A scandal short of a secret

Without the tank fuel of realpolitik, "nice" never makes it past fairy dust.

- Jane Clifton

The political world's new publishing sensation, a 350-page sulk by jilted British MP Nadine Dorries, could be spared its fate in the remainder bin by being repackaged as "Politics for Dummies".

At the risk of spoiling The Plot's suspense, Dorries - the former Conservative MP best known as an author of heartwarming novels - "reveals" that a cabal of people, mostly men, some "shadowy", were behind both the elevation and the downfall of Boris Johnson as British prime minister. And that they, and other cabals of mostly men, some "shadowy", had also installed and rolled other leaders. And that one of the shadowy-est was the sinisterly furtive - but daily blurting in the media - strategist Dominic Cummings.

Dorries attests that she can no longer remain silent about these secret conspiracies.

Despite her 20-plus years' political experience, the basic operating model of politics cabals and a degree of shadowiness - came as a tremendous shock.

Deliciously, the real conspiracy is that no one, least of all her publisher, has had the heart to tell her that her catalogue of conspiracies spans activities neither novel nor secret.