PMQs Verdict: Statesmanlike from Cameron – but only for a moment

As Miliband and Cameron entered the chamber today, it was obvious the bluster of recent weeks would need to recede. Events in Iraq have cast a shadow over the day to day party political scraps of Westminster. Indeed they probably should have cast a shadow over Westminster last week too – but then the focus was on Theresa May and Michael Gove’s public war. Events in Mosul and elsewhere have focussed minds. The backbenchers could throw their verbal bombs at the Prime Minister, but for Miliband and Cameron, actual bombs were closer to the topic of conversation.

It was incredibly amicable. Agreement was overwhelming. Copious nodding on both benches filled the spaces in between the agreements. It’s thin gruel for those of us who must write about the exchanges of course. “Everyone agreed that this was a serious issue” is nothing if not a dull headline. But perhaps “All major parties broadly in the same place on the Middle East” is more interesting, especially post-Syria.

So Cameron and Miliband’s exchange was uneventful. There were no barbs or rejoinders worthy of repetition. It was all as it should be. Both men played their part.

And yet Cameron, who had showed statesmanlike chops in his exchanges with the Labour leader, failed to maintain such admirable restraint for the whole session. Ben Bradshaw – now of the backbenches but still a figure of substance in the Labour Party – rose to his feet to ask how Cameron’s campaign to keep junk Juncker was going. It seemed like a good question (ignoring, of course, that Miliband opposes Juncker too), but in truth it was a gift to Cameron. He roared back that he would keep on fighting against the arch-fedearlist to the very end. In truth, he knows he’s lost. And he doesn’t very much care. This was just meat to the Eurosceptic backbenchers. More meat. He tosses more each week. And still they come for more. They are never satisfied. They are unquenchable.

And so Cameron is forced to go further. To dress up in the clothes of the Eurosceptic and dance to the tune of his backbenchers. To attack Europe, it’s institutions and its politicians (even his so called allies). And still the Eurosceptics are not happy. They seek more. They crave more. They take more.

Basically, Cameron is stamping his foot and pretending to be a Euroscep to appease his backbenchers. Pretty weak leadership that…and not very statesmanlike either. Oh well, it was pleasing to watch, whilst it lasted. Watching him eviscerate himself for the delectation of people who will never be sated?

That will be less pleasant to watch, but more interesting to write about…