The year of the cad

Now that former Central Office favourite Mark Clarke has been banned for life from the Conservative party, he could pursue a career in copy-writing. He seems to have a twisted aptitude for that sort of thing. When leading the Tories’ general election RoadTrip 2015 of young activists, many of them peachy girls, Mr Clarke was said to have had the slogan ‘Isolate, inebriate and penetrate’. Though he denies the bon mot, his approach was apparently wildly successful — which is more than can be said for his attempts to land a parliamentary seat.

Several women, including at least one serving cabinet minister, fell for this plausible smarmer over the years. Mr Clarke called to mind the character played by 1960s film actor Leslie Phillips, who greeted women with the words ‘Well, hello — ding dong.’ Fleet Street, deliriously alighting on Mr Clarke’s ‘Tatler Tory’ moniker, has run pages of copy about him under headlines about ‘Sexminster’.