There is no question whatsoever that Oliver is a charming fellow, and great company in a private capacity, with a lovely family. However he is incredibly naive when it comes to dealing with the ugly real world – and maybe if Cameron trusts him he too must be similarly naive. As Oliver will tell you he started life as a philosopher but then decided he wasn’t a very good one, so, to his mother’s great sadness decided to go into politics . . . . . Regrettably we need politicians to be hard nosed, down to earth and practical. B&A
This bright spark couldn’t organise a party in a brewery
IT NOW transpires that one of the moving spirits behind the bright idea to bung Kids Company another £3 million of your money just before it collapsed in a swamp of scandal was Oliver Letwin.
This gentleman enjoys the Prime Minister’s fullest confidence – well, obviously, he’s another Etonian. One struggles to work out why. He was the genius who once invited a burglar into his house to use the loo and was amazed to discover that the widdler had also cleared the bedroom of anything valuable.
Undeterred, he was later discovered sitting in the sun doing his correspondence on a bench in London’s St James’s Park, consigning his classified mail to the nearest bin for anyone to read. The same gentle fellow went into a room with representatives of Labour, the Lib Dems and the Hacked Off group to give away 300 years of a free press in exchange for one controlled by statute.
Perhaps Dave should put him in charge of the EU programme, then we could all emigrate. He must have a certain personal charm to stay at the heart of advisory government when he manages to make a camel’s buttock out of everything he touches. But that’s Eton for you.
Idris