David Cameron

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David Cameron bigraphy, stories - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

David Cameron : biography

9 October 1966 –

David William Donald Cameron ( born 9 October 1966) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. He represents Witney as its Member of Parliament (MP).

Cameron studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree. He then joined the Conservative Research Department and became Special Adviser to Norman Lamont, and then to Michael Howard. He was Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications for seven years.

He was defeated in his first candidacy for Parliament at Stafford in 1997, but was elected in 2001 as the Member of Parliament for the Oxfordshire constituency of Witney. He was promoted to the Opposition front bench two years later, and rose rapidly to become head of policy co-ordination during the 2005 general election campaign. With a public image of a youthful, moderate candidate who would appeal to young voters, he won the Conservative leadership election in 2005.

In the 2010 general election held on 6 May, the Conservatives won 307 seats in a hung parliament. After five days of negotiation, Cameron formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Cameron leads the first coalition government of the United Kingdom since the Second World War. The 43-year-old Cameron became the youngest British Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool 198 years earlier.

Honours

  • Through his paternal grandmother, Enid Agnes Maud Levita, Cameron is a lineal descendant of King William IV by his mistress Dorothea Jordan. This illegitimate line consists of five generations of women starting with Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Erroll, née FitzClarence, William and Jordan’s sixth child, ThePeerage.com through to Cameron’s grandmother (thereby making Cameron a 5th cousin of Queen Elizabeth II). Cameron’s paternal forebears also have a long history in finance. His father Ian was senior partner of the stockbrokers Panmure Gordon, in which firm partnerships had long been held by Cameron’s ancestors, including David’s grandfather and great-grandfather, and was a Director of estate agent John D. Wood. David Cameron’s great-great-grandfather Emile Levita, a German Jewish financier (and descendant of Renaissance scholar Elia Levita), who obtained British citizenship in 1871, was the director of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China which became Standard Chartered Bank in 1969. His wife, Cameron’s great-great-grandmother, was a descendant of the wealthy Danish Jewish Rée family on her father’s side.Fischer, Joseph (1912). Hartvig Philip Rée og hans slægt; udg. paa Foranledning af Eduard Rée. Copenhagen. pp. 47, 56, 59, 61, 62 & 64The Legal Observer, or, Journal of Jurisprudence, Volume 12 (1837?), p. 534 One of Emile’s sons, Arthur Francis Levita (died 1910, brother of Sir Cecil Levita), of Panmure Gordon stockbrokers, together with great-great-grandfather Sir Ewen Cameron,Cameron, Robert. . Cameron Genealogies. Retrieved 9 March 2007. London head of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, played key roles in arranging loans supplied by the Rothschilds to the Japanese Central Banker (later Prime Minister) Takahashi Korekiyo for the financing of the Japanese Government in the Russo-Japanese war.
  • Cameron’s maternal grandfather was Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet, an Army officer who served as High Sheriff of Berkshire, and Cameron’s maternal great-grandfather was Sir William Mount, 1st Baronet, CBE, Conservative MP for Newbury 1918–1922. Cameron’s great-great-grandmother was Lady Ida Matilda Alice Feilding. His great-great-great-grandfather was William Feilding, 7th Earl of Denbigh, GCH, PC, a courtier and Gentleman of the Bedchamber. His mother’s cousin, Sir Ferdinand Mount, was head of 10 Downing Street’s Policy Unit in the early 1980s. Cameron is the nephew of Sir William Dugdale, brother-in-law of Katherine, Lady Dugdale (died 2004) Lady-in-Waiting to HM The Queen since 1955,"Lady Dugdale" (Obituary). The Daily Telegraph (London). 26 April 2004.Debrett’s Peerage 1968; p. 256, Dugdale. and former Chairman of Aston Villa Football Club. Birmingham-born documentary filmmaker Joshua Dugdale is his cousin.

    Cameron has said: "On my mother’s side of the family, her mother was a Llewellyn, so Welsh. I’m a real mixture of Scottish, Welsh and English".

    Prime Minister

    On 11 May 2010, following the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and on his recommendation, Queen Elizabeth II invited Cameron to form a government. At age 43, Cameron became the youngest British Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool, who was appointed in 1812. In his first address outside 10 Downing Street, he announced his intention to form a coalition government, the first since the Second World War, with the Liberal Democrats.

    Cameron outlined how he intended to "put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and for the national interest." As one of his first moves Cameron appointed Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, as Deputy Prime Minister on 11 May 2010. Between them, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats control 363 seats in the House of Commons, with a majority of 76 seats. On 2 June 2010, when Cameron took his first session of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) as Prime Minister, he began by offering his support and condolences to those affected by the shootings in Cumbria.

