We are often told that we live in unprecedented times, and that has certainly been true of recent weeks. For the first time ever, the next Doctor Who will be a former Doctor Who, with David Tennant reprising the role. As that news was breaking, in a striking example of life imitating art, the secretary of state for housing regenerated as previous incumbent Michael Gove.

Less surprising was the news that yet another plank of Liz Truss’s policy platform was being dismantled with the jettisoning of the planning reforms announced in the mini-Budget - although calling those proposals “planning reforms” is something of a stretch. They were really just a part of the investment zones idea which, alongside other inducements for businesses like tax breaks, would have had a quicker, more streamlined planning system that we were told would still provide appropriate protections for the environment