PETERBOROUGH
David Cameron’s Rwandan dream
David Cameron, the former prime minister, the Duchess of York and Lord Archer of Weston-super-mare helped raise £100,000 for the charity Cricket Builds Hope at a dinner at the Oval on Thursday night.
The charity, which uses cricket as a tool for social change in Rwanda, was set up in memory of Christopher Shale, Cameron’s late constituency chairman.
Cameron, below, couldn’t resist a couple of political jibes at the current Conservative government. “I have to make an announcement,” he said, peering at the menu through his spectacle s. “The ‘Cured Chalk Stream Trout’ and ‘Smoked Venison Backstrap’ have been replaced with ‘Turnip Three Ways’. I never saw that on the side of the bus.”
Later, Cameron had a dig at Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, who told me on Chopper’s Politics last year that she “dreamed” of planes leaving Britain to take illegal migrants to Rwanda. “I gather that Suella Braverman sometimes has a dream about Rwanda, he said.
“So do I. My dream is just a little bit different.”
William Hague’s midlife crisis
What has happened to William Hague? The former Tory leader this week wrote a column advocating more co-operation with the European Union and then appeared in a joint BBC interview with his old nemesis Sir Tony Blair calling for digital ID cards.
Now Hague is campaigning for Brexit hater and former Lib Dem MP Tom Brake to become chairman of the European Movement.
“I worked with Tom. He was professional and business-like and although we were in different parties, we worked together very effectively. He is someone who can bring people together,” Hague says in a list of Brake’s “endorsements” for the role.
Time for a lie down, William.
Angie’s capital adventure
Angela Rayner’s dabbling in capitalism is at an end. “Angela Rayner Limited” was incorporated in January 2020 to collect £185,000-worth of donations for her deputy leader run.
Rayner was described as being a “person with significant control” of the company, while Nicholas Parrott – her chief of staff – was its sole director.
The company’s assets dwindled from £7,024 in 2021 to just £558 a year ago. Now it has been put out of its misery: Companies House confirms “Angela Rayner Ltd” was dissolved on January 31, 2023.
But this does not mark the end of Rayner’s involvement with business and finance. She is speaking at the CBI’S “future at work” conference next week.
Wrong Dickie!
Dickie Davies, below, the former presenter of ITV’S World of Sport who died this week, enjoyed telling how Des Lynam, his rival on BBC Grandstand in the 1980s, was mistaken for him. Davies said: “He and his partner Rosie drove to Spain, and on their way back they stopped at a large service station to get coffee and put petrol in the car. “There were UK lorries in the car park and the drivers were all looking at him in the diner.
“One of the guys went up to him and said, ‘I know you’re on holiday. I’m sorry to do this but… you are Dickie Davies, aren’t you?’ He said, ‘No, I’m bloody not!’”
Sunak set in crystals
Rishi Sunak and 15 members of the Cabinet gathered on Thursday night for the Conservative Party’s £1,500-a-head winter party at the Savoy Hotel.
Overall the evening raised an astonishing £1million for the party’s coffers.
The star auction lot was a sparkling depiction of Sunak’s head and shoulders set with Swarovski crystals, right. The framed image is by east London artist San B.
Lord Leigh of Hurley auctioned it, raising £25,000, saying: “I don’t want anyone reporting that I was ‘doing crystal’ with the Prime Minister.”
I don’t know what he means.
Motty’s Fab Four
One of the late John Motson’s regrets was that he never met the Beatles. “When they were very, very new to the business, a colleague of mine actually went out to Elstree and met them when we were reporters together on the Barnet Press,” he said in 2005.
“He got the gig and I didn’t. So no, I never met The Beatles. But I did meet Rick Parfitt from Status Quo.”
Which is a bit like buying a ticket to watch Liverpool play and finding Tranmere Rovers had turned up.