Quote of the day

Boris burns his boats.  The Times reports:

Kabul is an awfully long way to go for a sicknote. There was not even much on the agenda, to judge by the flimsiness of the folder that Boris Johnson was seen clutching as he arrived for a hastily arranged chinwag with the Afghan deputy foreign minister. A 9,000-mile round trip and he didn’t even get to see the top chap! As they might say at Boris’s alma mater, this really puts the rot into aegrotat.

One imagines that his briefing went something like this: 1) Ask how the Taliban situation is going. 2) Talk a bit about cricket. 3) Make a joke about coming to Kabul to escape the heatwave in London. 4) Explain joke. 5) Apologise for joke. 6) Ask the Afghans to sign a chitty explaining to the British press that this was a very important meeting that couldn’t be held over Skype or on another day and not a desperate attempt to get out of honouring a promise to his constituents.

 The man was always a laughing stock but it is becoming increasingly obvious ...