My night at the Spectator summer party
This is a rule, however, that our Prime Minister, among others on 'the left', ignored to offer competing attractions. Zarah Sultana MP went to the most extreme lengths. She chose the same evening (3 July) to launch a new political party with Jeremy Corbyn, by posting something on X at 8.11 p.m. before her party even had a name, or indeed, Jeremy Corbyn. It was Jezbollah minus Magic Grandpa. Total success, as my father says whenever something goes badly wrong.
The band Centrist Dad had a gig at The Water Rats in King's Cross. This is an inside-the-Beltway boys' band with Robert Peston and Ed Balls. As Balls says, 'It's not quite Glastonbury' (Peston is on vocals). One person with divided loyalties was George Osborne, who hosts a podcast with Balls. He solved this dilemma by going to The Spec's party in an open white shirt and rocking out both.
Even 'Two Tears' Keir was entertaining that night after his week from hell: watering his restive troops in the No. 10 rose garden, just a short stroll from Michael Gove's gathering of the clans in 22 Old Queen Street, which was, of course, my destination.
The first person I saw on arrival was Sarah Pochin, Reform's newest MP. It was 6.40 p.m. Nick Ferrari, the LBC breakfast champ, was also arriving. 'You were right to come early,' I said to Sarah P. 'I always do,' fnarred Ferrari.
We processed down into the large shaded garden. Champagne bars serving ice-cold Pol Roger and, for the first time ever, a caviar and blini bar awaited our pleasure. As I was downing my first flute, the television legend Michael Cockerell manifested at my elbow. I should say here that from his loins have sprung a fleet of six talented and gazelle-like daughters (the writer Rachel is my goddaughter).
'I heard you mentioned me at your event,' Cockerell opened with. The 'event' he referred to was the 'Living with a Politician' evening with the bestselling author and columnist Sarah Vine and Lord Swire. It was smoothly chaired by Lord Gove of this parish. I had indeed referenced Cockerell,
between Sir Hugo's amusingly detailed 'manecdotes' about his political career.
'I heard it was a disaster,' Cockerell continued cheerfully as the party began to roar. As I asked from whom, the image of the biographer Tom Bower popped up in my mind and superimposed itself on the festive glade, which by now was buzzing bee-loud with speculation about why Rachel Reeves had been crying at PMQs. 'Tom Bower,' Cockerell confirmed. All I can say is I'd expect nothing less from the master of the hatchet job. I had worried that the event was not quite as advertised. The only person who'd been 'living with a politician' – if you stop to think about it for a second – was Mrs Gove. I'd felt like a terrible imposter, so had attempted to take over and get Michael (Gove) to talk about his feelings, in vain.
After my conversation with Cockerell, I slunk off to the caviar bar and encouraged waiters to horn-spoon the brownish eggs on to the back of my hand to lick off, as a form of self-soothing, while continuing to gulp down the Pol Roger and surveying the scene.
Labour had been summoned to Downing Street, yes, but where was the so-called opposition? The closest thing I could see to a top Tory – until Kemi arrived looking a million dollars – was Mrs Jenrick. Reform's top brass, all four of them, were holding court in a roped-off winners' enclosure and making the most of the hospitality.
As two small-screen titans, Trevor Phillips of Sky and the YouTuber Piers Morgan, argued about Rachel Reeves's crying jag and then beaming public appearance at a hospital hours later, with open-casket maquillage, I cadged a fag off Ned Cecil. He always has a ruddy Thomas Hardy glow. He pulled out at least six from the carton to give me, five of which I stuffed back into his pocket. 'Thank you,' I said, saying I would remember that generous gesture here. 'Don't mention my name,' he shuddered (which I haven't, as it is in fact something like Viscount Robert Gascoyne Cecil Cranborne).
I needed a cigarette because I had been summoned by Lynn 'Demon' Barber to sit with her, as Fleet Street's greatest interviewer is also its last great smoker and she's not that steady on her pins.
Before I rush off to another 'event', like any Sloane guest, I must pen my thank yous to Lance Forman, the salmon king, for the excellent bitings, Pol Roger, Allwyn, the sponsors, and the Tipplemill distillery for our liquid party bags.
