Yahoo News Londoner's Diary: Kwasi Kwarteng has a tip for the next Tory PM
Never let Kwasi Kwarteng be accused of being one of Westminster’s wallflowers. The Conservative MP was heard lamenting to a guest at the Cliveden Literary Festival this weekend that the current Cabinet is rather insipid. The Londoner grabbed Kwarteng, a tub-thumping Brexiteer and private secretary to Philip Hammond, for more. He began by tipping James Cleverly as the next Prime Minister.
“There’s nobody in the Cabinet that can speak like James — he’s a really good communicator,” he said. Cleverly, the MP for Braintree, has previously stated that he would “bite the hand off” anyone who gave him a chance at No 10.
But what about highly tipped Amber Rudd? He declined to comment. And what of Kwasi’s boss at the Treasury, Philip Hammond, cruelly nicknamed Spreadsheet Phil? Wasn’t he a contender? “I think my boss is great,” says Kwarteng, who was at the literary festival to speak at an event called Politics and the New World Order opposite Michael Gove, with Gove’s wife, Sarah Vine, as the chair.
But back to who is the best speaker in the Cabinet. “Look at Karen Bradley,” Kwarteng rolled on, plucking her name out of all the ministers. “She’s there because she was close to Theresa May, not because she’s a great orator,” he said.
He does have a point — former KPMG tax manager Bradley isn’t exactly the life and soul of a party, as the The Londoner observed at the Tory conference in Manchester recently. But she’s about to get some help on that front: she has recruited a new media spad in the form of the Mail on Sunday’s Girl About Town Charlotte Griffiths.
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Financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild told The Londoner about who he thinks should run the country. “It [the Government] needs re-organising, it is not made the right way,” said Sir Evelyn. “Very few of them have any experience outside government. Parliament should start at 3pm like in the past to give the politicians time to conduct real jobs before their parliamentary duties. Politicians should be CEOs of companies.”
What, rather like Jacob Rees-Mogg, whose career started as a banker for Rothschild and who still slips into his investment house in the mornings before strolling over to Parliament? Sir Evelyn declared himself impartial.
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Montefiore recalls 'shameleon' Bowie
Perhaps the most surprising moment of the Cliveden Literary Festival was when Simon Sebag Montefiore, on stage to discuss David Bowie, with his biographer Dylan Jones, started talking how about Bowie reinvented himself so often. “He was such a shameleon,” Montefiore said to a baffled audience. “Have we been saying it wrong all these years?”, one whispered to another. “I thought it was ‘K’ameleon.”
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Quote of the Day
"I am not a caterer."
Nigella Lawson’s answer when then Prime Minister Tony Blair asked her to cook for a party
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Andrea stuns at the BFI Film Festival Awards
Andrea Riseborough was a picture of elegance at Banqueting House on Saturday, as she joined fellow actors for the BFI London Film Festival Awards. She may soon be up for a prize of her own, as she plays opposite Emma Stone in the forthcoming tennis film Battle of the Sexes. The pair play lovers, and the sex scene is Stone’s first ever.
“I couldn’t be luckier,” she says in reference to Riseborough. “She is truly the most transformative, incredible actor. So it was like a true lucky break on my part.”
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We could soon be seeing less of Tom Watson: the deputy Labour leader is cutting down the calories. “Did I tell you I’m on a diet?” Watson writes in his newsletter. “I know you’re not supposed to call them that any more. To be on message they have to be a ‘lifestyle change’.” And instead of sweets, he’s rewarding himself with tech. “Using rudimentary ‘nudge theory’ every time I reach a weight target, I treat myself to a gadget for the bike,” he adds.
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Daughters of McGill's stage
The Evening Standard Girl of the Year competition is now past its sell-by date, but it was instrumental in launching the careers of two theatre stars.
Last week, Sir Tim Rice unveiled a memorial plaque to Evening Standard columnist Angus McGill, who ran the contest. Rice admitted to trying to rig the competition, picking up 4,000 copies of the Standard and filling in the coupon with the name of their singer Ross Hannaman (a woman) for whom Rice has co-written the song Down Thru’ Summer.
The swindle worked. “It was our first big contract for a singer and it was all down to Angus.” That wasn’t the worst of it. In another year, the winner was given her prize by Dudley Moore. When her parents rang McGill several days later to ask after their daughter, it transpired she was still with Dudley in his hotel.
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Tweet of the Day
“You know you’re getting old when presidents of Austria start to look younger”
As 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz is projected to be Austria’s new chancellor, TLS editor Stig Abell feels inferior
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Suggestion of the Day: after rumours that Hillary Clinton may run for election again, Nigel Farage says “it’s time for her to recognise that it’s over”. Farage has lost seven elections.
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Enninful's pooch has a cushy number
WHO’S a pretty boy then? Ru Enninful shows he has the must-have look for lazy autumn afternoons: your own personalised cushion. Of course it’s easy to be stylish when your owner edits Vogue: Ru belongs to Edward Enninful. How long before the catwalk gets renamed to dogwalk?
