The Tory leadership videos are like fever dreams – who on earth are they for? | Zoe Williams

From Rishi Sunak's slick love letter to himself, to Liz Truss's high patriotism, the pitches are own goals

One day, we will stop laughing at the video bids for the Tory leadership long enough to be afraid of these maniacs. Today is not that day. Rishi Sunak sprang first, with a love letter to himself and the country, told through his origin story - just another ordinary NHS-loving, hard-working family, who worked themselves so hard that they were able to send their child to Winchester College boarding school. That's just how hard you work if you love your children, OK? Wow, that was fast, to produce something so slick and convincing," said absolutely no one, except the ones who were being sarcastic.

Sunak looks up a lot in the video, at some unseen spectacle of beauty, presumably the future. I think he thought he was a pop star," said one outraged caller to BBC Radio 4's Any Answers?. She had liked him before his stupid video, but this was frankly un-British. He is British," she clarified, but I don't think this video is particularly British."