Wednesday 10 January 2018

Drag Him Out

What a love-in on Newsnight last night between James Delingpole and Paris Lees, with the former, in best 1980s Thatcherite fashion, talking about how they should bond over a spliff. Perhaps they have now done so?

Delingpole was adamant that Toby Young had only ever been playing a character. So, did he supply Class A drugs, or did he not? Did he dress as a woman in order to assault lesbians sexually, or did he not?

In both cases, he was paid on the understanding that he had in fact done so. When his accounts were published, there was no suggestion that they were intended to be read as fiction. I smell an impending Johann Hari moment.

Young's Spectator employer, Andrew Neil, tried today to make it all about John McDonnell's rather prescient remarks concerning Esther McVey, who will very soon become one of this country's great public hate figures. With a bit of Jared O'Mara thrown in. 

But McDonnell will not be removed, and O'Mara, who is still being paid, will probably be back soon enough. Whereas Young has gone, the Junior Minister who appointed him has been moved with a view to managing him out next time, and the Cabinet Minister is off to the backbenches.

There are winners in politics. And there are losers. There is no doubt which is which this week. Call it the luck of the Irish.

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