Today Ed Miliband headed for the favourite destination of faltering leaders: abroad. Any crisis-stricken banana republic will do. At PMQs the Labour leader decided that Egypt would fit the bill. Knitting his brows into a gap-year frown of munificent superiority, Miliband asked the PM to tell us how Britain is encouraging President Morsi ‘to secure a negotiated settlement in advance of the army deadline.’
Yes, Ed. Absolutely. The whole of Tahrir Square is hanging on your every word.
Cameron might have come clean at this point and told us what Ed was playing at: ‘I may not save Egypt from its looming civil war but its looming civil war may save me.’
Cameron didn’t, however. Bogus statesmanship is a plague no politician is immune to. The Tory leader duly adopted Miliband’s sombre but theatrical expression – they looked like a pair of cub scouts tutting over a poorly built campfire – and he told the world that he was appealing ‘to all sides for calm’.
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