What is it, exactly, that a certain kind of Conservative doesn’t like about the European Union? We’ve all heard the bromides about sovereignty. Some like the idea of free trade. Others long for a new wave of Thatcherite deregulation. Then, of course, there’s migration.
Oh, and those good-for-nothing fifth columnists in, erm, Great Ormond Street Hospital. You know. The one for sick children.
Staging a one-man protest against the creeping influence of Brussels on the step-parents of ill youngsters last night was Stewart Jackson, the once and future chief of staff to once and future failed Tory leadership candidate David Davis.
My stepson had an operation yesterday @GreatOrmondSt. He’s incredibly brave but gutted he can’t be at the #PeoplesVoteMarch today with his brothers & sisters. You can see he’ll be there in spirit & his brothers are saluting him with a dab! #PeoplesVote #peoplesvotemarch pic.twitter.com/lYoiREnBjH
Treat yourself or a friend this Christmas to a New Statesman subscription for just £2— Anthony Hobley (@arhobley) October 20, 2018
The man known by colleagues as Wacko Jacko responded in such a way as to make his nickname look like a scientific description rather than a slightly problematic term of abuse.
“What a pathetic cretin,” the recovering MP for Peterborough wrote, continuing a rich literary tradition inaugurated after his defenestration by Labour last year (the other classic of the genre saw him call a former constituent a “thick chav” over Facebook messenger).
Jacko has since deleted his tweet, though not before it was screenshotted by half of Westminster for posterity. In a clarification that definitely makes it all okay, he said it was the stepdad who was the pathetic cretin, not the sick child pictured.
“I think it’s awful that people with extreme views on Remain like this parent should invade a sick child’s privacy to make a political point. He should be ashamed of himself,” he told Politico this morning. His colleagues are saying much the same about him.
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