A Worthy Heir

Andy Coulson, the ex-editor of the News of the World and now Daveybloke's chief advisor on communications and personal dignity, is certainly earning his pay in matching sub-Blairite style to Blairite-style substance. After what presumably seems to Coulson and himself to be a decent interval (forty-eight hours, give or take a few), the Cuddly Conservative has once more been waving the corpse of his child around. In an interview with Grazia magazine (during which he also mentioned his recovery from a difficult adolescence, evidently through sheer strength of character), Daveybloke "paid an emotional tribute" to his disabled son, who died in February and five months later was cited among his father's qualifications for simplifying the benefits system for deserving parents. Not surprisingly considering his obvious estimation of their value to his public image, Daveybloke would like more children, "but we'll have to wait and see if the stork drops one off". It has not as yet been vouchsafed whether Daveybloke can match his mentor's five times a night; but Coulson and his colleagues are doubtless working on it, along with a couple of hundred thousand tasteful cuddly Ivans-on-a-stick for the party conference in October.