Thread by @jamesmb

So, @Jacob_Rees_Mogg has had a go at Sir John Major for being part of the European elite because of #Brexit. I think it is probably the time to tell a little story about JRM, how he acts and what people think of him. Are you sitting comfortably...?

Back in the day, I started out as a research assistant at Scottish @Conservatives Central Office. As you’d imagine, I’ve a lot of stories I could tell but, sadly for you, you’ll never hear them. However, JRM has provoked this with his comments about Sir John.

Back in 1997, @Jacob_Rees_Mogg was the Tory candidate for Central Fife. His passage into the seat was helped by the powers that be so that he could follow the time-honoured path of so many with the right connections of fighting some unwinnable seats before being given a safe one.

For those of you who don’t know, @Jacob_Rees_Mogg is the son of Lord Rees-Mogg, the former Times editor.

Central Fife was a no-hoper seat and it was an ideal place to show that JRM wasn’t scared of taking the Tory message to the most difficult of places.

I'm pleased to say that, these days, @ScotTories doesn't have the same mentality now and actually has candidates that understand the areas they want to represent. It's quite refreshing.

Now, if you are on the other side of the equation, you see a toff turn up with his nanny (yep, that did happen) to canvass and it reinforces everything you think about Tories. The powers that be seemed to miss that obvious consequence of placing @Jacob_Rees_Mogg in Central Fife.

Still, at SCUCO (Scottish Central Office) it was our job to brief the candidates. As a lowly research assistant, I didn’t brief many as it was thought that they would probably want to be briefed by the head honcho (@iainastewart - now MP for Milton Keynes).

On the face of it, having a visit from a candidate who was the multi-millionaire son of Lord Rees-Mogg should have been quite a thing. We were used to VIP visits and we knew who got treated how and why. But somehow…

Mysteriously, the day Jacob Rees-Mogg visited, everyone (including Iain) was busy. I mean really busy. Weirdly, everyone was there but everyone was so, so busy that nobody could brief him and the welcome was beyond short.
And so, Jacob Rees-Mogg was ushered in to my office.

He sat opposite me, looked down his nose and listened as I started the briefing. It soon became clear that the briefing was of no interest to him at all. There was nothing I could tell him that he did not think he already knew (he didn't, of course, but he thought he did)

In my time at SCUCO, I met and worked with people from the PM, cabinet ministers, MPs, councillors, Lords and Ladies and, I can say without fear of contradiction that the sneering sense of superiority during that half an hour was something I had never come across before or since.

He was, he told me, in Scotland for a few hours to knock on some doors with Nanny and then he would be going back home. Such was his commitment – and also his contempt for the people of Central Fife.

He left and I never heard from him again – indeed, I think @Jacob_Rees_Mogg was just about the only candidate in that election that never bothered asking a research question or policy clarification.

As an aside, only one other person has ever refused a briefing from me and that, by some incredible coincidence, was @BorisJohnson – and it was made clear to me that if I wrote one, he would not read it. I suppose these #Brexit-ers aren't keen on facts.

By contrast, I was sat in my office one day, typing, concentrating on the screen when I was suddenly aware of someone walking into my room. I looked up as he held out his hand and said “Hello, I’m John Major!” No pretence. No ‘do you not know who I am’. No ‘I’m better than you’.

It was just a greeting that assumed nothing but was genuinely meant. We talked for a couple of minutes (I mentioned that we’d met before and we talked briefly about that before he remembered it) and then he was gone. His last words were “Thank you for everything you are doing.”

Of course, Sir John did not need to thank me. I was doing it because of him and what he stood for. I would have done it if he hadn't paid me. And, anyway, why thank me? It was my job. But he did. And that says something about him.

At the end of the day, @jacob_rees_mogg will never amount to anything or achieve anything without the help of others. He is the very epitome of the British elite establishment that cares about nothing other than feathering their own nests - something #Brexit facilitates.

.@Jacob_Rees_Mogg can say what he wants about Sir John Major but, the bottom line is this: John Major is a member of no elite. He came from nothing, worked his way up & he has more natural class, sense & style than JRM or his ilk could ever hope for. And that will always be true.