Jacob Rees-Mogg, that Slytherin Walter the Softy, has a knack for lurking in the shadows of party infighting and using resulting tensions to promote a kind of firm but fair version of himself, in which he is the only person who could possibly be talking sense. He’s now got his own podcast, the Moggcast, a title that makes me think of that kid at school who insisted that his name was K-Dogg when in fact it was Keith.
The accompanying thumbnail appears to have been put through an Instagram filter called Keep Calm and Carry On. It’s a cartoon of Rees-Mogg, apparently cosplaying The King’s Speech with a union jack in the background but a smartphone in the foreground, because, with apologies to Mean Girls, he’s a cool Tory, not a regular Tory.
As Philip Hammond failed to get away from Davos unscathed (after trying to wing his way to a soft Brexit), Rees-Mogg gave a speech accusing UK negotiators of being “cowed by the EU” and, whenever he has a public huff, talk inevitably turns to whether he’ll end up in Downing Street. But if Rees-Mogg is in with a shot of becoming prime minister because he’s got a podcast, and because Toff from I’m a Celebrity called him sexy, and because he makes historically dubious jokes about giving flags to the French, then we should remember how hilarious it is that he opposes gay marriage, that he shrugs at climate change and that he is anti-choice in all circumstances, including rape.
Perhaps his greatest achievement is not capitalising on his party’s struggles, but in the fact that he’s managed to become the Tories’ maverick simply by being as much of a Tory as it is possible to be.
