It’s silly season and Westminster has wasted no time in making a complete fool of itself

Rishi Sunak can pour himself a decent pint, writes Tom Peck, but is anyone drinking his economic Kool-Aid?

Rishi Sunak’s claim over waiting times was challenged by a junior doctor (Daniel Leal/PA) (PA Wire)

Once upon a time, ‘silly season’ meant that unimportant and rather odd stories would dominate the news cycle during the summer, in the absence of anything important to worry about.

Westminster, through absolutely no one’s fault but its own, has forgotten what silly season feels like, having not let a summer pass in almost a full decade without some kind of election or referendum or leadership challenge or change of government or some other deeply self-indulgent manifestation of their own self-importance.

What appears to have emerged on the other side of this is a new interpretation of silly season, which is members of parliament making deliberate fools of themselves just to get in on the act.