…the visit had a routine flavour for Gordon Brown, livened up only by Hamid Karzai, who was evidently bemused by the way British broadcasters all asked questions about the PM’s troubles without even a mention of Afghanistan or the British effort there. “Cabinet ministers plotting is nothing new. We have that in Afghanistan too. But not my foreign minister,” he told us. Ouch.

Gordon apparently managed to mumble something about “getting on with the job”. Sky’s Jon Craig notes that after his pep talk to the troops, delivered facing the press and away from them “rather oddly, I thought, the PM wasn’t applauded by the soldiers at Camp Bastion”. Humiliating though it was, this is how it will be from now on. Gordon is a weak leader, too weak even to risk trouble from a reshufle despite a desperate need to refresh his cabinet. The only question in British politics is: “How and when will Gordon Go?”

Picture stolen from Downing Street website. Guido’s taxes paid for it after all and it is not like they respect anyone else’s copyright, is it?