Boris Johnson was toppled as prime minister after his close aides briefed the media that some staff in Downing Street had breached Covid rules during social gatherings to trap him into ‘lying’ about it, according to a new book. Former No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings is said to have hatched the plot as retaliation for alleged briefing against him and his colleagues by Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie. He is then said to have constructed an elaborate plan to lure the then-prime minister into denying the Covid breaches and lighting the fuse towards his downfall.

Princess Diana’s former chauffeur has broken a 30-year-silence about his royal service to tell how his life was ruined by rogue BBC reporter Martin Bashir falsely claiming he was leaking confidential information. In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Steve Davies revealed how Bashir’s lies poisoned the Princess against him and destroyed his career as one of the Royal Family’s most trusted drivers. And he lambasted the Corporation for failing to tell him for years that he was another victim of the web of deceit Bashir spun to secure his 1995 Panorama interview with Diana.

Ministers are set to consider a coroner’s recommendations on ‘cancel culture’ at universities after a third-year Oxford student killed himself when he was ostracised by fellow undergraduates. Nicholas Graham is writing to the Department for Education over the death of Alexander Rogers, 20, who took his own life when he found himself frozen out by his friends in what appears to be a phenomenon sweeping campuses. The Oxford coroner is highlighting the findings of a serious incident review which found students could ‘rush to judgment without knowledge of all the facts’ and then ‘shun those accused’.

Is the Keir Starmer Cabinet a government of adults, or a collection of college activists who have never grown up? The new Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, accused the Prime Minister outright of being a student politician during their first Commons clash last week, and the jibe seemed to hit home. It is not just that the Labour Government has been entangled in avoidable scandals because so many of its members were too immature – and so easily seduced by offers of luxury goods, free tickets and other shiny gifts.

War devastates lives, leaving many dead and women widowed, yet some nations persist in conflict. Indian soldiers vow to stand firm and respond decisively whenever the nation calls…

Yes, it is fun watching silly Leftists wailing and gnashing their teeth over President Trump’s victory. It is yet more evidence that such people have no real idea what is going on in the world. But that does not prove that Mr Trump’s election is good news for the rest of us. Leave aside his deep personal unpleasantness, which is beyond dispute. Such nastiness is not unknown among Leftists and liberals. We have no real idea what he will do, because he does not know either. Despite being the most cunning politician in the English-speaking world since the death of the late Princess Diana, Mr Trump (like her) is not especially intelligent or well-informed. It is a sad fact of politics that the most astute people are seldom the brightest, while the cleverest are usually bad at the feral behaviour which gets yo to the top.