David Cameron

David William Donald "Call Me Dave" "Dodgy Dave" Cameron, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton , Unificator of Ireland, Liberator of Scots, once the most hated politician in Britain,David Cameron is Britain’s most disliked politician: His memoir, published this week, is unlikely to win people over (Sep 18th 2019) The Economist. was leader of the UK Conservative Party and Prime Minister from 2010-2016 before resigning after humiliatingly losing the Brexit referendum. At 43, Cameron was the youngest person to become Prime Minister since 1812, when Lord Liverpool took up the post at age 42. He's the first premier in a century to be re-elected with a bigger share of the popular vote, and the first since Margaret Thatcher to be re-elected with a greater number of seats. He almost went down as the PM who won three referendums to... keep things exactly the same? 
Initially presenting himself as the "heir to Blair" (right down to the hand movements) with the trappings of a Slick Willie,"The Cameron Confessions", Independent 2.10.07. Cameron made it his work to surpass Thatcher as the most reviled name in modern British politics. At least Cheshire Cat and Milk Snatcher were leaders, with a clear vision of the future; Cameron's the sludge that comes out when you squeeze a broken government too hard. His only defining ideal is to do the opposite of what he says. ("Compassionate Conservatism", "Greenest Government Ever", "NHS safe in our hands", "Hug a Hoody", "I will resign in September," etc.)Wright, Oliver, "End of 'compassionate Conservatism' as David Cameron details plans for crackdown on welfare", Independent 7.25.12.Keating, David, "The greenest government ever?", Politico via European Voice (Updated 1/15/16, 5:40 PM CET).Dathan, Matt, "David Cameron's vow to lead 'greenest Government ever' lies in tatters as Tories axe Green Deal home energy efficiency scheme", Independent 7..23.15.Matthew Holehouse, and Ben Riley-Smith, "David Cameron: The NHS is 'safe in my hands'", Telegraph (1/9/15 at 4:57PM GMT).Brown, Jonathan, "On Cameron's 'hug a hoodie' estate, Big Society has made little impact", Independent 10.5.11.
On the other hand, Cameron kept the crazies within his party (mostly) in check. He legalised gay marriage. His "Big Society" was a fairy tale, but proposing to replace welfare with volunteer and charity work was slightly better than Theresa May proposing to replace it with sweet bugger-all. In fact, he was one of the leading centrist figures in the Conservative Party and was sometimes referred to as center-right liberal or liberal conservative. As the wise man said, "He was the future, once.""Cameron v Blair at first PMQs: 'He was the future once' – 2005 archive video", Guardian (7/13/16 at 6:52 AM EDT).
During Rishi Sunak's tenure, Cameron made an unexpected return to politics, being appointed foreign secretary in 2023 after incumbent James Cleverly was reassigned to the Home Office.Stacey, Kiran, David Cameron returns to UK government as foreign secretary, Guardian (11/13/23 at 10:01 AM GMT). This makes him the first Prime Minister since to return to government after stepping down. Cameron was also granted a peerage, making him Lord Cameron.Mason, Chris, The return of David Cameron: What is going on?, BBC News (11/13/23).
==Personal life==
Cameron is married, with a son and daughter. His oldest son died in February 2009 from a combination of cerebral palsy and epilepsy. In spite of this, his lackluster parenting skills are a minor running gag among the press. In 2012, he accidentally left his daughter at the pub where they had been dining, only realizing after they'd returned home. There was also his wife's unplanned pregnancy in the run-up to the election; he swears he doesn't understand it either.
Cameron is an avowed member of the Church of England. He attends Church but states that his religious beliefs do not affect his politics. Cameron has also stated that his religious beliefs were challenged by the death of his disabled son, Ivan Reginald Ian, but went on to say that in many ways the experience had strengthened his beliefs.
===Call Me Dave===
Apart from working for John Major as a researcher, until 2001 Cameron had held only one job in his life: as a media consultant for a defunct TV station. Knowing that your father made his fortune from helping high earners avoid tax,Wilson, Jeremy, "This leaked document shows how David Cameron's dad kept a fortune away from UK tax authorities", Business Insider (4 April 2016, 6:23 AM). and knowing that you're just one telephone call away from such an arrangement yourself,Robert Booth, Holly Watt, and David Pegg, "David Cameron admits he profited from father's Panama offshore trust", Guardian (7 April 2016, 3:07pm EDT). it can be hard to get motivated.
