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

Wednesday

Steerpike

The West wants chunks of Apple

From our UK edition

Apple, the world’s friendliest technology company, stands accused of tax avoidance. The fashionable corners of Fleet Street, bless them, are appalled. Isn’t Apple supposed to be in the good business? What gives? Mr Steerpike bumped into one of the late Steve Jobs’ former lieutenants not so long ago, and he provided an explanation. There was a time when Microsoft was driving Apple into the dirt and the company nearly went bust. Apple, he said, remembers its unhappy past and hoards cash under the mattress. This is why the company is sitting on cash reserves of £67 billion in Nevada.

Monday

Steerpike

A point of order, Your Royal Highness

From our UK edition

The Duke of Cambridge joined forces with Prince Harry this morning to open Tedworth House Recovery Centre, the military hospital run by Help for Heroes. All power to the duke’s elbow, but one line jarred. William, rather tellingly, told the assembled top brass and troops that ‘even journalists’ had helped to promote the organisation and fund-raise for this vital facility. He went on to crack a joke at the expense of the tabloids. The duke's disdain for the media is well documented, and justifiable in some cases. But Help for Heroes has had huge assistance from those same tabloids at which William was sneering from the podium. Fundraising, publicity, coverage and campaigns – you name it, the red tops have done it for the charity.

Thursday

Steerpike

Blue Label for the blue lady

From our UK edition

Sir David Tang and friends packed out the Dorchester Hotel last night to taste Johnnie Walker Blue Label. I last tasted Blue Label in an airport departure lounge, where the expensive tipple is ubiquitous. Old Mr Steerpike has a bottle on the go, which he uses from time-to-time to top-up his favourite 50-year-old malt. The sight of a near-full bottle of that particular treat on the sideboard warms the heart on a cold night. Still, the evening was not without incident. Ben Elliot, co-founder of Quintessentially, revealed that he has been taken on to fundraise for the Thatcher legacy project. They want to build a permanent museum in her honour.

Steerpike

Ian Katz is the new editor of Newsnight

From our UK edition

Shockwaves this morning in both Fleet Street and BBC land as the news comes in the Guardian’s bridesmaid, but never the bride, Ian Katz, is finally bored of waiting for Alan Rusbridger to retire and has jumped ship to the BBC. The Guardian's deputy editor will be announced today as the next editor of Newsnight, in an attempt to rearrange the deckchairs on the Beeb's hallmark current events show, which is still struggling to recover from the Jimmy Savile cover up. Katz is not the first left-winger to be appointed by the corporation’s new boss Tony Hall.

Steerpike

Steerpike: Begging with the archbishop, dining with rebels, and playing Shakespeare

From our UK edition

Begging bowls are out at Canterbury cathedral. Anglicanism’s principal shrine is in danger of toppling over if its custodians can’t raise an emergency fund of £17.8 million needed to shore up the nave, two wobbly towers and Christchurch Gate. A bid for £10.2 million to save the cathedral from the forces of gravity has just been rejected by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Canons may even shut the cathedral to worshippers while they finalise a last-ditch scheme to cadge the dough from US philanthropists. Failing that, they could try flogging the old ruin to the Emir of Qatar. He seems to own everything else these days.

Tuesday

Steerpike

Going, going, gong

From our UK edition

Comedy bad boy Heydon Prowse, famed for digging a pound sign into Alan Duncan’s front lawn at the height of the expenses scandal, was honoured for his services with a golden gong at Sunday night’s Baftas. Steerpike hears he hit the celebrations at the Southbank Centre after-party a little too hard. Prowse was the last guest standing, running around asking if anyone had seen his Bafta. When he finally surfaced he told me: ‘I left it on the dance floor. You have no idea how heavy those things are, like genuinely heavy.’ But who would pinch a gong at an awards show? Prowse has a theory: ‘I reckon the Made in Chelsea lot nicked it. They see us as a threat to the establishment. Don’t you reckon?’ Perhaps, Heydon, perhaps.

