1 Parliament Street, with its white marble walls like slabs of Kendal Mint Cake, is soullessness itself. It is Thursday night and the host has to leave early to make it back to his constituency. He is exhausted but charming, delivering an off the cuff speech that is as smooth and used as an old coin. Only during questions do the facial expressions change a frame or two late, a barely perceptible strain revealing the guard still up, the easy manner more hard work. The reserve of office has lingered on.

Sit next to a former Foreign Office special adviser and a thinktanker. The thinktanker claims that he was the creative brains behind an idea called Man Versus Beast, which somehow made it on to ITV. Googling alas revealed that the programme had been inspired by a U.S. original which featured 44 dwarves in a tug of war against an elephant.

The talk is supposed to be of Europe, but instead we talk about Afghanistan and why the British Army went into Helmand province. Conversation also covers Prince Charles’ aborted trip to Peshawar and the convenient timing of a Pakistani army operation. The consensus is that it’s no coincidence.

The adviser told a story I’m sure I’ve heard before, about the Foreign Secretary on a trip to India. He visits the Kashmiri border where the frontier commander tells him of countless incursions by Pakistan-backed rebels. ‘And where do you keep the prisoners?’ the Foreign Secretary asks him…