He's very much an upper-class twat.Hope, Christopher, "Middle classes told to stop using Sure Start", Telegraph (11 Aug 2010,7:30AM BST).Dahlgreen, Will, "Ed Middleclass", YouGov (17 January 2014, 9:22 a.m.). 77% of voters think David Cameron is upper class. He attended a private school rather than state schools, stacked his shadow cabinet with private school graduates (Oliver Letwin edits out his entire youth to say he "worked in business and government"), and he's even descended from an illegitimate child of King William IV, who incidentally loved his illegitimate children. Gove and Cameron even used to geek-out over Game of Thrones together. (Hard to see them doing that now, especially since his former classmates knifed him in the back, and he's done his level best to return the favour.)Robinson, Nick, "David Cameron and Michael Gove: A torn friendship", BBC June 2016. His role in government was to sell austerity on behalf of a cabinet of inherited millionaires who do not need those services.Hardy, Ruth, "It was hard to stomach David Cameron preaching austerity from a golden throne", Guardian (11/13/13 at 7:58 EST).
Cameron's from a background where getting it a bit wrong doesn't really have any consequences.John Follain and Simon Kennedy, "For Gambler Cameron, Brexit Proves to Be a Bet Too Far", Bloomberg (6/24/16 at 4:32 AM PDT, updated 8:24 AM PDT). This feeds through into his professional role: he's not used to the idea of an apparently small gamble having disastrous consequences down the line.
==Leader of the Opposition==
During his ascension in parliament, Cameron was a fresh faced eco-warrior who claimed to be soft on drugs.Simons, Jake Wallis, "Drug Legalisation in the UK Is a Question of Time", Newsweek (8/15/14 at 6:41 AM).Tories in Birmingham, BBC (10/5/08 at 11:20 PM). After winning the party leadership in December 2005, he "stepped up his modernization drive", moving away from the old Tory platform of standing up for big business, scrapping (subsidized) private healthcare, and generally part ways with Thatcherite program.Cameron says he is breaking with legacy of Thatcher, The Telegraph, January 2006 He vowed to make people "feel good about being Conservatives again" and "switch on a whole new generation", which he started by banning lavish parties, pools, spending, and consumption among his MPs.
He put emphasis on his party's previously-vague environmental policy:Conservatives - Environment by cycling to work while a car carrying his papers follows him.No, we're not making this up His quest to "stand up to big business" began by opposing a law that would make businesses more socially and environmentally accountable.Conservatives' green credentials exposed, Act!onaid 10.16.06. Nevertheless, he seems to have maintained the climate change targets set by Blair.
Still, he quickly drew arched brows for his supposed leftism. He supported diversity, offered to grant more autonomy to Scotland/Wales, seemed open to giving self-rule to England, and passed gay marriage in Coalition with the Liberal Democrats (despite vehement protest by the majority of his party).MP-by-MP: Gay marriage vote. BBC News 5 February 2013. However, he was previously supportive of Section 28, and did not want to see the "promotion of homosexuality" in schools.
Another knock in favor of Cameron is that, in his fourth year as Prime Minister, he passed the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013, which came into effect on March 2015. This means the Royal Family of the United Kingdom finally has absolute primogeniture; the eldest child is the heir, regardless of gender. This also meant that a) anyone who marries a Roman Catholic is no longer disqualified from the line of succession, and b) removed the requirement of those outside the first six persons in line to the throne to seek the Sovereign's approval to marry.
===2010 Election===
The good people of Britain were not impressed. While all media outlets predicted Cameron would take the Conservatives to a comfortable majority, the voters apparently thought he wasn't sincere in his modernization, or felt he was too bland, and delivered hung parliament in May 2010. He pulled a Dewey by assuming that he was guaranteed victory so long as he didn't say anything stupid, which instead just convinced the voting public that he had no real policies. "I agree with Nick" certainly wrecked his chances too.
