Imagine for a moment Jeremy Corbyn was President of the United States.
He wouldn’t prop himself up in bed tweeting like a maniac, and he's not sexist, but otherwise there’s surprisingly little he’d do differently to Donald Trump .
Corbyn would most likely hold a conciliatory summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un as he’s a passionate believer in talking peace not making war.
And he might well have imposed metal tariffs on the EU to fulfil a promise to the unemployed Pennsylvanian steelworkers who voted for him to get their jobs back.
Trump and Corbyn have more in common than either cares to admit. They were both dismissed by a sniffy Establishment because they rose on a tide of populism.
They seemed emotionally ill-equipped for high office, and came to their roles with zero experience of political leadership.
Yet Jeremy Corbyn silenced critics within Labour - of which there were many - by vapourising Theresa May’s majority last year. Trump has nudged the world a few more inches away from nuclear Armageddon.
And now there’s a growing suspicion the sneerers of - which I was one - got it wrong by underestimating them.
During the 2016 US election Donald Trump’s supporters took him seriously but not literally, while his Washington detractors took him literally but not seriously. We now know to treat him both literally and seriously.
Trump was blasted for compliments to a tyrant who starves to death 120,000 political prisoners in concentration camps, despatches relatives with VX nerve agent, and executes generals with a round of anti-aircraft fire if they fall asleep while he’s talking.
But Trump is more businessman than diplomat, and if he scents a deal he’s not too fussy who he deals with.
Britain hardly occupies the moral high ground on this score. We say we’ll never negotiate with terrorists and then we negotiate with them - the IRA, EOKA in Cyprus, Irgun in Israel, the Mau Mau in Kenya. We’d doubtless talk to Islamic State if common ground could be found.
Trump may not achieve the total denuclearisation of North Korea, but better to try than trade insults and threaten holocaust .
Over lunch last week with former Washington ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer, one of Britain’s most experienced and astute diplomats, Trump took up much of our conversation. Chris thought he might even get a second term.
He added: “He doesn’t know much and he doesn’t read much and he smashes things up. But his instincts about international relations may not be so stupid after all.”
There you have it. Trump and Corbyn, different politicians from the same mould. Can’t see Jeremy building a wall across Mexico though.
His delightful wife Laura comes from there.
It all adds up to an Autumn election
Brexit countdown
Brexit in
There’s a growing view among MPs Theresa May will be forced into calling a snap Brexit election in the Autumn.
They don’t want one. Nor does the PM. And the country would groan if given one. But there may be no alternative.
Last week Mrs May saw off a move by 324 votes to 298 to give MPs the decisive say on what happens over Brexit if they do not agree with the deal she negotiates.
But it was only a reprieve, not a victory. Whatever concessions she gives will tee off either her Remainer rebels or Brexiteer ones.
And it’s all because her last snap election left her without a majority to work with.
One Tory MP told me: “She doesn’t have the Parliamentary arithmetic to push through Brexit.
“So she’ll be forced to change the arithmetic. And the only way to do that is with a General Election.”
Michel Barnier's no local hero
EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is from French Alpine region Savoie where locals nickname him Le Cretin des Alpes because they say he’s not the sharpest tool in the box.
Minister banks on holidays
Business minister Andrew Griffiths says: “The Government agrees holidays can play an important and beneficial role in family life.” This looks like an admirable display of cross-party consensus. It must mean the Tories will now support Jeremy Corbyn’s excellent proposal for four more Bank holidays a year.
It’s grim for polar bears up north as global warming melts away their Arctic home. But Defence minister Mark “Bomber” Lancaster brings worse news.
Climate change exposes the land under the ice and that could lead to war. Or as Bomber puts it: “Competition for natural resources could present greater opportunity for international tension. Russia’s Arctic Command has increased its military presence.”
Whitehall models a lot of ‘what ifs’ but they’re usually top secret so Bomber may have dropped one by revealing this.
I’ve heard another report predicting mayhem in the Middle East as the West becomes less reliant on oil. Saudi Arabia could revert to the desert kingdom it once was with unpredictable consequences.
You might thinks this is scaremongering. But as we approach the centenary of the end of World War One just remember how quickly that escalated.
It took just 37 days from a relatively minor terrorist incident in Sarajevo to the slaughter of 20 million people.
Yesterday man
Dr Philip Lee’s Tory colleagues think he harbours ambitions to be PM, a lofty goal for one so lowly.
Yet he hosts intimate dinners for MPs hoping for their support. No one had heard of the Justice minister until he quit on Tuesday over Brexit which makes it unlikely we’ll hear of him again.
It’s like penning his own obituary to tell us someone is dead we didn’t know was alive.