IN other circumstances, and were a different secretary of state involved, the Northern Ireland Office's decision to cancel last night's drinks reception for MLAs might have proved more embarrassing.
But ignominy and naivety have been constant companions during Karen Bradley's tenure at the NIO.
Calling off the event because the politicians said they wouldn't turn up doesn't represent a new nadir; rather, it is merely further confirmation of how Mrs Bradley is widely regarded as the least effective secretary of state yet.
In a slender credit column, it should be noted that Mrs Bradley has an enviable ability to unite our own locally-elected political representatives, even if it is in opprobrium against her.
This is no mean feat, as observers of the political trenches at Stormont will readily appreciate.
It might be convenient to round on Mrs Bradley, but this denies the reality that it is the responsibility of our politicians - particularly Sinn Féin and the DUP, and not the London or Dublin governments - to form a power-sharing government.
And when Mrs Bradley is replaced, as seems likely when the Conservative party finds its new leader, who will the MLAs then blame for more than two years of their own political failure?
