Far be it for me to tell Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy whom he should hire as his press secretary. But recently, as two members of his cabinet once again clashed in public (this time Energy Minister José Manuel Soria and Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro contradicting each other over energy policy) I wondered, after watching an episode of The Thick of It, if the answer wasn’t staring me in the face.
Malcolm Tucker, the rabid, Scottish, über-swearing PM’s press secretary in the TV series, could be the answer to Rajoy’s prayers. Witness his “handling” of wayward minister Hugh Abbot:
Admittedly, Tucker would either have to learn Spanish, or Rajoy would need an extraordinarily clever interpreter, well-versed in British profanities. But just imagine the effect the new arrival would have on ministerial loose cannons like Soria after a few minutes alone together…
Or perhaps Rajoy could just hire Alastair Campbell. Tucker was supposedly based on him wasn’t he ? And I imagine there are some white spaces in Campbell’s calender now.