Friday

Steerpike

The Speccie at the heart of Ed Miliband’s operation

From our UK edition

‘Red Ed’ invited the great and good of the media into his Westminster den for hummus and natter last night. No one knew what they were celebrating. Poor local election results? His rescue of a cyclist? Christmas? Who cares; no hack ever passed up a free drink. Ed glided through the room, flirting with friend and foe in an easy manner that does not translate to television. And, unlike Cameron and Clegg, Ed is not one for an early bed. He stayed right to the bitter end, even after the wine and beer had dried up, just as he did at last year's Spectator summer bash. Incidentally, the Labour leader has a soft spot for The Spectator. There, on his is desk, in pride of place, was our Parliamentarian Award.

Thursday

Steerpike

Michael Gove: wind-up artist

From our UK edition

Michael Gove likes to make mischief. Every so often he stokes London’s liberal elite into fits of righteous indignation. If he does this out of pure joy, then his latest caper will not have disappointed. This afternoon the education secretary gave a speech to private school headmasters in which he made an important point about the quality of children’s education: ‘I suspect that all of us who are parents would be delighted if our children were learning to love George Eliot, write their own computer programmes, daring to take themselves out of their comfort zone and aspiring to be faster, higher or stronger.’ But Gove couldn’t resist teasing his pious critics: ‘Unless, of course, we write for Guardian Education.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Maggie Maggie Maggie, wanted out out out

From our UK edition

To Chelsea to hear Charles Moore lift the lid on his Thatcher biography. While the crowd at the Cadogan Hall loved the anecdotes and insight, it was Moore’s revelation that, in later life, it ‘became her view’ that Britain should leave the EU that pricked Steerpike’s ears. Moore has expanded on this for tomorrow’s magazine: ‘I think it happened after the Maastricht Treaty in 1992’. So why did we not know this before she died? He claims that ‘advisers had persuaded her that she should not say this in public since it would have allowed her opponents to drive her to the fringes of public life.’ Not these days, though. So what are EU haters in the Tory party to do?

Tuesday

Steerpike

Downing Street’s class divide

From our UK edition

Last week I chided those in SW1 who were criticising David Cameron for appointing yet more Old Etonians to his staff without first checking their own teams for signs of blue blood. Now news reaches me that Downing Street has not done much to counter the original charge. Etonian stereotypes were alive and well during Jo Johnson’s first meeting with the government’s special advisers. A humble state educated aide could not help but notice that all the OEs gravitated to one side of the table. ‘Jo Jo’ was joined by Cameron’s chief-of-staff Ed Llewellyn. And when Rupert Harrison, the chancellor’s brain, entered the room, he was drawn to the ‘right side’. It was almost a school reunion.

Friday

Steerpike

Was it The Spectator wot won it? Nigel Farage seems to think so

From our UK edition

Ukip is the big story of the day, clearing out councils across the country in yesterday's local elections. Mr Steerpike was interested to see the above picture on the wires as Nigel Farage took his victory lap around Westminster this morning. Behind every election victory is a copy of the Spectator. To find out more about why Ukip are winning subscribe from just £1 a week here.

Thursday

Steerpike

Bob Diamond: family guy

From our UK edition

Marilyn Monroe didn’t do it for the money, and neither did Bob Diamond. Seriously, the man dubbed the ‘unacceptable face of banking’ is just a regular family guy; Jimmy Stewart rather than Gordon Gekko. The recovering financier has told the New York Times: ‘This is going to sound arrogant as hell but I never did anything for money. I never set money as a goal. It was a result. And if you look at how Jennifer and I and our three kids have lived our lives, as soon as we had any money at all, we created a family foundation. The only car I own, honestly, is an 11-year-old Jeep on Nantucket. I think Jennifer and I have always had a great home for our kids. We really like to take vacations with them, so those are good.

Steerpike

Unpopulus

From our UK edition

Steerpike is back in print in today's Spectator. Here's a taste of what to expect: ‘It’s been a tricky few days for Populus, the ultracool research organisation. Once the Tories’ favourite pollster, Populus has long enjoyed the patronage of Fleet Street’s most prestigious client, the Times. But no longer. The Thunderer is about to sever the link and cut a new deal with deadly rivals YouGov. The blow is compounded by news that Cameron’s election guru, Lynton Crosby, is unlikely to hire ‘not-so-Populus’ in the run-up to the next election.’ Subscribers, you can read the rest of the diary here. Non-subscribers, you can join us for as little as £1 an issue. All subscription deals can be found here.

