Andy McSmith's Diary: Political streakers – at last the pledges are (sort of) kept

Daily Telegraph commentator Dan Hodges braved the rain and cold to run (almost) naked down Whitehall

Daily Telegraph political journalist Dan Hodges streaks down Whitehall, London, after losing a bet for underestimating the Ukip's influence during the 2015 general election (PA)

When the history of political streaking is written, the opening chapter will feature the LBC interviewer Iain Dale, who set a trend by vowing that he would run naked down Whitehall if the Liberal Democrats won as few seats as predicted in the exit poll on the night of the 2010 general election.

Actually, they scored fewer than forecast, but Dale decided to hang on to his dignity and soak up the opprobrium cast at him for breaking a promise.

You would think others would have learnt from his mistake, but no. In December 2012, Dan Hodges, a Daily Telegraph commentator, vowed: “If Ukip breaks 6 per cent at the next election I’ll streak naked down Whitehall in a Nigel Farage mask whilst singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’.” Ukip actually scored 12.5 per cent.

In 2013, the Lib Dem blogger Stephen Tall promised to “run naked down Whitehall” if his party was returned with only 24 MPs. In fact, there are eight.

To run down Whitehall naked would be a criminal offence but, all credit to Stephen Tall, last October he jogged that street in broad daylight wearing only a thong, and so raised more than £10,000 for Médecins sans Frontières.

Early today, in semi darkness, Hodges (left) braved the rain and cold to perform a charity run along Whitehall. There was no Nigel Farage mask in evidence, nor did he sing a note, nor was he as naked as his mother, Glenda Jackson, in a couple of film scenes from the 1970s, but he was showing his all above the hem line of his boxers. Over to you, Iain Dale.

Where the sun don’t shine

Todd Starnes, the American conservative columnist, does not think much of the 571,265 Britons who have signed a petition to ban Donald Trump from the UK, which will be debated in Parliament on 18 January.

“The British seem to be taking a page from the Obama administration – blame everybody but the folks blowing stuff up,” he writes. “They’ve got Muslim radicals over there causing all sorts of mayhem – but Donald Trump is the problem? This is a nation that gave us boy bands, bad food and Piers Morgan.

“Mr Trump ought to give the British a ‘Pip pip cheerio’ and tell ’em where they can stick their tea and crumpets.” That’s us told.

The art of the impossible

Asked why the state pension calculator on the Government website understates a person’s entitlement by as much as £40 a week, the pensions minister Baroness Altmann told The Daily Telegraph: “The old system has so many moving parts that developing a ‘generic’ calculator for the state pension is pretty much impossible”.

This has stirred a memory in the former Labour Work and Pension Secretary, Alan Johnson, who told MPs: “As Ros Altmann, she was a very effective advocate. When we were arguing that the pension protection fund we had introduced should not be applied retrospectively, as she wished, I said it was impossible. Ros said to me, ‘That word doesn’t exist’.”

It does now that she is the minister in charge.

Scorn of a scorned Tory

Ex-councillor Brian Coleman was an important figure in the London Conservative Party before his expulsion in 2013 following his conviction for assaulting a café owner who had photographed his illegally parked car. He is still open to sharing his views with readers of the Camden New Journal.

He says he will vote for the Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith to succeed Boris Johnson as London Mayor, but does not much care for him because he exhibits “the arrogance that comes with huge wealth”. And he does not believe that Boris Johnson will ever be prime minister because he has “the attention span of a gnat”.