Unlike some we could mention after a year of them not meeting manifesto challenges, The Spectator party always promises a rose garden and delivers, time after time.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
a day ago
- Telegraph
Britain is getting worse and the old politics offers no solutions
Is life in Britain getting better or worse? Fraser Nelson has ignited a vigorous debate by positing that 'broadly speaking there has never been a better time to live in the UK'. As evidence, he pointed out that overall crime, according to surveys, is only a third of the level of 25 years ago; that crime had fallen while immigration surged; that air pollution was at historically low levels; and that carbon emissions were falling. His assertion feels implausible. Still, one cannot simply dismiss it with anecdotes, or just claim the data is wrong. Data does matter, and it's not necessarily mistaken to use it to question the popular mood. After all, with Nelson as editor, The Spectator persistently opposed lockdowns on the basis that Covid was neither as dangerous nor as fast-spreading as the government claimed. Hard information proved the policy wrong. So what is it that jars to so many of us – including this writer? Well, first of all, it's that if you are trying to assess the quality of life in Britain you must use all available information and analyse it properly. In fact, overall crime has stopped falling and is ticking up again. Crimes as various as sexual assault and shoplifting, crimes that matter to us day-to-day, are going up significantly. Moreover we are all adjusting our behaviour as shops, streets, and trains feel more threatening, and as the police seem ever less on the side of the law-abiding. The data doesn't catch everything. And crime is only one element of the picture. We've had a serious spike in inflation and we can see prices going up yet again under the very uncertain hand of the Bank of England. Vast numbers of Britons have given up working. And GDP per head has grown barely 6 per cent since its pre-crash peak in 2007 – 0.3 per cent a year. In this steady state economy, the only way you get richer is if someone else gets poorer. Look no further for the source of the social conflict of recent years. So the wider data certainly gives a gloomier picture. But personally I believe something even more important is also going on. People are sensing the country is reaching a tipping point and that the future is going to be different to the past. When this happens, existing data will, self-evidently, tell you nothing reliable about the future. What a growing number of voters now see is that for 20 years we have taken the easy way out. We haven't dealt with our problems and we have carried on living on tick. But now the various bills must be paid and it is not going to be fun. For 20 years we have robbed selected wealthy Peter to pay collective Paul – or rather not pay, because we haven't run a budget surplus in any of those years and now one government pound in every twelve is spent on financing debt. It's not surprising people worry another financial crisis is coming. For 20 years we allowed immigration to increase to its highest ever levels. The consequences are now visible well beyond our major cities and we have nowhere to put illegal migrants except in hotels in hitherto untouched communities. Is it any wonder that people are suddenly agitated about the scale of the problem? For 20 years we told people that wind and sun could power Britain. Now they see fields covered with solar panels, their energy bills going up, and heavy industry leaving the country. Is it surprising that suddenly people think they have been sold a pup and fear the consequences? Even in those fortunate parts of the country that remain relatively untouched by migration or crime, people are beginning to ask themselves 'how long can it last'? No-one seems to think the problems can be fixed. All they hope to do is insulate themselves from them as long as they can. That's why people are right to be unhappy. So why have so many voices embarked on the implausible task of telling people things are not so bad? It's because they have to. After all, if the last twenty years have not been spent on turning Britain into a close approximation of the Elysian fields, but rather on complacently storing up difficulties that are now bursting out, why should anyone have confidence in the political ideas of that period or the parties and politicians in charge during it? The answer is that people won't have such confidence and will turn to others. That's why the establishment are so keen to persuade you that things are not as bad as they seem. 'Trust us, it's not so bad, we'll put things back on track.' Trust me, they won't. The people who got us here, who tried to stop us leaving the EU, who told us we had to rely on immigration, who said we could safely run down our energy systems and outsource the consequences to China: these people won't get us out again. Whatever Britain's future, it can't be like the past. Change is needed and change is surely coming.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Telegraph
The Daily T: Ash Sarkar — I underestimated Nigel Farage, he's outflanking Labour
With Keir Starmer proving as unpopular and unpalatable to the Left as he is to the Right, Jeremy Corbyn's new – and as yet untitled – political party joins Reform UK in presenting a very real threat to Labour's chances of re-election in 2029. In this episode of The Daily T, Tim Stanley and Gordon Rayner talk to Ash Sarkar – journalist, Corbyn-supporter and co-founder of Left-wing media organisation Novara Media – about how that new party could form a potentially fatal electoral pact for Starmer by teaming up with the Greens in 2029. As well as her dissatisfaction at Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, she also talks about how Reform have outflanked Labour on the Left with talk of nationalising utility providers like Thames Water, and why she 'previously underestimated Nigel Farage' but is now 'taking him a lot more seriously'.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Street preacher who lost Spectator libel case to challenge High Court ruling
An Islamic street preacher who lost a High Court libel case against The Spectator and the magazine's associate editor has said he will be appealing against the decision. Mohammed Hegab, known online as Mohammed Hijab, sued the publication and Douglas Murray over an article that alleged he was a 'street agitator' who whipped up his followers and made disparaging comments about Hindus in the wake of the 2022 Leicester riots, which he denied. In a ruling last week, Mr Justice Johnson found that the article from September 2022 was 'defamatory' at common law, but dismissed the claim. He said: 'The publication has not caused, and is not now likely to cause, serious harm to the claimant's reputation. 'In any event, it is substantially true, and it is not materially inaccurate.' The judge also found that, as a witness, Mr Hegab was 'combative and constantly argumentative'. In his written judgment, he said: 'He sought, at every turn, to debate with counsel, responding to questions with rhetorical questions of his own, arguing his case rather than giving straightforward responses, and denigrating the character of the second defendant to whom he bears palpable personal animosity. 'I am satisfied that he lied on significant issues, with the consequence that his evidence, overall, is worthless.' In a YouTube video posted on Wednesday, Mr Hegab said he had 'learned a lot' from the process, adding that he would be appealing against the ruling. He said: 'I didn't expect it to go that way. I was very disappointed, very disheartened with the ruling.' He added: 'I will be appealing this judgment.' In the clip, Mr Hegab also accused the judge of being biased, adding that he had made the mistake of 'putting a bit too much trust in the justice systems in the West'. The defamation trial centred around a video Mr Hegab made amid violence between Muslims and Hindus in Leicester in the summer of 2022, which was sparked after India won a cricket match against Pakistan in August that year. In it, he said: 'If they believe in reincarnation … what a humiliation and pathetic thing for them to be reincarnated into some pathetic, weak, cowardly people like that. 'I'd rather be an animal. I'd rather be reincarnated as a grasshopper…' During the trial in London, Mr Hegab claimed it was clear from the context that he was not talking about Hindus, but Hindutva, an extremist far-right ideology. But Mr Justice Johnson said that Mr Hegab 'knew exactly what he was doing' and 'chose his words deliberately'.
