What's the difference between an animal rights group and the general public?

There are times when I feel, with only a slight sense of regret, that I’m past the stage in life where anything can surprise me. Global conflict, violent crime, all manifestations of man’s inhumanity to man, I’m beyond being flabbergasted by any of them; even the most putrid new excesses of reality TV register only a yawn and a precautionary search for the remote.

Politicians, though, are a different matter. Perhaps I should be beyond the point where I expect better of people engaged in public office, but I still naively cling to notions of the greater good. Donald Trump has all but knocked it out of me with his self-serving quest for ratings, but then he’s not from round these parts. Boris Johnson, the duplicitous public school fantasist is another likely catalyst for disillusionment. But Tracey Crouch? I never thought the former sports minister would be the one to destroy the last remnants of my faith.

I’d always seen her as an upstanding sort, even when I didn’t entirely agree with her. She’s been seen to stand up and be counted, even to fall on her sword as a matter of honour, attacking the bookmakers head-on and pretty much winning the day.