David Cameron has picked a new property adviser to help the Tories by a new London HQ — far from student protests presumably. As the Daily Mail says, one of those chosen:

is the debonair property dealer Christopher Moran, 62, who owns the 15th-¬?century, 85-room Crosby Hall in Cheyne Walk, ¬?Chelsea, and a 48,000-acre sporting estate in Scotland.

He’s an ¬?interesting choice by ¬?Cameron, who pledged to clean up politics and political funding. True, Moran ¬?masterminded the £30 million sale of Conservative ¬?Central Office, the ¬?historic backdrop to Thatcher’s election victories.

In fact, on paper, grammar school-educated Moran, worth an estimated £200 million, is a shining example of how it is possible to rise from humble beginnings to vast wealth. But on his way to the top, Moran was censured several times in the Eighties by the London Stock Exchange for a series of controversial share purchases.

He was the first person in 300 years to be debarred for life by Lloyd’s of London, for ‘dishonourable conduct’. And he was convicted of insider dealing in the U.S. and fined £1.15 million.

Nice.

If the Mail has it right — and I presume it’s done its leg work (and it seems it concurs with others) — then  there comment is vey appropriate.

No wonder people hate  this government.