Jacob Rees-Mogg has been widely publicised. He has been equally widely misunderstood. Many people regard him as a witty toff: clever, certainly, always amusing, but surely not un homme serieux.

That is wholly in error. Jacob is immensely serious. Anyone trying to understand his character should remember three points. First, he is intellectually and politically tough. He thinks out his opinions and then stands by them. Second he is utterly intellectually honest. He says what he thinks and thinks what he says.

Third - much the most important of all - he is deeply religious. His faith matters far more to him than any political cause. It is not the sort of thing one can imagine him saying, but he believes that shoulders are made for crosses.

So what does the future hold? Against our own interests, because he would no longer be able to write for Provocateur, we hope that he will shortly be promoted to high office. That would strengthen a government which badly needs strengthening. Could he reach the highest office of all? A man who sounds like an Augustan wit and looks like a member of Lord Salisbury's cabinet, who wears his religion on his sleeve in a post-religious society: surely not. But voters always claim that they want genuine politicians who would never talk down to them: they do not come more genuine than Jacob. We shall see.