All very exciting. A key point is, however, that London tapped John Holmes to replace Gambari, but Ban shuffled him to OCHA when the U.S. demanded the political job. Even more importantly, Holmes has taken to the humanitarian portfolio with unexpected but very real passion – and is now deemed to be one of the few real stars of Ban’s line-up.

Of course, London may feel that humanitarian affairs are below the UK’s dignity – a Nordic portfolio, surely? But hang on: humanitarian aid is one of the things that the UN is still very good at, and Holmes is great at creating political cover for his operational guys. Making political space for emergency aid may be the one bit of UN business that everyone can agree we still need – if I were the UK, I’d rejoice that their man is involved.