without showing a single receipt - each month for food under the old expenses system. Iain Duncan Smith responded by calling Austin 'an empty barrel'. In pocketing £4,800 in one year on top of his salary, Austin was certainly rolling in it.

Steerpike

Dave’s talking hogwarts

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 a literary hat on for size: ‘I can think of all sorts of characters you don't want to be and I suppose in the end you know if you've got any sense you want to be Harry Potter. That must be the correct answer. But I suspect people in Britain might want to paint me in a different role but I'll let them do that, I won't make the work easier for them.

Friday

Steerpike

The ‘conservative wing of the coalition’ toast Maggie and roast Dave

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’. Young Dave was not the most popular person in the room. This became clear after the minute’s silence for the group’s deceased honorary president, when former defence minister Gerald Howarth took to the podium to greet ‘the conservative wing of the coalition’. He went on to slam the PM for ‘slashing defence spending while protecting international aid’.

Steerpike

Alec Baldwin Vs the Media: Round 57

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 go. In a recent edition of Spectator Life, he even called for a Leveson-style inquiry in the US: ‘There is no market that is bigger for media outlets in terms of the tabloids and generating trash than the US.’ Strong stuff. But no doubt he will be back once he’s calmed down. He usually does.

Thursday

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: any pickle with that, minister?

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.

Steerpike

Finding Farage

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 is Farage's school days. Channel Four’s top detective has found the College’s Friends Reunited page, and sneakily posted: ‘Does anyone have interesting memories of Nigel Farage? He was at Dulwich College from 1974-82?’ Six weeks on, there have been no responses.

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: The sponging minister

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 find any entertaining pictures (or gossip), contact steerpike@spectator.co.

Steerpike

Steerpike | 27 June 2013

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 there have been in years past. Even a speech from the Prime Minister couldn’t lift the atmosphere. One attendee remarked afterwards, ‘It was a typical Cameron speech, thoroughly unmemorable.’   Dear old Darwin is to be culled from the new version of the ten-pound note. The outgoing Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, has hinted that Jane Austen is hot favourite to replace the naturalist.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Pippa Middleton: Boris, are you scared of me?

Pippa Middleton is back in the Spectator tomorrow. Here's a little peek at what she says: 'The last time I wrote in these pages, I issued a challenge to Boris Johnson to take me on at ping pong. The Mayor said he’d be up for it, and his office duly contacted The Spectator to arrange the details. Team Johnson insisted that the match should be held at a venue of their choosing. I said by all means. And then — nothing. The Spectator has tried to follow up, but now it’s radio silence from the Mayor’s office. Is Boris scared or what? He should be.' Subscribers, all this and more is on its way to you. Non-subscribers you can join us today for just £1 an issue.

Steerpike

George Osborne meets his Waterloo

The Chancellor of the Exchequer had the Tory backwoodsmen shaking their order papers and cheering during the spending review when he announced the following: ‘We’ll make sure the site of the Battle of Waterloo is restored in time for the 200th anniversary, to commemorate those who died there and to celebrate a great victory of coalition forces over a discredited former regime that had impoverished millions.’ While he was blustering, shadow chancellor Ed Balls missed the opportunity to point out that in Vanity Fair a feckless and profligate character called George Osborne dies at Waterloo. But Harriet Harman made no such mistake. Good to see that her education at St Paul’s has not gone to waste.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Hoxton is dead

You can always tell when an 'edgy' part of London loses its cool; it's normally around the time a Starbucks opens and the bankers pitch up. By the time the warehouse raves accept credit cards at the bar, you know that it's time to move on. So imagine how oh-so-trendy Hoxton must be feeling this morning. Last night it hosted the summer party of spin-merchants and global lobbyists, Weber Shandwick. It’s over, N1.

Monday

Steerpike

Did the taxpayer contribute to the ‘Royal Wedding of the North’?

