Is Jacob Rees-Mogg really the British version of Donald Trump?
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Jacob Rees-Mogg is a charming, tweedy, highly entertaining Tory with a dry wit and dusty eccentricity.
And because it's Silly Season, because politics is so broken and X Factor has taught us to vote for weirdos because it annoys the people in charge, he's being touted as the next Prime Minister.
There's no doubt he'd be funnier than Theresa May for at least 30 seconds. And the idea of sending a time-travelling Bertie Wooster into summits and Buckingham Palace and COBRA meetings is joyful, if unwise.
And to be fair to The Mogg he's one of the few MPs who's taken part in 100% of votes in this Parliament, spoken in more debates than most of his colleagues and voted against bankers' bonuses, which considering he's a banker is decent of him.
But here's a thing you may not know. In September 2016 he told the BBC he'd probably vote for Donald Trump if he was an American. And in October, after his favoured candidate was caught on tape saying because he was famous he could "grab [women] by the pussy", Mogg declared he could never possibly vote for such a man.
Gentlemanly, yes? Good manners. British values, right there.
(Image: Rex Features)
Except UNTIL that point he was happy to vote for a man who in June launched his presidential campaign saying Mexicans are rapists, who in July rowed with the parents of a Muslim-American war hero and asked Russia to hack the US election, who in August accused a critical reporter of having "blood coming out of her wherever" and twice suggested gun-toting rednecks assassinate Hillary Clinton.
In Sepember, just days before the Moggster endorsed him, Trump was exposed as calling a Latina former Miss Universe a "fat pig" and referring to her as "Miss Housekeeping".
Even if you put Trump's talk down to bantz rather than ingrained xenophobia, misogyny and shit-eating stupidity it's neither British or eccentric to vote for it.
But there's a lot we don't know about Mogg. So allow me to enlighten you.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
The basics you know, or can imagine: son of a newspaper editor, trading in stocks and reading the FT since the age of 12, always wears a double-breasted suit even when rescuing books from a flooded university library, and chooses really excellent names for his children of whom there are many, and bugger the carbon footprint.
And for a man who likes Latin he's clear of speech, pro-Brexit like 17m other people and supremely confident in the way only the very posh are that everything will be fine.
Well, if I stood to inherit £100m and already had one £76,000-a-year job, several properties let out for more than £10,000-a-year and another £3,500 every week for just 9 hours' work at my investment bank I'd be pretty confident about the future too.
But Mogg's fortune is no reason to distrust the man. For that, we must look to his judgement.
(Image: Internet Unknown)
He's good at backing a loser. He supported Bumbling Boris Johnson for Tory leader, then Gurning Michael Gove and finally the dreadsome Andrea Leadsom.
In 2013 he voted AGAINST making it illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of their caste. In 2016 he voted AGAINST supporting the British steel industry with Government infrastructure projects. He has voted against strengthening the Military Covenant which protects British veterans, against investigating the government's role in the Iraq war, and against helping long-term unemployed young people into work.
He not only voted for welfare cuts but also voted AGAINST linking benefits to prices, meaning under his rule the poorest would only ever get poorer.
He voted for you to pay more VAT, more tax on booze, more tax on plane tickets, and more tuition fees. He voted to privatise the Royal Mail, restrict legal aid and allow landlords like himself to charge tenants whatever they please.
He voted to keep hereditary peers and get rid of badgers, which public opinion has the other way round.
(Image: Moment RF)
He wanted Nigel Farage as deputy PM rather than Nick Clegg, despite a dearth of MPs. He has spoken at a dinner for a group demanding the deportation of black Britons without apparently Googling them first, and as an ardent Catholic holds medieval views about abortion and gay marriage.
In 2009 he published an election pamphlet showing him talking to a "constituent" in Somerset who turned out to be an employee of his investment firm who lived in London. He filibustered a bill which would have meant first aid was taught in schools.
Like Trump, he's part of the establishment yet also rails against it; like Trump he's big on social media and small in his outlook; and like Trump he's great at being a meme.
If Mogg went on stage at the Edinburgh Festival he'd go down a storm. If he went into Downing Street, he'd be a disaster.
The scrutiny of the finances and tax efficiencies of a man with fingers in so many pies would probably be enough to bring him down, and if not his lack of ever having held ministerial office would make the Labour Party seem a model government.
Add in the fact that today he's called for a drastic cut in income tax (we have one of the lowest in the G20) and suggested pulling down tower blocks to replacing them with houses because it doesn't take more space (it does unless you move to Lilliput) and you'll find Parliament votes down or laughs out most of his big ideas.
As for the Conservative Party - what it needs in its leader is a jam-like ability to stick them together and overcome 40 years of division on Europe. Mogg is such an arch Brexit monkey he'd have half of them setting up a new centrist party within a week.
The jury is out on whether Mogg really craves power or is the victim of Silly Season speculation because no-one else wants Theresa May's thankless task. But there's three things to be thankful for.
(Image: Jacob Rees Mogg/Instagram)
First, Mogg has taken to Instagram like a hydrophobic duck to water - aware he ought to be on it, but deeply uncomfortable about the whole thing. Enjoy.
Second, he's cleverer than Trump. Not much, but enough to know he doesn't want to be that shade of orange.
And third, if the Nazis marched through Somerset they'd find Mogg barring their way dressed like a Civil War cavalier and branding a fencing foil while challenging them all to a duel.
In short, Jacob Rees-Mogg adds to the gaiety of the nation and the breadth of debate, but the backbenches is probably the safest place for him.
And us.