    On 5 February 2011, Cameron criticised the failure of ‘state multiculturalism’, in his first speech as PM on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism.

    Styles

    • David Cameron Esq (1966–2001)
    • David Cameron Esq MP (2001–2005)
    • The Rt Hon David Cameron MP (2005–)

    Leadership of the Conservative Party

    Leadership election

    Following the Labour victory in the May 2005 general election, Michael Howard announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party and set a lengthy timetable for the leadership election. Cameron announced on 29 September 2005 that he would be a candidate. Parliamentary colleagues supporting him included Boris Johnson, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, Shadow Defence Secretary and deputy leader of the party Michael Ancram, Oliver Letwin. BBC News. 17 October 2005. Retrieved 25 November 2006. and former party leader William Hague.. BBC News. 12 November 2005. Retrieved 25 November 2006. His campaign did not gain wide support until his speech, delivered without notes, at the 2005 Conservative Party Conference. In the speech he vowed to make people "feel good about being Conservatives again" and said he wanted "to switch on a whole new generation.". BBC News. 4 October 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2006.

    In the first ballot of Conservative MPs on 18 October 2005, Cameron came second, with 56 votes, slightly more than expected; David Davis had fewer than predicted at 62 votes; Liam Fox came third with 42 votes; and Kenneth Clarke was eliminated with 38 votes. In the second ballot on 20 October 2005, Cameron came first with 90 votes; David Davis was second, with 57; and Liam Fox was eliminated with 51 votes.. BBC News. 20 October 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2006. All 198 Conservative MPs voted in both ballots.

    The next stage of the election process, between Davis and Cameron, was a vote open to the entire party membership. Cameron was elected with more than twice as many votes as Davis and more than half of all ballots issued; Cameron won 134,446 votes on a 78% turnout, to Davis’s 64,398.. BBC News. 6 December 2005. Retrieved 25 November 2006. Although Davis had initially been the favourite, it was widely acknowledged that his candidacy was marred by a disappointing conference speech. Cameron had made a well-received speech without notes (which The Daily Telegraph said "showed a sureness and a confidence that is greatly to his credit"). Cameron’s election as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition was announced on 6 December 2005. As is customary for an Opposition leader not already a member, upon election Cameron became a member of the Privy Council, being formally approved to join on 14 December 2005, and sworn of the Council on 8 March 2006.. 10 Downing Street. 14 December 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2006.

    Cameron’s appearance on the cover of Time in September 2008 was said by the Daily Mail to present him to the world as ‘Prime Minister in waiting’.Martin, Daniel (12 September 2008). . Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 1 October 2008.

    Reaction to Cameron as leader

    Cameron’s relative youth and inexperience before becoming leader have invited satirical comparison with Tony Blair. Private Eye soon published a picture of both leaders on its front cover, with the caption "World’s first face transplant a success".Roshan Lall, Rashmee (16 December 2005).. The Times of India (Mumbai). Retrieved 20 September 2007. On the left, the New Statesman unfavourably likened his "new style of politics" to Tony Blair’s early leadership years.Cohen, Nick (8 August 2005).. New Statesman (London). Retrieved 2 November 2009. Cameron was accused of paying excessive attention to image: ITV News broadcast footage from the 2006 Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth showing him wearing four different sets of clothes within a few hours. Cameron was characterised in a Labour Party political broadcast as "Dave the Chameleon", who would change what he said to match the expectations of his audience. Cameron later claimed that the broadcast had become his daughter’s "favourite video".Rifkind, Hugo (17 May 2006). . The Times "People" blog. Retrieved 9 November 2006. He has also been described by comedy writer and broadcaster Charlie Brooker as being "like a hollow Easter egg with no bag of sweets inside" in his Guardian column.Brooker, Charlie (2 April 2007). . The Guardian (London). Retrieved 4 September 2007.

    On the right, Norman Tebbit, former Chairman of the Conservative Party, likened Cameron to Pol Pot, "intent on purging even the memory of Thatcherism before building a New Modern Compassionate Green Globally Aware Party".The Economist (London). 4 February 2006, p. 32. Quentin Davies MP, who defected from the Conservatives to Labour on 26 June 2007, branded him "superficial, unreliable and [with] an apparent lack of any clear convictions" and stated that David Cameron had turned the Conservative Party’s mission into a "PR agenda". Traditionalist conservative columnist and author Peter Hitchens has written, "Mr Cameron has abandoned the last significant difference between his party and the established left", by embracing social liberalism.Hitchens, Peter (14 December 2005). . The Guardian (London). p. 28. Retrieved 6 November 2006. Daily Telegraph correspondent and blogger Gerald Warner has been particularly scathing about Cameron’s leadership, arguing that it is alienating traditionalist conservative elements from the Conservative Party.. The Daily Telegraph.

