Cameron’s appointment with fear

The best thing that can be said for David Cameron’s current predicament is that he has been here before. His career has been punctuated by moments when the polls and the pundits have said he was done for. In 2007, with the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown enjoying a honey-moon and considering a snap election, this magazine pictured him on the cover with a noose and the headline ‘Get out of this, Dave’. He did. At times, even he has thought his leadership was over. On election day last year, he spent the early evening rehearsing his resignation speech to his closest aides. Hours later, he was hailing the ‘sweetest victory of all’.

It was the Scottish referendum two years ago that caused Cameron the most worry. There were, Samantha Cameron has admitted, sleepless nights as the polls tightened. But, eventually, the Vow — the offer of further devolution to Scotland which Cameron put his name to — helped save the Union.