as Jacob Rees-Mogg

My old chum, the Honourable Algernon Cockburn-Butts, recently rang out of the blue. I hadn’t spoken to Algie in years but one’s initial thrill at hearing his familiar voice soon turned to vexation when he informed me in trembling tones that he was “reaching out” to impart some “personal” news.

As Algie proceeded to weep unbecomingly down the line, I managed to divine that Susan, his wife of 20 years, had left him for an Antipodean “fitness instructor” called Kelvin, taking Æthelflæd – their beloved labrador – and three indifferent children with her.

‘I Found It Easy to Pray at St George’s, Feeling the Weight of the Millions of Prayers That Must Have Been Dispatched to God’

In 1588, the year of the Armada, Philip II of Spain was the most powerful monarch in the world. Forty years later, Spain went bust with the English and the Dutch squabbling over the carcass of the first global superpower. The British Empire reached its greatest territorial extent in 1922. A quarter of a century later, Britain was bankrupt.

Peter Oborne

Inside the notebook of Josiah Mortimer, Chief Reporter

When Kemi Badenoch railed against Reform UK’s “authoritarian” blocking of journalists from its conference this summer, we rather hoped she might U-turn on her party’s own decision to bar Byline Times from the Conservatives’ gathering. No such luck.

Josiah Mortimer