I feel sorry for Nadine Dorries

When Boris Johnson’s resignation from parliament was announced, we were in the audience for Glyndebourne’s production of Don Giovanni. Controversially, this includes a vast cake which is part of the bacchanals and then reappears, in rotting form, as the statue of the Commendatore approaches to take the antihero to his eternal damnation. Don Giovanni sprawls in the gap left by the removal of a giant slice, cramming putrescent crumbs into his mouth and necking a bottle. The news must have given great satisfaction to the director because the production’s take on the opera is, as the programme knowingly explains, the problem of ‘trying to have your cake and eat it’. Don G equals Boris. Mozart himself was against Brexit! I can see the attractions of the comparison, but the situations of the wicked Don and Big Dog are not analogous. Giovanni faces the fires of Hell. Boris was merely announcing that he would not now be seeking re-endorsement from the voters of Uxbridge and South Ruislip. I am not positively predicting that he will find a way back, merely pointing out that he remains free to do so. It is too early to say he will have no more cakes and ale.

One feels sorry for Nadine Dorries that she was denied the peerage she was led to expect, but one should not look at a seat in the Lords as a right, except for ex officio positions such as the Earl Marshal. Even the existence of HOLAC, the advisory body on new peers, does not alter the fact that life peerages are given through patronage. The monarch confers them, but the prime minister decides who gets them. So long as the second chamber is not elected, this is the way it should be. It would be much more corrupt for a standing body of platonic guardians to decide who should be our new legislators than for whoever occupies 10 Downing Street at any one time to do so.