Called to ordure

We'll never know how much Sir Craig Oliver has trousered from the serialisation of his Brexit diaries in the Mail on Sunday. Is it worth the opprobrium poured on him today by the Praetorian Guard of the weekday Mail ?

Andrew Pierce calls it a "vengeful, melodramatic memoir ... produced with such unseemly haste."

Dominic Lawson complains "I imagine many party members will (if they care at all) regard this book as designed to damage the new Conservative Prime Minister, and as such, disreputable from a person who is himself a member of the party."

"There is also the small matter of how someone in the service of the Crown for five years at 10 Downing Street is able to flog his fly-on-the-wall account immediately after buzzing off."

"Admittedly, Alastair Campbell produced a series of such books about his years spinning for Tony Blair —but not with such indecent haste."

And there's a leader as well: "Sir Craig is the epitome of the arrogant political class. An obscure, middle-ranking BBC executive before being propelled into Number 10, he has no track record in public service and has never been elected to any office. "

"How he could be given a knighthood merely for being Mr Cameron’s spin doctor remains a mystery. Yet he has the audacity to question the integrity and motives of the new Prime Minister in this self-serving book – for which he is naturally being paid a fat fee. "

"Sir Craig is a classic example of why the public has lost faith in British politics. Like so many at Westminster, he appears far more interested in lining his pockets than in loyalty, or service to his country."