I was at a fascinating debate on Wednesday evening organised by The Spectator magazine. The chairman was Andrew Neil, and is seen above with his panel (left to right) Simon Jenkins, Colleen Graffty, James Forsyth, and Ben Page. And this all took place on an evening, as it turned out, of maximum political excitement here in the UK - the day that Teresa May took over from David Cameron, the evening when her top four cabinet picks were announced, and the day on which it appeared that the Labour Party was reaching the climax of its suicide mission.
Nominally the debate was about the question "Is party politics broken?". But proceedings were overshadowed by the context.....and the greatest moment was when Andrew Neill interrupted to announce that Boris Johnson had been appointed Foreign Secretary. Is this a joke the panel asked? Well it may be - but a German joke - No laughing matter. We must wait and see how this turns out. Maybe he will end up like that other Boris - Yeltsin.
Boris is a former editor of the Spectator which is a poignant coincidence. And he is the recent winner of the Spectator's offensive poem competition prompted by the much publicised sensitivities of Turkey's President Erdogan.
Boris has a fine record of insulting remarks about world leaders and countries. How will he manage all this I wonder? Quite a job for British diplomats ahead I assume.
So the silly season is getting sillier.
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