UK Politics
The whispers
Published 06 December 2007
The other Boy David gets collared by stylists
To St Stephen's Constitutional Club, to slump in the front row at the latest Boy David prime ministerial-style news conference, where my eyes became transfixed by his vibrating right foot.
Gripping the lectern kept Cameron's trembling hands still, though the nervous tic of his well-polished black brogue betrayed the Tory leader's nerves. A Tory snout whispered the Boy David displays no anxiety before a performance, calmly peering in a mirror to straighten his tie and tidy his barnet. Then he goes on stage and pow, the quakes start. At Notting Hell cocktail parties, Martinis are presumably shaken, not stirred.
Names are emerging of the trade union apparatchiks jostling to step into Peter "Low" Watt's clodhoppers as Labour Party general secretary. Those sniffing around the post include the GMB's Debbie Coulter, Unison's Keith Sonnet and the Amicus pair, Mike Griffiths and Tony Dubbins. The appointment will be made by the NEC on 31 January. Word at No 10 is that the Supreme Leader is toying with the idea of asking Larry Whitty, often described as the party's last heavyweight general secretary, to fill in for a couple of years after completing his probe into the "cash for what?" scandal. Lord Whitty, mutter his supporters, is unpersuaded if not yet unpersuadable.
To David Bailey's studio to be snapped for a glossy magazine feature on politicos, where I learned our man in short trousers, David Miliband (below), was asked to change his shirt for the camera. The collar on his M&S quick-dry was deemed too floppy for a chap of his position. The stylists were horrified to discover that Mili D wears slip-on shoes, and gently suggested he acquire a pair of grown-up Foreign Office-issue brogues. Presumably he could ask the other Boy David where he shops.
Bad news for Blue Boris, good news for Red Ken. The former Met Police chief John Stevens, who was appointed head of a Tory policing task force in February, was singing the praises of Livingstone at a City function. The cop, my snout recalled, holds Livingstone in high esteem. Little has been heard of Johnson since his dressing-down by "Boy George" Osborne, by all accounts a painful experience. Boris was ahead of "Boy George" in the Bullingdon Club, and to be berated by a Buller junior is jolly unfortunate. Livingstone's mob, by the way, insist on calling their rival Johnson instead of Boris. Strategists believe only the mayor should be on first-name terms with the capital.
A couple of final points on dim "Low" Watt. Blairite activists are reminding anyone who will listen, and a few who won't, that Watt was awarded the job by the left-wing Grass-roots Alliance when the NEC blocked Blair's candidate, Ray Collins. The Unite functionary, by the way, will not apply again unless assured he'd win. Battersea Labour bigwigs held a drinks do to cheer Watt up. Alas, my informant couldn't stomach attending.
Kevin Maguire is associate editor (politics) of the Daily Mirror
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