The Prime Minister yesterday made headlines by claiming to follow a fairly extreme variant of intermittent fasting, going without any form of food between Sunday afternoon and Tuesday mornings.
Almost immediately, people started speaking up with "er, I'm sure I saw him eating a sandwich on a Monday two weeks ago"-type anecdotes. And it's dredged up "knows more about how people live in California than in Yorkshire" memories of his supposed preference for Mexican Coca-cola.
Today on an interview with This Morning, he's had to row back - saying that he "tries" to have a "fasting day" each week where he eats not nothing, but "largely nothing".
It's incredibly trivial, and who knows what the actual truth of it is. But it's exactly the sort of claim that attracts comment, and that the media loves to highlight. Talking about it was completely unnecessary and provided no possible benefit beyond the brief initial "look at me!" hit.
It's such a gloriously guest-like mess. Has Jack got a new job as a government media advisor?