Cameron’s mea culpa over Magna Carta?

“I’ve ended my career on your show tonight” quipped the Prime Minister, as he flunked the surprise history test on the Letterman show. Well, not quite. But his failure to translate the words Magna Carta into English, despite knowing where and when it was signed, is all anyone will remember from his appearance.

The studio audience seemed fairly impressed by Cameron’s performance, even if he failed to raise much of a laugh. He obviously hadn’t read the American columnists who urged him to brush up on his jokes, but didn’t completely embarass himself either.

However, perhaps it’s impossible to shake of the cynicism which permeates modern politics: a lingering suspicion remains. Mr Cameron, an alumnus of Eton and Oxford, has been well schooled in the Classics.

His education secretary, Michael Gove, has been busy promoting Latin and Greek lessons across the school curriculum, so much so, that he has even been accused of turning Latin into “the favourite subject of the radical right wing”.

RT @loumccudden: I like how Michael Gove was mocked for knowing Latin and now David Cameron is mocked for not knowing Latin

— Iain Dale (@IainDale) September 27, 2012

London mayor Boris Johnson isn’t scared of the odd classical reference, either, frequently lapsing into Latin without a care in the world. In fact when Boris appeared on Letterman’s show, he got more stick over his unruly hair than his erudition.

But David Cameron? Not knowing a couple of pretty basic words? Really? NBC, which broadcasts David Letterman’s long running Late Show, had already commented on the Prime Minister’s efforts to get beyond the scandal over cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell’s spat with a police officer outside Downing Street.

‘Dave’ Cameron, they claimed, “has sought to convince the voters that they are as ordinary as you and me. But not, of course, plebs”.

Americans are getting more familiar with this kind of tactic: after all, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has been spending what seems like his entire campaign trying, and largely failing, to overcome the image of an out of touch plutocrat who has no idea how ordinary people live.

But perhaps ‘Dave’ just had a forgetful moment. Errare humanum est, as you might say.