The key to being selected as a Conservative candidate in the 1950s was to have “had a good war”, and many of the MPs in the Seventies time still approached politics in a fundamentally soldierly way
But he does show how Tory MPs fell out of love with Johnson, and could not win with the irreproachable Sunak.
It is no surprise that Leavers point to the EU’s problems and argue that they justify Brexit. It is an argument that will have some impact, but there are at least five reasons why it should not.
He has an immense appetite for stories, and politicians talk to him because he tries to report with reasonable fidelity what they say.
The former Chairman of the 1922 Committee points out that the 2010-15 coalition could seek no improvement in Britain’s relations with the EU.
Johnson may not be as amusing as Disraeli, but he is without doubt the funniest and most literate PM since Macmillan.
It was reasoning backwards from its prejudices, namely that Eurosceptics are dishonest people, and that there must be some technicality on which they can be tripped up.
Instead of acknowledging the achievement, the Government is treating our departure like an unwanted gift, best hidden away in the back of a cupboard and forgotten about.
Too often, referendums have been used to get governments out of a political hole. As they have become more common, political pressure to hold them increases and they become harder to resist.
It is a party with no prospect of any majority in the House of Commons, which cannot and will not change a word of legislation – and will put in grave peril the real progress we have made since 2019.
As his options narrow, Sunak has little choice but to get back to first principles, which would be the right course anyway.
The continent’s economic woes are confined to the business pages, whilst the scandalous conduct of the European Parliament is simply unreported.
A friend of Michael Gove and a former Liberal Democrats, he is bidding for the Daily Telegraph and is an investor in GB News, which he hopes to see at the centre of such an election, if it happens.
The public is not enthused by Sir Keir Starmer, and victory in 2029 is much more possible than the headline seat totals suggest – but only if we look outside ourselves.