Is Simon Hoggart sparkling in error?

“Lord Crickhowell also made a coruscating attack on the government’s secrecy.”
— Simon Hoggart, on the ID cards debate in the House of Lords, Guardian, 17 January 2006.  

coruscate:  verb
    1     sparkle, scintillate, coruscate
         be lively or brilliant or exhibit virtuosity; "The musical performance sparkled"; "A scintillating conversation"; "his playing coruscated throughout the concert hall"
        Category Tree:
– sparkle, scintillate, coruscate
    2     sparkle, scintillate, coruscate
         reflect brightly; "Unquarried marble sparkled on the hillside"
Category Tree:
emit; give_out; give_off
– reflect; shine
– sparkle, scintillate, coruscate

— http://www.wordreference.com/definition/coruscating

Or could it be that the son of the author of The Uses of Literacy meant ‘excoriating’?