Guardian: 'It was a terrible decision to direct ministerial fire against Chris Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency," wrote Matthew D'Ancona last week in his column in the London Evening Standard. "Those on the Tory side who think of him as a political seven-stone weakling are sorely mistaken. He is a sharp customer who fights his corner." Quite an encomium for a former Labour cabinet minister from a former editor of the Spectator.
I have to admit that I, too, had always thought of Smith, culture secretary...