Kimberly Quinn, whose affair with David Blunkett began to create the impression that The Spectator was a top-shelf magazine, has left her job after losing what insiders claim is an internal power struggle.
Quinn, 46, who has been the magazine’s publisher for 10 years, survived the scandal that led to Blunkett’s resignation as home secretary after accusations that his office had fast-tracked a visa for her nanny. Now she has told colleagues she plans to work for her family’s business. Her father Marvin Solomon made his money from inventing radiation detection equipment (which could be in big demand after other recent events).
But insiders believe the real reason for her departure is that she has lost out in a power struggle to Andrew Neil, the magazine’s chief executive, whose hard-edged news approach is believed to have been at odds with Quinn’s lighter touch.
“It was a partnership that was clearly going to fall apart,” said one insider. “They were like chalk and cheese. Kimberly is as fizzy as champagne. She is very good at going out to schmooze the big advertisers but Andrew has been keeping her in meetings when she was meant to be having appointments with advertisers.”
Beckett is busting with confidence in her staying power
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At last! Just what the country needs to cheer it up in these dark times — a life-size bust of Margaret Beckett. The foreign secretary unveiled the bronze figure last week at Derby University, which is in the heart of her constituency and so handy for any voters who wish to pay homage.
“I keep reading that I might be forced out,” she complained at the ceremony. “Well, I’m not going. I’m fighting on.”
Perhaps not the most apt phrase, recalling as it does Margaret Thatcher’s rallying cry: “I fight on. I fight to win.” A day later she was out.