There was an old-fashioned outbreak of class war, and the Deputy Prime Minister found himself on the losing side.
A number of ministers tipped for removal in the reshuffle were nowhere to be seen.
Among them are: what does he do about economic policy? Who runs Downing Street? And: what about the Home and Foreign Offices?
And Wallace is up from ninth to fourth. The Prime Minister and Home Secretary are both in the bottom ten.
Sir Anthony Eden offers the great modern warning: an expert who lacked the mental robustness to cope at the highest level.
If you want a circus, send for Pen Farthing. There’s a government to run. Number Ten must get a grip.
Nor could the Foreign Secretary pretend that his department was paying much attention to Afghanistan before the fall of Kabul.
The Foreign Secretary adds that intelligence indicated a “steady deterioration” after troops withdrew from Afghanistan.
Mainly because people didn’t want troops to be there (or in the Middle East) in the first place.
If the Foreign Secretary offered a spare room to an Afghan, the rules would prevent the offer from being accepted.
Never mind the holiday, feel the challenge – that’s to say, moving on from responding to Brexit to what Afghanistan may mean for foreign policy.
He has more than twice the support of the second-placed Truss. Mordaunt is third. No-one else makes it to double percentage figures.
Yet the Chancellor comfortably holds on to his silver-medal spot, despite sharing in the u-turn.
It is harder for liberal critics to impute racism, or undue severity, to a Home Secretary who herself belongs to an ethnic minority.
Javid comes straight in at fifth place; Williamson’s score is in freefall; and the podium positions are unchanged.