Snap! A special request to Downing Street

Until now, David Cameron has done well to keep any innate Old Etonian arrogance under wraps. He might even have proved to be one of the few OEs not to possess the trait. But I fear it's surfacing.

His decision to put a team of image-burnishers on the public payroll at a time when civil servants are being fired in their thousands smacks of arrogance in the extreme.

It started with the personal photographer and videographer, Andy Parsons and Nicky Woodhouse - appointments which Ed Miliband rightly pounced on at PMQs last Wednesday.

Later in the week it was revealed that Isabel Spearman, a former fashion PR, had been taken on to help Samantha Cameron choose outfits for official functions and, er, other important stuff of that kind.

Expecting the taxpayer to foot the bill, when their work is to do no more than make the Camerons look good, has invited charges of being "out of touch". Worse still, it suggests a vanity reminiscent of the Blairs.

At the same time, Andy Coulson is back in the news. The former News of the World editor, now Cameron's communications director, was interviewed by the Metropolitan Police last week following a barrage of new evidence from former newspaper colleagues alleging that he knew all about the illegal voicemail-hacking.

Just as Coulson has continued to profess his ignorance, so David Cameron has staunchly stood by his trusted lieutenant.

Again this smacks of arrogance. Cameron has appeared to brush aside journalists' questions as to Coulson's fitness for the job, rather than address the issue seriously.

The PM might get away with it while Coulson's story holds up. But if the former tabloid editor's memory should ever be found to have been playing tricks on him, then Cameron will look foolish.

Which brings the Mole to his point.

Considering we taxpayers are now footing the bill for Cameron's personal "court photographer", The Mole - who pays his taxes diligently - plans to put in a special request to Downing Street this morning.

Please can Andy Parsons be sure to take one of his "behind-the-scenes" snaps of Cameron and Coulson together? It doesn't seem unreasonable - after all, there can be no more perfect example of a "behind-the-scenes" Downing Street operator than Coulson - and it would really help at The First Post if we could have a nice pic of the two men together for the next time a former News of the Screws reporter points the finger at his old boss.

The thing is, it's currently very difficult to find such a picture. The photo reproduced above, taken at a London social event last December, is the only one The First Post was able to find in the archives of four major photographic agencies.

Cameron may trust his communications director implicity, but for some reason or other he avoids being photographed in his company. ·