Cameron recovers, but vulnerabilities remain

By J.G. | LONDON

HAD it not been for the News International (NI) phone-hacking scandal that has crowded out all other news in Britain over the past fortnight, David Cameron would now be in Africa schmoozing with dignitaries and showing off the good works paid for by Britain's generous aid budget. Instead, after an early return from his trip, he was in the House of Commons for a gruelling session.

First came a statement to the House. As well as announcing the details of the forthcoming public inquiry into hacking, the police's investigation into it and wider questions of media regulation, Mr Cameron took a tougher line on Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor who then served as his media adviser between 2007 and January of this year, than he has before. He said that if Mr Coulson was shown to have lied (to Mr Cameron, to Parliament, to the Press Compliants Commission, and others) about not knowing of the improper activities that took place under his editorship, he should suffer the full force of the law. Mr Cameron himself would also apologise.

Then came prime minister's questions, the weekly ritual which usually touches on a range of pertinent (and impertinent) topics but which was this week dominated by hacking and all things related. Finally, Mr Cameron lead a Commons debate on the scandal.

Overall, the prime minister was, as he tends to be when it matters, prime ministerial. Mr Cameron was sober and serious about the wrongdoing that had been exposed, and the people it has hurt. The temptation to be mealy-mouthed about Mr Coulson was avoided. In defending Ed Llewellyn, his chief of staff, who had asked the Metropolitan Police not to inform the prime minister of details of the hacking investigation last year, he was convincing. And when he suggested that now might be the time for Britain's politco-media elites to start talking about the economy again, you could hear a nation concurring.

Ingeniously, he managed to scold Ed Miliband, his Labour opposite number, for his partisan point-scoring in recent weeks while scoring some resounding partisan points of his own. When would Labour publish a list of meetings between its politicians and people from the Murdoch empire that is anything like as compendious as the one the government has produced? How dare Mr Miliband deplore the hiring of Mr Coulson while he still employs Tom Baldwin, a former journalist for a NI paper (the Times) who stands accused of committing misdeeds in pursuit of a story?

Mr Miliband, after two impressive weeks, reverted to looking somehow too small for his job (let alone Mr Cameron's). A circuitous, three-part question bored his own side, whereas many of Mr Cameron's remarks were met with approving roars from his backbenchers (which, if you have heard Tory MPs hold forth on their aloof, electorally underachieving leader, is not something he could have counted on).

However, Mr Miliband was sharp in picking up on some of the chinks of vulnerability that emerged during Mr Cameron's time at the dispatch box. For example, when pressed as to whether he had ever discussed with NI executives News Corporation's bid to buy the 61% of BSkyB, a broadcaster, that it does not already own, Mr Cameron only said that he had not had "inappropriate" conversations. The Labour leader and his MPs pursued him on this, and it may develop into the next thorn in his side. For the time being, however, and thanks to his career-long habit of excelling under pressure, Mr Cameron has consolidated his position.