Brexit’s hard man Steve Baker reveals his softer side
, The Times
Steve Baker has now come out as a hugger
GUILHEM BAKER FOR THE TIMES
Politicians get on a lot better than it might appear. While we remember Brexit as a time of political betrayal and acrimony, the self-declared “Brexit hard man” Steve Baker insists that, behind the scenes, it was cuddles and chocolate. He says that he’d say sorry for rebellions by giving the whips a big box of Heroes or a bottle of whisky. He tells Reflections that he now embraces his former opponents, to which his interviewer Jim Naughtie remarked that it might have been better if they’d hugged each other at the time. “We often did,” Baker said. We know that Tory hugging persisted after Brexit. In an unrelated story, the former Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth has visited the Department of Health and says that the camera which caught Matt Hancock in flagrante declincho has been removed
Reformed character
There have been a number of resignations by Reform councillors elected in May, many on the grounds of not actually fancying the job. However, Tony Hewitt, who was on a town council in Co Durham, has rather sweetly stood down so that his wife can enter Ferryhill’s annual flower show. Rita Hewitt is the defending champion in the front garden competition, and was last year’s runner-up for the back garden. However, the town council decides the winners so Mr Hewitt has resigned to avoid a conflict of interest. “I thought I am not really losing anything by giving it up without even getting my feet under the table,” he said. Wise. If he’d stayed, he may have found that the grass isn’t always greener.
Peter Just’s new book about Margaret Thatcher after Downing Street has shown that she had a mixed view of her successor John Major, but she was harsher on the man who followed him. The book has a story about Lady Palumbo, wife of the Tory peer, asking Thatcher what she thought of Tony Blair. “My dear,” Thatcher replied, “I do not think of him.”
Mamma mia
An intriguing advert has emerged in The Stage for the show ABBA Voyage, which renders the Swedish quartet as digitally recreated holograms. A technician is required to ensure that the digital stars get on stage but, in a stark contrast with their human equivalents, this job apparently requires someone who is “confident with hand and power tools”. Back in the day, it can’t be denied that some of the band were partial to a screwdriver, but they never said gimme, gimme, gimme a spanner at midnight.
Natural selection
The arrival of a new David Attenborough series this weekend will be a cause of joy for many, but for the comedian Simon Evans it may bring a slight shudder. He is haunted by the time he met the great narrator at a BBC party and became the umpteenth person to tell Attenborough he was marvellous. “He looked suitably grateful,” Evans said, “but I then decided to articulate my private theory about what makes for great factual programming — that the host not be an expert themselves but a keen amateur”. Attenborough stiffened and politely but firmly said that he had studied zoology at Cambridge. “I swiftly registered the termination of pleasantries,” Evans said, adding that he then attempted safer hero-worship. “I went to congratulate Ronnie Barker on his jackets.”
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