Last Friday Guido popped along to the IEA for the leaving do of their head of public affairs Emma Revell, who departs SW1 to join the British Retail Consortium. A while after she recieved her warm leaving speech from Mark Littlewood, a second, surprise leaving do was given to Lord Syed Kamall, whose recent appointment to the government as a PuSS at DHSC resulted in him having to step down as the think tank’s academic and research consultant. Awkwardly for Kamall, certain government health decisions over the last decade have hardly won the IEA over to his new department. Syed faced a round of only semi-joking boos upon the mentioning of his new department…

Lord Kamall was gifted with a number of tongue-in-cheek gifts purchased from Labour conference, which had the audience laughing as books on public vs private choice, the NHS’s birthday, a ‘care for our key workers’ flag and a “LOVE NHS” rainbow heart t-shirt were pulled out of a Labour Party tote bag. It wasn’t long before the evening turned to karaoke. Guido’s senior reporter apologises to Lord Kamal for succumbing to peer pressure with a Les Mis rendition…