Cameron Hardens With Pledge To 'Destroy' IS

By Faisal Islam, Political Editor, in Downing Street

The message from Downing Street today was one of resolve.

The Government will not be bounced into a change of strategy by the heinous public murder of a British aid worker.

The rhetoric, however, did harden somewhat.

The Prime Minister returned from Chequers to Downing St last night after the murder. He was referred to by name in the video distributed by IS.

He responded with a personal message. David Haines was a "British hero" who devoted his life to humanitarian aid, he said.

Mr Haines' killers, including the masked man with the British accent, "are not Muslims, they are monsters". He vowed that Britain would and could not "walk on by".

He hardened previous language about "squeezing ISIL out of existence" to a promise to "destroy ISIL with an iron determination".

Mr Haines was kidnapped in Syria in 2013

This looked like a PM about to announce military action. Indeed the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced the deployment of 600 combat personnel and military aircraft to the UAE.

The direction of travel is pretty clear. But the actual strategy remains the same.

There will be no emergency recall of Parliament, as suggested by some backbench MPs, including ex-Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt.

There will be no British combat "boots on the ground". Airstrikes are neither ruled in nor ruled out.

The limited lethal military aid, (some small quantity of heavy weaponry) given to the Kurdish peshmerga will continue.

Any ramping up of this will only be after the creation of a stable inclusive Iraqi government (which has started) and the establishment of a regional coalition.

The killer refers to Mr Cameron by name in the beheading video

As the PM told Sky News at the NATO summit, he is keen to show he has "learnt the lessons of the past".

That is a reference to the Iraq war in 2003. That involves a detailed, sustainable, diplomatic plan.

It is also fortuitous, because the PM can continue to avoid getting ahead of public and parliamentary opinion.

He is understandably burnt from the experience of the Syria vote a year ago. My assessment is that his Coalition, parliament, and the public, are getting on side.

The other break on immediate action, of course, is US President Barack Obama. The White House put out a statement saying the US stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the UK.

The aim to "degrade and destroy" ISIL is clear. The assessment that a "Western intervention" alone is not a sustainable solution to this issue remains.

One key understated reason: that using superior western military might, is also a form of leverage for good behaviour from the new government in Iraq.

So the direction of travel remains clear. But we are still not yet at the point of the actual military engagement of a multinational coalition.

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