When the Chairman of the hunt starts to complain about the baying of the pack, you really have to question not their loyalty to their friends, but their whole framework of values.

Having said that, when the boy bloggers tried to start a firestorm against me and called me racist, Iain Dale didn't join in and sent a private message telling me to keep my chin up. I appreciated that, and I don't enjoy saying Iain has been hypocritical on this issue of 'the pack'. In the same spirit I advised him last year that he would make life unnecessarily difficult for himself letting the dogs of the leash, because getting them back in their kennels isn't always possible.