David Cameron in discussions with Barack Obama in Washington last week.

Cameron described Britain as America’s ‘junior partner’. Photograph: Getty Images

If you’re determined to tell it how it is, it’s important to know it how it is – and on the evidence of his travels in foreign parts this week, it is uncertain whether David Cameron really does. Regarding Turkey and Europe, Israel and Gaza, and India and Pakistan, the inexperienced British prime minister’s blunt interventions left a trail of overseas outrage as well as surprised approbation. Fans admired his plain talking. Critics said he plainly doesn’t know what he’s talking about – and risked damaging Britain’s interests.

Cameron stood his ground in Delhi, vowing always to speak his mind frankly. In fact, his truth telling has been highly selective. Turkey’s EU membership, for example, could advance more swiftly if it fulfilled prior undertakings on Cyprus. He barely mentioned that – or discrimination against minority Kurds. Pakistan’s behaviour might be less paranoid and duplicitous if India were less threatening. In deference to Delhi’s hypersensitivity, Cameron eschewed all mention of Kashmir – an incendiary issue overdue for open, international discussion, as proposed long ago by Robin Cook.

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