Having established that B-list Tory candidates are to be allowed to pretend to call themselves A-listers, it looks like the Tory slide into mediocrity is set to continue.

State funerals are normally reserved for Kings and Queens and, on rare occasions, former Prime Ministers who saved the country in its darkest moments. Now they are campaigning for state funerals to be granted to any old bat who has acquired a degree of popularity. Who next? Jade Goody?

Expect the exact same Tories to start fulminating about how piss-easy A-levels are any day now. Perhaps they’re just worried about how the government can afford so many state burials.