They say that politics is showbiz for ugly people – but with the rise of the radiantly beauteous Keminator (and, grudgingly, for the eyelashes, Soft-Lad Burnham) this is no longer true, though Zack Polanski is bravely still flying the flag. I’d say these days that it was truer of the legal profession, especially the limousine-chasers among them who often end up working for celebrities; it would be interesting to see what proportion of those currently strutting and pontificating in courts of law originally dreamt of treading the boards.

Everything about this puffed-up popinjay is absurd

Everything about this puffed-up popinjay is absurd

Exhibit one, Jolyon Maugham. As Gareth Roberts has pointed out, everything about this puffed-up popinjay is absurd; even his name seems like something out of PG Wodehouse, perhaps as a character for whom a girl that Bertie Wooster is sweet on has a baffling crush. Which would come to a pleasing finish, perhaps, when he killed a fox with a baseball bat on Boxing Day while wearing a tight green female kimono – as Maugham memorably boasted on X in 2019.

Before he was born-again as a rampant crusader for social justice he was a tax lawyer who helped the rich and famous keep as much of their money as possible. Notably, he represented ‘Eclipse 35’, a scheme which claimed to finance films while enabling those swizzle-sticks involved to obtain huge amounts of tax relief ‘as a reward for supporting the British film industry,’ as the Daily Telegraph wrote in 2015. ‘The Eclipse 35 scheme was branded a cover story for tax avoidance by the Court of Appeal which had helped investors escape £117million in taxes. David Gauke, the financial secretary to the Treasury, branded investors in the scheme including Sir Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager, and Sven-Göran Eriksson, the former England manager, as “tax dodgers”.’

How much longer will Cambridge stand by Simon Woolley?

Reform conference has an air of unreality

The........

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