I can understand why the appointment of Andrew Parsons, David Cameron’s personal photographer, as a Civil Service cameraman is controversial at a time when it is axing 500,000 staff. And I do wonder why Andrew is no longer employed by the Conservative Party, but as a civil servant whose job is to take pictures of the Prime Minister. Perhaps it is so he can also work closely with Liberal Democrats who form the coalition government, and this would remove any obstacles.

I can also see why it is desirable to record today’s historic moments for posterity, and the visual media has been the Prime Minister’s favoured style of communication ever since he launched Webcameron. I particularly enjoy seeing those unguarded moments of David Cameron which Andrew captures so brilliantly.

Andrew and I go back a long time as we both worked at the Cambridge News together where I was a journalist, and Andrew a staff photographer. His younger brother has also worked as a professional cameraman with the local media.

I have stumbled across Andrew several times covering elections and shadowing David Cameron. He was amazed to see me – and I was equally surprised to see him – when he travelled to Norfolk on a media circus bus following Michael Howard during the 2005 general election; I then worked as the Conservative Eastern Region Press Officer and Andrew was working with the Press Association.  I’ve bumped into him in London a few times since and he is always cheery and friendly and told me about how he had been to many parts of the world with our Conservative leader. He is married to a journalist from The Independent.

Andrew is a gifted photographer who captures David Cameron and his family at their most intimate moments; he has observed their personal highs and lows, as well as a Prime Minister who has forged an historic coalition government. Andrew is clearly very trusted by the Prime Minister and highly respected as a professional. I look forward to seeing many more of his brilliant pictures.

In the meantime, Andrew is quite shy at facing the camera himself, but I did manage to take this one four years ago when he was accompanying David Cameron to a fundraising event in the Eastern region – and I then had my pic taken with our Prime Minister in waiting – but I can’t remember if Andrew took it!

*Just learnt that Nicky Woodhouse is being employed in a similar capacity to record videos. Many feathers have been ruffled because these posts were not advertised. Wishful thinking here, but I would certainly have applied for the video job if it had been advertised!

*Update 17 November: Common sense prevails as Andrew and Nicky are both back on the Conservative payroll.