by David Talbot
18 months ago an exhausted Conservative leader limped through the famous black door of 10 Downing Street. His rise to power had until then been effortless: Eton and Oxford were followed by political pupillages under Messrs Lamont and Howard. Having skilfully manoeuvred his way to the leadership of his party in late 2005, he had successfully returned his party to power after the first Tory-free decade in modern history. Facing a disintegrating Labour party, and a visibly exhausted, not to mention reviled, Labour prime minister, he had become accustomed to a charmed political life, so much so that his aura permeated almost every inch of the British political domain.
Cameron has been lucky, especially in how little attention has been paid to his record as a leader that is as much about failure as success. His government is now beset by many of the same problems after 18 months that the previous Conservative government suffered after 18 years: the depth of backbench distrust; the re-emergence of rampant Euroscepticism; the lack of an overarching political narrative and the sense that, because of factors beyond its control, this is a government that is in office but not in power.
