Auntie's Favourite Nephew

The BBC and the Labour Left are about the same age, and they have always hated each other. There was going to be trouble from the day that Jeremy Corbyn became Leader of the Labour Party. And then, along came the man with the closest ties to the BBC of any Prime Minister ever, a man whom the BBC had single-handedly made famous, and a man whom it calls "Boris" as if he were still one of its light entertainment personalities, allowing him to send along his father to deputise for him.

Boris Johnson's other media base is of course the Telegraph-Spectator family, which has now functioned for 20 years primarily as an arm of his campaign for the Premiership. Thus backed to the hilt, he intends to remain Prime Minister even if he has lost his seat in the House of Commons. By the way, there is no comparison with the case of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, who had not been rejected by the electorate.

The idea is that the job in the House would be done by Dominic Raab as First Secretary of State. But there is an outside chance that Raab, too, might be defeated at the General Election. No matter, though. Like that of Prime Minister, the appointment of First Secretary of State is made by the Queen. And if there just could not be any Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, well, the Prime Minister is not answerable to it, but to her.

This is what the monarchy does. It allows the Queen's Ministers to behave in any way they please. If the answer to a question is "the Queen", then it is really "the Prime Minister". So if the question is "To whom is the Prime Minister answerable?" or "Who is to stop the Prime Minister from doing that?", then the answer is "Nobody". It is already a matter of record that this Prime Minister has lied to the Queen but remained in office, just as he has also remained in office despite having lost what he had declared to have been a vote of confidence.

It is sometimes argued that no British monarch could have the domestic arrangements of President Mitterand, whose publicly maintained second family became known to the public only by its attendance at his state funeral. Yet although the number of one's children affects one's entitlement from the public purse, when it comes to the man in whom the powers of the Crown are in fact vested, no one will even ask him how many children he has.

But then, who could ask him? His once and future employers at the Daily Telegraph? His once and future employers at The Spectator? His mates at the BBC? Well, there you are, then. Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. I am standing for Parliament here at North West Durham. The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.