Afterlife

Everybody loves you when you are dead (figuratively speaking). How many politicians must ruefully reflect on our sentimentality towards them once they have departed the stage. When Estelle Morris took herself at the common estimation of her abilities – sincere and decent person, not quite sure if she's really up to the job – she suddenly became a saint.

Teachers, who would have given her a sulky reception at the weekend awards ceremony had she still been in office, mobbed her as though she had been as badly treated as they think they are. Even Damian Green, her Conservative shadow who had repeatedly called for her resignation, said she had been "too hard on herself".

Like a ghost at a funeral oration, she must be saying to herself: "If only they had said such nice things about me while I was still alive."