ANDREW PIERCE: Celebrate Mrs T! Just what would grumpy Ted say?
So what a nice surprise to learn that the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, set up to promote his memory, is to honour the Iron Lady.
Next month they will mark the centenary of her birth with a tribute at the Sarah Thorne Theatre in Broadstairs, the genteel seaside resort in Kent where Heath was born in 1925.
There will be a discussion chaired by Iain Dale, who has written a new biography of her. The panel on July 20 includes John Redwood, who ran Mrs T's Downing Street policy unit, Virginia Bottomley, who served in her government, and veteran MP Roger Gale, who – as a former TV producer – advised the Iron Lady on how to conduct herself when parliament was televised in 1989. Steve Nallon, the voice of Maggie for Spitting Image, will also be on the panel.
Michael MacManus, who worked for Heath and Thatcher, said: 'I don't think my fellow trustees ever expected to stage an event celebrating Mrs T, but I think it's a great departure.'
Truss could make a dram out of a crisis
Much mockery of 49-day PM Liz Truss after she promoted an Irish whiskey brand alongside bare-knuckle fighter Dougie Joyce, once jailed for punching a pensioner.
Sir Roderic Lyne, our former ambassador to Russia, suggests Truss might follow the example of Alec Douglas-Home after his 14 months in No 10: 'Perhaps she could take up salmon fishing like Douglas-Home. It goes down very well with a wee dram.'
What a bunch of heels
Labour MPs were cock-a-hoop after Prime Minister's Questions last week amid suggestions they had discovered Kemi Badenoch's 'Achilles heel'.
They claimed they could see the Tory leader had forgotten to remove a 'bargain sale' label from the sole of one her shoes. Quipped one Labourite: 'She must know she's on the way out and will soon lose that nice extra salary as Opposition leader. She's already cutting back on essentials!'
But is this yet another Labour dirty trick?
The Tory leader's office certainly thinks so. The footwear was from M&S, said a source. And there was no such 'bargain' tag upon them.
Flushed with Labour's surprise success in last week's Scottish Parliament by-election, party insiders know who to thank for victory over the SNP. 'Virtually every Labour MP came up to campaign in Hamilton. The only one who didn't was Keir Starmer – so it definitely was Keir 'wot won it',' sniped one.
Labour historians noted that the Govan shipyard, where Starmer outlined his defence strategy last week, was earmarked for closure by the Heath Tory government in 1971. It was saved after a 'work-in' organised by Communist union leaders Jimmy Airlie and Jimmy Reid.
Lefty Labour MPs grumble that the massive expansion in defence spending, which will benefit the Govan yard, will be paid for by trimming benefits – the sort of cuts those Communist diehards would have fought to resist.
Labour MP Markus Campbell-Savours may now sport a Trotskyite beard, but he wants reform of the House of Lords to be delayed. Young Markus should perhaps have declared a family interest. His father Dale, a former Labour MP, is now a life peer. The status quo suits the Campbell-Savours family just fine.
Meanwhile, peers are feathering their nests. Last week they increased their hotel expenses allowance from £103 to £125 a night. That's well above the rate of inflation.
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