Bad enough that William Hague is retiring from parliament.

A great constituency MP, he also gave the impression that he thought there was a world outside Westminster and a lot more to life than politics – which is precisely the lack of perspective that most tunnel-visioned politicians lack.

The real nightmare is who will we get to replace him? Richmond is the safest Tory seat in the country. There’s going to be lots of people wanting a chance of that.

So let’s hope we don’t have some professional politician parachuted in on us – you know the sort, some clueless young spark who’s been a researcher or something and never had a whiff of the real world outside Westminster, let alone a whiff of a Dales farmyard.

It could be even worse. They might want to give it to some big Tory beast trying to get back into power.

Not Boris Johnson. Please, please not Boris Johnson… Meanwhile, the new female cabinet members were judged, as always, not on their talents and achievements and suitability for their new posts, but on their looks and dress sense.

“The battle of the Downing St catwalk” screamed the Daily Mail and then subjected each woman to a full length scrutiny, detailing where they got their clothes , how badly they fitted and how much they paid for them.

It was catty, critical , cruel and utterly irrelevant. Not to mention just plain rude. And they wonder why more women don’t want to go in to politics….