Londoner's Diary: John Bruton lays in to Boris Johnson and Brokenshire

In today's Diary: Former Taoiseach John Bruton slams Boris Johnson | Labour Tory rematch on the cricket pitch | Dylan Jones plans Corbyn for GQ | David Cameron pays tribute to former teacher 
John Bruton
Getty Images
13 June 2017

Former Taoiseach John Bruton, free from the shackles of diplomatic phrasing, has criticised Boris Johnson’s EU escapades and says sending James Brokenshire to sort out the DUP’s disputes in Ireland is just plain demeaning.

Bruton, giving the Henry Grattan Lecture at the Irish Embassy last night, questioned what Boris was up to in Brussels. “I’m not sure the British Foreign Secretary, in every issue that is coming before the European councils where he is taking part, is as supportive of the rest of Europe in its decision-making as he should be,” said Bruton. “I am advised that an obstructive attitude has been taken by the UK in certain aspects of EU decision- making.”

Bruton, in office from 1994 to 1997, went on to suggest this was baffling game-playing. “I think it has been calculated to entrench the EU hard line on settling the money before anything else. A lot of this is happening in private, so there’s no electoral gain from it, for Boris or anybody else.”

Speaking to an audience of dignatories and EU geeks, Bruton also cast a sceptical eye over how the power-sharing agreement in Northern Ireland could work with the DUP in cahoots with the Tories. There’s a “great worry” that the British Government “might not be seen to be as impartial as is required”, he said. “It’s demeaning to see that every time there’s a crisis [in NI] someone has to be flown in from somewhere else.”

That person is usually the Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire, who Sinn Fein has said should be sacked as chairman of the talks. “It’s not exactly a great compliment to the

[NI] politicians themselves,” said Bruton, who suggested it was time that an “outside person”, one “who isn’t dependent on one of the two parties in contention ... needs to be considered”.

(Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

The Londoner dropped into Westminster for a drink yesterday, and was intrigued to hear that, despite their departure, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill — Theresa May’s co-chiefs of staff until Saturday — have not entirely left Number 10. An insider says they are still being consulted and their influence felt. Grumblings are brewing as many saw their total removal as a key condition for May’s survival. Surely they wouldn’t be working for free?

Political set are still on a sticky wicket

(Photo credit should read BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images

Our heart rate finally returned to normal today after last week’s election results. Now another Labour/Tory battle is set to exhaust us again. June 17 sees a social cricket match between Strongroom CC of Highgate Woods and Village Cricket Club of Parliament Hill. But the stakes are higher than any usual match: Strongroom’s team includes James Schneider, Jeremy Corbyn’s election guru. Village offers Craig Woodhouse, special adviser to Culture Secretary Karen Bradley. We’d predict Village would bowl Strongroom out early — but look at where that got us all last week.

Quote of the Day

(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
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“There’s a level of viciousness I wasn’t expecting”

Ivanka Trump says it’s not easy being First Daughter

Jezza bandwagon takes an unlikely route

(Photo credit should read DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images

Is Jeremy Corbyn set to take over Condé Nast? The Labour leader might be about to secure the honour of GQ cover star. Last night The Londoner was at The Ned in the City, where GQ hosted a dinner to close London Collections: Men. The magazine’s editor, Dylan Jones, held court. Does Corbyn stand a chance? “Two weeks ago the idea of Jeremy Corbyn being on the cover of our magazine was preposterous,” Jones said. “Even though Jeremy’s politics are not my politics, he’s proven that he’s got genuine cut-through, and he’s one of the few politicians to have real conviction. Yeah, I’d really like him on the cover of the magazine.”

Jones wouldn’t be the first to fall for him. Last week GQ’s sister mags Tatler and Vogue released positive articles on Jezza, Tatler praising his posh heritage and Vogue complimenting his style. Next, Time’s Most Influential Man of the Year cover?

Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Getty Images

“Rocks would melt with the sun before I’d ever set foot in the House of Lords,” said Alex Salmond in 2014, after resigning as Scottish first minister. His successor Nicola Sturgeon said this was “principled”. However, now that he’s lost his seat to a Tory, Colin Clark, could Salmond end up melting a few rocks himself, now that he’s twiddling his thumbs? He’d be a jolly addition to the Lords and the first SNP-er in the House.

Cameron’s own Mr Chips

(Photo credit should read LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images

It was an Eton mess at Christie’s in St James’s last night, for the launch of new book The Enigma of Kidson: The Portrait of an Eton Schoolmaster, a biography of one of the school’s late teachers, Michael Kidson.

David Cameron, a former pupil, delighted the audience by taking to the lecturn. “I was Prime Minister but now I’m just a warm up act for Johnnie Boden,” he said before telling the crowd about his brother-in-law William Astor’s report card. “You have one redeeming feature,” Kidson wrote. “You’re not quite as stupid as your father.”

Cameron also recalled his teacher’s unorthodox way of dealing with wayward students. “He’d say: ‘Come in, have a lemonade’. You’d open his drinks cabinet and there was no lemonade, there was only gin, vodka, whiskey — this was not social services as we now know it.”

Tweet of the day

“Scapegoats so far: Nick Timothy, Fiona Hill, actual goat.”

After the Queen’s Speech is delayed in part by goat skin paper, Channel 4’s Ciaran Jenkins sums up a strange few days in politics.

Food for thought for classic-car lovers

Driving gloves on. Anglia Car Auctions in Norfolk is selling the late AA Gill’s car with an estimate of £5,000 to £6,000, on behalf of “the Blonde,” aka, Nicola Formby, the long-term partner of Gill. “A A Gill famously stated that his primary reason for purchasing his first Rolls, a brown Shadow I, was to embarrass his young children on the school run,” the listing reads.

Headline of the day:

Photographer: Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg
Bloomberg via Getty Images

Huffington Post covers the US Court of Appeal’s newest block of Donald Trump’s travel ban with “Trump Slips on Ban Appeal.”

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