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
‘The award of Queen’s Counsel is for excellence in advocacy in the higher courts,’ says the QC appointments page. ‘It is made to advocates who have rights of audience in the higher courts of England and Wales and have demonstrated the competencies in the Competency Framework to a standard of excellence.’ Given that, earlier today,
There’s a big to-do between France and Britain at the moment, with France accusing Britain of protecting oligarchs’ money in London. President Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party said that before lecturing France on halting its £1 billion sale of aircraft carriers to Russia, ‘David Cameron should start by cleaning up his own back yard’ and stop
There’s quite a stooshie this morning, following David Ward’s latest contribution to peace in the Middle East. The Liberal Democrat MP for Bradford East tweeted yesterday evening: The big question is – if I lived in #Gaza would I fire a rocket? – probably yes — David Ward (@DavidWardMP) July 22, 2014 Ich bin
Mr S hears that the race to succeed Paxo came down to two candidates: the PM programme’s Eddie Mair and Today’s Evan Davis. Davis’s move frees up the morning slot — with the berth potentially pencilled in for Nick Robinson after next year’s general election. That, in turn, would trigger a race for one of
Priti Patel, poster girl for the next generation of the Tory right, will be a key face on the airwaves come election time. When the PM offered her a job last week, she confirmed No. 10’s hope that she is a modern voice. After Cameron told her: ‘I’d like you to go to the Treasury, Priti’, she
New Education Secretary Nicky Morgan wasted no time in stamping her mark on her department – sacking all three of Michael Gove’s special advisers on Friday morning. Friends tell Mr S that Henry Cook, Beth Armstrong and Jamie Martin were ‘keen to stay on in order to enable a smooth transition’, but it was not
Tony Blair, international superstar, has jetted into London to deliver the inaugural Philip Gould Memorial Lecture at Progress, a think tank. The speech would have enraged the likes of Len McCluskey, in the unlikely event that he listened to it. Blair trotted out all the pleasing soundbites of the past. The ‘third way’ was, he
With the BBC set to make a formal announcement about Jeremy Paxman’s replacement at Newsnight imminently, tweets from BBC staff revealing the news were hurriedly deleted. Not quite all of them, though. Evan Davis to join #newsnight following the departure of Jeremy Paxman. — Lucy Walker (@lucybellewalker) July 21, 2014 It’s Evan Davis, apparently.
Mr S was sipping his breakfast tea when he saw this plea from deposed Cabinet minister Owen Paterson: I’m looking for someone to run my new office, but I seem to have lost Dominic Cummings’s phone number. Can anyone help? — Owen Paterson MP (@Owen_PatersonMP) July 21, 2014 Cameroons need not apply.
The other darling of the CLA Game Fair — alongside former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson — was Charlie Brooks (aka Mr Rebekah Wade), who appears to be back on the country scene in a big way. ‘I’m a big fan of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage’, the former litigant tells me. ‘I’ve always been a convert to
Sacked Environment Secretary Owen Paterson was the darling of the CLA Game Fair at Blenheim Palace today. A steady trickle of well wishers queued, as if at a wake, to shake the right-winger’s hand. Even Nigel Farage publicly endorsed O-Patz, and was almost upstaged by the grey man. Country folk are sharpening their pitchforks in
Talk radio station LBC are coy about the prospect of a Michael Gove phone-in show, mooted by Mr S yesterday. When asked if such a show is on the cards, a spokesman said: ‘We enjoy Michael Gove appearing on LBC, as we do the many other politicians who also enjoy getting the opportunity to talk to LBC’s
There’s something wonderfully ironic about a Labour party that boasts about decency in politics yet has a frontbencher who tweets things like this: Bravo to Helen Goodman, Labour’s Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Minister, who would be furiously demanding an apology from the Conservatives for a similar tweet.
Well, Michael Gove’s wife, Sarah Vine, has made her views clear: tweeting that the reshuffle was ‘a shabby day’s work which Cameron will live to regret’. Crikey. Talk about ‘stand by your man’: A shabby day’s work which Cameron will live to regret http://t.co/M9SN100PE1 via @MailOnline — Sarah Vine (@SarahVine) July 16, 2014 Should Vine be
Some big egos are set to join David Cameron’s rubber-stamping Cabinet meetings, which will make life interesting. There is a physical problem, too. Mr S makes it 11 ministers awarded the right to attend (in addition to the 22 full Cabinet ministers) — and the reshuffle is not even complete yet. Sue Cameron reported during
The Speaker’s House hosted the launch of ‘Women in Parliament’, a cross-party initiative to get more women into parliament, today. Fittingly, there was barely a man in sight — besides wee John Bercow, obviously. ‘Women in Parliament’ is led from by Mary MacLeod — former PPS to ex-Culture Secretary Maria Miller, who is also closely
The BBC has departments devoted to pronouncing dialect and names; but they must have been in management meetings this morning, leaving news presenter Joanna Gosling to struggle with the name Tulisa Contostavlos: ‘We’ll just leave it at Tulisa,’ said the tongue-tied presenter. The Spectator sympathises with Ms Gosling: try pronouncing Taki’s name.
Taking sides in the Middle East causes rows over many a Sunday lunch table; but one imagines that things are even tenser when you’re a member of one of the most prominent Jewish families in history and you’ve converted to Islam. This is the world in which Jemima Khan lives. Ben Goldsmith expressed a few
Mr S likes a flutter. His eyes were drawn to the latest speculation about Boris’s return to the Commons. Ladbrokes are offering 3-1 that the Blond Bombshell will be selected in Uxbridge, which is to be vacated by John Randall at the next election. Uxbridge is hardly K&C (Mrs S is agin it); but, it
Ed Miliband’s negotiations with the White House to meet his hero Barack Obama aren’t going well, Nick Robinson reported on the Today programme this morning: ‘Ed Miliband’s team are desperate not to ruin their man’s chances of a visit to the White House by talking them up… The Labour leader’s aides point out that he