Cake for Baker

Most of us are aware by now of the clear blue water that tends to separate Brexit promises from Brexit realities, and the hotels tycoon Sir Rocco Forte has been good enough to furnish a particularly charming example, apparently because Brexit has done insufficient damage to the hospitality industry. Sir Rocco, whose name even the late Martin Amis might have found lacking in subtlety, vowed never again to support the Conservatives on the grounds that Fishy Rishi is a social democrat, only to find himself throwing money at a Conservative earlier this year. Steve Baker proclaimed last October that even foreigns can have legitimate interests, but Sir Rocco has slipped him ten thousand anyway; doubtless Baker's climate denialism, casually abusive relationship with the truth, and various other symptoms of born-again Christianity were redeeming factors. In fairness, Baker's bung is two thousand less than Basil Fawlty's wet dream spent on a victory spaff-and-spew when the National Johnson belched his way to the Party leadership. Surprisingly enough, Sir Rocco's knighthood is not of Johnsonian vintage, but was bestowed almost thirty years ago under the non-administration of the equally ridiculous but more cheaply educated John Major.