How has the Conservative party’s ‘Dr No’ escaped everyone’s notice for so long?

The reason conspiracy theories are so resilient, reproducing themselves from one generation to another, is that they are unfalsifiable. Evidence against them, however solid, has obviously been faked. Anyone who tries to demonstrate that Americans did land on the moon or that J.F. Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald is obviously in the pay of people who stand to benefit. If you ask who those people are, since there seems to be no evidence of their existence, the answer is always the same: they are very good at concealing themselves. And so the theory finds credulous punters.

To save time, I should probably point out that The Spectator, which is identified by the former culture secretary Nadine Dorries as a key player in secret attempts to destroy British political life, has asked me to write about her book. Still worse, I will reflect critically on it, and get paid. You may draw your own conclusions. 

Mrs Dorries – to her open regret, never now to be Lady Dorries – has written an excitable book about the hidden dark forces in the Conservative party. These, working in a secret cabal, were dedicated to overthrowing the immensely popular administration of Boris Johnson. When Liz Truss was elected instead of Rishi Sunak, measures were taken to destroy her within weeks and replace her with the Chosen One. Now this immensely powerful group is working to install Kemi Badenoch as a puppet leader. 

For the most part, Dorries is confident about mentioning names involved in the conspiracy. At its head are Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings, but also Oliver Dowden and Nick Gibb, a schools minister over the past decade who many people think, in their apparent naivety, has been notably successful.