It’s pretty much a truch universally acknowledged that Ronald Reagan was “a little odd”. Many also believe that he had little impact on government policy, leaving that to professionals like David Stockman.

Judging by the latest news, the latter is probably just as well. However, I hadn’t realised the old man was capable of quite such feats of humour.

He said he had told Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that “if and when we had [a Star Wars missile defence system]… we’d share such a defence with them”. “I don’t think he believes me,” he added.

I wonder why?