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No person, be they an American president or a civilian critic, could make Oliphant put down his pen — though it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Mr Linehan is also accused of damaging Ms Brooks's phone when she tried to confront him outside the Battle of Ideas conference in London on 19 October last year.

The veep has tried to increase his visibility recently by going on vacation wherever he can still get a room and service, and he’s desperate to seem vital.

“You can either look at it as we’re trying to not do something like not have the worst record — and you make bad decisions when you think like that,” he said.

"If you see someone on the M40 looking particularly dotty," she told a surprised reporter, "it's me trying to rap in the car going home."