Cameron to give Mrs T gala a miss

There was a time when david Cameron was eager to express his ‘awe’ of Margaret Thatcher. Before he became PM, he would often go into idolatry overdrive about ‘Britain’s greatest peacetime Prime Minister’ and how she ‘gave the country’s people back their pride and self-belief ’.

But now he seems to have abandoned his one-time heroine.

For he will be a notable absentee later this month at a Thatcher memorial lecture and gala banquet at London’s Guildhall.

Among the right-wing luminaries expected to attend are Welfare Secretary Iain duncan Smith, former Thatcher Cabinet ministers Cecil Parkinson and Norman Tebbit and the recently ousted Australian PM, Tony Abbott.

All proceeds from the night (during which the £195-a-head guests will be served ‘ handmade chocolates and sweetmeats’ and given a commemorative book of Lady T’s speeches) will go to the Margaret Thatcher Centre at Buckingham University, which was set up to educate future generations about her achievements.

Perhaps dave is reluctant to attend because a nother g uest is Anthony Seldon, vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, who recently wrote a peppery biography of the PM (yes, there is another one).

he has spoken of Cameron’s notorious reputation for meriting an olympic gold medal f or ‘chillaxing’, by saying the PM had created ‘a bubble of tranquillity’ in downing Street. LIB deM leader Tim Farron is looking for a new chief of staff with ‘excellent political antennae and judgment’. Surely anyone with those qualities would run a mile from the hapless Lib dems?