My hero

Few Tory MPs set off for the summer recess in a confident mood. There is unease about the opinion polls, and the leader. There is also grumbling about IDS’s failure to sharpen up the shadow Cabinet, though it would have been hard for him to do that. The obvious candidates for the sack are Quentin Davies, John Hayes and Bernard Jenkin, the shadow Defence Secretary who makes Geoff Hoon look like Bismarck. But they are also IDS’s closest political allies. So instead, he merely made minor changes to the back row of the front bench.

Yet one of these, even if unlikely to transform the party’s short-term fortunes, has provided Tory MPs with some reason to feel cheerful. Although he arrived in the Commons only two years ago, David Cameron has long been recognised as one of the party’s rising figures. It seemed only natural, therefore, that he should become the deputy to the shadow leader of the House, Eric Forth.