Twenty years after Oasis reached their zenith, Noel Gallagher has matured into one of rock's unlikelier elder statesmen. As he admitted in an interview with the Telegraph magazine, 'When I'm in between tours and have f***-all to do, I sit around and I do become like a dad.'

Now middle-aged and returning with a second album for his High Flying Birds project, we take a moment to celebrate Gallagher's greatest achievements outside of music: his inspired put-downs.

From Tony Blair to the Scissor Sisters, the elder Gallagher is happy to voice a distaste for just about anybody he comes across, and here are the highlights.