Leon Brittan

The news that Lord Brittan is to become trade adviser to the Government must have left any serious political thinker open mouthed. Many of Mr Cameron's bacbenchers would have been qualified for the job, and jobs in government are hard to come by, but he exhumes this tired, bigoted old failure as if it were an obvious choice.

Brittan, eclipsed intellectually by his brother Samuel, was a poor Chief Secretary under Mrs Thatcher and a short lived Home Secretary. Eventually he resigned over the Westland affair.

Brittan is a euro-nutcase, and stupidly, Mrs Thatcher sent him to Brussels where he remained for ten years, eating well.

Now, just as you thought it was safe to go back into the water, the arrogant, self-absorbed old freeloader is back. This can only be taken as a sign that Cameron is pro Europe and has no intention of standing up to the Brussels bureaucracy to defend our interests. It is a bleak day for those of us who were taken in by his faux-euroscepticism before the election.