So, hung parliament? Too volatile for any party to experience in Britain, so he recruited Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister and moved into a coalition government with the Lib-Dems.
==Prime Minister==
Anchored by George Osborne, Cameron unveiled an austerity program: hike taxes on the middle and lower classes, slash spending on social programs, and cut taxes on the rich while withering away public services so they can be volunteer-run. His "Big Society" targets lower-class women, minorities, students, immigrants, and people with disabilities (despite having lost a child to illness himself).Atkinson, Rebecca, "How David Cameron has betrayed people with disabilities", Guardian (Last modified 7/14/17 at 8:18 AM EDT). Many are kicking themselves for allowing "business as usual" under a Tory government yet again. Under his premiership, the United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the western world, with just as sluggish economic growth.
===Big Society===
Due to the deficit "inherited" from the previous government, the Cameron government has been forced to cut all hope. Hope will be contracted to the private sector with the tender process to start early in the next parliament. In the mean time, concerned citizens are advised to purchase hope on an individual basis from suitable local dealers.
====No free lunch====
Taking a page from Bill Clinton, Cameron is now trying to end welfare as we know it. He cut 5 billion pounds in pensions and disability benefits, which have led to 60 deaths that would've been preventable had he not, you know, cut the damn things. These incidents where preventable illnesses killed people is now known as "never events" – as in, they never should have happened. His workfare program also strips the working poor of their benefits whenever their employers just decide to do so.
Thanks to Osborne, we now have the dreaded "Bedroom Tax", or Welfare Reform Act 2012, which reduces the benefits paid to claimants if they are deemed to have too much living space in the property they are renting while completely ignoring that these people are often unable to find smaller accommodation (typically due to the Tories' earlier right to buy policy all but dissolving the remaining social housing stock). Stay at home mothers are stripped of their benefits for their "lifestyle" choices (i.e. not being working mothers), as well. His hard-on for Zero Hour Contracts also lead to, in effect, state-sponsored slave labour. It's gotten so bad, Food Banks are surging in both number and usage because people don't have the money to get their own food.Gentleman, Amelia, "Food banks: 'Most people at the school gates have used them'", Guardian (Last modified 7/14/16 at 8:12 EDT). The introduction of Universal Credit, which replaced Employment and Support Allowance, denied benefits to disabled citizens and required them to look for work; work they could not do because of their disability. Between 2011 and 2014, 90 people a month died after being declared "fit to work" and having their benefits removed."More than 2,300 died after fit for work assessment - DWP figures", BBC 8.27.15. At this point, it's surprising that he's not actually setting fire to beggars. (They get that out of their system whilst they're at Oxford.)
====Taxes====
Anyone who believes Cameron would deal with tax avoidance rationally should consider his own father, with whom he was very close, having vast sums of money in offshore tax havens, far more consequential than Labour's last "reshuffle" or whatever nonsense tends to occupy the minds of Cameron supporters. He almost certainly knew the details of father's offshore tax havens, and he did the minimum he could possibly get away with to close tax loopholes. According to Vince Cable, he was successfully lobbied by tax havens, and blocked an attempt by the EU to crack down on tax avoidance.Stewart, Heather, "Vince Cable: Cameron 'got cold feet' on tax avoidance crackdown", Guardian (4/8/16 02.00 EDT).
On top of that, his tax returns show that he makes a sizeable income as a landlord, despite having been repeatedly accused of policies favourable to landlords.Fenton, Siobhan, "David Cameron 'has earned £500,000 in private rent since becoming Prime Minister'", Independent 1.16.16. Now he's complaining that it's "unfair" to remove the vale of secrecy surrounding British tax havens. There's way too many of his chums who'll go ape if they start talking about that particular den of law-breaking and secrecy. It's funny how he isn't he even pretending to represent normal people anymore. All those working-class Tories look like idiots now.Jon Stone & Charlie Cooper, "David Cameron says it is 'unfair' to criticise British-controlled tax havens", Independent 4.13.16.
====Education====
Is it as horrid as the U.S.? No, but it is as close to a privatization as we've seen to date in the United Kingdom.
