How David Cameron is being made to look good by Boris Johnson – Jayne Dowle

Usually, my go-to statesperson for this exercise is the great wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Here was a man who would have had no truck with the tortuous back-tracking and procrastination of today’s politicians.

I’ve news for Boris Johnson: you’re no Winston Churchill and here’s why – Tom Richmond

There would have been a clear battle-plan and he would have stuck to it. And although he held certain reactionary views, he believed in democracy. Can you imagine how he would have responded to the shabby treatment of his own grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, who has been kicked out of the Conservative Party by Boris Johnson because he stood up for his principles?

Boris Johnson is the “only person likely to lead an independent Britain to success” after Brexit – Bernard Ingham

Anyway, we digress. I’ve found myself a new dramatis personae: David Cameron. Until now, he had been widely derided as quite possibly the worst Prime Minister the country had ever seen. I’d say it’s time to think again.

Remainers’ antics have made me back no deal Brexit: Bill Carmichael

It can be no coincidence that Cameron’s much-anticipated memoirs have been published just as Johnson approaches ultimate meltdown.

The man who took the decision to hold the EU referendum which has led us to this terrible state of impasse has placed himself high on the agenda. I have many questions I’d like to ask him if I ever got the chance, but there is one which perhaps we could all have a stab at answering ourselves.

What would David Cameron do if he was in Johnson’s position now? How would he carry himself? Would he, for instance, have allowed himself to be empty-chaired at that fateful EU meeting earlier this week in Luxembourg? In the event, ‘the Incredible Hulk’ rapidly morphed into ‘the Incredible Sulk’.

Would Cameron have scuttled away to hide from jeering and booing crowds, opting out of the plan to speak on stage alongside Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, who wasted absolutely no time in trashing his no-show guest’s reputation?

I’d like to think that he would have put pride and patriotic duty before his own shame and humiliation; for a man who often looked ill-at-ease off-duty in shorts and sandals, the big occasion always seemed to bring out a rather imperious sense of dignity. I recall he was particularly effective when dealing with Her Majesty the Queen at events such as Remembrance Day in Whitehall.

Indeed, if he had a matter of state as significant as the proroguing of Parliament to deal with, I can’t imagine him for a moment sending a lackey up to Balmoral to solicit the monarch’s approval. Can you?

I’m not being paid to rehabilitate Cameron’s tarnished reputation as Prime Minister during six long years which saw the introduction of austerity and the terrible fall-out in terms of poverty and social justice. This is a legacy that his government cannot escape from.

However, it’s not just the revelation of Cameron’s personal struggles and his clear distress at that Leave vote sitting so squarely against his own beliefs which are causing us to re-appraise his time in office.

It’s the fact that in many people’s eyes, in comparison to the current incumbent, he’s beginning to stand up pretty well – albeit fatally flawed.

Although rumours keep surfacing that he is considering running for Parliament again, for now Cameron is adding his voice, albeit tentatively, to the call for a second referendum.

His view is echoed by the more pragmatic, and dare I say, politically-sophisticated, members of EU27, who can’t see why Johnson is sticking so doggedly to his one-note approach to an issue as serious as the future of a country.

Even if you still think that Cameron was a coward who deserted this very country in its hour of need, you can’t say he hasn’t learned a few lessons as an outlaw in the political wilderness.

The key point that perhaps we all missed at the time was that when he set off as party leader Cameron did seriously believe in collaboration, discussion and consultation.

He sought the advice of focus groups and political strategists such as Steve Hilton, who famously came up with the idea of the Big Society.

This translated into a strong belief in Cabinet government. How else would he have assembled and led a band of characters as disparate both politically and personally as George Osborne at the Treasury, Michael Gove as an ultra-radical Education Secretary, Theresa May as Home Secretary and also, Johnson himself, who oversaw the successful London Olympics for his then-boss?

In fact, it could be argued that Cameron’s desire to operate as the vicar of a very broad church led to his own undoing. But what in the end, is best for Great Britain? A well-meaning, slightly-deluded vicar or an autocratic bishop who thinks he has the divine right to rule?