Because you would have an economy

Yet throughout that time, Sir Bernard was employed as a civil servant, not as a political adviser like Alastair Campbell or Andy Coulson.Mrs Thatcher had not come across him before she entered Downing Street, and probably would not have appointed him if she had thought that a press secretary's job was of major importance.It was Sir Bernard who persuaded her that she had to apprise herself of what was in the newspapers and take seriously the practice we now call spin-doctoring.Before Mrs Thatcher, his political boss was the Labour Secretary of State for Energy, Tony Benn, of whom he speaks with mocking affection: "He's a sort of endearing national treasure now. I find him quite hilarious."The other unusual aspect of Sir Bernard's story is that he is the son of a Labour councillor from Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, who once ran for a council seat as a Labour candidate and worked as a journalist on The Guardian before joining the civil service.

When The Independent caught up with him, he was intent on compounding the offence"They're thick as two planks, aren't they?" he said, laughing as he spoke. "As I said, it's bovine stupidity. Never mind, they'll get over it, when they've had a dose of [Ed] Balls."While he does not claim that the 2008 banking crash was entirely caused by "Gordon Brown and his acolytes" – which seems a fair point, since the problem began with people defaulting on their mortgages in the US – he repeats the often heard Tory allegation that the UK government's deficit is a product of "gross overspending".

But how could it be in the interests of people in northern cities, where unemployment is rife and the state is the main employer, to vote Conservative, when the Conservatives are on a mission to cut back the state?"Because you would have an economy: you wouldn't have one with this Labour lot," he replied. "And this is the problem: people get into their minds that there is a certain class of people in this country, ie the Tories in this case, who are dangerous and damaging. I don't even believe that of a lot of Labour MPs, but I do think that the economics of Labour are potentially damaging, especially in the hands of people like Balls. They think that the Tories are all la-di-da, but the Tories aren't like that any more."