It seems reasonable to conclude, at the very least, News Today that both sides were having second thoughts.

It also seems reasonable to say that a second bout of messy and not entirely consistent briefing from each camp underlines the central truth in all of this - the hurt, the rows, the anger, the mistrust which has been there for all to see.

Her apparent lack of enthusiasm was almost immediately evident, when she failed to turn up at the first ever meeting of a new Council of the Nations and Regions in Edinburgh just days into the job.

What followed were daily questions to the prime minister’s official spokesman from reporters about whether she had taken up her post.