What do we think of Rishi Sunak as he stares into the electoral abyss? What do we think he would do to save himself and perhaps the Tories? What do we think he wouldn’t do? Before you answer those questions, consider the revelation that the prime minister, the man who said he would again conduct British politics on a decent, competent level after years of disarray and chaos, held private talks in December 2022 and more in July with Dominic Cummings.

The purpose, says Cummings – former chief adviser and svengali to the circus show that was Boris Johnson’s chaotically and fatally incompetent government – was to plot a return to frontline politics, this time as the clandestine master/servant to Sunak in the run-up to the election. Not so, No 10 told the Sunday Telegraph. It was just “a broad discussion about politics and campaigning, no job was offered.” And for reasons that are also disputed, nothing came of it.

But still, Dominic Cummings? Really? Is that a decent, logical choice, as adviser or sage? Is he any kind of path to salvation? Is it possible to consider his evidence to the Covid inquiry, his admitted starring role in the No 10 horror production of fecklessness and misogyny that facilitated such loss of life during the deadly pandemic, plus his appalling disregard, with his jaunt to Barnard Castle, of the Covid rules his own government had set, and not perceive him as comprehensively damaged goods? Only, perhaps, when the judgment is........

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