"I've known politicians," Jack said, "the last lot had an order to kill put out on me and put a bomb inside me that exploded my home and my work, and before that it was a guy masking as a human but who was secretly a Time Lord and kept me captive for a year. Can't say I'm too fond of them. In general."

His words were spoken utterly flippantly, but their content of course was anything but.

"Of course I know," he said with a half smile. "Why do you think I said you'd know?"