If the prime minister’s announcement of a snap election had been an event in a scripted drama, we might accuse the director of laying it on a little thick. The rain might be justified as pathetic fallacy, but having Things Can Only Get Better blasting on a tinny speaker was a bit over the top.

At least the police finally managed to prevent the song from being played any further. They must have been no less caught off guard than the country – including Tory activists and politicians.

Why now? Even on the morning of the statement, it would have been difficult to believe that Rishi Sunak was really about to go to the country, if for no other reason than that Downing Street’s main media story had been a stern warning to voters to start stockpiling canned food and bottled water – hardly an auspicious backdrop to an election campaign.

There was a case for an early election, to be held in May. Coinciding with the local elections might have lifted the Tory turnout, saved councillors and allowed CCHQ to fight the campaign with a stronger ground machine, its ranks not yet thinned by the loss of almost 500........

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