Mr Steerpike is a romantic at heart and a conservative, so I like love and marriage. Yet I was irritated by one detail of the nuptials of Lady Melissa Percy and Thomas van Straubenzee (pictured), dubbed the ‘Royal Wedding of the North’ at Alnwick Castle, which took place this weekend. It was quite a bash. Prince Harry was caught between two blondes, when his ex and latest squeeze came face to face. Prince William (who was Best Man to his childhood friend van Straubenzee) was flying solo after the heavily pregnant Duchess of Cambridge decided to stay in London lest she be forced to give birth in a northern NHS hospital. The horror, the horror! Pippa Middleton was tottering about with princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

Friday

Steerpike

Quentin Tarantino speaks

Quentin Tarantino has responded to allegations in this week’s edition of Spectator Life. In the cover feature, Diane Kruger claimed the king of cool fired an actor for not bringing a pen to rehearsals. The director told the New York Post: ‘I’m not really sure what she’s referring to . . . However, any actor who shows up at rehearsal without a pen to make notes in their script isn’t professional enough to either be in my movie or worthy enough to be trusted with one of my characters.” He added, “That’s actually part of rehearsal: to test the actors, and if they’re not up to snuff, get rid of them. That’s my job, making sure I’ve picked the right people.’ Luvies, you have been warned.

Friday

Steerpike

Hollywood and oligarchs descend on Art Basel

The art world has descended on the almost attractive city of Basel in Switzerland this week, for the annual art fair. And where the art world goes, glamorous collectors follow. Leonardo di Caprio appeared to be in the mood for some serious shopping when I glimpsed him, casting his eye over a Warhol or two. He may have looked at the Alexander Calder, or perhaps he saw the Edmund de Waal or the exquisite pair of Peter Doig etchings. And there’s this chap called Picasso; mark my words, dear readers, he’s going to be big. Di Caprio had competition from one Roman Abramovitch, who sloped by a few Edvard Munchs, as one does. Cate Blanchett was a radiant study in concentration as she perused the stalls of the finest galleries in the world.

Thursday

Steerpike

News Corp confirm that Rupert Murdoch has filed for divorce

Most people had not heard of Wendi Deng until she lamped the left wing comedian "Jonnie Marbles", also known as Jonathan May-Bowles, during her husband Rupert Murdoch's now infamous appearance before the Culture Select Committee in 2011. Springing to her husband's defence when he was custard-pied by the comic, her right hook will go down in the history book of punches. Now it seems that Rupert Murdoch and Wendi, who married in 1999, are going their separate ways. The media mogul filed for divorce at New York's Supreme Court this morning. The News Corp boss better find a suitable new security guard. UPDATE: Looks this news has been in the making for a while: https://twitter.

Steerpike

A regal opportunity

The Middleton family’s party website is set for a revamp, I hear. James Middleton was serving his own cupcakes at last night’s Johnnie Walker Blue summer party when he let slip that the website would be stepping up a gear. What timing, methinks. The company has raised eyebrows in the past. Their wedding party kits went on sale at around the same time as the elder Middleton daughter joined The Firm. What will the company offer this time? How about some baby shower party packs or a christening kit? It really is a world of opportunity.

Steerpike

Steerpike: The Lib Dems’ free school fight, Dignitas on Scotland, and more

Some politicians don’t read their own manifestos. And some don’t even read the names of their own parties. When it comes to academy schools, the Lib Dems are struggling to comprehend ‘liberal’ and ‘democratic’. A Suffolk school earmarked for closure was rescued by campaigning parents who invited a commercial operator — International English Schools UK — to take over its administration. Rather than celebrate, Nick Clegg was hopping mad. He apparently regards the profit-making IES as blasphemers against his ideology. A few months ago IES leafleted homes in Twickenham and Teddington offering ‘a new choice of education from September 2014 when IES welcomes the first pupils to a brand new primary school’.

Wednesday

Steerpike

MPs pulling strings

The SNP was out in force at the annual Macmillan Lords Vs Commons tug-of-war in Westminster last night. Pete Wishart, the rocker turned MP, turned up to support fellow traveller Angus McNeil, the Commons' captain. Wishart looked baffled by the non-whisky brown drink on offer at the bar. Clearly, Pimms has not reached Perthshire. The BBC’s James Landale host the annual jolly once more. And BAE System flexed its muscles by picking up the tab again - any MP whose constituency contains so much as an aviation-related nut and bolt factory came to pay homage to the ‘job creators’. Alas, there was no romance and even less competition.