Holden On?

It has been pointed out to me that Richard Holden was now a member of the Executive Committee of the 1922 Committee. That is quite an achievement for a first term MP, and he is the first MP from the North East to have been on it in many, many years.

That body is coming into its own again, so I concede that it would be wrong to continue to say that Richard's career would advance only over the headless torso of Carrie Antoinette. On the contrary, it is advancing precisely against her, as a welcome backbench riposte to her influence.

On paper, Richard remains the Government's loyal supporter that he was elected to be, so I disagree with him enough that he is still a political opponent. But I have never hidden my admiration for his work on gambling, on beer duty, on virginity testing, on Vehicle Excise Duty, and on drug testing in prisons.

If, however, there is some sort of ongoing coup, or matters preliminary to such, against Boris Johnson, then in what cause and to what end? People who want to arrest and reverse the levelling up that has been made possible by Full Brexit are free to vote Labour or Liberal Democrat. Perhaps that is the problem? The only Opposition is from those who want none of that, rather from those of us who want more of it. So yes, I am indeed standing for Parliament again.