He can't even claim he was overtaken by events

Showing what an utter cunt he always was and always will be:

... he concludes his deputy was "a one-off. Occasionally my bane. More often my support. But genuine, unvarnished and, in the ultimate analysis, true. And in my profession, you can't say better than that".

That's after the life-long union man and working-class hero took the ermine, of course.

If that's his idea of "genuine, unvarnished and true", it's no wonder he was such a fucking disaster for this cuntry.