I blame my old friend Philip Hammond. We were out celebrating with our wives at a restaurant shortly after I had finally graced the ministerial ranks. Reflecting on the vicissitudes of political advancement, the then chancellor turned to me with his characteristic wry smile: “You do have a remarkable capacity for getting into high-profile scrapes.” I guess he had my notoriously close friendship with his cabinet colleague and future prime minister Liz Truss, as well as my alleged role in David Cameron’s “Piggate” scandal, in mind. My skirmish at the Mansion House with climate protestors was still to come – ironically enough, this later drama played out only yards away from the top table where Hammond himself and Mark Carney, then governor of the Bank of England and en route to the Canadian premiership, were guests of honour. So although my time in politics featured only a moderate level of conventional attainment, I probably enjoyed greater prominence and public profile than many who en...