Steerpike

To the Beeb, which these days is better at making news headlines than creating them. On Radio 4's Thought of the Day this morning was Dr Krish Kandiah, who centred his sermon around fear. While he started gently, talking about feeling afraid of leaving his newborn children alone or taking them to school for the first time, his speech took a rather odd turn… Pivoting to more current affairs, he turned to a growing fear many in the UK are beginning to feel more intensely: that of immigration. But, worry not, those who can identify: by Kandiah's reading, this is irrational. Taking aim at shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, he remarked: A front page story in the Mail on Sunday quoted shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick, talking about his fears for his young daughters.

They say good things come to those who wait, but Steerpike will let readers be the judge of that when it comes to Nicola Sturgeon's memoir Frankly. The 450-page account by Scotland's former first minister was supposed to be hitting bookshelves on Thursday, but some shops decided to release it ahead of time and Mr S has got his hands on an early copy, reading it so you don't have to. Here are the top lowlights from Sturgeon's new tome… Trans U-turn One of the controversies that, some suggest, prompted her resignation in 2023 was the gender reform bill – and the scandal of double rapist Isla Bryson being housed in a women's prison.

Oh dear. If Scotland's former Dear Leader thought she could have an interview about her legacy that didn't touch on the question of putting male rapists in women's prisons she was sorely mistaken. Nicola Sturgeon has come under fire for a promotional clip ahead of tonight's ITV interview with the ex-SNP leader. In the clip, the former FM is quizzed on her gender reform bill and the scandal that saw the double rapist Isla Bryson – born Adam Graham – initially housed in a women's prison. And yet despite the outrage the case provoked, Sturgeon still couldn't bring herself to call Graham a man in her latest TV interview. Some people never learn, eh?

As the issue of immigration continues to assert itself as one of the top concerns facing the country, Brits are increasingly concerned about small boats crossings in the English Channel. So much so that some people have started seeing migrant crossing where there, er, aren’t any at all.  Take for example ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe, who this week raised the alarm about potential illegal immigrants being spotted off Great Yarmouth. The politician was quick to post a photo from the Norfolk coast to social media to rage that:  Dinghies coming into Great Yarmouth, RIGHT NOW. Authorities alerted and I am urgently chasing. If these are illegal migrants, I will be using every tool at my disposal to ensure these individuals are deported. Enough is enough.

It wouldn't be recess without a sleaze scandal, eh? Now Sir Keir Starmer's wife is in the limelight, after it transpired that she has accepted yet another set of freebies. Victoria Starmer accepted free tickets to Royal Ascot worth hundreds – almost exactly a year on from when Lady Starmer and the Prime Minister were embroiled in a freebie fiasco row over free clothing and hospitality. Dear oh dear… Sir Keir's register of interests revealed that Lady Starmer nabbed £650 worth of tickets for her and two family members to attend Royal Ascot, as reported by the Express. The Prime Minister himself wasn't lucky enough to benefit from the gifts this time, however, as he was busy getting ready to greet Donald Trump ahead of the US President's trip to Scotland.

Well, well, well. After quitting the Beeb amid an antisemitism storm, it transpires that Gary Lineker has been picked up by none other than rival broadcaster ITV. The left-wing right-back will reportedly present a new Saturday night show called The Box, which will see a group of people, possibly celebrities, undergo a series of challenges while stuck inside – you guessed it – a box. Less room for controversial political commentary in that one, Mr S presumes… Lineker's move comes after the sports pundit came under fire for shared a social-media post featuring an ‘anti-Semitic’ rat emoji and declared that Israel’s response to the October 7 terrorist attacks was ‘beyond depraved’.

Another day, another poll. This time YouGov has found that almost six in ten Brits say that immigration is one of the most important issues facing the country – almost double those who rate health as their number one concern, and more than double those worried about crime. Crikey! Fears about immigration have climbed by four percentage points compared to a fortnight ago, to 56 per cent. Healthcare ranked almost equally with immigration in June last year, but since then border control has become more important to Brits.

Uh oh. As if Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch didn't have enough on her plate with the rise of Reform eating into the Tory vote, now one of her predecessors has taken a pop at her. Liz Truss has taken to the august pages of the Telegraph to attack Badenoch, accusing the Leader of the Opposition of being 'not willing to tell the truth to her own supporters'. The gloves are coming off… Truss's scathing remarks follow a piece in the same newspaper by Badenoch, in which the Conservative leader said that Keir Starmer's Labour government was failing to learn from the mini-Budget that led to Truss's downfall.

Another day, another dispiriting quangocracy revelation. This time the spotlight is on the Valuation Office Agency, whose performance has been rapidly declining year on year – while complaints about the organisation have skyrocketed. Freedom of Information data received by the TaxPayers' Alliance shows that call wait times have more than doubled over the last three years, targets have been increasingly missed and complaints about the organisation have shot up by 200 per cent.

There are a number of ways to measure the public’s dissatisfaction with their politicians: party polling figures, favourability ratings and, of course, the result at the ballot box. But a less obvious indicator is baby’s names – and 2024’s most popular list is a damning indictment of Britain’s Prime Minister. It transpires that a grand total of, er, zero children were called ‘Keir’ last year. According to data released today by the Office for National Statistics, the PM’s first name was nowhere to be found on the list of most popular names for boys and girls in England and Wales.

Watch out, John Swinney – Donald Trump is, it seems, eyeing up your job. During the US President's trip up north to visit his Turnberry golf course and open his new 'Mona Lisa' course in Aberdeenshire, Trump was full of praise for bonnie Scotland and its people, going so far as to single out the First Minister to call him a 'terrific guy' during yesterday's opening ceremony. Goodness… But while the President was full of compliments for the SNP leader, he suggested he wouldn't mind knocking him off the top spot to take the First Minister job himself at some point. When quizzed whether he'd ever want to run Scotland, Trump told journalists: Yeah well, Scotland probably has a very good First Minister right now. But Scotland, look, they don't have crime… I could do that.