A victory for Bufton-Tufton

The perfect political U-turn is so subtle that it goes almost entirely unnoticed, as David Cameron demonstrated this week. He realised, well before the press, that a full-scale revolt was brewing in the Conservative party over his ill-conceived plan for all-women shortlists. So he abandoned the plan on Tuesday, but he did so using the sort of code that activists understand but Fleet Street cannot decipher. Cameron’s enemies stood down, his advisers relaxed. As a political manoeuvre, it was nothing short of masterful.

Initially the idea was to enhance Cameron’s modernising credentials by picking a fight with those whom the media regards as the bad old misogynist Tories. The notion of all-women shortlists, ran the argument, would infuriate local constituency chairmen, and this in turn would yield a helpful string of stories about young, in-touch Mr Cameron fighting Sir Bufton-Tufton. The BBC and swing voters would watch this battle with approval.