Lynne Featherstone

So - David Cameron's at the centre of a fuss again where he's being painted as someone who - basically - looks down on the rest of us.

Previously it was his track record of breaking traffic rules ('Stopping at a red light? Going the right way down a one way street? Those are only rules for little people' seems to be pretty much his attitude).

Today, it's a comment he's meant to have made to his daughter, as reported in the Sunday Mirror:

David Cameron was at the centre of a political storm last night over claims he had compared his untidy daughter to someone who had "fallen out of a council flat".

The incident allegedly happened when four-year-old Nancy came down the stairs to join the Tory leader and his guests at his £2million West London home.

According to senior political sources, Mr Cameron looked at her and groaned: "You look like you've fallen out of a council flat."

Now - as I said when this came up on the Sky News newspaper review this morning, there is some controversy over whether or not he actually said this (as the Mirror goes on to report) but the underlying problem I think is this - David Cameron has consistently invited media coverage of his personal family life - not just on ITV a few days again, but also with the whole start to Web Cameron, where again his children featured.

If you're going to wheel out your family in the good times - and basically say, 'Look what a good parent I am' - it's hard then to draw the line and rule off limits even conversations with your children. If you invite coverage in, you can't then just turn round and expect privacy whenever it suits.