It's not like puffing up a fantasy version of a leader hasn't had consequences in the past...

Good piece. The line that really caught my eye here was this one: "Lobby journalists, while being supportive in print, are typically unimpressed with Badenoch in person". It speaks volumes about how the Tory press sees its role, and its attitude towards the truth of what it prints.

It's become a catchphrase for Badenoch that "We have to be SERIOUS" - and she's right about that. Yet every announcement is like this: a burst whoopie-cushion of wrong numbers, bungled data and stuff someone found on Google. The gulf between rhetoric and reality is positively cavernous.

Have just spotted the most cataclysmic typo I have ever committed in an email, which instantly turned a blameless sentence into a completely foul one. The recipient must have thought I was out of my mind. I may never go near a computer again.

I personally am very opposed to grinding flour, cooking it or mixing it with eggs or yeast. It should be left in as natural a state as possible and consumed directly as ears of wheat.

He's definitely talking about this in Yorkshire (which is where he's from originally), so keep an eye out for local history society events and the like.

This will be brilliant! Do come.

But that isn't the argument she's making. She persistently links the case for a second election to the coalition *with the Lib Dems* in 2010. This isn't just about a firewall. I agree that she is (currently) making that case too, though I'm afraid I'm doubtful it would hold up if office was in reach

I'm pretty sure it's coming in from outside, and will return there once it gets the "no food here" message.

If a minority govt is brought down by the Commons & the opposition parties cannot form a govt, then of course an election should follow. But Badenoch persistently suggests there is something undemocratic about working with other parties (she consistently deplores coalition with the Lib Dems in 2010)

Indeed. Which is why "the will of the people" is such a dangerous idea.

I'm feeling bad about the mouse in my office, after taking away the small bag of nuts he'd chewed into. I know he's still in there, as the trail of little pellets demonstrates, but they're getting fewer and further between.

I don't think that works. We could more plausibly say that the country had answered the question "do you want a majority Conservative government?" with the word "No".

I think she does have beliefs. The problem is that she appears to have an exaggerated admiration for her own ideas. Like Thatcher, she finds it hard to conceive of anyone disagreeing with her who isn't weak, corrupt or cowardly, & (unlike Thatcher) doesn't put in the work, so keeps stepping on rakes

Badenoch attacks Burnham as "a man who was happy to serve in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet". A bit rich from someone who served in Liz Truss's actual cabinet.

Badenoch says that Labour "don’t get a clean slate just because they have changed leader". Yet whenever she's challenged on the Conservatives' record in government, she dismisses the question on the grounds that she wasn't leader then...

This was much discussed at the time, actually. Both Gladstone and Disraeli thought Albert would have become politically formidable had he lived longer. Victoria's long widowhood probably made it easier to push the monarchy to the margins of politics - which was probably to its long-term benefit.