Restoration Comedy?

With her pork markets and her cheese, Liz Truss ought to have been laughed out of British politics in the manner of David Miliband and his banana. But although he was undeniably preposterous, Miliband, like the equally absurd Truss, did real damage, in his case as a torturer and in the Labour Right's long betrayal of the British Chagossians, with Miliband as the hinge between Denis Healey and David Lammy. And now, this very silly but very nasty man is clearly trying to get back. He is not the only one. Sue Gray has become an adviser to Andy Burnham, and Alan Milburn has used his latest gig to renew his call for "a wider set of reforms to state institutions", meaning privatisation in general and NHS privatisation in particular. Music to the ears of Wes Streeting.

Speaking of Chagos, though, it is Lord Hermer who is to review the non-custodial sentences handed down to three teenage boys who raped two girls at knifepoint and filmed it. Those boys are white, and there is no suggestion that they are immigrants. The almost unbelievably heavy Irish accents of many Irish Travellers in Britain are due to the closedness of their community. It is highly unlikely that teenagers in that community today were born in Ireland. Hermer sits in the Government that has had time to change the sentencing guidelines, yet which has failed to do so. But who was in office when those guidelines were issued, in whatever party they may find themselves these days?

For example, Reform UK, whose Leader, without having reported anything to the National Cyber Security Centre, blames a Russian hack for the disclosure of Christopher Harborne's five million pound gift to him, in which case that gift could not have been buying him much security. Or Restore Britain, which is on course to take more votes than the margin of victory between Burnham and Reform at Makerfield, but which is not contesting Aberdeen South, where the fight is between the SNP and the Conservatives. In his time at currently newsworthy Southampton Football Club, Rupert Lowe became so friendly with Rishi Sunak that he ended up in business with Sunak's wife. No one in the Conservative Party objected to Lowe's allocation of one of its seats, not just on any parliamentary committee, but on the mighty Public Accounts Committee. And on air, Lowe has told Jacob Rees-Mogg of the "agreement" between Restore and the Conservatives, describing himself, uncorrected by Rees-Mogg, as "a true Tory".

Restore's entire database is now in the hands of Scott Benton, who is telling canvassers in Makerfield to ignore Labour supporters and concentrate on taking votes from Reform. Is Benton now opposed to kosher slaughter? Then again, is Lowe still opposed to halal slaughter? It is not clear whether or not his son Angus has already married Yasmin Mezran, daughter of the Libyan Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Karim Mezran. If he has, then was halal meat served at the wedding feast? If he has not, then will it be? Over any refreshments, the happy couple's fathers either had, or will have, plenty to discuss, since, from his base on the Potomac, Mezran is a leading proponent of greater immigration to Europe from Africa and the Middle East, exemplified by his daughter. Would her father-in-law remigrate her? If not, why not?