The Education Act of 2011 abolished the General Teaching Council for England, the Training and Development Agency for Schools, the Qualification and Curriculum Development Agency, the Young People's Learning Agency for England, and the School Support Staff Negotiating Body, and transferred all of their powers to the Secretary of State; centralizing authority to an ideological branch who is not interested in free and fair education. It restricts the ability for students to report on allegations made against teachers, allows the school staff to commit Stop and Frisk on their fellow staffers and students, even if they are under the age of criminal responsibility (which is 10 years old in the UK).
Teachers are also given the power to examine data files on electronic devices and delete them if they "believe" there is good reason to do so. All new teachers in England are to be required to serve an induction period conducted by the Secretary of State. New schools may not be built until approved by the Secretary of State. The number of different categories of governors that must be elected or appointed to a school's governing body was reduced, while Section 39 makes provision for the procedure to dissolve the governing body of a single school within a wider federation of schools should the school wish to leave the federation in order to convert to academy status. The Secretary of State even has the authority to close any school that has failed to comply with performance standards, removes the requirement of the Local Government Ombudsman to consider complaints about a school from parents and pupils, as well as strengthening the Secretary of State's power to intervene when they are of the opinion that a governing body is acting or intends to act in an unreasonable manner. Schools are no longer allowed to "promote the economic and social well being of an area". What most people remember most is the raising of tuition fees on students attending higher education.
====Hater of Houses====
He sold off thousands of houses over to the private sector, as well, and in the 2015 campaign, promised to extend the "right to buy" (previously instituted under the Thatcher government, and allowing tenants of council-owned social housing to buy their home at a knock-down price) to homes owned by housing associations - which means that not only will a new government under Cameron sell off the rest of what is a damn-near skeletal social housing supply, they will also sell off houses that the government does not actually own, given that housing associations are independent NGOs. To own a house, the private sector will charge extortionate fees to change stuff as simple as a light bulb. This is called social housing, and it is horrid.Moore, Suzanne, "Extending right to buy is the Tories’ zombie Thatcherism at its worst", Guardian (4/14/15 at 7:35 AM EDT).
====Anti-transparency====
Cameron did remove the Identity cards under Tony Blair, but kept the anti-terrorism program intact, allowing the government to hound whistleblowers over the government's alliance with the American surveillance program.
David Miranda, an outspoken dissident against the intelligence apparatus of his country, cataloged encrypted files, including an external hard drive containing 58,000 highly classified UK intelligence documents, "in order to assist the journalistic activity of Glenn Greenwald". This included personal information that would allow staff to be identified, including those deployed overseas. Miranda was promptly detained and questioned by the Cameron government, who confiscated Miranda's computer and other electronic devices that attempted to blow the whistle on the extent of the British surveillance program.Devereaux, Ryan, "UK Court: David Miranda Detention Legal Under Terrorism Law", Intercept (2/19/14 at 2:23 AM). Alan Travis, Matthew Taylor and Patrick Wintour, "David Miranda detention at Heathrow airport was lawful, high court rules", Guardian (Last modified 2/19/14 at 5:19 PM EST).
====Doctors are the new miners====
Sounds like a typical Tory toff, you say. What sets him apart from the others? Taking a page from the Americans and privatizing the National Health Service—something even Thatcher did not dare to do."Miliband warns of 'stealth privatisation' of NHS", BBC 4/25/15.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, Cameron removed the Secretary of State for Health's responsibility over the health of citizens, which the post had carried since the creation of the NHS in 1948, thereby depriving the NHS of a direct system leadership. A new executive agency for the Department of Health, called Public Health England, was established to oversee healthcare instead. Cameron abolished NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) and Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs), and transferred between £60 billion and £80 billion of "commissioning", or health care funds, from the abolished PCTs to several hundred "clinical commissioning groups", most of which are avenues owned and run by – who else? – private insurance. Yes, Cameron is trying to turn the revered British healthcare system into a two-tier, public-private duel that strips the public of its funding in exchange for empowering the private sector. Keep taking out enough bricks and eventually the wall will come down, and there's a whole bunch of friends waiting to rebuild it for a cost.
