It won’t last. But for one day only, parliament found a few things on which all MPs could agree. The first was BBC local radio. The proposed cuts to services were an outrage and would devastate communities. Said absolutely everyone during an urgent question. Junior culture minister Julia Lopez could hardly believe her luck. All she had to do was nod her head, say how right everyone was, and that she would be sure to mention it to the director-general when she saw him next week. She didn’t even have to explain why the BBC might be financially stretched.
Next up was Tom Tugendhat. Rapidly emerging not just as one of the few sane Tories left in Westminster but as one of the great survivors. After years spent making an enemy of Boris Johnson as chair of the foreign affairs select committee, the one-nation Tugendhat had a brief few days in the limelight when he ran for the leadership of the Conservative party in the summer.
