“What he did WAS quite bad.

Not because it was sexting, which these days is not uncommon.

Nor that his sexual behaviour might not meet with public approval, which these days isn’t necessary.

No, what he did was foolishly accept the flirtation of a woman, give her his mobile number, and then demand intimate photographs of her.

Not once, not twice, but repeatedly. He asked, requested, persuaded, induced and inveigled.

He was a man of wealth, power and influence, taking sexual gratification from what he thought was a young woman with none of those things.

That’s a bad thing. It’s a bad thing whether you’re left or right wing and whichever news outlet you prefer.

In any other job, on work time and the work phone, it’s a disciplinary offence.

In a government minister, paid £97,000 a year by the taxpayer to promote a more civil society, it’s appalling.

And that’s without asking how much it cost us for him to ping his paisley-patterned porn about the place.

The public interest in this story is not just whether a man who misbehaves in his pyjamas can misbehave in public office, although that is an issue for many people.

Nor just that a Government minister was opening himself to blackmail with his behaviour, which should be a sacking offence anyway.

It’s that a man in our employ, tasked with encouraging us all to be nicer and with making his party more friendly towards women, was so utterly awful at his job.”

What she said.