Source: Economist.

DAVID CAMERON did not give a speech this morning in Amsterdam about British relations with the European Union. The developing mess in Algeria might have made it seem inappropriate: should the prime minister really be going on about the EU when Britons have been killed? But let’s review his speech, all the same.

We only have a few paragraphs, which were distributed to the press shortly before the speech was cancelled. This is common practice: by releasing snippets of a speech the day before it is given, politicians give print reporters something to chew on. To an extent, it also allows them to control the way their speech is reported.

Some newspapers went ahead and ran stories about the cancelled speech containing generous excerpts from it. Others did not. But, today, several have published the excerpts online. They can be read here and here.

What do we learn? A few things:

1. It is a good speech. Not necessarily good in the sense of wise, or good for Britain. We won’t really be able to judge that until we hear what Mr Cameron has to say about the one thing everyone in Britain cares about (see 4, below). But the speech is good in the sense of being ambitious and well-written. It has an air of authority and seriousness. This bit, for example:

That is why I am here today: To acknowledge the nature of the challenges we face. To set out how I believe the European Union should respond to them. And to explain what I want to achieve for Britain and its place within the European Union.

Mr Cameron is promising to tackle a mighty issue in a comprehensive way. He is attempting to rise above the Westminster scrum—the backbench speech-makers, the newspaper letter-writers, the television talking heads. He is bidding for inclusion in an anthology of British speeches about Europe—a successor to this one, perhaps.

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