Secret’s out, Harold Wilson had another affair. There’s nothing sweet about that, boys | Catherine Bennett

The former PM's aides josh that it was good for his morale, and ours. Never mind his wife

How have we managed without the expression sunshine at sunset"? As in, when an older married man is granted sex with a much younger colleague and better still, keeps it quiet? So much so that his wife stays on to nurse him through Alzheimer's disease?

We owe this promising euphemism to the former Harold Wilson aide Bernard Donoughue, 89, who appeared on Radio 4's Today programme last week. He was confirming gossip that he and the former Labour prime minister's press secretary, Joe Haines, 96, have treasured for 50 years: Wilson, during his final term in office, had an affair with Janet Hewlett-Davies, Haines's Downing Street deputy.