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When I went out and disgraced myself in public – as I did many times – I could silence the diary columns by calling a fellow editor. There are stories I could tell that you wouldn't believe. I was untouchable. I was cocooned and protected, a "made man", an unelected member of a tiny elite that runs the country and never has to pay a price.

When I went out and disgraced myself in public – as I did many times – I could silence the diary columns by calling a fellow editor. There are stories I could tell that you wouldn't believe. I was untouchable. I was cocooned and protected, a "made man", an unelected member of a tiny elite that runs the country and never has to pay a price.

If David Cameron, a man who has many sterling qualities and does have the capacity for greatness, does turn out to be a true heir to Blair, in the sense that he's just as deceitful, then it will be a calamity for Britain. It would mean that the direction of our national affairs had fallen into the hands of a narrow political class which is utterly devoid of morality and with it, the ability to connect with ordinary people. It would suggest that the cynics really are correct and that there really is no difference between the main political parties, and that leading politicians - in their bond of deceitfulness - have far more in common with each other than they do with ordinary voters. It would suggest that something terrible happens to British politicians when they get office and they at once start to lie and cheat.