Cat on a very hot 10 Downing Street roof

Before someone cheers India's political stability by comparing it with Westminster's revolving-door politics, let us direct our true admiration to one figure: Larry the Cat. Installed in the era of David Cameron in 2011 as 10 Downing Street's chief mouser - a cat that's proficient at catching and hunting mice or other small rodent, much like a political party's chief whip - Larry has overseen 6 PMs, countless cabinet reshuffles, and more leadership crises than tins of sardines that he would have rather had.

'For men may come and men may go,/ But I go on for ever,' may have been written by another human - Alfred Tennyson - but it's Larry who lives it. Britain's high prime ministerial turnover, of course, represents its decline, no matter what bursts by Harry Kane at the World Cup might suggest. But to be fair to Brit PMs, Larry's the only resident of the No. 10 den who doesn't need a mandate. For all their attempts at playing top cat, Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer were all merely caretakers of a house, not owners. This is something that custodians in other residences - whether occupied by presidents, PMs, CEOs or headmasters - must also keep in mind. 10 Downing's true sovereign is a tabby with a permanent contract. Much like that other one they have in Buckingham Palace, but without Larry's poise.