The boy David

I can claim a milligram of credit for David Cameron’s first star billing. In early 1991, standing in for the late John Junor on the Mail on Sunday and seeking a weekly instance of some Labour frontbencher making an eejit of himself, I inquired who was the best sniper in the Conservative Research Department. The answer was David Cameron. I phoned him and, for the next three weeks, one sheet of paper arrived with brief quotes, all of them firecrackers. Week four: the boy David is on leave, so his boss, Andrew Lansley, the then director of CRD, stands in. I receive 20 sheets of very damp squibs.

Around that time, a couple of Prime Minster’s Questions did not go well for the new PM. I asked John Major if he had enough political help; he thought that he could do with more. ‘Well, there is this bright lad in CRD… .’ David Cameron was summoned. He delivered. His reputation grew.

I found him an ideal political contact. He was particularly good at explaining economic policy. He had the clarity of mind, and the patience, to explain economic conundrums to an ignoramus, and would have made an excellent don. He also understood that economics was more than abstract theories or mathematical models. It was about human behaviour and its claims to scientific status should be treated with scepticism. David was always a political economist. He also displayed excellent political judgment.

At a high level, politics is a cat’s cradle of issues, underlying realities, media presentation, public opinion and electoral prospects, plus the politicians themselves: their abilities, their ambitions, their illusions and their vanities. A successful analyst needs high intellect and low cunning: a grasp of complex problems, plus Fingerspitzengefühl.