My view on what right-wing politics should look like has changed quite a bit recently but I do think one important aspect of it might be the defence of normal human interaction; the joke, the offhand comment, the private conversation, the provocative essay, the gentle mockery.

These things are under massive threat, not least from people who claim to be interested in liberal or open societies but who basically aren't, except insofar as "liberal society" is shorthand for the courts being able to frustrate conservative political aims.

I've made this point before but very few of the people who were having a conniption about authoritarian government last September, because Parliament didn't sit for 10 days, ever manifest much real concern when people who exercise conscience in unfashionable ways are attacked.

Honestly think there would be some mileage in a Tory advert that contrasted some cheerful people having a laugh with some hatchet-faced commissar scrolling through someone's Twitter feed on the hunt for heresy. An updated version of this classic.

Btw this Tweet isn't whataboutery, I'm highlighting the problem of people being fetishistic about certain forms of a free society - judicial review & human rights instruments etc. - while ignoring the actual substance & content of one. https://twitter.com/niall_gooch/status/1273304633285447681?s=20