[Nigel Mace]

Moving words. Andrew - but I can't take knocking the UN or the EU. They may be poor frail things but they are - especially the UN - the best that we've got and we - all of us - need to support them and what is left still of the international web of rule and law based systems that we've developed since 1945. Their failings may be obvious but the screaming chaos with which we would have been 'living' had they not existed is a horror their detractors should sit down and contemplate. Trump is about as conducive to their continued effectiveness as Kim is to family harmony.

This man is no Jack Kennedy - nor his brother, who was such a major source of wisdom and restraint over the Cuban missile crisis. Some people may now mock that as a standard by which to judge - but they did call it right then. We know because we are still here now.

Sympathy for your cold, Michael but as all those years ago, I fear - and that is the word I mean - that intelligent cynicism may not be enough to survive what Trump may yet concoct.