As per J. M. Barrie, one either believes in fairies, or they don’t. I take a similar approach to Rory Stewart. To his legions of Rest is Politics listeners, the ex-Tory MP, bedroom-squatter, and Afghanistan-botherer is a sage – as right-wing a voice as their timid and tiny middle-class minds can handle, successfully neutralised by co-hosting with 45-minute enthusiast Alistair Campbell. But to me he is a charlatan: another over-educated Balliol boy with a far higher opinion of himself than his public record merits. The example of his Dominic Cummings comments is a case in point.

He is a charlatan: another over-educated Balliol boy with a far higher opinion of himself than his public record merits

For those unfamiliar, a Stewart rant from June last year about the former No. 10 adviser is currently doing the rounds on Twitter. In it, the Temu Lawrence of Arabia accuses Cummings of all manner of sins: being a child, a conspiracy theorist, a serial........

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