Richard Nixon’s administration had Spiro Agnew, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s bovver boy was Norman Tebbit, President George W. Bush gave us Dick Cheney and I can’t tell you the number of times I turned a decorous dinner party into a Don’s Party redux by simply observing during a lull in conversation: ‘By the way, isn’t that Philip Ruddock doing a terrific job?’ I’ll leave the psychobabblers to explain why people of my leftish persuasion need a conservative bogeyman to execrate, but it is undeniably deep in our DNA.