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. Almost immediately, he had to stand in for Mr Forth at the weekly business questions. Mr Cameron gave such a stylish and witty performance that one sketchwriter – not a breed noted for promiscuity in compliments – pronounced it to be the most assured front-bench debut in recent years.

This did not surprise those who had noted Mr Cameron’s progress. Though only 36, he has spent a long time in training for political eminence. After Eton and Oxford, where he enjoyed himself and also got a first, David Cameron joined the Conservative Research Department (curiously enough, that training ground for Tory Cabinet ministers – Macleod, Maudling, Powell, Douglas Hurd, Chris Patten, Michael Portillo and several others – has still to produce its first party leader. David Cameron could rectify that, unless Oliver Letwin does so first).