Sunak’s self-deprecating joke at PMQs was a reminder he was popular once

It’s going to be difficult to explain to our grandchildren how politics used to work. I can’t imagine sitting little Ryan Coogan III down on my knee and trying to impress upon him that, yes, politicians have always taken little jabs at each other, but they used to stop short of going full Regina George.

We’ll have to tell them that, ever since one-two punch of self-immolation that was Brexit/Trump in 2016, public discourse has taken a real downturn, with politicians no longer able or willing to hide their disdain for one another. Brexit might be a little tricky to explain since the EU will be long gone by then, but I imagine they’ll know who Trump is, since his head will still be ruling the American Empire from within its jar of life-sustaining nutri-fluid.

What will be really hard to get across, though, is that those people who go on television and call each other names for a living used to actually be capable of a degree of civility.

We had a little glimpse of that today, during Keir Starmer’s first PMQs as prime minister. As Starmer sent his best wishes to the Team GB athletes heading to the Paris Olympics, the former PM said: “Although, to be honest, I’m probably not the first person they want to hear advice from on how to win” – to a chorus of chuckles.

It was a nice little moment of self-deprecation from a man who often seemed totally incapable of introspection while in office.

What happened to the man who yelled misleading figures over the moderator during every head-to-head election debate? The man who coined “Sir Softie”, a nickname for Starmer so lame and ineffective that all it did was remind voters his opponent had received one of the country’s highest honours? The man who made a joke about trans people in