Masters of Nothing

It’s a good time to resurface a book written by some well-known names

As university hospitals gear up for their contribution to achieving the impossible—by which we mean around 19 million Covid booster jabs in 18 days, rather than saving the prime minister’s reputation—it is noticeable who the government has been sending out to face the press. On Sunday morning, it was the turn of education secretary Nadhim Zahawi; in midweek, when no other Conservative politician was prepared to appear in front of a television camera, only former health secretary Matt Hancock went out to bat for Boris Johnson.

Zahawi has an unenviable reputation as the government’s apologist-in-chief. There is no situation so bad, no U-turn so embarrassing, no gaffe so humiliating from this prime minister and cabinet that Zahawi is not prepared to go on the airwaves and defend it.