What a dull battle for top job!

One would have expected Johnson and his rival Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt would have been fighting each other like ferrets in a sack. But in reality they are pawing at each other like two timid pussy cats.

The fact is, there are 16 hustings involving the two contestants and we have so far only achieved a fraction of that number and the pair of them have been arguing mainly about the intricacies of Brexit - about which the electorate have had more than their fill over the past two year.

In short, neither of the contestants appear able or willing to say anything new, so no wonder this battle has barely achieved a spark of interest in the campaign. In fact, it appears to be sending the Conservative Party to sleep.

Maybe this reluctance on the part of the contestants to show any fighting spirit can be put down to a fear on the part of both of them to offend their opponent.

It hardly bears thinking about that we shall have to wait virtually until the end of July before this tedious debate is brought to an end. You would have thought that a battle for the Premiership would have fired up the candidates, but they have shown no aptitude whatsoever for a proper political ding dong.

Our pussy-footing candidates could learn a thing or two from their counterparts in the US, where rival candidates attack members of their own party without compunction.

Campaigning for the premiership is not a game of tiddly-winks. Where is the blood and thunder? Would someone kindly wake me up when it is all over?

- Stony-faced? I should say so. That was the Prime Minister’s demeanour when she met the Russian leader, Vladimr Putin in Japan, to protest about the Salisbury poisonings. It must have been the iciest handshake in political history. If Putin did not get the message from this frigid encounter, he never will.