London letter: Proverb replaces policy as Angela Merkel remains unimpressed

The eyes tell all. David Cameron finished his press conference with Germany's Angela Merkel on Tuesday evening with a joke about Merkel's refusal to take speculative questions from the press. A good German tradition, he said, and one that he intended to follow. The German chancellor stood beside him, smiling. However, the flattery clearly did not impress; the eyes stayed cold.

Cameron went out of his way to please his guest. The two visited the British Museum's exhibition accompanying BBC Radio 4's Germany: Memories of a Nation.

He also brought in the heads of MI5 and MI6 – which always interests visitors brought up under communism, as Merkel was – to brief the two of them after the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Much of the talk in London in advance of Merkel’s arrival focused on British demands for new terms of European Union membership. But Merkel did not come to London to speak about the UK’s EU future, a subject that, frankly, is beginning to bore the long-surviving German leader.

“Did they speak much about treaty renegotiation?” one German official was asked as camera crews fixed the lighting before the leaders arrived.

“Well, we certainly didn’t,” came the reply.

Implausible idea

The idea that anything substantive might have occurred was, in any event, implausible. For Merkel, Cameron is a leader about to seek re-election in the UK’s most unpredictable battle in decades.

He may win; he may not. What is certain, however, is that even if he does, the electoral arithmetic – and thus the political demands underpinning those numbers – will be different from what it is today.

Throwing lifelines to Cameron this week would have been to waste political capital, which is something Merkel rarely indulges in. Asked about London’s demand for new terms, she said merely: “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

It was, a sketchwriter said, a case of proverb replacing policy.

Cameron, meanwhile, was on his best behaviour, much as if he had been brought in to face teacher. Every time he mentioned the EU, he did so as positively as he could.

Questioned about the UK’s continuing membership, he said: “I don’t think the right answer is for Britain to leave.” He has said similar things before, but usually with caveats.

The lack of strategy in No 10’s thinking is illustrated by the journey Cameron has made since November, when he trailed the idea that he would demand a cap on the number of immigrants coming into the UK.

He told Merkel about his plan, in advance. She made it clear that Berlin would not under any circumstances accept fundamental changes to the principle of free movement.

Cameron caved in, deleting the relevant paragraphs from his script, infuriating some in the Tory Eurosceptic ranks who took it as further evidence that the prime minister is not the man to lead them.

The Conservatives repeatedly draw hope from Merkel’s belief that EU rules on freedom of movement do not give EU citizens the right to abuse the more generous welfare systems in the richer countries, including her own.

Incoherent demands

However, limited rule changes are one thing; much of the rest of Cameron’s shopping list – let alone the more incoherent demands of his backbenchers – has not find favour with her so far, and will not do so in future.

Cameron’s tacking to the right to try to ensure that he is not outflanked by the UK Independence Party on immigration provokes the East Germany-born Merkel’s contempt.

Unlike the British prime minister, she defended immigration in her New Year address, despite anti-immigration street protests across Germany. “All too often they have prejudice, a frostiness, even hatred in their hearts,” she said firmly about the protesters.

Leaving London, Merkel will have learnt little from Cameron as to what might be necessary to keep the UK in the EU after 2017 should the Conservatives win May’s general election.

However, she may not have made a completely wasted journey. Later this year, the chancellor will open a new museum behind the walls of Berlin Palace, the home of the Hohenzollerns. She wants Neil MacGregor – the head of the British Museum, who created Germany: Memories of a Nation, the crowning achievement of his 12 years there – to take charge of it. By June, she may have brought one treasured British export to Germany.