Ouch! Someone doesn’t like Steve Hilton

The latest edition of Standpoint casts David Cameron’s top adviser Steve Hilton into its “Overrated” column:

Between David Cameron’s election as leader and his hoped-for entry into 10 Downing Street, Steve Hilton will have cost the Conservative party at least a million pounds. Despite vast debts, the Tories are reported to be paying their chief strategist an unprecedented £270,000-a- year salary.* Yet, apart from having helped to make Cameron leader, Hilton has no other notable political successes to his name. In the disastrous 1997 and 2005 general election campaigns, Michael Portillo’s two failed leadership bids, and Steve Norris’s two doomed efforts to become London mayor, Hilton has been there, not always in charge, but always on the losing side. So why does Cameron have such faith in him?

I’m not really giving away the end of the article if I let you know that the author doesn’t think there is a good answer to this question.

* An ironic contrast you might think with Conservative MP Eric Pickles’s criticism of other people, with larger responsibilities and bigger budgets than Steve Hilton, who get paid far less than Steve Hilton. One difference though: the people Eric Pickles criticises aren’t Conservative Party members.