David Cameron

David Cameron
75th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Term of office May 11, 2010 - July 13, 2016
Political party	Conservative Party
Preceded by	Gordon Brown
Succeeded by	Theresa May
Born	October 6, 1966 London
Spouse	Samantha Sheffield
Religion	Church of England

David Cameron, born 9 October 1966, is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the British Conservative Party. He announced the resignation of his position after losing his campaign to Remain in the European Union in 2016.

Following the May 2010 election, the Conservatives won the most seats but were short of a majority, resulting in a hung parliament. Labour Leader Gordon Brown resigned, and Cameron was appointed Prime Minister, leading a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

In the general election held May 7, 2015, Cameron's Conservatives won a majority of 331 seats in the House of Commons.

Personal[edit]

Cameron was born in London, but spent his early years near Wantage in Oxfordshire, England, though his family's roots lie in Inverness, Scotland, and "Cameron" is well known in Britain as a Scottish name.

Cameron was educated at Eton, Britain's most prestigious public school (a "public school" in the UK referring to a privately run institution, as opposed to a "state school"), and at Brasenose College, Oxford, Britain's most ancient and prestigious university.

Cameron is self-described as "upper middle class", though his bloodline is noble, and he is a direct descendent of William IV, and thus a distant cousin of HRH Queen Elizabeth II. His family has historically been involved in finance and banking, with his great great grandfather being head of HSBC in the late 19th century, and worked alongside the Rothschilds to finance the Russo-Japanese war.

Cameron's leadership and indeed his own party are supported by businesses, as opposed to the liberal, socialist aligned Labour Party, led by Ed Miliband; which is funded and largely controlled by the trade unions. Many intervening leaders have been middle-class (Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher) or even working-class (John Major).

Cameron's reluctance to discuss his past, citing the right to a private life before politics^[1] has led to class-based attacks on his education and ancestry from a small proportion of left-wing media sources and opposition members of Parliament.

He has been married to Samantha since 1996. She is of direct noble bloodline, the daughter of 8th Baronet Sheffield, and a descendent of Charles II. They now have two sons and a daughter. Their eldest son, Ivan Cameron, died on February 25, 2009.^[2]

Political career[edit]

Cameron's pre-parliamentary career included spells as a staffer for controversial Conservative politician Norman Lamont and as a PR executive. Cameron was elected to Parliament as MP for Witney in Oxfordshire at the 2001 general election. He was elected leader of the Conservative Party in December 2005, succeeding Michael Howard.

In late June 2007, at the end of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's final Prime Minister's Questions session in the House of Commons, David Cameron led his opposition party in giving the outgoing leader a standing ovation.^[3]

As UK Prime Minister, Cameron made the decision to hold the Brexit referendum^[4] and opposed the UK leaving the EU.^[5] He resigned immediately after the referendum did not go his way.^[5] During the referendum, he asked U.S. President Barack Obama to say that leaving the EU would put the UK at the "back of the queue" for a new trade deal, something Obama did.^[6] He apologized to Obama after the British people voted to reassert their national sovereignty and leave the EU.^[7] After the referendum, he suggested holding a second referendum, even though prior to it, he stated that "this choice cannot be undone" and "it will be the final decision."^[8]

After his tenure as prime minister ended, Cameron continued speaking out against populism, though he admitted that it is not enough for the liberal elites simply to dismiss conservatives' concerns on issues such as mass migration.^[9]

China advocacy[edit]

After resigning as prime minister, Cameron became the head of a $1 billion fund that supports China's "Belt and Road" infrastructure plan, which it is using to increase its influence in the world. Cameron is one of several retired establishment European politicians working to advance China's interests.^[10]

Policies[edit]

Cameron has attempted to move the Conservative party towards what is perceived by some to be the centre ground of British politics. While the party under his leadership has expressed support for some traditional elements of Conservative policy, such as the importance of the family, Cameron has also expressed a passionate concern about global warming. He has suggested a move towards privatization within the strongly-socialist National Health Service, in an attempt to combat the economic failures resulting from the flawed socialist ideas upon which the organisation is based. Designed and originated by the leftist Labour Party, the organisation is notorious for its bureaucracy and the failure of its left-wing values in an economic sense.

Some traditional Conservatives, particularly those on the Thatcherite wing of the party, have criticized Cameron for moving the party too far to the left. They point to surveys showing that many voters feel they no longer know what the Conservative Party stands for.^[11] However, he has stated that he is "certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite."^[12] He has also described himself as a "liberal Conservative" (though "liberal" in British English does not have the same meaning as in the United States, and instead has the meaning of "centrist," "moderate" or "libertarian").^[13] Some have gone so far as to claim that true conservatism is today represented in Britain not by the Conservative Party but by the UK Independence Party. Same-sex "marriage" was legalized by Cameron's "conservative" government. Most of his party voted for it.

Cameron has said: "My aim is to promote social justice, making sure that everyone has access to good schools, good healthcare and decent housing, take a lead in ending global poverty and do all we can to meet the great environmental threats of our age."^[14] Some conservative politicians and commentators, notably Norman Tebbit, have criticised him for prioritising issues of the environment and social justice over more traditionally Conservative policy areas, such as tax, immigration and foreign relations. Tebbit said: "Is he the party's Chairman Mao or Pol Pot, intent on purging even the memory and name of Thatcherism before building a new modern compassionate green globally aware party somewhere on the left side of the middle?"^[15] However, Cameron has responded extensively to such criticisms by pointing out that the economic and social problems faced by modern-day Britain are radically different from those faced in the past; he has argued that the Conservative Party needs to re-take the centre ground of politics from the Labour Party.^[16] He argued: "The change is not a betrayal. It is a recognition that the challenges faced by Britain are not the challenges of the 1970s. Social justice and economic efficiency are the common ground of British politics. We have to find the means of succeeding where the government has failed."^[15]

General political orientation[edit]

Cameron describes himself as "pro globalisation, pro immigration, pro market economics."^[4] He has attacked conservative U.S. President Donald Trump.^[17]

Immigration failures[edit]

See also: European migrant crisis

Cameron, who, despite being a member of the Conservative Party, held several leftist positions, pledged to reduce immigration to under 100,000 annually. Despite this pledge, immigration soared during his tenure to even higher levels than when he first took office.^[18]

Immigration played a very influential role in the successful Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016,^[19][20] along with other very important and related factors such as sovereignty and backlash against the leftist establishment elites who support large levels of immigration.^[21]

Post-premiership activities[edit]

David Cameron was appointed president of Alzheimer's Research UK in January 2017, to address misconceptions about dementia and to campaign for funding into research about the condition.

In August 2017, David Cameron was seen swimming in water contaminated with raw sewage at Polzeath in Cornwall.

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, David Cameron attended the state funeral service at Westminster Abbey on 19 September 2022 alongside all extant former UK Prime Ministers.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Cameron Election Campaign 2010
• British prime minister brushes off Libyan war talk.