ANDREW PIERCE: Insulting the PM can earn you a pleasant pile of money
Was Business Secretary Peter Kyle’s decision to give taxpayers’ money to anti-capitalist singer Chloe Slater, 23, a wise idea?
After all, last year she released a song accusing Kyle’s boss Keir Starmer of using ‘Great British taxes’ to fund ‘war crimes’.
She described the song – ‘War Crimes’ – as ‘an ode to all those who feel betrayed and disillusioned by the UK Labour government, whose ideals have become increasingly Right-wing since Keir Starmer’s election’.
And yet thanks to Kyle, Manchester-based Slater is receiving an undisclosed share of a £1.4million grant from the Music Export Growth Scheme that’s going to 68 recipients to support the international growth of British artists. Kyle said the singer represented ‘our best home-grown talent’.
Chloe Slater, pictured performing at the 02 Forum in London, has accused Sir Keir Starmer of ‘war crimes’
Very open-minded of him, given that she’s a Free Palestine campaigner who captioned a TikTok video of her performing her song: ‘Are you a war criminal Keir Starmer?’
The grants will also go to anti-monarchy and Tory-hating bands including hardcore punk group Cage Fight, which printed a T-shirt featuring Boris Johnson getting punched in the face.
Who was Sir Tony Blair talking about in his eulogy at the funeral of former Labour MP Phil Woolas when he said: ‘You can divide politicians into those who are steadfast and the hedgers’? Surely not Starmer, watching from the pews.
From risky birth to happy and glorious
The late Queen was born 100 years ago tomorrow at her maternal grandparents’ London home at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair.
In 1926, the infant mortality rate was around 40 per 1,000 live births. Baby Elizabeth’s arrival by caesarean section at 2.40am suggests it was an emergency procedure, made more risky because it was carried out in a private house.
Fortunately, the outcome was fine: the mother – who became our Queen Mother – lived to 101, and the baby lived to 96 and became our longest-serving sovereign.
‘Did you know Downing Street has a merch shop?’ asks Cass Horowitz, Rishi Sunak’s former social media guru, flashing a smart pair of No 10 cufflinks. ‘You can buy something you can’t get anywhere else – something that shows you worked there.’ Downing Street should be doing a roaring trade given the revolving door of advisers tasked with getting Keir Starmer out of the mire, who quit in short order.
As a poll suggests the SNP is set to win an overall majority at Holyrood, an independence referendum will be back on the agenda. Starmer will have to decide whether to grant one, despite the 2014 poll seemingly settling the matter. He’d be a hypocrite to say no though, given he pushed so hard for a second Brexit referendum.
The Met Police is recruiting a £62,310 ‘internal campaigns and brand leader’ to ensure ‘the Met’s identity is used consistently to build trust, recognition and reputation’. Perhaps the force’s reputation would be enhanced by spending less on marketing and more on catching criminals?
The house of ill repute
Plans introduced by Labour MP Samantha Niblett for sex to be talked about more in Parliament could take us back to the old days.
When the late Paul Flynn was first elected in 1987, a Labour colleague advised that if he needed a ‘bed warmer’ for the night, he should hang around the central lobby to engage strangers in conversation.
‘The lecherous MP spent so much time pursuing his passions,’ Flynn noted, ‘that he lost his seat.’
