The Londoner: Balliol students bid to ban Boris

In today's diary: Balliol students bid to ban Boris | Cerys Matthews reveals her death by chocolate recipe | Social-Media marketing agency that ran PM's campaign for Downing Street is hiring | Samira Ahmed signs up for shifts on the Today programme
11 September 2019

Boris Johnson may be banned from his old Oxford college Balliol if students get their way.

Balliol students called on the college to “publicly disavow Boris Johnson”, before listing three conditions.

They ask that Johnson “be prevented from attending any Balliol College events, and from entering college grounds”, that “depictions of or tributes to Boris Johnson, such as portraits, should not be commissioned or displayed on college premises” and finally that “his alumni status and any benefits that that may entail should be suspended with immediate effect”.

Their demands are prompted by Johnson’s parliamentary shutdown, which the students call “effectively a political coup” and add that he has “seriously undermined democracy in the United Kingdom”. The institution itself is also in the sights of students, who say “despite the far-reaching and devastating implications of a no-deal Brexit for many of its students and members of staff, Balliol College has yet to condemn his actions”.

Johnson studied Classics at the college between 1983 and 1987, but his relationship with the college’s students has long been difficult.

In 2017, they unfurled a banner that called him “racist Boris” in front of the then foreign secretary as he was leaving the college grounds.

Other former students such as Seumas Milne, Labour’s communications chief, and Johnson’s brother Jo have (yet) to provoke such a reaction from students. In the petition on change.org, the students also say: “Balliol College’s student body has consistently demonstrated its commitment to democratic values. We call upon its members to sign this petition in order to put pressure on college administration to take definitive action in this matter.” At the time of going to press, the petition had 159 signatures.

But one former student of the college confided to The Londoner: “God, I do not miss earnest student politics b*****ks.”

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Presenter John Humphrys will stand down after 33 years in the Today programme hot seat next week. The Londoner reported last month that the BBC would not be replacing him but instead covering his role with a rotating cast of names including North America editor Jon Sopel, Europe editor Katya Adler and Scotland editor Sarah Smith — and Samira Ahmed, who this morning announced she too would be signing on for a few shifts. “Having been a researcher then a reporter there over the years, am really thrilled to say I’m going to be presenting on Today for the first time,” Ahmed tweeted this morning. “Got a couple of shifts on October 25 and 26. And John Humphrys has been really supportive.”

Digital enhancing

Social media marketing agency Westminster Digital — whose last big gig was running Boris Johnson’s campaign for PM — is “urgently recruiting people... ahead of an upcoming general election”. Roles being advertised include editors, videographers, animators and graphic designers. A “previous knowledge of politics or a degree is not required”. Deadline for applications is November 5 — although interviews will take place “urgently”.

Given the PM has said publicly that he wanted an election before October 31, does Westminster Digital still have Johnson’s ear?

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Americans are fascinated by the monarchy but don’t always understand its archaic traditions. Luckily, US chat show royalty Ellen DeGeneres can translate. DeGeneres recalls meeting a royal baby on a trip to the UK. “I got to hold little Archie,” she says in a trailer for her show, Ellen.

“He weighs 15 pounds, which the exchange rate I believe is 17 dollars.”

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Hard times for the British Museum, which plans to lend a group of Assyrian sculpted reliefs to the Getty in LA for three years, as it “lacks the funds to create an adequate display space”, reports The Art Newspaper. The loan will include the Banquet Scene, estimated to be worth £100million.

No need to rub it in.

A chicken and chips youth to death by chocolate

Cerys Matthews knows how to enjoy the good things in life. The ex-Catatonia singer didn’t have the easiest start, though. Growing up in Swansea, her mother was, she says, “a rubbish cook. She only ate chicken and chips. We’d come home from school starving and she’d be like, ‘Your crispy fried Finduses are in the freezer waiting for you.’” But once Matthews’ father developed a taste for curry and encouraged his wife: “She got friendly with a lady from Gujarat.

She started cooking and that was that.” Matthews tells the Off Menu podcast the transformation “was like Superman and Clark Kent”. And now, as an adult, Matthews’ palate is even more refined. The best gift, she says, you can give somebody is an idea.

The singer outlines her favourite cocktail: Tia Maria, vodka, half a pint of Guinness. The idea came from Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown. “If you sip it... chocolate. Pure chocolate. It’s called death by chocolate.”

She adds: “If you don’t like the Christmas shop you go into pub and have half a pint of that stuff and it makes Christmas shopping kind of bearable because you just don’t care.

SW1A

Jacob Rees-Mogg has got one over on the literary critics, some of whom were less than positive in their praise for his recent book The Victorians: Twelve Titans who Forged Britain.

A source at the Houses of Parliament Shop reveals: “Sales got off to a slow start but after Jacob came in to sign some copies they’ve been selling like hot cakes.” Is Nanny buying them? The only way is up for Horizonal Mogg.

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Tories have a real zinger of a new slogan for taking on the Liberal Democrats, who recently announced they would revoke Article 50 if they won an election. Andrew Bowie MP was one of many yesterday trying out “The Liberal ‘Un’ Democrats” for size. The Londoner can’t wait for the next election campaign.

Blunt joins the beautiful crowd for bubbly bash

The National Portrait Gallery echoed with the sound of corks popping last night at the launch of Champagne Armand de Brignac’s​ new variety.

Guests included Amanda Wakeley, Sofia Wellesley and husband James Blunt. Blunt is the unofficial poet laureate of Twitter, offering pithy takedowns of haters — though he says his record label was, at first, reluctant to encourage the approach.

“They panicked, because they thought it was vulgar,” he said recently. “It took them quite a long time to realise it was quite healthy not just for me, but for the

audience — for them to realise I wasn’t the guy the label had painted me to be, this quite earnest man.”

Meanwhile, at the Groucho, Annabel Croft and Amber Nuttall celebrated the launch of Angus Forbes’ new book Global Planet Authority. His wife, the retired ballerina and Strictly judge Darcey Bussell, joined them. The book advocates global governance of the biosphere.

Quote of the Day

​'I became adept at briefing the BBC's political editor... while taking out a caterpillar at 20 paces' - Sir Robbie Gibb on how he juggled battling box hedge moths with being Downing Street comms director

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