David Cameron was two years old when Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi seized power in Libya.
David Cameron was two years old when Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi seized power in Libya. Forty-one years later, he finds himself the eighth British Prime Minister wondering what to do about the Mad Dog of the Middle East.
How Cameron approaches this question tells us much about his approach to leadership. Admirers of the Prime Minister often boast that he is ‘at his best in a crisis’. This is true. But what is also true is that things too often have to reach crisis point before the Cameron machine fully engages. This is why, after less than six years on the political frontline, he has three times had to give a speech to save his career.
Libya is a classic example of how a crisis ebbs and flows under the Prime Minister. Last Monday, as Cameron walked through Tahrir Square in Egypt, the Foreign Secretary ordered the evacuation of British nationals from Libya. The Foreign Office, having successfully carried out similar missions in Egypt and Tunisia using a private charter company, engaged the same firm again. There was little interest in this decision from No. 10. No one took the precautionary measure of calling a meeting of Cobra, the government’s emergency response committee.
This proved to be a problem, because the charter went wrong. When the plane was found to be unfit to fly, no alternative was on offer. Instead there was a ten-hour wait while the company tried to get hold of a spare part from a depot in Basingstoke.
The result was an embarrassing delay. The government ended up on the back foot as the press demanded to know why the evacuation was proving to be so much more difficult for Britain than for other countries.
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