I cannot ignore the fact that the whole nation is in mourning. I view the current mawkishness with even more bemused detachment than I did the dead Diana phenomenon. If only we saw such outpourings of grief for the British soldiers – let alone their opponents and hundreds of thousands of civilians – who have died in recent evil motivated wars. I am sorry when anyone dies prematurely, even Saddam Hussein. I tried hard not to rejoice when Suni Abacha died.

Death is a sad thing, especially for family. But someone has to stand against the excess. I am not afraid to say that there is something really gone wrong with the national psyche when a person deficient in intelligence, talent and even looks can rise to such national prominence for no apparent reason, except for an apparent desire to celebrate something aspiring to mediocrity. I am talking of course of Employment Secretary Tony McNulty and the shock this morning of the death of his political career.

The scarcely articulate McNulty was cashing in on his parents’ house as his parliamentary “Second home”, even though his constituency home was already in London and he spent only 20 nights a year in the parental home. He has claimed some £60,000. He is now insulting our intelligence by appearing all over the TV channels as a campaigner against the system he himself abused. Not one journalist has so far dared ask him the obvious questions about his hypocrisy.

What a sleazy shower of little crooks. I don’t care how sad Gordon Brown is, I shan’t shed a tear for McNulty’s political demise. He will linger a bit, of course, perhaps to the next election, because being a crook is a pre-qualification for membership of Brown’s cabinet.