The “confetti of promises” being strewn around by the two Tory leadership candidates is missing one thing, says Melanie Phillips in The Times: conservatism. Rishi Sunak gives little sign of caring about anything beyond economics, “limply flapping his wrist in the direction of the NHS” or Channel migrants. Liz Truss has cooked up the “utterly impractical gimmick” of automatic Oxbridge interviews for every student with three A*s at A-level, and wants to criminalise catcalling, exactly the kind of “state micro-interference” she supposedly abhors.

News that energy firms are making monster profits has prompted the usual “shrill complaints”, says Ian King on the Sky News website. It’s important, though, to put these earnings in context. Take Shell. The oil giant made a record $11.5bn between April and June. But that’s what happens when energy prices are so high – in 2020, when the oil price collapsed, Shell lost nearly $20bn. Finding and extracting fossil fuels requires “vast sums of capital”, so a decent proportion of this year’s bumper earnings will be ploughed straight back into the business. As for the idea that the company is taking advantage of British motorists, that’s for the birds. “UK consumers account for a negligible part of Shell’s overall global profitability.”