An Horatian Ode upon Cameron’s Return from Belgium.

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The camera banks and podium are set
on asphalt by the cooling air force jet
—as he, composed and statesmanlike,
—descends to face the waiting mikes.
He pauses, waves. His whole career thus far –
Eton, Oxford, something briefly in PR:
—the school fees were not wasted, though
—he could have been a CEO,
he chose the life of humble public servant –
and all his works were leading to this moment.
—He clears his throat, adjusts his tie
—and prepares to almost sort of lie.
It’s not quite lying in the strictest sense:
more a Hermeneutics of Events
—too nuanced for the common man
—(or woman) to fully understand.
For where most versifiers come unglued’s
in underestimating just how shrewd
—a rhetorician is our chief:
—he, truly, beggars all belief.
So, let us use our artistry to praise him,
to magnify the nimbus that arrays him,
—or we’ll be damned as simply ranters
—and other loyaller bards supplant us.
As his domestic record will attest,
that slick patrician air of I-know-best,
—(better, at the very least, than us)
—is valid… well… because he does.
It’s bred, deep in the bone marrow, inherent –
and could come, in his case, from either parent –
—bred in a world where no point’s moot,
—nothing is open to dispute,
where there are no nuances or versions,
fact is alchemized from bald assertion,
—every question’s fully loaded,
—and each communication coded.
So take example from his Spads, who mix
their epochal linguistic fads and tics
—with high-blown rhetoric, as proof
—his precepts hide profounder truth:
the nation’s purse is like a household budget;
and charity’s recipients begrudge it,
—if not dispensed with clausal tricks
—to carrotize the salving sticks.
But greater eloquence is now demanded,
to convey the scene: the aircraft’s landed
—and there the peerless statesman stands,
—a piece of paper in his hand!
Small wonder he allows himself a smile.
With consummate diplomacy and guile,
—he has squared the vicious circle,
—won concessions from Frau Merkel,
outwitted Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker –
who are still spitting feathers in their bunker –
—and, fêted everywhere he went,
—secured the perfect settlement
It wasn’t always a foregone conclusion:
wading through black darkness and confusion
—with faith his lantern, truth his sword,
—he hauled assorted Slavs on board,
huffed and puffed from Lisbon to Helsinki,
and now’s confounded those who didn’t think he
—had the nerve, let alone the nous
—to shake the footings of this house,
defy the Eurocrats’ dominion –
in line with current polled opinion.
—Rejoice, his triumph is complete;
—his foes are supine at his feet.
It’s a whitewash bright as Dover chalk and’s
more glorious even than the Falklands.
—Shout from the windows, mount your bike,
—spread the gladsome tidings like
the Cabinet, who, confident their boss’ll
soon bestride the Continent, colossal
—and revered, stir from their repose
—and race to TV studios.
The copy-hungry commentariat
fall ravenous upon the unbagged cat,
—take the joyous news and spin it,
—Twitter like a flock of linnet,
and wrangle press releases into features
all overseen by Central Office creatures
—and, flitting ghostly in their ranks,
—antipodean mountebanks.
Meanwhile, a few haruspices and sibyls
raise, in broadsheet basements, crucial quibbles;
—advising, from close-reading, these,
—in their best-guess analyses,
suggest the Concord won’t stand close inspection:
that the Premier, perhaps, upon reflection
—is like a nifty winger who
—jinks, feints, cuts the field in two
to reach the line without the rugger ball,
and then rejoices scoring bugger all,
—while in the press boxes and stands
—the duped, ecstatic hacks and fans
are victims of contagious mass-hysteria:
his Promised Land looks like another Syria.
—That said, the PM’s not dismayed,
—nobody reads them anyway.
So while he still basks in refulgent splendour
he’ll get right on with winning referenda,
—by harnessing his broad appeal
—and easy charm to seal the deal;
and if this all goes nicely – who can tell –
he’ll chance another Scottish one as well.
—Etonians who ride their luck
—have scarcely ever come unstuck.
And when these victories are in the bag
remain assured his energy won’t flag:
—though laurelled, not content to rest
—he’ll put his mettle to the test,
and find another challenge for his talents,
a poser for his intellect. On balance,
—he thinks that, at the very least,
—perhaps he’ll fix the Middle East.