Ed Davey has built an entire political career on pratfalls, water slides and staged wipe-outs, like a children’s entertainer who accidentally wandered into Westminster. Paddleboarding into the lake, hurling himself down a slip ’n’ slide, spinning on teacups at Thorpe Park, he’s like one of those tragically comic idiot acts on Britain’s Got Talent , selected specifically to be mocked by the entire nation, because at least it gets people talking. Davey long ago realised that nobody would ever remember him for policies, ideas, or even basic charisma. So instead he appears to have branded himself as the nation’s soggiest clown and seems content with that level of respect and notoriety.

Davey’s refusal to attend a banquet is the political equivalent of a toddler sulking at the dinner table

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