Steerpike

Another day, another Labour U-turn. Now it's Ed Miliband in the spotlight, after the Energy Secretary appeared to row back on his Heathrow runway stance this morning. Speaking on the Beeb's Radio 4 Today programme, Miliband has now insisted that the new development would not come at the expense of his precious net zero targets – despite failing to show his support in person for Rachel Reeves' growth plans last week. How curious. The eco-zealot was first grilled on London mayor Sadiq Khan's opposition to the plans.

Back to the assisted dying bill, which has been at the centre of controversy since it came into being. As Mr S noted this week, its committee stage was rather odd – with one Australian MP witness even using the evidence session to argue that 'voluntary assisted dying is a form of suicide prevention'. Er, right… Now Conservative MP Jesse Norman has taken to the Commons to blast the bill's 'rushed and secretive' process and lack of impact assessments. Attacking the committee stage, Norman fumed that 'a host of important questions [were left] completely untouched' from the impact of euthanasia on the medics involved to the relationship between doctors and patients who want to end their own lives.

Well, well, well. It seems the Good Law Project, founded by Jolyon Maugham of fox-killing infamy, may be rather struggling to find supporters. Who'd have thunk it? The do-gooder group is eager to fill its vacancy for the prestigious position of EU Campaign lead – but it would appear it can't seem takers for the role. In fact, the Babe Ruth of the bar seems to have gotten so concerned he's even flung an advert for the post in this week's edition of The Spectator – famously an advocate of both Maugham and the EU, of course. It appears that in his panic to locate a new hire Jolyon has rather missed the irony of advertising with this Brexit-backing magazine.

To Westminster, where last week Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying bill began the evidence session of committee stage. But rather than provide much needed clarification about the scope of suicide bill, the three days of evidence sessions instead threw up even more questions about the safety of the legislation. After paying careful attention to the hours of hearings, Mr S has compiled some of the worst moments of the evidence sessions that left critics more concerned than comforted… Who’s there? 50 witnesses were called to give evidence last week – and it quickly emerged that there was nothing like an equal split between bill backers and sceptics.

The Foreign Office was once described as a 'palace of dreams', yet these days it seems increasingly like a graveyard full of nightmares. Just weeks after the Gaza ceasefire, the outbreak of a tariff war in America is just another fresh headache for the Sir Humphreys of Whitehall. Yet with Trump returning to the White House, our elected Labour overlords have decided that now is the perfect time to reset Britain's relations with both Europe and China. Talk about having your work cut out... The Foreign Office's work has been made harder by the declining number of foreign language speakers in its department. Mr S has done some digging to see how language levels compare to ten years' ago.

Some good news for the BBC: for once it's not them causing bad headlines. Today's latest shining example in public service broadcasting is offered by Channel 4. It seems that in their never-ending quest to boost their flagging ratings, producers have turned in desperation to a TV 'personality' with some rather unsavoury views. Go Back to Where You Came From is a new social experiment programme which airs next week. It aims to show 'a group of Brits experiencing the life-threatening danger asylum seekers find themselves in'. It reportedly will show 'the terror of small boat crossings' – will it emphasise the illegality too? One of those featured is Bushra Shaikh, a self-styled 'political commentator' whose main claim to fame seems to be in saying the downright stupid.