William Hague: greatest living Yorkshireman?

If cricket legend and fellow Tyke Geoffrey Boycott had not chirped up to say the Prime Minister had got it wrong – surely “Sir” Geoffrey didn’t think Mr Cameron should have been chosen him? – then no one would probably have even heard about it.

And wasn’t it simply meant to be a tongue in cheek remark, paying tribute to Mr Hague as he is standing down as an MP in six months’ time?

If it wasn’t, then why didn’t Mr Cameron go on to say Home Secretary Theresa May was the greatest living person form Sussex, or Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond the greatest living man of Essex?

It is just a meaningless moniker dreamed up on the spur of the moment by a PM thanking his colleague for services rendered.

Those with little better to do will no doubt be able to come up with their own choices for their men of wherever.

It is simply a matter of opinion.

But just because the Prime Minister goes for one of his best friends as his choice of top Tyke, all hell lets loose and the PM has to stoop to write a letter to Mr Boycott explaining the reasons for it – a gross over-reaction to something that even most Yorkshire people couldn’t care less about.