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Diary: A baby for Trenton Oldfield, the Boat Race protester facing deportation Diary: A baby for Trenton Oldfield, the Boat Race protester facing deportation
(3 months later)
• She is just four days old now, but in her own small way she presents an intriguing challenge to the home secretary. Never tangle with the public's affection for children and small animals, politicians are told. With her increasingly obvious leadership intentions, Theresa May can't afford a slip-up. And so, with Deepa Naik, wife of the 2012 Boat Race disrupter Trenton Oldfield having given birth to their baby in east London at the weekend, it is for the home secretary to decide if she will press ahead and deport Oldfield. Will she force mother and newborn child into exile, perhaps in Australia – where Naik has never been and where she has no wish to live? Or will May be responsible for splitting up a new family in the glare of mass publicity? We know how much the government loves marriage and families. She may, of course, decide that the six-month prison sentence, of which Oldfield served two in Wormwood Scrubs, was punishment enough for seditious disruption of a boat race, a view being put forward by MPs and unions. The choice is hers. But the little 'un, born at 7lb 11oz – no name as yet – brings the whole thing into focus, doesn't she?• She is just four days old now, but in her own small way she presents an intriguing challenge to the home secretary. Never tangle with the public's affection for children and small animals, politicians are told. With her increasingly obvious leadership intentions, Theresa May can't afford a slip-up. And so, with Deepa Naik, wife of the 2012 Boat Race disrupter Trenton Oldfield having given birth to their baby in east London at the weekend, it is for the home secretary to decide if she will press ahead and deport Oldfield. Will she force mother and newborn child into exile, perhaps in Australia – where Naik has never been and where she has no wish to live? Or will May be responsible for splitting up a new family in the glare of mass publicity? We know how much the government loves marriage and families. She may, of course, decide that the six-month prison sentence, of which Oldfield served two in Wormwood Scrubs, was punishment enough for seditious disruption of a boat race, a view being put forward by MPs and unions. The choice is hers. But the little 'un, born at 7lb 11oz – no name as yet – brings the whole thing into focus, doesn't she?
• "A litany of nastiness couched in the language of reform" was how Will Hutton described George Osborne's spending review, a barb that may well have brought a crooked smile to the face of the chancellor. The abuse comes from a variety of sources. He hardly seems to care. But is he as impervious to the effects of his austerity drives as it would appear? Not according to accounts circulating across the Channel. According to the magazine L'Express, Osborne confided concern about British students to Geneviève Fioraso, France's higher education minister, at breakfast during the G8 on 16 June. "They are finding it harder and harder to meet their tuition fees," he is reported to have said. "They're welcome to come to France, then! We even do lessons in English now," replied Fioraso. Is the chancellor having second thoughts? Is he worried for students' wellbeing? Or the consequences of mass default for the public accounts?• "A litany of nastiness couched in the language of reform" was how Will Hutton described George Osborne's spending review, a barb that may well have brought a crooked smile to the face of the chancellor. The abuse comes from a variety of sources. He hardly seems to care. But is he as impervious to the effects of his austerity drives as it would appear? Not according to accounts circulating across the Channel. According to the magazine L'Express, Osborne confided concern about British students to Geneviève Fioraso, France's higher education minister, at breakfast during the G8 on 16 June. "They are finding it harder and harder to meet their tuition fees," he is reported to have said. "They're welcome to come to France, then! We even do lessons in English now," replied Fioraso. Is the chancellor having second thoughts? Is he worried for students' wellbeing? Or the consequences of mass default for the public accounts?
• Every week we see the talents of Lord Sugar as he guides, nurtures and cajoles his band of misfits, egotists and ne'er-do-wells on TV's The Apprentice to higher notches of business excellence. For that is what he does, and that is his track record. And it was a track record that much appealed to the bosses at ITV when the YouView digital project, in which they hold a substantial stake, appeared to be struggling to take off – so Lord S was sent in to turn things round. Why Lord Sugar, ITV chief executive Adam Crozier was asked at a Royal Television Society do last week. "We put him in to kick the shit out of them," Crozier said. And it worked, the project jump-started, the set-top boxes proliferate, prospects are good. Sugar may be typecast, but he does do the terror thing rather well.• Every week we see the talents of Lord Sugar as he guides, nurtures and cajoles his band of misfits, egotists and ne'er-do-wells on TV's The Apprentice to higher notches of business excellence. For that is what he does, and that is his track record. And it was a track record that much appealed to the bosses at ITV when the YouView digital project, in which they hold a substantial stake, appeared to be struggling to take off – so Lord S was sent in to turn things round. Why Lord Sugar, ITV chief executive Adam Crozier was asked at a Royal Television Society do last week. "We put him in to kick the shit out of them," Crozier said. And it worked, the project jump-started, the set-top boxes proliferate, prospects are good. Sugar may be typecast, but he does do the terror thing rather well.
• With the debate on immigration growing ever more noxious, and the baleful prospect that the Tories will campaign hard on it at the next election, south-coast estate agent Adrian Dunford produces more evidence of the nightmare Margaret Thatcher evoked so long ago: indigenous folk swamped by an alien culture. They're heading for Poole, and the moneyed Dorset resort of Sandbanks, the Bournemouth Echo reports him saying. "What we're seeing is people moving out of London because they feel in the minority. They feel London isn't the place it once was. They're moving from places like Belgravia because they feel surrounded," he's quoted as saying. All those Russians, Chinese. All that Arab money. There goes the well-heeled neighbourhood, but don't expect to hear ministers making a fuss about it. Got a few quid? Come on in.• With the debate on immigration growing ever more noxious, and the baleful prospect that the Tories will campaign hard on it at the next election, south-coast estate agent Adrian Dunford produces more evidence of the nightmare Margaret Thatcher evoked so long ago: indigenous folk swamped by an alien culture. They're heading for Poole, and the moneyed Dorset resort of Sandbanks, the Bournemouth Echo reports him saying. "What we're seeing is people moving out of London because they feel in the minority. They feel London isn't the place it once was. They're moving from places like Belgravia because they feel surrounded," he's quoted as saying. All those Russians, Chinese. All that Arab money. There goes the well-heeled neighbourhood, but don't expect to hear ministers making a fuss about it. Got a few quid? Come on in.
• Finally, though it might seem that Lord Heseltine, the PM's adviser on growth, has been around for ever, this is not the case. "Apologies for suggesting that Michael Heseltine was more than 800 years old," says a correction in Saga magazine. "We know the noble lord looks good for his age – but the copy should have said that he was in his ninth, not his 90th, decade." Once he was Tarzan. Now Dorian Gray.• Finally, though it might seem that Lord Heseltine, the PM's adviser on growth, has been around for ever, this is not the case. "Apologies for suggesting that Michael Heseltine was more than 800 years old," says a correction in Saga magazine. "We know the noble lord looks good for his age – but the copy should have said that he was in his ninth, not his 90th, decade." Once he was Tarzan. Now Dorian Gray.
Twitter: @hugh_muir Twitter: @hugh_muir
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