I’ve often thought that, in the obnoxiousness stakes, Andrew Lloyd-Webber ranks just below Jeffrey Archer, the so-called ‘novelist’, in that the same joke can apply to either:

First man: Why did you take an instant dislike to Jeffrey Archer/Andrew Lloyd-Webber?

Second man: I found that it saved time.

Now comes a lovely blog post by Sean French

In today’s Mail on Sunday Andrew Lloyd-Webber compares the tax-raising Labour Party to Somali pirates.

Thirty years ago I was, in a way, an employee of Lloyd-Webber. In my gap year I worked as a stagehand at London’s Palace Theatre where Jesus Christ Superstar was then in its sixth year. I used to collect the ointment jar from Mary Magdalene and prepare the incense for the orgy scene in the temple. I estimate that I sat through the musical about 150 times.

I will make no comment about the effect of that experience on me and my feelings towards Lloyd-Webber, except to say that it would give me great pleasure if circumstances arose so that he was able to experience Somalian piracy at first hand.

Me too. Strange: until now I’ve felt quite hostile towards those pirates.