    Cameron is reported to be known to friends and family as "Dave", though he prefers to use "David’" in public.Rumbelow, Helen (21 May 2005).. The Times (London). Retrieved 4 September 2007. Critics often refer to him as "Call me Dave", implying populism in the same way that "Call me Tony" was used in 1997.The first such reference in the British press appears to be Kay, Richard (1 July 2005). "Cameron taking the Michael". Daily Mail (London). p. 45. The Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein has condemned those who attempt to belittle Cameron by calling him ‘Dave’.Finkelstein, Daniel (5 October 2006).. The Times Comment Central. Retrieved 6 November 2006.

    Shadow Cabinet appointments

    His Shadow Cabinet appointments have included MPs associated with the various wings of the party. Former leader William Hague was appointed to the Foreign Affairs brief, while both George Osborne and David Davis were retained, as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and Shadow Home Secretary respectively. Hague, assisted by Davis, stood in for Cameron during his paternity leave in February 2006. In June 2008 Davis announced his intention to resign as an MP, and was immediately replaced as Shadow Home Secretary by Dominic Grieve, the surprise move seen as a challenge to the changes introduced under Cameron’s leadership. In January 2009 a reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet was undertaken. The chief change was the appointment of former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke as Shadow Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Secretary, David Cameron stating that "With Ken Clarke’s arrival, we now have the best economic team." The reshuffle saw eight other changes made. Conservatives.com. Retrieved 1 November 2009.

    European Conservatives and Reformists

    During his successful 2005 campaign to be elected Leader of the Conservative Party, Cameron pledged that the Conservative Party’s Members of the European Parliament would leave the European People’s Party group, which had a "federalist" approach to the European Union.White, Michael; Branigan, Tania (18 October 2005). The Guardian (London). p. 1. Once elected Cameron began discussions with right-wing and eurosceptic parties in other European countries, mainly in eastern Europe, and in July 2006 he concluded an agreement to form the Movement for European Reform with the Czech Civic Democratic Party, leading to the formation of a new European Parliament group, the European Conservatives and Reformists, in 2009 after the European Parliament elections.Watt, Nicholas (13 July 2006). The Guardian (London). p. 14. Cameron attended a gathering at Warsaw’s Palladium cinema celebrating the foundation of the alliance.Medek, Jakub (1 June 2009).. Gazeta Wyborcza (Warsaw). Retrieved 27 October 2009.

    In forming the caucus, which had 54 MEPs drawn from eight of the 27 EU member states, Cameron reportedly broke with two decades of Conservative cooperation with the centre-right Christian Democrats, the European People’s Party (EPP), on the grounds that they are dominated by European federalists and supporters of the Lisbon treaty. EPP leader Wilfried Martens, former prime minister of Belgium, has stated "Cameron’s campaign has been to take his party back to the centre in every policy area with one major exception: Europe. … I can’t understand his tactics. Merkel and Sarkozy will never accept his Euroscepticism." The left-wing New Statesman magazine reported that the US administration had "concerns about Cameron among top members of the team" and quoted David Rothkopf in saying that the issue "makes Cameron an even more dubious choice to be Britain’s next prime minister than he was before and, should he attain that post, someone about whom the Obama administration ought to be very cautious."

    Shortlists for Parliamentary Candidates

    Similarly, Cameron’s initial "A-List" of prospective parliamentary candidates has been attacked by members of his party, and the policy has now been discontinued in favour of sex-balanced final shortlists. These have been criticised by senior Conservative MP and Prisons Spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe as an "insult to women", Widdecombe accusing Cameron of "storing up huge problems for the future."McSmith, Andy (22 August 2006). "Cameron push for more female MPs ‘an insult to women’". The Independent (London). The plans have since led to conflict in some constituencies, including the widely reported resignation of Joanne Cash, a close friend of Cameron, as candidate in the constituency of Westminster North following a dispute described as "a battle for the soul of the Tory Party".

    2010 general election

    The Conservatives had last won a general election in 1992. The general election of 2010 resulted in the Conservatives, led by Cameron, winning the largest number of seats (306). This was, however, 20 seats short of an overall majority and resulted in the nation’s first hung parliament since February 1974. BBC News Talks between Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg led to an agreed Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition.

