General elections are traditionally a time for heartfelt tributes to one's learned colleagues, so Diary was delighted to see Eric Pickles salute his special adviser, Sheridan Westlake, in a tweet.

Referring to an article on the ConservativeHome website, which saluted various ‘SpAds' who served the coalition administration, Mr Pickles said his own special adviser, who he dubbed ‘Shezza', was the ‘gold standard' of them all.