Oh, he's also privatized cancer treatment, end of life services, plasma suppliers, urgent care, prison health, mental health services, ambulance services, and maternity care. Oh, and he cut funding to heart and stroke care.
This lie that the British Medical Association is some sort of Leninist sect rather than a group of lily-white and (until recently) conservative professionals is not a very convincing one."Junior doctors' leaders 'trying to topple the government'", BBC 4.25.16. Heavens, the government wouldn't try to smear its opposition would it? (You don't just quote "unnamed sources" when they're that sensational.) If you ever needed proof the Conservative Party is so far up its own arse it can see the back of its teeth, this is it.
===James Bondage===
At least he isn't a social conservative, right? The government became a laughingstock all over the world for trying to force web hosts to "filter out" porn on their services. The fact that Fifty Shades had just wrapped filming was merely a coincidence.
Instead of a straight up porn filter, we now have a BDSM filter. Among the things now listed as "life-threatening", and therefore explicitly banned, are penetration by any object "associated with violence" (resulting in the bizarre implication that it is impossible to use one's hands to commit violence), physical or verbal abuse (even with consent), role-playing, physical restraint, and so on."The End of BDSM", Vice The acts themselves are not banned, but the recording of these acts, and thus, the publishing and viewing of these acts on the internet, has been deemed unlawful. Many of these practices involved female enjoyment, by the way. It gets the Conservative backbenchers cheering!
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks, Cameron has proposed a ban on "end-to-end encryption", which would disproportionately target social messaging medium. Services like WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram, Cyberdust and more would be forced to change their services to ensure they could function in the UK. The law's doubtlessly broad wording could include any encrypted service that the government finds annoying.Williams, Owen,. http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/01/13/david-camerons-plan-ban-end-end-encryption-catastrophic-internet-freedom/ "David Cameron’s plan to ban end-to-end encryption is catastrophic for Internet freedom"], TNW 2015. Any person who communicates using encryption or sends encrypted files would be required to provide government officials access to cryptographically-protected information. Those refusing to hand over their password could face up to two years in prison.
===Taking a hand at stand-up, is he?===
In 2013, he pushed to attack Syria during its civil war. Parliament voted no, largely on the back of Ed Miliband, of all people. Cameron was the first prime minister in 150 years to lose a vote on Military action in the House of Commons. But this is largely because military action has never been required to be put to the vote. Cameron did not require one this time, but since the invasion of Iraq under Blair he probably thought it best abide by Parliamentary Convention formed in March 2011 during the Coalition to ask the Commons. Theresa May thought it best not when she ordered action in Syria later.
==2015 General Election==
The EU referendum campaign was "Project Fear" v2.0. Version 1.0 was the 2015 General Election. The Conservatives ran on fears over the national debt. Towards the end they really struck gold when they suggested to English voters that a Miliband/Sturgeon pact would lead to money flowing north of the border. (Hard to remember that now we have Corbyn in the driver's seat but there were questions about whether Ed Miliband was a strong and competent leader or whether they would "bankrupt the country" again).Dominiczak, Peter, "David Cameron: SNP will be 'chain to Labour’s wrecking ball' if Ed Miliband wins", Telegraph (4/16/15 at 12:01AM BST). This highly negative campaign delivered the last thing anyone expected: an outright victory. Even if Labour swept all of Scotland, Cameron would've retained his majority. No wonder Cameron and Osborne, who were fronting the campaign, tried the same trick again in 2016.
Not one to take chances, though, Cameron resorted to voter suppression tactics—straight out of the GOP playbook.Tait Edwards, George, excerpt from How David Cameron Fixed The 2015 General Election and Much Else via Medium 1 December 2015. All told, over seven million people remained unregistered, mainly young and poor. And they don't vote Tory.
===Off the chain===
With the gloves now off, and aided by a highly-partisan press, he painted Labour as being in cahoots with the Scottish separatist movement (despite Labour promises to the contrary). By further driving a wedge between Scotland and England, he cemented the position of the Scottish nationalists at the moment, which might have dire consequences down the road.
