11 hours ago
MPs learn Wagatha lessons from Coleen Rooney
MPs take inspiration from anyone: Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela and, it seems, Coleen Rooney. A group of LGBT MPs have followed the example of the footballer's wife as they sought to eliminate colleagues from a WhatsApp group that leaked to The Mail on Sunday. The leak, which took place after the Supreme Court's trans decision, caused embarrassment to ministers Angela Eagle and Chris Bryant, but the group's admins haven't taken it lying down. They have set up a new group, methodically leaving out suspects, and now believe the culprits have been excluded. This echoes Rooney's method for finding the person who leaked stories about her to the tabloids but, unlike when she identified Rebekah Vardy, with no naming and shaming. This is a classier operation: less Wagatha Christie, more MPD James.
If leaks come from the government, they may be unintentional. A PPS has been repeatedly heard loudly dictating voice notes on his phone, thereby sharing sensitive details. Journalists are among those in earshot and they know this MP's voice well. He is so ambitious that he's usually loudly asking them if they know when the reshuffle is.
A worrying sign for Sir Keir Starmer ahead of a big backbench revolt. At lunch yesterday, diners in parliament discovered a shortage of knives. Rare in Westminster for the demand for backstabbing to exceed supply.
One of Westminster's most quietly influential groups celebrated its half-century on Tuesday night. The Debating Group has helped to launch the careers of future PMs and chancellors, including the young Tony Blair, Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt. 'Speaking at one of these debates is a surefire route to Downing Street,' said one of those attending the birthday party in Westminster. The group even helped the careers of those who failed to speak for it. In 1998, one future PM missed the debate on 'Modern politics is more concerned with image than reality' but did come to eat the dinner afterwards. That was Boris Johnson, never missing a chance to have his cake and eat it too.
The New York Democrats' election of a socialist as their candidate for mayor alarmed chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, an avowed critic of Vladimir Putin and former citizen of the USSR. After the result from his sometime home in the US, he wrote: 'Socialism is like polio. It comes back when people forget about the horrible damage it did last time.'
After Donald Trump swapped real bombs for the f-bomb, it should be noted that other presidents turned the air blue (albeit in private). Nixon taped himself doing it, while LBJ was notoriously coarse, but Andrew Jackson's vulgarity was revealed in unorthodox style. A witness to his funeral in 1845 said it was interrupted by someone 'swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people'. The profane mourner 'had to be carried from the house'. The culprit was Poll, the deceased president's parrot.
