Every month or so Kemi Badenoch delivers a weekday morning speech in London.
asserted
Badenoch → deliver → London
Every month they need a bigger venue as more Tory supporters turn out to have a gawp at this tiny, trenchant figure.
asserted
supporters → need → figure
Nor does she go in for Andy Burnham’s habit of making matey videos in first-class railway carriages.
asserted
she → go → carriages
Did you see his latest?
asserted
you → see → latest
Mrs Badenoch’s growing success may be proof of the old box-office adage that violence sells.
uncertain
violence → grow → adage
As the film director Sam Peckinpah understood, viewers love that.
asserted
viewers → understand → that
Some 400 souls turned out after breakfast on a wet Tuesday to see Mrs B in action at the Westminster HQ of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
asserted
souls → turn → Engineers
In France they would try to set such a building on fire.
asserted
they → try → fire
The Great Hall had room for another couple of hundred audience-members but this was a big improvement on Mrs Badenoch’s early days as Conservative leader.
asserted
this → have → leader
Her speeches back then used to draw tiny crowds.
asserted
speeches → use → crowds
She has developed into a watchable, which is to say bloodthirsty, performer.
asserted
which → develop → performer
Various targets were biffed.
asserted
targets → biff → ?
Sam Peckinpah once directed a picture called ‘Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia’.
asserted
Peckinpah → direct → Garcia
At Badenoch matinees, likewise, it is hard to keep up with the body count.
asserted
it → keep → count
She took her electric saw to Andy Burnham, John Healey, the French, Germany’s Chancellor (she did not expect Herr Merz to last long) and Tory MPs who defected to Reform.
asserted
who → take → Reform
Liz Truss sustained a few glancing blows.
asserted
Truss → sustain → blows
So did former Tory leaders who raised taxes.
asserted
who → do → taxes
A couple of female journalists were rash enough to put unhelpful questions in a snooty manner.
asserted
couple → put → manner
Mrs Badenoch dealt with them.
asserted
Badenoch → deal → them
Stretcher bearers removed the corpses.
asserted
bearers → remove → corpses
Some 400 souls turned out after breakfast on a wet Tuesday to see Kemi Badenoch in action at the Westminster HQ of the Institution of Civil Engineers, writes Quentin Letts
All this was done in little more than half an hour.
asserted
this → turn → hour
Had Mrs Badenoch given herself longer, who knows what diplomatic incidents she could have ignited?
uncertain
she → give → incidents
The warm-up speech was by the new shadow Chancellor, Andrew Griffith.
asserted
speech → warm → Chancellor
Perhaps understandably, he has a twitchy manner.
asserted
he → have → manner
Working with Kemi must fray the nerves.
asserted
Working → work → nerves
Mr Griffith had a business career before he entered politics.
asserted
he → have → politics
He knows a lot about balance sheets but is less good at projecting a smooth manner.
asserted
He → know → manner
He has the furtive, high-pitched delivery of one of those expendable accountants you find in Mafia movies, the sort that is rubbed out in the penultimate reel.
asserted
that → have → reel
Might the same happen to Mr Griffith when his colleague Claire Coutinho returns from maternity leave?
uncertain
colleague → happen → leave
The speech looked ahead to next week’s Budget and made the argument, with considerable force, for lower taxes and spending cuts.
asserted
speech → look → taxes
Mrs Badenoch pointed out that the extra spending she wanted on defence was ‘less than a third of the increase to welfare since Labour came to office’.
asserted
Labour → point → office
She listed numerous taxes that should be cut.
asserted
that → list → taxes
‘Tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax,’ she said.
asserted
she → say → tax
The words spat out of her like machine-gun bullets.
asserted
words → spit → bullets
Not wearing a helmet, I ducked for cover.
asserted
I → wear → cover
She mocked Mr Burnham for wittering on about noise levels on trains when far more important matters demanded his attention.
asserted
matters → mock → attention
An Oxbridge bluestocking from the Financial Times mentioned the European Union.
asserted
bluestocking → mention → Union
Mrs B briskly observed that France was in flames and Germany could soon have another change of government.
uncertain
Germany → observe → government
The bluestocking asked something else, about stockpiling domestic supplies.
asserted
bluestocking → ask → supplies
Mrs Badenoch witheringly told her the question was incomprehensible.
asserted
question → tell → her
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
