he was misquoted in the "daily telegraph" as they claimed that he had said that he wished to be a "candid friend" to government. it is not unreasonable to suppose that the term critical friend has its origins in the softer sounding notion of the candid friend. nonetheless following the resignation of peter kilfoyle "the guardian" newspaper (a popular publication amongst the intelligentsia and public sector middle management) began to popularise the term which is increasingly entering into general usage. the phrase is still most commonly used in education circles but its wider use in the public sector can to a large part be attributed to andrew hutchinson and his natural enthusiasm for the concept, being described as 'a natural critical friend acting with positive intent' in 1999 by the then chief executive of coventry city council, iain roxburgh, who is now director of the warwick research consortium. while a variety of useful and interesting quotations are to be found on the web perhaps the reason for the popularity of the phrase is best summed up by the following quotation,