It hasn't taken David Cameron long to start talking pure codswallop with an air of easy authority. I don't mean over the Saville report, which he has managed with consummate skill, or relations with President Obama over BP, on which he has said all the right things despite a media frenzy for him to "stand up for Britain". I don't doubt that he will manage with equal facility his first EU summit today.
His problem concerns what he calls Britain's "most important foreign policy and security issue" – Afghanistan. Nothing reminds one so much of Tony Blair as the new Prime Minister's visit to the troops in Afghanistan over the weekend and his statement to the Commons on Monday. There is the same air of a man who feels thoroughly at home with the job and its responsibilities. Gordon Brown always tried too hard with the troops, Blair and Cameron enjoy the sense of power and attention that coming in as effective commander brings.
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