A strange role reversal seems to have taken place. On Monday in this newspaper, former No 10 spin doctor Andy Coulson, not previously known as a head-in-the-clouds idealist, came over all... how shall I put this... blue skies thinker.

When Andy and I worked together there was indeed, as he reflected in his article, a difference of approach between us. The Andy Coulson I knew then was totally focused on being able to convey simple practical messages about what a Conservative government would do to improve people’s lives: control immigration; increase pay and living standards; cut red tape for “white van man”; stop government wasting everyone’s hard-earned money.

Of course I agreed then (and now) about those objectives. But I also believed that it was fundamentally un-Conservative to promise simply to “deliver” such things without explaining how it was to be done.