𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Our new(ish) Prime Minister is continually hailed as a great communicator, yet as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch pointed out this week, he can’t help putting his foot in his mouth or making statements that have to be clarified, like his incendiary claim on a podcast the Russia had interfered with the 2016 EU Referendum.

Only a day later, after MI5 had dismissed the allegation, he sheepishly withdrew it, admitting he had no evidence to back it up. It was the same embarrassing story recently when, during a TV interview, he breezily appeared to make light of the financial scandal at Manchester City, only to change his tune after a huge outcry from the public, football fans and MPs.

But perhaps the problem is more than just verbal awkwardness. It could be that he keeps contradicting himself because he has few real convictions beyond the desire to come across as a good bloke. And by far the greatest contradiction lies in the crucial question of Britain’s relationship with the European Union.

Burnham keeps saying that he wants closer ties with the EU, based on the hope that our country will eventually rejoin. But doesn’t that prospect make a complete mockery of all his earnest talk about devolution and handing power back to the people? How will anyone in Britain be empowered by the overthrow of the democratic Brexit result and the subsequent loss of our right to self-governance as a sovereign nation when we are under the control once more of the Brussels empire?

Yet another lecture

Even the elegant support of the Princess of Wales, who held Tom Cruise’s hand as they came down the stairs at the Leicester Square premiere of his new movie Digger, could not prevent the film from being one of the most spectacular box flops of all time. According to some estimates, it is on course to lose £185million, having opened to dismal ticket sales last week and been savaged by critics.

Some of the harshest words have been directed at Cruise’s own over-the-top performance as a deranged oil tycoon whose obsession with drilling has imperilled the planet. But it could be that cinema-goers have been put off, not just by the dismal quality of the film but also by its theme of impending eco-doom. At a time when energy bills and fuel prices are soaring due to the net zero green agenda, another finger-wagging lecture from a bunch of Hollywood millionaires does not qualify as entertainment.

A question for France

Is France producing a generation of actuaries and accountants specialising in local government finance? I only ask because every time this week I watched the BBC news from France, with its scenes of petrol-bombing, mass vandalism, looting and assaults on the police, the reporter explained the protestors wanted “more investment” in schools. I may have missed the bit where viewers were told that the demonstrators want greater “fiscal expansion”.

On the brink

When Len Shackleton, one of the great entertainers of post-war English soccer, produced his autobiography in 1956, he included one chapter which had the heading “The Average Director’s Knowledge of Football”. It consisted of a single blank page.

Judging by the report just published by the Independent Football Regulator, the calibre of those running the sport has not improved over the subsequent 70 years.

According to the Regulator, the English game is hovering on the brink of financial disaster, with 94% of league clubs making losses.

Given the enormous popularity of football, which generates over £9 billion-a-year in revenue, it takes a perverse kind of genius to preside over such a mess.