Oliver Letwin, the chief architect of Cameron's policies and chair of the Cabinet Office (basically the British version of the White House Chief of Staff), told Margaret Thatcher to block relief for black communities after the Tottenham riots, claiming the violence was caused by "bad moral attitudes" and that the funding would only be spent on "disco and the drug trade".Travis, Alan, "Oliver Letwin blocked help for black youth after 1985 riots", Guardian' (Last modified on 7/14/16 at 7:15 AM EDT). (Fucking Thatcher. Of all the planets to crash land onto, why ours?):
*He tried to ban the House of Lords from overturning legislation passed in the House of Commons.Hughes, Laura, "David Cameron to ban House of Lords from overturning legislation", Telegraph (12/7/15 at 7:57AM GMT). He later changed that to "severely curtailed.""Lords veto powers 'to be curtailed'", BBC 12.16.15. Good job on upholding democracy!
*In an attempt to tackle so-called extremism, Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled a set of anti-terror laws that force citizens to "send their tweets and Facebook posts to the police for approval",Stone, Jon, "Britain is too tolerant and should interfere more in people's lives, says David Cameron", Independent 5.13.15. and has advocated that Britain scrap the Human Rights Act in order to deport Muslims foreign criminals. As the Grauniad puts it, "promising to stop thousands of foreign criminals walking the streets of Britain because they can't be deported raises complicated issues of sending people back to countries where they are in danger of facing torture or inhumane or degrading treatment".Alan Travis. Tories' bid to scrap Human Rights Act looks simplistic and rushed. The Grauniad, 11 May 2015. But then they would, wouldn't they?
*And now, Cameron is instituting a program that monitors and tracks your Facebook, Twitter, and blogosphere whenever you mention the government, so they know exactly who says what (whether pro-government or anti-government).Readhead, Harry, "Your Facebook, Twitter and blog are about to be monitored for references to the Government", Metro (6/5/15 at 6:04 pm). His Home Secretary, Theresa May, is looking to ban WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat under the "Snoopers Charter," which means social media sites and apps will be shut down if they refuse to remove encryption.Johnston, Ian, "David Cameron pledges new 'snoopers' charter' if he wins general election", Independent 1.11.15. This is the single most intrusive and draconian surveillance law ever constructed by a Western country. It's all part and parcel of Cameron's threat to ban any sites that refuse to comply. He wants to leverage them into allowing backdoor access to the government.Griffin, Andrew, "WhatsApp and iMessage could be banned under new surveillance plans", Independent 1.12.15.
*Cameron's government, again through Theresa May, will ban foreign students from working while studying, and force them to leave after graduation; thereby deporting anyone who doesn't contort to the "preferred" class of society that Cameron supports.Dathan, Matt, "oreign students will be banned from working in the UK and forced to leave as soon as they finish course under Theresa May's tough new visa rules", Independent 7/13/15.
*Taking a page from Barack Obama, on September 2015, Cameron revealed that he sanctioned an extrajudicial drone attack that killed Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin on August 21, in Raqqah, Syria (de facto controlled by ISIL at the time). A third person, yet unnamed, was also killed in the strike. He alleged that Khan and Amin were supporting DAESH; Defense Minister Michael Fallon even said "It is extremely clear that, where there was a vital national interest at stake, we wouldn’t hesitate to take action rather than seek prior permission, to take action and then come and explain to parliament afterwards and that’s exactly what happened yesterday."
*He sent people to spy on Jeremy Corbyn, the frontrunner in Labour's leadership election in 2015.Jim Edwards and Lianna Brinded, "David Cameron is sending people to spy on Jeremy Corbyn", Business Insider (9/9/15 at 5:30 AM).
==Death of a Salesman==
The UK's first referendum was in 1974. There wasn't a referendum on NI or Scottish independence until Cameron got in. (NI got one to join Ireland but it was boycotted, so it hardly counts.) Cameron gave the UK 2 referendums and Scotland 1. It wasn't an exercise in democracy when Sarkozy offered a series of referendums (on immigration) a couple weeks before the election, in a desperate bid to head off the Front National. But this is the way with Tories: In an election year, they like to get in close and shank their opponents in the liver. Works well on easy prey like the bewildered Labour and Lib-Dem wildebeest. But now they've got themselves in a python deathgrip.
