You have to hand it to France’s Socialist party. It may no longer be much good at winning elections but it boasts a rare genius for staging jaw-dropping political farce. If the futility of war has been likened to two bald men fighting over a comb then the ferocious electoral stand-off between the two candidates for the Socialist party’s leadership is akin to two well-coiffed women scrapping over a wig.

Objectively (a word that appears to have disappeared from the socialists’ dictionary), there are few discernible political differences between Ségolène Royal and Martine Aubry. The fight is almost entirely about personality. That perhaps helps explain the extreme rancour of the contest, with neither candidate willing to concede defeat.