In this limbo dance of lunacy between Hunt and Johnson, there is no answer to how low they can go

If Johnson announced at 9am tomorrow that under him Britain will pay a maximum of £0.00 of the legally agreed divorce settlement, by lunchtime Hunt would insist that under him the EU27 must pay us the £39bn to leave

In all the captivating drama of the Tory leadership race, an announcement from a gnarly veteran of contests past went barely noticed.

Kenneth Clarke revealed that he is minded to retire at the next general election. He admits the temptation to continue, and might change his mind. But at 78, after almost half a century in the House of Commons, the old boy seems to have had his fill – and who can blame him for that?

This poignant news took me back to an interview with him in 2005, by which point he’d already been beaten in two leadership elections. Suspecting he’d have a third crack after the Tories lost the imminent election, I took him to dinner.