As a fan anyway of our Prime Minister I am still astonished at his sure footed ability to handle our latest controversy with Indonesia. Everybody “spies” on everybody else because in foreign relations it’s important to keep surprises to a minimum. You do want to know what they’re up to and you also are not averse to ensuring they know what you are up to, unless you are up to no good.

There’s politics here and in Indonesia. The Indonesians have to be “outraged”. Their politics demands at least some sense of having been officially offended by the routine use of listening and other devices that they no doubt use themselves. So the politics will play out but should be an absolute nothing one year from today. There are and will be many other things to worry about.

The apology demanded by some, even of the weakest kind, admits fault, and there is nothing some people like better than to exploit weakness and to play the injured party. We would be making a massive mistake to end up with anything resembling an apology. We would never hear the end of it. Toughing it out now means that this should peter out with no permanent harm done.