Douglas Murray Douglas Murray

How to buy influence in Britain

issue 16 September 2023

Like all hacks, I sometimes wonder whether I should just screw my self-esteem, do a Jonathan Freedland and start writing trashy novels for cash. As I fill the pages with every cliché, I can at least console myself by thinking of the wonderful piles of lucre about to come my way.

It is very sensible of China to gather information on those who might be critical of it

Were I to make this career change, my first ‘shocker’ would involve a Chinese spy called Fang Fang. She would be a sexy, enormously seductive femme fatale. As she works her way through the American political scene, she would entrap male members of Congress with startling ease, finding out juicy secrets along the way which she then reports back to Beijing.

Alas, I would soon be done for plagiarism, because that plot has already been written. It happened in the 2010s when Fang Fang (otherwise known as Christine Fang) managed to get close to a number of US legislators.

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