Maybe she can't help being so lifeless - a cold fish as she's been labelled. But her perstant refusal ever to deal with any question except by using it as a cue for a prefabricated formula soundbite, with not even a token nod in the direction of actually answering the question, is her choice. Most politicians get trained to do that, but not generally to the same obsessive extent.

And what makes her really insufferable in present circumstances is how she never makes even a nod in the direction of acknowledging any responsibility for what has happened, or even any recognition of the possibility that she and others in her circle are being blamed.

She's like some driver who in the aftermath of an accident stonewalls, because the insurance company reqyuires it. In place of the "strong and stable", which increasingly invites ridicule, the shabby John Waynesque formula "Never apologise, never explain" is her mantra.