We need state funding of political parties

For the EU’s leverage  to have a real impact, it has to be more than just a spasm

Lord Lloyd-Webber’s new musical is about Stephen Ward, who introduced Keeler to Profumo

Miliband’s gag – ‘He is the Prime Minister for Benson and hedge funds’ – was a work in progress

In what seems like another age, but was actually February this year, David Cameron made a sober, non-partisan Commons statement on the Francis report’s exposure of the gruesome failings of the Mid Staffs Hospitals Trust.

The ‘closest thing’ to a CEO, supposed Mr Nye, was the ‘Secretary and Keeper of the Records’

Sir Ian Kennedy seemed stolidly unmoved by the prevailing view. He said it was a ‘very good deal’

David Cameron and William Hague got into similar trouble, but for exactly opposite reasons. If the Foreign Secretary had said “stupid person” or (admittedly a bit of a mouthful for an impromptu sedentary aside) “stupid Honourable Member”, he’d be home free. As the lip reading consensus was that he muttered “stupid woman” while Cameron was answering, or more accurately not answering, a hostile question from Labour’s Cathy Jamieson, he quickly became Twitter villain of the day.

There was the steely resolve, the trademark dilemma-speak and, above all, the glottal stop

Move over Andy Murray. You’re so Sunday afternoon. Yesterday MPs on all sides vied with each other to congratulate a new super-heroine. Rarely can a single plane journey have generated such euphoria among those left behind. It would not have been surprising if Theresa May had been carried shoulder high from the Commons chamber after her statement that Abu Qatada had finally left the country.