Patrick O’Flynn

A little over a year ago, at the nadir of the May administration’s excruciating bungling of Brexit, the Daily Telegraph landed a dynamite exclusive. The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, and Business Secretary Greg Clark had hosted a confidential conference call for corporate bosses in which they said the threat of a no-deal Brexit was effectively off the table. And the Telegraph had obtained a tape recording of the whole thing. Behind the backs of the British people, the well-upholstered felines of big business were being told that a huge Commons defeat for May’s withdrawal agreement (it had just lost by 230 votes) did not mean that Brexit would go ahead on WTO terms at the end of March.

It is often said a job is what you make of it. If so, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that London's mayor Sadiq Khan regards his mainly as a means of burnishing his personal brand. Rather than getting to grips with the core responsibilities of his position – making transport work better, getting more homes built and fighting crime – his mayoralty has been punctuated by an apparently endless series of photo opportunities and overseas tours, often related to issues over which he has no direct responsibility. Today he took an entourage to Brussels to discuss his post-Brexit agenda with big players at the European parliament and European commission, fighting, as he put it himself, “for a deal that protects London’s economy and the rights of all Londoners”.

Margaret Thatcher famously said of Mikhail Gorbachev “We can do business together”. Clearly she wasn’t endorsing the policies and outlook of the USSR, just reaching a practical conclusion that was to lead to beneficial outcomes for both sides in the years ahead. It’s time for Boris Johnson’s opponents to arrive at the same conclusion – and accept that Boris is a man they can do business with. Boris’s critics might not admit it but the Prime Minister is a pragmatist with liberal inclinations in many policy areas. Yet the luminaries of progressive liberalism still pledge to fight him on every front.

Much of the reaction to Sajid Javid’s departure yesterday, alongside the sacking of several other Cabinet ministers, would have you believe that it is a very big deal. ‘Moderate reshuffle morphs into major crisis,’ said Sky News political editor Beth Rigby. Rory Stewart tweeted out a picture of Theresa May’s Cabinet from the middle of last year, with the chiding question: “How many are still in the Cabinet today?” (The answer, by the way, is only about half a dozen out of more than 30.) Jon Sopel on the Today programme this morning said Javid’s replacement, Rishi Sunak, was in a very powerful position because the Prime Minister could not afford to lose another Chancellor. Really? Says who?

A week on from Brexit day, it is worth stopping and reflecting on just how Britain's departure from the EU actually came about. We're familiar of course with those from the Leave side who contributed to Brexit. But what about the unintentional heroes of Brexit, those who ensured accidentally that Britain really did leave the EU? On the day we were supposed to leave the EU last March, I bumped into an important member of Tony Blair’s social and political circle in the lobby of a St James’s club. “Are the Tory Spartans holding firm? Are they going to stop May's deal going through?” he asked. “Yes, quite comfortably I think,” I replied. “Good,” he said, “that’s what we need.

Tony Blair's election anthem “Things Can Only Get Better” was infectious, even for those like me who were not from the same political tribe. It was impossible not to get swept up in New Labour's era of Cool Britannia. At the 1997 Labour party conference, just a few months after the Labour landslide, I was left wondering: were Labour supporters cheerful because they had won, or did they win because they were cheerful? Whatever the answer, it does not take a genius to discern that the left in general and the Labour party in particular is far away from such a place today. Gone is the happy optimism. In its place, Labour's leading lights spew out a seemingly endless stream of doom-laden forecasts and bile about the state of our nation and its people.

Labour has nothing to say to large chunks of Britain, may well never win power again and is in fact an irrelevance to the political direction of our country. Yes, yes, we know all that already. But if you are a political nerd, as I am, you can’t knock a good leadership contest as it unfolds. And the current battle to become Leader of the Opposition is shaping up rather nicely. Some had been writing it up as a procession, with former Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer – he of the luxuriant hair and slippery ability simultaneously to project himself both as a diehard socialist and a centre-left moderniser, the first Kinnockite Corbynista – simply bound to win.

When I was interviewed a long time ago for admission to one of our ancient universities, a don used the phrase “the maintained sector” to describe my educational background. He meant that I was a state school lad and I suppose his implication was that independent schools were somehow more free-thinking, reliable bastions of excellence. At the time I could only see the other side of that particular argument, but the phrase has come to mind again now in a different context. The disastrous reception given to comedian Nish Kumar at yesterday’s Lord's Taverners' lunch is a sign that the maintained sector of British comedy has fallen victim to lazy groupthink and general mediocrity.

'But can we really trust the Tories to deliver Brexit?' This is the question I am most often asked on social media and in person by long-standing Brexiteers who, like me, are not habitual or tribal Conservatives. And the reply I never give is: 'Yes, of course we can'. Because let’s be blunt about this: the Conservative party has not earned the trust of Brexiteers over the years. It had to be bullied into holding a referendum by Ukip, at a time when the number of Conservative MPs prepared openly to speak in favour of leaving the EU could be counted on the fingers of one hand. It then immediately handed the Brexit process over to a pro-Remain leader who constructed a deal that would serve as a 'bridge' (copyright, Sir Olly Robbins) to a high-alignment future, i.e.

Nigel Farage has never been particularly sold on manifestos or the hard slog of policy formulation in general. His aversion dates back at least to the Ukip manifesto of 2010 which was accompanied by detailed policy documents that ran to the length of an old telephone directory and proved a rich source of material for the many commentators seeking to mock the party. He later derided it as “drivel”. So it is unsurprising to see him release a slim, 24-page booklet printed in large type on A6 pages, several with full-page photographs (rather than text) and to market it not as a manifesto at all, but as a “contract” with the British people.

Nigel Farage says his party will stand aside in all 317 seats the Tories won in 2017. This drastic u-turn in the Brexit party election strategy had been expected. But it still strikes me as a poorly thought through plan, given that it means the Brexit party will give a free pass to Brexit rebels like Greg Clark (in Tunbridge Wells) and also make life difficult for Tories in top Labour-held target seats. Farage can point to an explicit, on-camera promise from Boris Johnson about not extending the post-EU departure transitional phase beyond the end of next year as yet another shift he has forced in the Tory position. And he can use that as a rationale for abandoning his unconvincing threat to stand everywhere.