I have no wish to be indelicate but we need to talk about Operation Arse. This being a family newspaper I would not normally use such a coarse word. Bottom, perhaps, or behind. Rear end at a push. But no, accuracy is everything. This column is specifically about something called Operation Arse, so arse it has to be.

Operation Arse was a term coined by allies of Ruth Davidson to describe their campaign to stop Boris Johnson becoming leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Whoever came up with the phrase must rue that particular brainwave. Like Project Fear during the Scottish independence referendum campaign it was no doubt meant in jest. But it was always going to come back