David cameron

What a strange farewell. The slickest, sparkiest and most brutal street-fighter the Tory party has produced in a generation found himself agreeing with his worst enemies today. ‘That says something,’ shouted David Cameron (who remains prime minister for the next week or so). ‘We have huge disagreements,’ he explained. And yet despite the fault-lines his Remain campaign enjoys the support of nearly the entire opposition: the Greens, Labour, the Lib Dems, the Northern Ireland parties and Cameron’s bete noire, the SNP. ‘When we all agree,’ he finger-wagged, ‘that really says something.’ Absolutely. It says they’re all deluded. Does poor Cam know he’s finished? At times he seemed to sense it.

Brexit has continued to build momentum in the EU referendum race with successive polls putting 'Leave' ahead. So with nine days to go, is there anything 'Remain' can do to fight back? On this special daily edition of our Spectator Coffee House shots podcast, Fraser Nelson joins Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth to discuss today's events as the countdown to June 23rd gets ever closer. James Forsyth says the polls in recent days 'are triggering levels of panic that are even greater than the levels of panic in the final days of the Scottish referendum'. And Fraser Nelson says it's difficult to see what 'Remain' can do to regain the upper hand. He tells Isabel on the podcast: 'I can't see what ammunition can come from the 'remain' campaign given how much they've discharged.

Campaigns only last for a few weeks, but politicians can be defined by what they say during those campaigns. Ed Miliband will never live down the #EdStone, Zac Goldsmith will always be stained by his murkier attacks on Sadiq Khan – and I suspect David Cameron will never manage to shake off the threat he made to pensioners today. At times, it can seem as if he’s got confused and has set out to attack his own reputation, rather than that of his opponents. Those who watched George Osborne grilled by Andrew Neil last week will know the issue: the Remain campaign has decided to pretend that pensioners will be worse off after Brexit.

All sides of the Remain campaign are turning their fire on Boris Johnson at the moment. But these attacks are, I argue in The Sun today, a mistake by the Remainers. First, it makes Boris, the most popular politician in the country, the face of the Out campaign when the IN campaign’s strategic aim is to make voters think that Nigel Farage embodies the Out case. Second, it means that the whole referendum is seen through the prism of the Tory leadership. This is not only bad for Tory party unity post-referendum, but also makes it harder for IN campaign to get the support of Labour party voters as it drowns out Labour’s own message. Senior figures in the Remain campaign think that the attacks on Boris work because, they claim, he is seen as being out for himself and a hypocrite.

This week the Prime Minister devoted a speech to what he regarded as six lies being told by his opponents in the EU referendum campaign. He later confessed that the idea for the speech had come to him while watching the news at 9 p.m. the previous evening. It would have been better if he had contented himself with shouting at the television, rather than adding yet more rancour to what has become a slanging match. Most voters tune into an election campaign only in its final few weeks; those who do so now will find nothing but hysteria, hyperventilation and obloquy. Where, it is often asked, are the facts? If we can distil the arguments down to the most salient points, what are they?

Has the reason behind David Cameron's relaxed appearance in last night's ITV debate been uncovered? Mr S only asks after one snap happy parliamentarian sent a photo to the EyeSpyMP Twitter account of the Prime Minister chillaxing on the Commons terrace with a pint on Tuesday night: https://twitter.com/eyespymp/status/740563695663734786 While the SNP lot were also out making the most of Parliament's many taxpayer-subsidised watering holes last night, they did at least manage to avoid a run-in with Cameron. Mr S understands Mhairi Black spent the evening in Sports and Social alongside the likes of Natalie McGarry. With all this drinking going on, one could be forgiven for forgetting the referendum was just two weeks away.

Welcome to Coffee House's coverage of ITV's EU referendum debate. David Cameron and Nigel Farage faced public questions on the EU referendum. Here's our commentary, as well as audio and video highlights, from the discussion.  PODCAST: Listen to Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman give their verdict on Cameron vs Farage: DAVID CAMERON:   James Forsyth David Cameron looked pretty happy at the end of that. He got his choice of opponent in this debate and did everything he could to take advantage of that, mentioning Farage at every opportunity. Cameron also benefited from going second, another thing which he got his way on, as he could rebut Farage's points without any opportunity for Farage to reply.