Steerpike

Steerpike: Unpopular Populus, and the call of the Boris

From our UK edition

It’s been a tricky few days for Populus, the ultra-cool research organisation. Once the Tories’ favourite pollster, Populus has long enjoyed the patronage of Fleet Street’s most prestigious client, the Times. But no longer. The Thunderer is about to sever the link and cut a new deal with deadly rivals YouGov. The blow is compounded by news that Cameron’s election guru, Lynton Crosby, is unlikely to hire ‘not-so-Populus’ in the run-up to the next election.   A funny moment from Charles Moore’s book launch last week. The esteemed author was addressing the crowd on the subject of low taxation: ‘Mrs Thatcher always said that if people kept more of their own money, they’d earn more.

Tuesday

Steerpike

The glass houses of parliament

From our UK edition

The Labour Party is most exercised by the news, broken by the Spectator, that Economist journalist Christopher Lockwood has been appointed to the Downing Street Policy Unit. Poor old Lockwood is charged with being a bit posh, knowing David Cameron personally and attending a good school. This amounts to a crime against humanity in Labour land. Rent-a-quote Rachel Reeves, who moonlights as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, took time off her maternity leave to lambast the elitist chumocracy at the heart of Dave’s government. All of which is a bit rich because the Labour Party indulges this particular establishment vogue to a tee.

Steerpike

Liberal Democrats liberal with the facts

From our UK edition

I know the Liberal Democrats are trying to take credit for anything they like the sound of, but their rewriting of history is getting out of control. It seems that they have claimed Gladstone as a 'Liberal Democrat' on the Downing Street website. I doubt that even Mr Gladstone could make Thursday's elections any easier for Clegg & Co - assuming that Mr Gladstone, who was once Tory MP for Newark and held sound views on economic management, would help.

Steerpike

Stolen books returned to Lambeth Palace. You read it first in the Spectator

From our UK edition

Congratulations to the Guardian for being one fortnight behind the news. The paper’s website reports that a deceased thief returned 1,400 stolen books to Lambeth Palace's library. The citizens of King’s Place are trying to pass this wonderful story off as news; but attentive readers will know that it first appeared in the Spectator’s spring books special on 13 April. The Guardian has neglected to mention that we beat them to this scoop by a mere 714 hours. We forgive their oversight. They remain, just, among the competition, and we know that needs must when the devil drives.

Monday

Steerpike

Mind your language, Mr Rawnsley

From our UK edition

The weekend press offered some rave reviews of Charles Moore’s Thatcher biography. Craig Brown, who is not given to hyperbole, compared Moore’s book to a work of art, while the Observer’s Andrew Rawnsley praised Moore’s ‘multi-dimensional portrait’ of the person we know as Mrs Thatcher. There were, however, some reservations. Rawnsley, brave man that he is, criticised Moore’s usage: ‘Moore is a patrician Old Etonian and a High Tory. So another of his challenges is to make the empathetic leap necessary to get inside the head of a grammar school girl who was born over a shop in Grantham. He makes a decent stab at it, but can't always resist lapsing into pedantic snobbery.

Thursday

Steerpike

The Regulated?

From our UK edition

With plummeting sales and the damage caused by the Johann Hari scandal, Chris Blackhurst had his work cut out when he took over as Editor of the Independent in 2011. Perhaps he saw the Leveson Inquiry as a chance to make a name for himself, because he became a frequent figure on the airwaves and signed his paper up to the government's Royal Charter on the very day it was announced. But he's cutting an increasingly isolated figure on Fleet Street these days. As the Times (£) puts it this afternoon when reporting news of a rival Royal Charter agreed by newspaper publishers: 'The Guardian has not declared support for the new charter and The Independent was not consulted about it prior to its publication today.

Wednesday

Steerpike

Maria Miller tells the luvvies to take their easels off her lawn

From our UK edition

Something had to give for Culture Secretary Maria Miller. She’s not had an easy time since the Leveson report and the subsequent battle over state regulation of the press. Harangued by all and sundry, she’s looking to make friends. In a speech at the British Museum this morning, Miller took the novel step of talking to the luvvies of the arts world as if they were grown-ups living in the real world. Her subject was budget cuts: ‘For honesty’s sake we must be clear about the grounds on which this argument must be had and the points that will get traction, not in the press, but with my colleagues – and with the country at large.’ Translation: Please stop giving beastly quotes about me to those nasty papers.