Exeter’s 36 year campaign to have its unitary council status restored cleared its final parliamentary hurdles this week.

In a hotly contested debate on Monday in the House of Lords, an attempt by Liberal Democrat Peers to kill the legislation was overwhelmingly defeated.

A motion from the Cross Bench Peer Lady Butler Sloss expressing regret at the move and asking for a further delay was passed, but not with as big a majority as had been expected.

The only other two cross benchers who spoke, supported Exeter’s case, as did the Labour Peers Lord (Larry) Whitty and Baroness (Brenda) Dean.

The orders was also approved easily both in committee and on the floor in the House of Commons.

It was a great tribute to the hard work of everyone in Exeter over so many years. An all-party delegation from the city last week, led by Conservative Lord Mayor Cllr John Winterbottom and including Lib Dem, Liberal and Labour councillors did a brilliant job at persuading cross bench and Tory Peers not to support the fatal amendment.

Now that the orders for both Exeter and Norwich have been approved by Parliament, after lengthy debate in both Houses and are law, it is far less likely that the outstanding legal challenge by Norfolk and Devon will succeed. Parliament is sovereign and the courts are usually very reluctant to overturn such a strong democratic mandate.

Also, one of the effects of the legislation has been to postpone the city council elections that were due to take place in one third of Exeter wards in May in order to hold all out elections to the new unitary authority next year.

So those councillors who would have faced elections in May have been told they can continue for one more year. By the time the court sits it will be too late to reinstate those elections so the court will want to be very mindful indeed of the consequences of any ruling on the democratic process.

Meanwhile David Cameron has been embarrassing his local parliamentary candidate in Exeter today telling local Tories they were wrong to support Exeter’s bid. Cameron is either incredibly ill-informed or astonishingly insensitive or both.

Exeter Tory leader Yolanda Henson has fought for years for unitary status and was ably supported by John Winterbottom, Norman Shiel and Jeff Coates among others for last week’s lobby of the Lords.

Cameron said a Tory Government would reverse the decision. But as doing so would require primary legislation could anyone really see an incoming Tory government making this their first priority and upsetting Exeter Conservatives in the process?

When can we expect the Conservative parliamentary candidate to finally speak up for Exeter, support local Conservative councillors and call publicly for her national party to allow Exeter to fulfil its ambition and call on Tory-run Devon County Council to drop its costly and futile legal shenanigans?

It is fascinating to watch how Cameron has dithered since Ireland emphatically voted yes in the Lisbon Treaty referendum.

They have promised to “not let things rest there”.

But British businesses and companies in Exeter that trade in Europe want to know what that means. Would the Conservatives plunge Britain into a futile political and economic war with our closest political allies and trading partners? That is the implication of their promise “not to let things rest”.

Or would they simply take us to the margins of Europe and then the exit door, which would be disastrous for UK companies? We need to know.

It says a great deal about the futility of the Tories’ obsessive Europhobia that people who should be their natural allies - Angela Merkel just re-elected and strengthened in Germany, Nicholas Sarkozy in France and Europe’s other mainstream conservatives - won’t even talk to Cameron and his crew.

Instead the Tories have their little bunch of dodgy fringe elements as their only friends in the EU.

David Cameron’s gimmick – increasing the price of salads at the House of Commons canteen – was a classic attempt to divert attention away from his failure to deal with Tory MPs’ excessive expense claims and the embarrassment of moving (not sacking) his friend and colleague Alan Duncan who complained MPs had to live on rations!

The fact is the Government has already taken a scythe to the costs of Parliament and the new (Conservative) Speaker, John Bercow, has pledged to do more. Ministers pay has been frozen for the past two years.

Incidentally, why do journalists never point out whenever Cameron puts on his hair shirt act that he’s worth millions?

Fulfilling a life’s dream of seeing Tristan and Isolde at Bayreuth I find myself surrounded by Germany’s (mainly centre right) political elite.

Chancellor Merkel is there, as are the new wonderboys of German politics, the economics Minister, Guttenberg, the Bavarian prime minister, Seehofer and his predecessor and one time challenger to Merkel, Stoiber.

I wish David Cameron had been there to hear the withering verdict on his European policy - such as it is. There is incomprehension among the Tories’ natural allies in Germany at how he has marginalised himself by getting into bed with a small band of far right nutcases.

David Cameron’s admission at Primie Minister’s Questions yesterday that unemployment would continue to rise until 2014 under a Tory Government was his second major gaffe in two days.

People well remember the last Conservative Government saying “unemployment is a price worth paying” as they mishandled the last recession.

We now know Cameron would repeat those grievous errors, slash investment now and condemn many more people to the dole queues for much longer.

Just as the real Tory instinct for slash and burn and to hell with the consequences has now been revealed, so has their antipathy to meaningful reform of Parliament.

Look at the contributions from Tory backbenchers over recent days in the debate on the Commons standards bill - the bill to clean up Parliament. Virtually all of them have spoken against the bill and to keep MPs regulating themselves. Even after the expenses scandal, they just don’t get it.

At long last the Government is wresting back control of the policy agenda. For months our public discourse has been dominated by the global downturn, MPs’ expenses and leadership speculation.

With growing evidence that the measures the Government have put in place have had a positive impact on the economy and with the far-reaching and long overdue reforms to Parliament and our wider political sytem either already in place or underway, it is becoming possible to talk about policies and the difference between the parties.

As soon as this happens, Cameron is revealed as an empty vessel. I am looking forward to the next few months.