Although it has yet to be announced, it seems certain that Ed Vaizey will become Minister for the Arts in the Cameron-Clegg government. Before Ed gets too excited, he should know that it is a lowly job from which no minister in my memory has emerged with much credit.

A middle-ranking civil servant at the Culture Department was telling me the other day about how he was asked to write a paper for a former Minister for the Arts, whose blushes I will spare by withholding his identity. All I need to disclose is that he was a schoolteacher before he went into politics. The official did what was required and was surprised, the following day, to be summoned for a carpeting by the Permanent Secretary of the Department.

‘I have received your paper back from the minister,’ said the PS.

‘Ye-es?’ quavered my guy.

‘It has come back with corrections. In red ink. There appear to be errors of syntax and spelling.’

‘Terribly sorry, Permanent Secretary…’

‘Oh, don’t worry about it, dear boy. The poor minister has nothing better to do. Nothing at all.’

Love the Times front-page pic today of Lady Warsi, the new Conservative Party chair, posing in front of 10 Downing Street with her handbag at her feet and her coat slung across a railing but still within the frame.

Where were the fixers, the photo-oppers, the spinners and mind-benders who controlled all such occasions under the New Labour regime that is alreader deader than do-dos? Mandy, Campbell, crunch-buckets and soil-splashers would never had allowed such a thing.

One of the most refreshing aspects of the new government is that ministers can dare – for a while, at least – to be themselves, coats and all. Gone are control freaks, along with all the flunkeys, bag carriers, coat hangers and political advisors – gone as the snows of yesteryear (is that Pushkin? someone help me out).

Less cheering is the news that the Times, having worked them to death in the election, is getting rid of ten percent of its editorial staff to stem haemmorhaging losses. Next year’s Times content will be written by interns. And can you find today’s front page pic online? I couldn’t. It’s confusion as usual in the daily rags.