David Cameron hasn't had a good few days.

[The Conservatives] are not serious about wanting power... They just haven't done the work. And they're still not doing it. For instance: the new text for the coming EU conference. Cameron says it's the Constitution by another name. But has he read it? Has he compared it with the Constitution line by line? Has he - or his researchers - got a list of copy-and-paste similarities to make the case? (Brown's admirers mistake pure dullness for honesty)

...says Simon Carr in The Independent

"The Tories, he said, were back on the same old agenda - anti-Europe, pro-tax cuts, for grammar schools, etc. "The wheels are falling off the Tory bicycle. It is just as well that he has a car following him when he is out on his rounds." Like all Gordon's gags, it sounded pre-scripted, but it didn't matter." ("An end of term squitting")

...says Simon Hoggart in The Guardian. 

Hoggart also had words of praise for Menzies Campbell, but he doesn't get as effusive as Andrew Gimson in The Telegraph:

It was left to Sir Menzies Campbell to defend our ancient liberties with proper passion. He reminded us that far from making us safer, internment can fan the flames of extremism, and he asked why we need more repressive laws than Australia. Many people cannot see the point of Sir Menzies, but his point is to uphold liberty against a control-freak prime minister at the head of an overmighty state. ('Why we need Ming Campbell')

For a more analytical account of Cameron's problems you can turn to Philip Webster's piece in The Times ('Bad luck and tactical blunders set the Tories whispering again')

What is striking is how Cameron is now under attack from the left and the right.  Steve Richards in The Independent says Cameron is being too ideological ('David Cameron is not doing badly, but where is his party's hunger for power?') whilst Simon Heffer rips into him for being too shallow. ('Bogged down beyond the comfort zone')

We might find Quentin Davies' defection both amusing and illogical - but lots of people are fed up with the Cameron project and are looking for serious political debate. Yesterday, Campbell seemed more than able to provide that.