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

Did she say that out loud? Gay marriage muddle from Nicky Morgan

Mixed messaging from education secretary Nicky Morgan, who also moonlights as the equalities minister: Despite saying previously that ‘marriage to me is between a man and a woman’, and voting against gay marriage legislation, today Morgan said she probably would vote for gay marriage, telling the BBC’s Today programme that you ‘learn’ on the job.

Westminster’s gone barking

It’s that time of year again – sandwiched between conference season and the Autumn statement – when the nation’s political pooches (and their owners) descend on Westminster. Yes, yesterday saw the Westminster Dog of the Year show, 2014. Last year’s winner, Noodle the cockerpoo (and her owner, Alan Duncan) had been promoted to the judging panel

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Breitbart’s loss is Nigel Farage’s gain – or is it?

It’s no great surprise that Raheem Kassam, the troublesome managing editor of Breitbart London, has left his job. Kassam is a wildly self-important figure who flits about on the internet Right. Mr Kassam is famed for his inflated sense of self-importance, and Mr S particularly enjoyed the write up of the new job, mysteriously under an

Meet the NFL player who admires Iain Duncan Smith

Connections between Iain Duncan Smith and NFL players may be few and far between. But Mr S is pleased to have discovered one. Colin Kaepernick, an American football quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, has referenced IDS’s famous soundbite in his Twitter bio: There’s nothing else included in his bio, so Mr S can only assume

Robert Peston falls for the Spirit Level theory of equality

Robert Peston was recently at Lincoln’s Inn for the launch of schools charity Primary Futures, which all sounds very worthy. He started off apologising for looking scruffy, then spoke at some length about the problems he has with private schools. He thinks they are divisive. Plus, they promote inequality and research shows inequality holds back prosperity.

Champagne Tories, and a ring of truth from Bell

It was Eighties night at Mark’s Club on Thursday evening for the launch of Tory PR guru Lord Bell’s memoirs. Some refreshing honesty from the spin man, who admitted ‘I don’t know why I wrote this book.’ A who’s-who of Tory peers, including Lords Chadlington, Archer and Lloyd Webber, knocked back champagne, with Michael Portillo

What’s the opposite of a champagne socialist? Phillip Blond

Phillip Blond, sporting tinted specs for this morning’s devolution debate, is famed in the wonkier side of Westminster for his unique style. The self-styled ‘Red Tory’, who split with the Cameroons in favour of ‘a new Tory economics that distributed property, market access and educational excellence to all’, has his shirts and jackets handmade, adding a splash

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Mrs Neil Hamilton for Ukip MP?

Like a bad smell, Neil Hamilton continues to linger around Westminster. The disgraced MP, who came to embody Tory sleaze by the time he lost his seat in 1997, has reinvented himself as Mr Ukip, with first a seat on the party’s powerful National Executive Committee before scaling the dizzy heights of Deputy Chairman. Despite numerous

Nigel Farage takes inspiration from Al Gore

Al Gore is an unlikely source of inspiration for Ukip – in fact the party once pledged to ban the former Vice President’s controversial climate change documentary from schools, calling it dangerous global warming ‘propaganda’. But might they have more in common than either of them would care to admit? During the count for the

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Ed Miliband does not want to talk about Heywood and Middleton

listen to ‘Podcast: Ukip’s Clacton victory’ on audioBoom Labour are doing their absolute best to put a positive spin on their result in the Heywood and Middleton by-election, despite coming within a whisker of losing their once-safe seat to Ukip. With Ed Miliband duty-bound to congratulate his new MP Liz McInnes in person, a hurried

New party, same old politics for Douglas Carswell

Douglas Carswell is not like normal politicians; he’s authentic, genuine and in touch with real people. Or so the spin goes. So what was today’s by-election-day stunt at a polling station in Clacton all about? Emerging with his thumbs up, Ukip’s soon-to-be-MP for Clacton looked every inch the candidate, taking part in the usual election-day

A new low for NHS doublespeak

Orwell had it that political writing is ‘defence of the indefensible,’ and that ‘political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.’ For the latest example, look no further than the statement circulated on Tuesday by the Colchester Hospital Foundation Trust, regarding Dee Hackett, who was appointed last November as director

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Gleeful end to Lib Dem conference

listen to ‘Podcast: Nick Clegg’s speech’ on audioBoom Nick Clegg put in an appearance at Glee Club last night – albeit only in 2-dimensional form as a cardboard cutout – while Lib Dem activists sang a timely (or perhaps inappropriate) song about bombing Iraq called the ‘Iraqi-cokey’: Mr Steerpike was in attendance, too, although he

The Mayor of London is a wally: official

Far from it being Mr Steerpike’s prerogative to call a former editor of the Spectator a wally, he was rather amused by Boris’s latest escapade. Now we can all relive those classic moments when the Mayor of London was hunting for a seat in Parliament, with ‘Where’s Boris?’ – a Wally-style search-and-find picture book, out next month

The Clegg catwalk: DPM takes a page from David Cameron’s style guide

What exactly is going on with Nick Clegg’s conference get-up in Glasgow? As of this writing, the Deputy Prime Minister is wearing his third outfit of the day — casual jeans and a dark shirt. Mr S is sure he’s seen something similar to this hideous apparel somewhere before. Given the Liberal Democrats are spending this week laying into

MC Dave and post-modern politics

After David Cameron’s conference speech, Mr S noticed a YouTube video of the Prime Minister all over Facebook and Twitter. For a moment it looked like a great coup for Cameron. Except the video wasn’t showing Cameron’s actual speech but rather a ‘comic’ hip-hop mashup of his words. It features the Prime Minister’s Home Counties