Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron should take a leaf from Andy Flower’s book

Kevin Pietersen might be lurking in India while England start their test series in the country, but as of today, the batsman and part-time off-spinner knows the only starring role he’ll be playing will be in a commentary box. He was left out of the squad by head coach Andy Flower and the England and Wales Cricket Board after sending friends on the South African team allegedly derogatory text messages about his then captain, Andrew Strauss.

The South African team have refused to disclose what those messages said, but their spirit is not dissimilar to some of the insults that members of David Cameron’s squad have been broadcasting over the airwaves recently. It kicked off with Nadine Dorries describing the Chancellor and the Prime Minister as ‘two posh boys who don’t know the price of milk’, and was followed more recently with Tim Yeo telling the Prime Minister to show whether he was a ‘man or a mouse’, and then Brian Binley blogging that Cameron was a ‘chambermaid’ to the Lib Dems.

These MPs who decide to insult Cameron publicly are not just speaking for themselves: for every backbencher who goes public with a new creative insult for the PM, there’s two or three more who will immediately message journalists pointing out that they privately agree with the sentiment, not to mention the Lib Dems who hoot with glee at yet another wonderful image for conference speeches.

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