David cameron

That senior Tories are urging David Cameron to break up the Coalition early so the Conservatives can fight the election unencumbered by those pesky Lib Dems is hardly going to dent the Prime Minister's chillaxing this summer: his party is in a good shape and the timing of Graham Brady and Bernard Jenkin's intervention in the Sunday Telegraph suggests they are genuinely trying to be helpful rather than cause internal party strife to damage the Prime Minister. All the indications from the top are that both Tories and Lib Dems want to go all the way with this Coalition, and those who might benefit from an early split, such as Vince Cable, don't currently seem to have much purchase in terms of leadership coups.

While David Cameron, assisted by a trio of pyjama-clad children and the Chancellor, was entertaining the ladies and gentleman of Her Majesty’s Loyal Press Corps in No. 10, right-wing elements of the Conservative Party were carousing by the river in Chelsea. IDS, Welsh Secretary David Jones and venerable right-wingers Sir Gerald Howarth and Graham Brady joined former Tory head of press Nick Wood and his cohort from Media Intelligence Partners for a rabble-rouse. Unlike the Downing Street soiree in the Rose Garden, this was not a champagne free-zone. Ûber-wonk Philip Blond was overheard discussing his plans to run for Mayor of London. And as the evening wore on, Blond began to try to recruit campaign staff.

Cigs and booze. These issues dominated PMQs today. Ed Miliband tried to portray the PM as a puppet of ‘Big Tobacco’ whose decision not to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes was influenced by his electoral guru, Lynton Crosby. Had the PM ever ‘had a conversation’ with Crosby about fag packets? Shifty Cameron dodged sideways and declared that Crosby never ‘lobbied me about anything’. ‘Weasel words,’ said Miliband, looking triumphant. He quoted a Tory GP, Sarah Wollaston, who labelled the decision ‘a day of shame’ for the government. Up popped the lady herself from the backbenches.

If a shark stops moving it dies. In the Prime Minister and deputy Prime Minister’s office, they believe that the same applies to the coalition. Their view is that if it is going to make it to 2015, it needs to be doing things right up until parliament is dissolved and the election called. To this end, as I reveal in the column this week, they’ve commissioned Oliver Letwin, David Laws and Jo Johnson to sit down and see what else the coalition can do between now and 2015. One of those involved in the talks says ‘we’re pretty confident we can still do deals on various things.’ The hope is that a few more big policy initiatives will act as a counterweight to the temptation for the coalition parties to pull apart as the election approaches.

Andy Murray’s joy is now complete. Yes, he won Wimbledon and all that, but his crowning glory came today when he was mentioned at the start of PMQs. Cameron apparently has no idea how goofy and devious he looked last Sunday when he half-opened the door of Downing Street and stepped out to greet Murray with a shifty smirk plastered across his face. In the House, he declared that the first British victory at Wimbledon in 77 years was a historic event. Ed Miliband agreed but appended the triumph of Virginia Wade in 1977 to Cameron’s tribute. This was greeted by a Labour cheer so loud that it registered at ‘by-election triumph’ level. Why were they so chuffed?

The prime minister’s appearance at Wimbledon yesterday, and his invitation of Andy Murray to Downing Street, has got some miserable lefty tongues wagging. No doubt they are livid that the ‘Curse of Cameron’ has lifted, while the memory of Gordon ‘Jonah’ Brown putting the mockers on British sporting endeavour lives. Moaners will always moan that our politicians try to muscle in on sporting greats; but there is no doubt that the Prime Minister is a tennis fan. Despite his rather odd decision to wear a dark business suit on the hottest day of the year, he was clearly enjoying himself in the Royal Box and his face was a picture of delight when Andy Murray made his little bit of history. Cameron is also a dab hand with a racket.

A Scot has ended Britain's 77 years of hurt: it's a glorious day, and Andy Murray's was a glorious victory. Anticipating this, there were three party leaders watching. From the moment Alex Salmond settled down in Centre Court, you knew what he was up to: he'd have packed a Saltire in his lunchbox and would wave it when the cameras were on him. He was planning to photobomb. Why? Because, to the SNP, sport is more political than politics: their world is all about what flags you wave, which sportsmen you cheer - and which you don't. The First Minister even tried to hawk the idea of 'Scolympians' last year, trying to divide the British Olympic team between Scots and non-Scots. It was a ludicrous notion, as Sir Chris Hoy said later.

Today Ed Miliband headed for the favourite destination of faltering leaders: abroad. Any crisis-stricken banana republic will do. At PMQs the Labour leader decided that Egypt would fit the bill. Knitting his brows into a gap-year frown of munificent superiority, Miliband asked the PM to tell us how Britain is encouraging President Morsi ‘to secure a negotiated settlement in advance of the army deadline.’ Yes, Ed. Absolutely. The whole of Tahrir Square is hanging on your every word. Cameron might have come clean at this point and told us what Ed was playing at: ‘I may not save Egypt from its looming civil war but its looming civil war may save me.’ Cameron didn’t, however. Bogus statesmanship is a plague no politician is immune to.

Theresa May’s statement in the Commons today on stop and search strikes me as an important moment. Here, we had a Tory Home Secretary standing up and saying that she understood why some communities felt that stop and search was used unfairly and announcing a review of it. This is, as I said on Sunday, is quite a change in Tory attitudes. William Hague, who was Tory leader at the time, criticised the Macpherson report for making police reluctant to use stop and search. Just five years ago, David Cameron was emphasising the need to ‘free the police to do far more stopping and far more searching’. Now, May doesn’t want to scrap stop and search. But her concerns about its use are a reminder that Tory modernisation is not finished yet.