There are many reasons for the decline in royal esteem. One is that so many of the royals are thick.

Greg Dyke is on record as saying that once the BBC was attacked, it was their job to defend themselves. But that is not their job.

The day of the daredevil reporter who refuses to see obstacles to getting the truth, and seeing it with his or her own eyes, seems to have died.

Failure, it is thought, is what sells, and what people want to hear and read about. I am not so sure.

As Tony [Blair] said in his book, Gordon [Brown] was brilliant and impossible. If he'd just been one of those things, the options are obvious.

I'm certainly driven, I hate losing, I can be ruthless and short-tempered and terribly competitive.

Like most meaningful activities, campaigns are team games.