Londoner's Diary
Former Lord Speaker Baroness D’Souza last week renewed her call for more peers to step down from the House of Lords in order to free up space on the red benches. The Baroness has been banging this particular drum for years, but it’s a proposal that prompts an obvious response: you first. In the ancient mists of 2015, when she was still in position as Lord Speaker, D’Souza said: “I passionately believe that retirement at the right time has now become a public duty.” More than eight years on, and seven since she hung up her cap as Lord Speaker, D’Souza, 79, is still hanging around in the upper chamber.
In an effort to persuade more peers to leave, D’Souza has even suggested that retiring Lords could be paid off with a golden handshake, courtesy of the taxpayer. We reckon D’Souza, who as Lord Speaker claimed £4,000 for flowers in her office and hundreds more to keep a personal limousine, has probably had her fill from the public purse. “It is my job to promote parliamentary democracy both here and abroad and sometimes I need to spend a bit of money to do it,” was her defence when she was criticised for her lavish speakership at the time. Is it time for the Baroness to follow her own advice, do her "public duty", and retire?
Cornish ditty shows Booth-Smith is right to stick with politics
Number 10 chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith is one of Rishi Sunak’s closest advisers. But what could he have been? It turns out that before politics, Booth-Smith was an indie singer-songwriter who toured the UK, guitar in hand. In 2007 he recorded an EP titled August Varlet, that has now been unearthed. Varlet is an archaic term equivalent to “rascal”.
The varlets at the Guido Fawkes blog tracked down some of Booth-Smith’s lyrics. One song includes the euphonious refrain: “Pay for your love with a Cornish donkey ride, climb up on high with a suicide payment plan.” Thank goodness he discovered politics.
Lord Cameron toes a familiar line
It seems David Cameron is headed back to his old stomping ground in the House of Commons, sort of. The Foreign Secretary, who is now a Lord and therefore not allowed into the lower chamber, might be asked to step into the Commons to answer foreign office questions from MPs. But, according to the longstanding convention that bans “strangers” from the Commons, he will be required to keep his toes behind the white “Bar” line, which marks the official entrance. When Cameron recently became the first peer to serve as Foreign Secretary since the Eighties, there was some concern from MPs that he might not be held properly to account. A forthcoming report by the procedure committee will make the recommendation, according to the New Statesman. Toe the line, Lord Dave!
North London nightmare for Labour
Despite Sir Keir Starmer’s reminiscences about life in a pebble-dashed semi, North London is the spiritual home of his Labour party. But not all is well there. In Stoke Newington, the party has been tearing itself to bits over a council by-election. Their candidate in the Cazenove ward, Laura Pascal, has described herself as “proudly gender critical”. Local members with a different view on the trans debate managed to get Pascal suspended. Then, before yesterday’s by-election, the party hastily reinstated her. This morning the results came in: Pascal thrashed and the Tories established a blue lagoon in left-wing Hackney. A blip, or a sign of things to come?
