Celebrity squares

It is a long, long, time since the Conservative party had the support of a clever, truculent lesbian. In fact, has it ever happened before? Clever, truculent lesbians are usually very left-wing, in my experience. But now one of them has come out, so to speak, for David Cameron — the extremely talented writer Jeanette Winterson. He must be bowled over. I mean, inclusive or what? It’s a long time since British writers were allowed to be Conservative, never mind clever, truculent lesbian British writers. The question, I suppose, is whether the truculent lesbian community has swung decisively to the Right or the Conservative party has made itself more amenable to truculent lesbians.

The singer Iggy Pop once recorded a song entitled ‘I’m a Conservative’, which consisted of him snarling ‘I’m a Conservative’ for six or seven minutes over the top of some typically vigorous electric guitar. It was regarded at the time as a quite hilarious piece of satire, a cogent and biting comment on the vacuity of right-wing politics.