Not so flash, Dave

The papers report this morning that David Cameron has been urged by his aides to be more polite to his opponents at PMQs or risk playing into the Flashman stereotype of him as a cocky public school bully. Now, as with all advice about making PMQs a calmer affair (remember how Cameron pledged an end to Punch and Judy politics), this is easier said than done. The confrontational atmosphere of PMQs means that it is hard for those involved to resist a withering put down or to meet insult with insult.

But if Cameron does learn to rein himself in, it will be a triumph for his new chief political strategist, Andrew Cooper. As Cooper’s close friend Danny Finkelstein wrote when Cooper took the job, ‘expect him to advise Mr Cameron to be a national leader, rather than a party politician. Especially in the Commons.’