Michael gove

Michael Gove is the Justice Secretary, but his speech to the Tory conference this afternoon showed that he is so much more than that – or at least that he’s interested in so much more than just his brief. The most striking thing about it was that it was a challenging speech for those sitting in the hall, rather than one where he repeatedly challenged Labour on the party’s new direction under Jeremy Corbyn. It wasn’t just that he prompted the conference to applaud his line that it was a Conservative, not a Lib Dem, who ensured equal marriage for gay and lesbian people – which they did, with a

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/boris-nickyandthetoryleadership/media.mp3″ title=”Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth discuss whether Nicky Morgan could be the next Tory leader” startat=38] Listen [/audioplayer]Nicky Morgan has been Education Secretary for 15 months now. Yet her office looks like she has just moved in. She has some family photos on the desk, a small collection of drinks bottles by the window and a rugby ball in her in-tray. But, unlike other cabinet ministers, she has made no attempt to make her office look like her study. This is not someone who sees their office as a home away from home. When Morgan was made Michael Gove’s successor last year, it seemed an unusual appointment. She’d

The Great British Bake Off has been praised for getting the nation cooking. Now, it seems the fever has become political, as anti-austerity campaigners get baking ahead of this year’s party conference in Manchester. Activists have been tasked with baking their best anti-Tory cakes for a picnic due to be held as part of the action against the Tory conference. But rather than a poisoned creation for a Conservative politician of choice, the winning entry will be fed to the homeless. The lucky winner will be given a ticket to ‘Laugh Them Out Of Town’, a comedy event taking place during conference featuring Frankie Boyle and the Thick of It‘s Sara Pascoe, which hopes

There’s a lot to admire about Jeremy Corbyn. For one, you can’t fault his conviction. While his entire party falls over itself to adopt as many Tory policies as possible, Corbyn remains a stalwart voice of the left. The ideological antithesis of Kendall and the Blairites, Corbyn appears to want to finish the job that Ed Miliband started: bringing Labour back to the left. It’s no wonder, then, that Toby Young and a cadre of other Conservatives want to see Corbyn win. After all, Miliband led Labour to its worst defeat since 1983; he achieved the seemingly insurmountable by appealing to the electorate less than Gordon Brown. To witness that

Lord Chancellor Michael Gove was criticised over the weekend for issuing a set of grammar rules for civil servants. The list, which appeared on the Ministry of Justice intranet, warned staff to refrain from beginning sentences with ‘however’ and using the words ‘ensure’ and ‘unnecessary’. It also encouraged civil servants to avoid excessive use of hyphens. Not everyone was enamoured by his guidelines; the Guardian likened him to a Harry Enfield character, while Oliver Kamm claimed in the Times this morning that his grammar rules were simply nonsense. Appearing on today’s World at One, Gove attempted to downplay his guidelines: ‘When I was at the Department for Education, I sent a note round with

Jacob Rees-Mogg told the House on Thursday that his favourite activity is making speeches on Europe and ‘if the House isn’t sitting, I do it at home’. That’s not the only place he opines on the subject. Mr S was enjoying some supper at the Savile Club on Wednesday evening, with his comrades from ‘Conservatives for Liberty’. The noble sounding group is made up of your average Tory boys, with facial hair that would not have looked out of place in the Continental Army circa 1776. While the evening was meant to be a celebration of the Magna Carta, with David Davis and John Redwood in attendance, the conversation in the room kept going

Could there be trouble in doggy paradise? Sarah Vine has previously revealed that their family dog Snowy (a Bichon ‘ish’ dog, who was the runner up in the Westminster Dog of the Year, 2015) is ‘married’ to Lola, George Osborne’s bichon frise. But could it be that Lola has been forced into this canine partnership? Word reaches Steerpike that Osborne’s pedigree pup is having difficulty interacting with other dogs. Mr S’s newshound says that she is regularly spotted being taken for walks in St James’s Park, where it has been noticed that Lola has a fear of other dogs. Perhaps it’s best not to expect a litter of Tory puppies any time soon.

David Cameron is by instinct not a radical leader. We have another example of his preference to keep the boat steady in today’s Telegraph, which reports the Prime Minister has decided Britain won’t quit the European Convention on Human Rights, much to the chagrin of Theresa May and Michael Gove. Although the Conservative manifesto promised to make the British Supreme Court ‘the ultimate arbiter of human rights matters in the UK’, it did not explicitly mention leaving the convention. Gove and May believe that leaving the convention — as well as a much-discussed exit from the European Court of Human Rights — is the only way to fulfil this pledge. But the Prime Minister disagrees. A senior government source tells the paper:

When you tell people you work in or around politics, and if you can break through the initial contempt or boredom, one type of question tends ‎to surface first: ‘what is so-and-so really like?’ There are three answers to that question, only one of them good: ‘They’re exactly how they come across on telly‘, which — unless you’re the likes of Boris Johnson or William Hague — is usually not a compliment. It tends to mean the individual is the kind of wooden, humourless, unthinking, battery hen politician that makes the public yawn, scream or both; ‘They’re a total (uncomplimentary word)’. That word might refer to their private behaviour towards