David Cameron is the prohibitive favorite to replace the politically ailing Gordon Brown as Britain’s prime minister, after elections later this year. Cameron is actively courting the gay vote with his stated support of (his words) “gay equality,” in an interview with the U.K. Independent’s Johann Hari. Says Cameron: “If our Lord Jesus was around today he would very much be backing a strong agenda on equality and equal rights, and not judging people on their sexuality.” It’s an interesting political Rorschach test, as I guess pretty much everything is these days: An American conservative website describes Cameron’s view with the headline “U.K.’s Conservative Leader Pledges Full Support for Gay Agenda.” But Hari himself is skeptical: “David Cameron is a hazy cloud of charm and platitudes: no matter how hard you peer into him, you cannot find anything solid to focus on for long. There are flickers of apparently real pro-gay feeling, but they are soon followed by excuse-making for some of the most anti-gay politicians in Europe. Which is the real Cameron? On this issue, I suspect even he doesn’t know. But over the next four years, we are all going to find out: the beaming lights of power will part this mysterious and contradictory fog.”

It may be that, on this issue, David Cameron is the P. J. O’Rourke of Britain. (The inimitable P. J. wrote a few years ago: “I’m so conservative that I approve of San Francisco City Hall marriages, adoption by same-sex couples, and New Hampshire’s recently ordained Episcopal bishop. Gays want to get married, have children, and go to church. Next they’ll be advocating school vouchers, boycotting HBO, and voting Republican.”) But could Cameron perhaps, on this and other issues, be a British Obama — long on promises and short on performance? (We all saw the ad saying, “I’ll cut the deficit, not the NHS.” Hardly encouraging.) Let’s hope that — if he prevails — he at least has a better first year than our new president had.