When UK fertility rates have fallen to below replacement levels, extended exposure to the home life of Jacob Rees-Mogg and his six children may not be much help in turning things around.

As much as the devout Catholic and TV presenter is sincere, on GBNews, where he urges viewers to follow his example, he might reflect on how the spectacle of, in particular, his younger children, squirming and showing off, could inadvertently double – being an exceptionally strong disincentive to parenthood – as contraception. Something for Rees-Mogg to consider, anyway, at his next confession.

As for his children: not since Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, a 2012 series in which a likewise unprepossessing US family monetised, for two years, its domestic life, have parents and programme makers advertised such indifference to the interests of extremely young performers whose participation is critical to the show. Publicising the series, the Rees-Moggs have indicated that their bathrooms, kept off camera, were considered more private than their children. Without Sixtus, Alfred, Anselm et al, the new series could hardly advance on earlier ventures in Rees-Mogg self-promotion, after the financier turned MP discovered there was a paying audience for his eccentricities. Or not unless he risked interrogation on subjects such as Donald Trump, windfarms, Rwanda, or Boris Johnson that might undermine his depiction in this series as, above all, droll.

The addition of his droll wife, droll servants and six theoretically droll children are, then, what distinguish........

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