Recently, after counting government officials at their Whitehall offices, Jacob Rees-Mogg took cultural warfare to the next level by lifting the ban on wake-up call in Whitehall. The government’s efficiency minister is reviewing the cabinet’s internal “style guide” in a bid to lift bans on politically incorrect vocabulary such as purdah, which was banned last year.
The leadership says that instead, civil servants should use the term “pre-election period”, as “purda” refers to the physical separation of women from men in some Muslim countries.
Rees-Mogg also bans jargon as part of the review of the style guide. He tells me that this is a necessary and constant investment in the interests of stakeholders in order to prevent inappropriate, unacceptable and disappointing results.
“It can be said that these words should be put in purda.”
Bong to reign over us
The stars line up for the recently renovated Big Ben to bong for the first time on the Queen’s platinum anniversary weekend now that the scaffolding around Elizabeth’s Parliament Tower has been removed.
My mole in Westminster tells me that the beginning of June is scheduled for the first regular washing of Big Ben since MPs cried when the Big Bell went silent in August 2017.
One of the deputies says: “Will they go up for the anniversary? Hopefully they will be able to. “Commons insiders predict international media interest with the first regular bongs broadcast live around the world. Maybe the Big Bell will sound 70 times – one Bong for each year of the Queen’s reign?
Worried about the polls
Even veteran Conservative MP Michael Fabricant has his limits when he defends Boris Johnson over his block-breaking parties: pole dancing.
“I was told there were no pole dancers … that would be the line,” he told me this weekend’s Chopper’s Politics podcast. “If, God forbid, something really terrible happens, I will ask the Prime Minister in the House – were there any pole dancers?” Because if there weren’t any, he was safe. “
Lily’s little helper
Lily Allen hires an assistant. The actress, singer and activist on the left is looking for someone who is “smart, hardworking, understands technology, wants to travel” and can work “flexible working hours”.
Alan is one of a number of actors with homes in the Cotswolds, where she was part of the so-called Londonshire set. However, the work of the assistant is in New York, where Allen now lives with his young family and American actor David Harbor.
Allen was upset by Boris Johnson’s convincing election victory in 2019 and said that “racism and misogyny are so deep in this country and that Boris won because of his attitude to these things.” Peterborough readers who are fans of the prime minister may not need to bother to apply.
Socle Philip
Wilfred Cass, the entrepreneur and philanthropist who died this week at the age of 97, was well known for commissioning the first three sculptures, which stood on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square, beginning with Mark Wallinger’s 1999 Ecce Homo.
Since then, the plinth has hosted an exaggerated thumb (Really Good by David Shrigley, 2016), a horse skeleton (Gift of a Horse by Hans Haake, 2015) and most recently a drone on cherry-covered ice cream (The End, by Heather Phillipson, 2020) .
Wilfred Mark’s son tells me that his father’s wish was “to look for and surprise a complete stranger from the College of Arts by asking them to show their work to the general public.”
But I have a better idea – why not use it to erect a permanent statue of the late Duke of Edinburgh?
Time for Jim’s questions
Question time must be careful. Tory’s favorite comedian Jim Davidson is doing an anti-wake panel show specifically for his own streaming channel, such as “Snowflakes Not Allowed.”
Davidson told the British Comedy Guide: “Everyone is bored of having to be a computer all the time or everything is ‘awakened’, so we decided to create a panel show to discuss and talk about the madness of the world and say exactly how it is. .
“We need people who can laugh at jokes, as adults have done, and not take offense because someone has a different opinion.
“It will be like the good old days.”
The show is called left, right and center. Don’t expect this to be taken up by the BBC.
The Peterborough, published every Friday at 7pm, is edited by Christopher Hope, Telegraph’s chief political correspondent and author of the daily Chopper’s Politics. You can contact him at peterborough@telegraph.co.uk
Add Comment