Blimey. "Erm, yes," concedes Clegg. "Given the febrile nature of the party at the moment, I am worried it'll be read in an, um, interpretational manner. Hmm."

Chronicle staff are less forthcoming. “I’d probably be shot and crucified if I said anything about it,” said one. And you probably thought we were inopportune mentioning limbo.

Ps

He was sacked by Michael Howard for proposing tax cuts, but Howard Flyte, the former Tory MP for Arundel and deputy chairman of his party, looks on the way back up. He has just become chairman of the Globalisation Institute, a right-on, right-leaning think-tank on world poverty. “How I come back to Westminster and when remains beyond my control,” he says, “but, how can I put this, I think the dust has settled.”

people@thetimes.co.uk