Conservative

Progressive journalist Mehdi Hasan recently went viral for his “debate” with 20 so-called conservatives on the popular YouTube channel Jubilee. The program is formatted such that Hasan makes a claim, and then his opponents, seated in a circle around him, race each other to the chair opposite Hasan when they wish to refute a claim. When the claim, “Donald Trump is defying the US Constitution” came up, contestants lunged for the chair – not to deny the claim, but to dismiss the Constitution outright. Hasan, it seems, was ready to argue that Trump is defying the Constitution, but he was utterly unprepared to defend the document on its merits. We shouldn’t read too much into this gathering of the chronically online.

When Kemi Badenoch took to the floor during GB News’s TV Q&A on Thursday evening, the atmosphere in the room climbed a notch. Robert Jenrick had just finished his pitch to the party and handled questions well, but it was clear even before the audience rated their leadership candidates that it was Badenoch the majority were there to see. While Jenrick’s ECHR rhetoric received applause, almost every sentence of his rival’s opening pitch was met with cheers. If the audience was representative of the wider Tory membership, Badenoch is on track for an easy win in the leadership race.

Rebellious Tory MPs, expecting a trouncing in Thursday’s locals, are apparently mooting a ‘100 days to save Britain!’ emergency turnaround strategy. A new leader, a payrise for doctors, defence spending up to 3 per cent. Having four prime ministers in one parliamentary term would be good for future pub quizzes, but who is apparently choice for that number four slot? Penny Mordaunt. To what problem is she the solution? Her worst quality is that she will follow whatever is fashionable or socially expedient, not her own judgement. Mordaunt is a model example of style over substance. And what style! Because she looks just right – the mane, the steely glare, the confident manner, the military uprightness.

Here's a simple question: how much American taxpayer money is being spent to silence, censor, and blacklist opinions? Legacy media reporting on the House Oversight Committee's initial look into the actions of Twitter during the 2020 elections focused mostly on questions surrounding Hunter Biden's laptop. The committee's investigative reports, however, ought to hone in on the most disturbing aspect of this story: social media giants were routinely directed and coerced into censoring and silencing American citizens by entities funded by those same taxpayers.

The war between the generations is on, and the battle lines have been drawn. The baby boomers don't like the millennials because they can't understand why the millennials won't just buy a house already. The millennials don't like the boomers because, as they've explained, a house no longer costs $75 with a couple coupons like it did back in 1972. And lately the millennials and Generation Z have been mixing it up as well, over such important issues as hair partings and emojis. So a fractured conflict, this one, a bit like Lebanon's civil war except with more awful Facebook posts. Yet if you're looking to really understand the social media-fueled rifts between the generations, then you have to start with the main combatants, the boomers and the millennials.

During the Scottish parliament election campaign, Boris Johnson was criticised by the SNP for failing to visit Scotland. His absence wasn't seen as such a bad thing, however, by Scottish Tories who took the view that a visit from the Prime Minister was a risky bet and could actually prove a voter turn off when it came to a winning electoral pitch. So the very fact Johnson this week embarked on a visit north of the border ought to be taken as a sign that the independence situation is improving for unionists.  After Nicola Sturgeon fell one short of a majority in the Holyrood elections, an effort is underway to use this opportunity to boost support for the union.

Following his re-election as Chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady would be well advised to start banging a few heads together. Because the Conservative parliamentary party has turned into a thoroughgoing disgrace. We’ve all read about the 'transactional' relationship between most Tory MPs and Boris Johnson – i.e. they will only continue to back him if he keeps winning. But what the past few days has highlighted is the transactional relationship Tory MPs have with each other. There is almost no semblance of basic team loyalty, let alone that higher level of solidarity known as esprit de corps.

In 1992 a young footballer named Dion Dublin left my local team, Cambridge United, to take up one of the most coveted jobs in football – centre-forward at Manchester United. After a promising first few outings, disaster struck when he suffered a broken leg. By the time he was restored to fitness a genius named Eric Cantona had been signed and was strutting his stuff up front. Being a good lad, young Dion took it well enough. But it was basically game over for him at Old Trafford. As Sajid Javid rose from the Commons back benches this week to ask Chancellor Rishi Sunak a question about his summer economic statement, I could not help but be reminded of Dion and Eric. Sunak had just given yet another breathtakingly fluent, pitch-perfect performance.

In the next few weeks, the government will publish planning reforms designed to simplify the system and free up land for development, I report in the magazine this week. It is by far the government’s most significant supply-side reform. One of those involved says ‘this is what the Thatcher government should have done but didn’t’. The plans would see the UK move to a zonal development system. In certain land classes, building would be actively encouraged, with a presumption in favour of development. The Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has pushed aesthetic standards, influenced by the work of the late Roger Scruton, which he believes will ensure new homes are more attractive so garner greater local support.

Amazon is suspending police use of its face-recognition software, HBO Max has pulled Gone With the Wind and Paramount Network announced the cancelling of long-running series COPS. These and a steady stream of other corporate giants have taken unambiguous political stances in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the protests that followed. It is a mistake to doubt their sincerity. There was a time when corporations feigned interest in black and ethnic minority consumers.