Steerpike: Unpopular Populus, and the call of the Boris

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.’ Suddenly he was interrupted by a late guest booming ‘Hear, hear!’ in a brash, donkeyish tenor. At this point David Cameron turned with a half-smile to his neighbour, George Osborne, and mouthed, ‘Boris.’ The PM had divined the Blond One’s presence without even looking.

The prime minister of Kuwait is throwing a big lunch party at Guildhall next month to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his nation’s wealth-creation arm, the Kuwaiti Investment Office. Many distinguished snouts have been invited to slurp at the trough on 30 June, including those of Sir Ming Campbell and Gordon Brown. But something has gone badly wrong with the e-invitations. The guests’ inboxes have been hit by a storm of unwanted messages, which has caused more than one computer to crash. I hear the bungling Kuwaitis sent out the entire stack of invitations to everyone on their list. Anxious dignitaries had to sift through up to 100 invites just to see if they had been asked.

Yes! It’s a result for those revolting students. The Tories are facing eviction from their Millbank HQ because of soaring insurance premiums triggered by the student riots back in 2010.