Politics: Cameron cannot escape a verdict on Strasbourg

‘I don’t really worry about David and the European Court of Human Rights,’ one right-wing member of the then shadow cabinet told me months before the last election. After a fortifying mouthful of steak, he continued: ‘The truth is that, whatever the policy is now, as soon as the court tells him he can’t deport some terrorist and the papers start giving it to him in the neck, he’ll go absolutely mental and insist on reform.’

The moment has arrived. Abu Qatada — believed to have been the intellectual inspiration for several terrorist groups and, at one point, Osama bin Laden’s ambassador in Europe — is to be freed on bail because of a ruling by the court in Strasbourg. The government is trying to appeal against the verdict.

And Cameron is indeed exasperated. He protested to the Council of Europe ahead of Qatada’s release that ‘the problem today is that you can end up with someone who has no right to live in your country, who you are convinced — and have good reason to be convinced — means to do your country harm.