    Political commentary

    Allegations of social elitism

    While Leader of the Conservative Party, Cameron has been accused of reliance on "old-boy networks" and attacked by his party for the imposition of selective shortlists of prospective parliamentary candidates.

    The Guardian has accused Cameron of relying on "the most prestigious of old-boy networks in his attempt to return the Tories to power", pointing out that three members of his shadow cabinet and 15 members of his front bench team were "Old Etonians". Similarly, The Sunday Times has commented that "David Cameron has more Etonians around him than any leader since Macmillan" and asked whether he can "represent Britain from such a narrow base." Former Labour cabinet minister Hazel Blears has said of Cameron, "You have to wonder about a man who surrounds himself with so many people who went to the same school. I’m pretty sure I don’t want 21st-century Britain run by people who went to just one school."

    Some supporters of the party have accused Cameron’s government of cronyism on the front benches. Sir Tom Cowie, working-class founder of Arriva and former Conservative donor, ceased his donations in August 2007 due to disillusionment with Cameron’s leadership, saying, "the Tory party seems to be run now by Old Etonians and they don’t seem to understand how other people live." In reply, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said when a party was changing, "there will always be people who are uncomfortable with that process". In a response to Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions in December 2009, Gordon Brown addressed the Conservative Party’s inheritance tax policy, saying it "seems to have been dreamed up on the playing fields of Eton". This led to open discussion of "class war" by the mainstream media and leading politicians of both major parties, with speculation that the 2010 general election campaign would see the Labour Party highlight the backgrounds of senior Conservative politicians.

    Raising teaching standards

    At the launch of the Conservative Party’s education manifesto in January 2010, Cameron declared an admiration for the "brazenly elitist" approach to education of countries such as Singapore and South Korea and expressed a desire to "elevate the status of teaching in our country". He suggested the adoption of more stringent criteria for entry to teaching and offered repayment of the loans of maths and science graduates obtaining first or 2.1 degrees from "good" universities. Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said "The message that the Conservatives are sending to the majority of students is that if you didn’t go to a university attended by members of the Shadow Cabinet, they don’t believe you’re worth as much." In response to the manifesto as a whole, Chris Keates, head of teaching union NASUWT, said teachers would be left "shocked, dismayed and demoralised" and warned of the potential for strikes as a result.

    South Africa

    In April 2009, The Independent reported that in 1989, while Nelson Mandela remained imprisoned under the apartheid régime, David Cameron had accepted a trip to South Africa paid for by an anti-sanctions lobby firm. A spokesperson for Cameron responded by saying that the Conservative Party was at that time opposed to sanctions against South Africa and that his trip was a fact-finding mission. However, the newspaper reported that Cameron’s then superior at Conservative Research Department called the trip "jolly", saying that "it was all terribly relaxed, just a little treat, a perk of the job. The Botha regime was attempting to make itself look less horrible, but I don’t regard it as having been of the faintest political consequence." Cameron distanced himself from his party’s history of opposing sanctions against the regime. He was criticised by Labour MP Peter Hain, himself an anti-apartheid campaigner.

    Turkey and Israel

    In a speech in Ankara in July 2010, Cameron stated unequivocally his support for Turkey’s accession to the EU, citing economic, security and political considerations, and claimed that those who opposed Turkish membership were driven by "protectionism, narrow nationalism or prejudice". In that speech, he was also critical of Israeli action during the Gaza flotilla raid and its Gaza policy, and repeated his opinion that Israel had turned Gaza into a "prison camp", having previously referred to Gaza as "a giant open prison". These views were met with mixed reactions.

    At the end of May 2011, Cameron stepped down as patron of the Jewish National Fund, becoming the first British prime minister not to be patron of the charity in the 110 years of its existence.

    Despite these events, David Cameron is perhaps the most outspoken supporter of Israel in a whole generation of PMs. In a speech in 2011 Cameron said: "You have a Prime Minister whose commitment and determination to work for peace in Israel is deep and strong. Britain will continue to push for peace, but will always stand up for Israel against those who wish her harm". He said he wanted to reaffirm his "unshakable" belief in Israel within the same message. He also voiced his opposition to the Goldstone Report, claiming it had been biased against Israel and not enough blame had been placed on Hamas.

    Gay rights

    David Cameron was given a score of 36% in favour of lesbian, gay and bisexual equality by Stonewall in 2010.);return false}catch(e){}”/>