Was it all a terrible mistake?

The rooftop view from the sixth-floor office of the chairman of the British Council — at the cheaper end of The Mall up against Admiralty Arch — encompasses the political landmarks of the new occupant. There’s the Welsh Office, for the man’s roots, halfway down Whitehall on the left; the office of the European Commission, to the right of Westminster Abbey and Methodist Central Hall; and, slap in the middle, Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. ‘The one thing you never need to buy is a clock,’ says Neil Kinnock.

The new Lord Kinnock of Bedwellty, as he will be known when he is introduced to the House of Lords later this month, is no stranger to mockery, and has lately had to endure a lot of stick for becoming a peer and thus, so the indictment goes, abandoning his commitment to an elective democracy. When he chaired Have I Got News For You the other day, he was bullied and humiliated for his apparent perfidy.