Jenrick changes shape on air with today’s interview that distorts reality | John Crace

Yese can say that Elon Musk must have overstepped the mark when even Kemi Badenoch took a break from his tweets to express support for the ketamine-riddled richest man in the world. The conservative leader’s reality is largely shaped by what she reads on social networks. So unless she took the time to help the Muskster find a drug counselor, she decided she’d better keep quiet for a while. This is a nice concession for a politician who never knowingly avoids the opportunity to make a bad situation worse.

But you can always count on Robert Jenrick to fill any void. It’s hard to know who the real Honest Bob actually is. Is this the new face of David Cameron who was first elected in 2014? The soft-hearted liberal, totally in favor of remaining in the EU. Is it the minister without a moral compass who was happy to speed up the obtaining of a building permit for a former pornographer and conservative donor? Or is he a far-right politician? The man who has never met an immigrant he didn’t want to deport?

Even Honest Bob doesn’t really know. He has so little in him that he can only approximate what he thinks will best serve his interests at any given moment. And right now he’s got it into his head, one way or another, that he should be the next leader of the Conservative Party.

What the Conservatives did to deserve it is difficult to understand, but that doesn’t worry our Bob. He has always led a golden life. This assumes that people must still be excited to see it. Just by breathing, he is doing us all a service. And he has come to the conclusion that his best chance of fulfilling his destiny is to shapeshift to the right. So this is who he is now.

Along the way, Jenrick also became a useful idiot to people like Musk. While Elon rummages through his stash, Honest Bob is there to pick up the pieces of his increasingly deranged tweets. It’s a win-win for both. Musk feels like he’s as big as his ego demands, while Honest Bob may start another culture war. Along the way, reality has long left the building. Not that any of them noticed.

With Musk’s tweets about child grooming gangs still dominating the news, it was inevitable that sooner or later Bob would show up on the radio to be nasty and make a fool of himself. And of course, he was given the prime 8:10 a.m. slot on the Today show. Presenter Nick Robinson couldn’t believe his eyes. It was not a fair fight.

Robinson began by reminding us that it wasn’t Elon Musk’s tweets that really mattered; it was about getting justice for girls and young women who were victims of sexual abuse. A warning which was useless for Honest Bob because, as in all things, everything depended on him and his ambitions.

“We need a national investigation,” Bob demanded. Labor was trying to cover up a scandal. Robbo looked at Jenrick like he was an idiot. Um… He knew there had already been an investigation led by Professor Alexis Jay, right? And that Jay said there was no need for another one. What would really help is if his recommendations were implemented.

Honest Bob should not allow himself to be distracted. The first investigation came to nothing. Jay didn’t really know what she was doing. He alone was in possession of the real facts. Except, as you might have guessed, that wasn’t the case. Robbo had to spell it as simply as possible.

Let’s be clear, Robbo said. You say that child sexual abuse continues to happen everywhere. Yes. So why didn’t you do anything when you were in power? You could have held any number of investigations if you thought the Jay investigation was not large enough. And why are you only talking about child grooming gangs now and not when you were Home Secretary? You didn’t mention it once in Parliament (he checked Hansard). You are just an opportunist.

This all made Bob rather confused. Logic has a habit of doing that to him. So he went back to the beginning. Could he have another question please? For the first time, Robinson was surprised. There was simple and then there was Jenrick. To recap. The investigations took time. Some had never reported after 10 years or more. Was this really what he wanted? So that justice is further delayed?

“Absolutely,” Jenrick said. There was no discussion possible with him. And he wanted to correct a statement. The Conservatives may not have implemented any of Jay’s recommendations, but they did stick with two. And how did it help the victims? Ah! Honest Bob should not allow himself to be distracted. Moving forward was a necessary first step. It was far too easy to get hung up on implementation.

Robinson chose to move on. So had Bob had a chance to reflect on his remarks that Pakistani men were from a foreign culture with medieval attitudes? This did not go down well with Samuel Kasumu, the Conservatives’ former racial adviser.

I stand by every word, Jenrick said. So Sajid Javid had medieval attitudes? Well, maybe not him. Although he couldn’t rule it out. And Sadiq Khan? Almost certainly. The goal was to maintain the hatred. None of this was about getting justice for the victims. Just a reminder to observe the two minutes of hate. War is peace.

On LBC radio, Nigel Farage was disconcerted to find himself once again at the center of the Conservative Party in The Musk Affair. He tried to rectify the situation. He wouldn’t personally call Jess Phillips a rape and genocide apologist, but he was happy that Elon did. Nige wasn’t going to give up on a potential multi-million dollar donation so easily.

“I want an investigation too,” Farage said. “And if Labor doesn’t give me one, I’ll get one myself.” We could have it up and running within a few weeks. “That’s £100 million and the next 10 years are taken care of.