The wrong impression

Internet trolls, those low achievers who skulk in darkened bedrooms spewing abuse online, can easily get you down. It won’t surprise you to hear that David Cameron gets an awful lot, but he has a way of dealing with it.

According to Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the New Statesman, the PM’s current party trick is to read out Twitter replies in the voice of the person he imagines sending them. Most, it seems, are variations on a theme of “fack awff Dishface”.

Unlike George Osborne, who is an excellent mimic, Cameron is not very good at impressions. In 2009 he attempted in a speech on ID cards to say “Where are your papers?” in a German accent that owed a lot to ’Allo ’Allo, while a few years ago he impersonated Julia Gillard, the Aussie leader, in a speech. The result came out more like Sir Les Patterson.