So Kevin’s one of the boys after all? Before we get overwhelmed in a flood of blokey bonhomie, it might be an idea to look at the Labor leader’s media statement from yesterday.

Some of the excuses are so morning-after-the-night-before that they ring true. If you were going to make something up, you’d do better:

I have met Mr Col Allan at least three times in New York.

At no stage on any of those visits did I make any request of Mr Allan to take me, or anybody else, to a club of any description.

The only recollection I have of going to a bar or club with Mr Allan was when I was in the company of Warren Snowdon…

After dinner, Mr Allan suggested to Mr Snowdon and I that we all go on for a drink.

Mr Snowdon and I agreed.

By that stage, I had had too much to drink.

With the benefit of hindsight, I should not have gone on for a further drink…

At the time, I raised these matters with my wife, Therese, and the circumstances surrounding them.

I indicated to Therese that it would have been far better for me to have simply returned to my hotel room after dinner…

But buried at the bottom of his statement is the line that should have been right at the top: “I take full responsibility for my actions.”

Rudd hasn’t learned from the Sunrise sage, when his leitmotif seemed to be “Nobody told me”.

He’s got where he is because the government wouldn’t take responsibility for issues like the wheat for weapons scandal, because they played dumb.

But he won’t get any further if he keeps this up.

What’s the point in replacing one lot of slippery pols who won’t accept responsibility with another?