Forgotten something, Mr Cameron? photo: University Hospitals Birmingham
The background
Prime Minister David Cameron left his eight-year-old daughter behind in a pub after a Sunday lunch. Cameron and wife Samantha each believed the other was traveling with Nancy, and only discovered their mistake when they arrived back at Chequers.
Downing Street confirmed the incident and said the Camerons were “distraught” when they realized the mix-up. The Prime Minister immediately returned to the Plough Inn in Buckinghamshire to collect his daughter, who had apparently wandered off to the toilets as the Camerons were leaving.
Pub staff at a loss
A Plough insider told The Sun that pub staff weren’t entirely sure what to do after finding Nancy in the pub loos: “It’s not like you can look up David Cameron in the phone book and then ring to say, ‘You’ve left your daughter behind’.”
Parents will sympathise with PM
“I suspect most parents will feel great sympathy for the Camerons,” wrote George Eaton at The New Statesman’s Staggers blog. “The terror of losing a child, even briefly, is one that those who have experienced it will never forget. “
What happened to the Camerons’ security detail?
The experience of briefly misplacing a child may be common, said Political Scrapbook, “but there is one crucial difference: other families don’t have a security detail of armed police charged with their safety. Can they not count to three?”
Time for government intervention?
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live as the story broke, to discuss a new scheme to encourage local councils to help “troubled” families. According to the BBC, Pickles was asked whether he “drew parallels between troubled families and parents who inadvertently left their children in a pub”. The Communities Secretary did not take the bait: “We’re definitely not talking about that – mainly for my job security.”
Cameron: Big on ‘chillaxing’
A new biography of the PM revealed Cameron doesn’t just relax or chill when he’s not at work – he chillaxes: “If there was an Olympic gold medal for ‘chillaxing’, he would win it,” said a Cameron “ally”, reported The Times (£). A typical Sunday involves “a crap film on telly, play with the children, cook, have three or four glasses of wine with lunch, have an afternoon nap, play tennis.”