So where does the motivation to continue messing around come from? Why, given it's all a bit screwed anyway, doesn't he actually try and do something new, something no politician since universal suffrage has done, and stop messing about with the spin and pointless posturing - that's done its job now, no need to take it any further - instead having a genuine go at something on the basis of sense, decency and the common good, and accepting the risks that go with this?

Given the ultimate human urge to have power over others, and the way it's expressed on the grandest scales, judging the psychology behind Proper Power is always a bit tricky (that's what makes it so much fun), but most of the time there are enough obvious routes (maintenance of Power, gaining of more Power etc) to keep things largely understandable.

However, with Tony it's a bit different. He's no Silvio, no Lukashenko, no Putin; he does, at the end, seem to be driven by a simple egomaniacal belief that he is right, and by god he'll prove it, and damn everyone else; and if he doesn't, it's obviously not his fault etc etc. The continuing (and I think increasing) amount of crazy schemes he comes up with are like the actions of an addictive gambler chasing losses, plugging away to prove to everyone that he's not an idiot, when really the only option left is to finally prove to himself that he is. The problem with this, though, is that while the headline schemes have got grander, the underlying philosophy, as Cicero mentions, is not one of big ideas backed with the courage of a true innovator and artist, but of stealth, of spending more time covering his tracks in the swamp than of forging nice news ones that lead to the fabled non-swampy places, the spineless cowardly turd. Meh, getting lost, time to stop, there's an office to move.