About half of the audience hailed from the Continent, hardly surprising now that British students have to compete with 450 million other Europeans for a place at Cambridge. But those I spoke to did not seem cynical or disillusioned. One young Polish woman was a passionate supporter of the West and evidently grateful for her nation's emancipation, however belated, from Soviet domination. Perhaps now, in our hour of need, New Europe will come to the aid of Old Europe.

I do not want to suggest that the students I encountered at the Cambridge Union were anything less than courteous, well-informed and intelligent. Only one was clearly hostile to Standpoint and his friends apologised for his behaviour. The problem, rather, is the one to which the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, drew attention in his Theos Lecture last month: "You cannot defend a civilisation on the basis of moral relativism." My young Cambridge acquaintances may not have been moral relativists, but many were clearly unsure of their ground when asked to decide whether they were for or against the West and its civilisation. 

The new generation is, probably, no more tentative about its values than its predecessors. In her European Eye column this month, Mara Delius remarks that the English "have the courage to express bold opinions, without shouting them from the rooftops". David Cameron now has a chance to show that kind of courage, inspiring the new generation with his leadership. He cannot be all things to all men. Let him be true to himself.