Diary: Advice for the new Ukip-ians – don't mention the war

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/29/hugh-muir-diary-ukip-david-coburn

Version 0 of 1.

• We will come to know the new Ukip-ians, those dispatched to represent this great nation in Brussels. Signs are that we will hear much of David Coburn, the sole Ukip representative from Scotland. What is he like? He's robust, in the mould of his leader; and this we know from a recently surfaced Twitter exchange he had with Dr Giacomo Benedetto, a senior politics lecturer at the University of London, over prisoners' voting rights. Coburn, you might have guessed, was against the idea. The professor took a progressive approach. We have no lessons to learn from you about democracy, Coburn told the professor. Why is that, asked Benedetto? "Italy fought on the side of Fascism in WWII. Mussolini deported the Jews WWII & Britain sheltered them. That is why I say you have no lessons," Coburn replied. Not the nicest comment, or the wisest. "Three of my great-uncles died in WWI and two in WWII fighting for UK," notes Benedetto, who has an English mother and was raised in the UK. Unfortunate for the Ukip man, but he'll learn. Let's see it as a false start. Onwards to Brussels.

• Isn't the most important thing with feuds to keep them going? It takes willpower and stamina. Thankfully Adam Boulton, of Sky News and the Sunday Times, has both. It is now four years since his infamous but still vastly entertaining al fresco spat with Alistair Campbell over Gordon Brown's resignation as Labour leader, but for Boulton at least the war is not yet over. At a Media Society event on Wednesday, Boulton said he "despised'' Campbell after the fallout from their fight on College Green. Campbell, he claimed, wrote demanding his dismissal to the editor of Sky News, John Ryley, and Frederic Michel, then News International's head of public affairs – here described by Boulton as "that French git who kept ringing up Jeremy Hunt". Boulton kept his job and went from strength to strength, but there has been an ongoing cost: the Boulton and Campbell children no longer play tennis together. How could they? One dodgy line-call and the whole thing could flare up again.

• They were friends, then they weren't. Might the same sorry fate overwhelm Vince Cable and his sneaky, leaky one-time ally Lord Oakeshott? Cable has been forced to disown his old mucker to save his own skin and leadership ambitions. The worst of it is that this never should have happened. "I established a close network of friends with financial knowledge and experience – in particular Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott – to bounce ideas off and to check facts before launching into the media," wrote Cable in his memoir A Taste of Leadership. And why did Cable like him? Because he "shared my instinct for an aggressive approach". So he may have been shocked, but he could hardly be surprised, at this week's turn of events. If you buy a dog to bite the postman, you can hardly complain when it does.

• A strange cove is Charles Saatchi – and that may be understating things. The recent strangeness we know all about, thanks to that extraordinary court case earlier this year and the very public disintegration of his marriage to Nigella Lawson. But the strangeness was always there. In the latest GQ magazine there is an eight-page foray into the lives of the Saatchi brothers, Charles and Maurice, detailing the deep split in their relationship and how Charles in particular refused to meet clients, even Margaret Thatcher. Andrew Anthony tells how Charles on one occasion was cornered by clients taking coffee. "Instead of introducing himself, he pretended to be an office cleaner," he reveals. One former senior executive says that wasn't particularly outlandish behaviour at the time. "When it came to clients, he wouldn't even make an exception for Margaret Thatcher. As prime minister, she visited the Charlotte Street offices and the whole senior staff turned out to greet her – except, that is, Charles." Odd, but maybe prudent. One can only have so much strangeness in the room.

• Finally, Maya Angelou is gone, and in Texas the local Fox television news station seems inconsolable. "Maya Angelou dead at age 86," said the on-screen ticker tape announcement. "Cancels Houston appearance on Friday". She so hated letting folks down.

Twitter: @hugh_muir