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I’m in Lincolnshire at an event organised by its regional mayor, Andrea Jenkyns (Reform), “the Great Exhibition”, a curious mixture of industrial discussions on energy and defence, plus main stage speeches compered by a robot. Robert Jenrick is currently giving something of a stump speech.

Previous speakers have included a Texan calling himself the “King of Carbon” and an “energy infrastructure entrepreneur” promoting heating solutions using bitcoin miners.

A senior official from Number 10 North, Duncan Parish, is now giving a speech outlining what the Burnham govt is doing (after Jenrick gave it quite a bashing, quoted some Tennyson, received some applause). But the top ticket speaker is Liz Truss coming after Parish. Fingers crossed for robot intro.

Zia Yusuf was previously advertised as a speaker. It is perhaps odd for a mayoralty-organised industrial event to have such a party-political speech as that given by Jenrick (“Benefits Burnham”; “Family Farm Tax”), who is an MP over the Trent in Nottinghamshire, not Lincolnshire. No big Tories here

“I have a book coming out on Monday.”