US society is also markedly different from Britain's, with religion and race mattering much more than they do here. This has not prevented Osborne from arriving at the conclusion that Obama's backing of gay marriage shows the Tories the way they now need to go, when, really, it doesn't. Travel outside the M25, or Notting Hill, or Islington, and try the argument. Although some people are opposed and others are in favour, it will not be high up the list of priorities of many people battling to keep the show on the road in a time of falling living standards. It is perfectly possible to be relaxed about gay marriage and still see that making it the top priority between now and the election would be mad. Yet the Chancellor implies that the Conservatives must either copy Obama and embrace gay marriage not just individually but as a party, or lose in 2015.

This is a great shame. Not simply because it is embarrassing that grown-men in positions of authority should fawn over the leader of another country. It is a shame for the Tories, and Cameron in particular, because they are otherwise getting somewhere. It is becoming increasingly clear that they can win the next election, if their leadership doesn't mess it up like it did the last one.

This positive assessment of their prospects might sound surprising. The last year has hardly been easy for Britain's Conservatives and the coming year does not promise to be much smoother either. It has been messy, from Osborne's omnishambolic budget of the spring, through the various minor calamities of the summer, and on into the fuss over whether or not Andrew Mitchell, the former Tory chief whip, swore at policemen on guard in Downing Street. Even though the economy showed welcome signs of life, in improving employment figures and a good quarter of growth, the optimism does not seem to have lasted long. The latest leg of the eurozone crisis looms. The single currency seems close to another explosion, with the EU sliding into recession and bailouts in Spain and Italy easy to envisage. The eurozone's troubles are bound to impact on the UK and interrupt the recovery.

Lord Leveson having produced his report on the press, the Prime Minister has the unenviable task of deciding whether or not to implement it, with much of Fleet Street ready to denounce him if he does and many others if he does not. 

Meanwhile, the coalition government becomes steadily more ridiculous and dysfunctional. Those at the very top of it—the so-called "quad" of Cameron, Osborne, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander—say that they are getting on splendidly. Fine, they are keeping each other in office and enjoying it. Underneath them, it is more often like ferrets fighting in a sack.

Take energy policy. Tory and Lib Dem ministers in the department concerned openly and loudly disagree about wind power. The rural voter worried about giant wind turbines on nearby land can have no idea what government policy is when the government itself doesn't seem to know. On defence, the Tory end of the coalition announced that the government is taking a step on the way to the renewal of Trident, the UK's ageing nuclear deterrent. Then up popped Clegg within hours to deny it. When it comes to Europe, an area requiring serious thought, the exigencies of coalition induce dangerous gridlock. The government's policy is predicated largely on saying as little as possible about the EU and hoping the crisis goes away.