Fanfare: David Cameron in Jakarta
David Cameron’s trip to Burma, Indonesia and other points east of Aden included an astonishing welcome at Al-Azhar university, Jakarta.
Students gave the distinguished visitor a popstar reception: cheers, whoops, blown kisses, flashing of cameras (if not more).
Alas, the target of this squeaky acclaim was not Mr Cameron himself but his shy communications wallah Craig Oliver, who had wandered in as part of the advance party and was mistaken for his boss.
Mr Cameron arrived later but by then, well, the fervour had abated. The groupies rather felt they had peaked. As for Mr Oliver, he blushed sweetly and looked baffled, being better accustomed to raspberries from HM Press Corps.
At a wreath-laying ceremony in Jakarta the British delegation faced another challenge to its self-composure. A ‘truly dreadful’ brass band pinked and parped its way through some barely identifiable tunes, one of which may have been God Save The Queen (or was it The Girl From Ipanema?). My woman at the back of the PM’s jet reports: ‘The band even squawked and honked through the entire minute’s silence. I don’t know how Dave held it together.’
The PM was not travelling with the Queen’s Flight. Nor was his aircraft a liveried gleamer from the British Airways fleet. He had to settle for a muddy beige jumbo hired from SonAir, a subsidiary of Angola’s state oil firm Sonangol.
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