He's taken two stupid and unnecessary gambles. The first was the Scottish referendum, which he won, but by less than expected, and only after he backpedaled hard on his comments. A few hours after the referendum, he comes out and announced the half-arsed EVEL (English Votes for English Laws) to massage the English Tories and kick that can down the road.Peterkin, Tom, "English Votes for English Laws (EVEL) passed by Westminster", The Scotsman (10/22/16, updated at 11:88 pm). The second one was Brexit. In a fit of panic over UKIP's triumph at the polls, he comes out and announces a EU referendum (shoving it onto the next parliament so he won't have to deal with it).Mason, Rowena, "Labour accuses Tories of plotting ‘poisonous’ pact with Ukip ", Guardian (4/3/15 at 12:22 EDT). Farage: *laughs like Ron Swanson* If you have the majority, you don't risk it on a 50-50 vote that can only be bad for you.
His actual feelings on the issue are not clear (Boris Johnson and his esteemed Daily Express both assure us he's a separatist at heart), but he found himself backpedaling ferociously as a substantial portion of the British people made it abundantly clear that they actually wanted to leave the EU; in weeks leading up to the vote, he desperately urged reporters, television cameras and (occasionally) crowds to vote Remain. Brexit took 52% of the vote to Remain's 48%. It's not that the pollsters were so off, it's that everyone assumed the "shy Tories" would break for stay. Cameron didn't realize just how bad fear and unrest had gotten in the UK. The referendum is not legally binding (unless parliament voted to repeal the decision to join in the first place), but if he hadn't have done, the Conservatives would have lost even more votes to UKIP.
He spent 11 years dragging the Tory party kicking and screaming into the modern age, but his legacy is going to be Chamberlain-tier.Cowburn, Ashley, "David Cameron rated third worst Prime Minister since end of World War Two", 10.12.16. Independent. He couldn't even be #1 at that! Perhaps he wanted to be remembered as the bloke who broke two unions (We had a good 200-year run!) instead of pig fucker extraordinaire.
===Poison chalice===
And where is he now? Slithered off at the first opportunity.Tim Sculthorpe and Imogen Calderwood, "'Why should I do the hard s***?' Cameron told aides he'd rather quit", Daily Mail (Updated 6/25/16 at 07:15 EST). Dave: Boris, I left a present for you in the bathroom. He left no clear successor: Osbourne's left blowing in the wind like a discarded crisp packet. Never before have you seen a more depressed victor (in Britain, we mean) than BoJo at that press conference. He was in a position to take control at the next GE by neutering UKIP (offering himself as a viable alternative). If he runs now, but fails to negotiate a golden parachute from Europe, then he's dead. UKIP is pushing hard for a quick exit.Jennifer Rankin, Julian Borger, and Mark Rice-Oxley, "What is article 50 and why is it so central to the Brexit debate?", Guardian (6/25/16 at 07:32 EDT). Even if it goes through, and the UK pulls out, then prepare to be slimed by the mess of Scotland, Ireland, and a recession.
This is even funnier when you remember that Boris and Gove signed a letter begging Cameron to stay on—like they knew the shit was about to hit the fan."Leave campaign Tories urge Cameron to stay PM", BBC 6.24.16. Teflon Tony's gonna be nothing next to Nonstick Dave.
===Greensill & the End of Dave?===
Bored with trying to write a book in his 50,000 pound garden shed without dwelling on a career built upon failure, including walking away from the shitstorm of the Brexit referendum, Dave offered his advisory services to the Government (which were ignored) and so fell in with yet another dodgy Australian (not Murdoch this time) promoting what the UK Serious Fraud Office now (May 2021) suspect might have been an elaborate Ponzi scheme underwriting supply chain payments with apparently unrealistic rates of return. With the shit starting to hit the fan as Greensill's capital liquidity was drying up in Autumn 2020, dodgy Dave began e-mailing all of his previous mates in Government in order to obtain a Bank of England bail-out - as they say in the UK, capitalism is only for the little people, socialism is for the rich, where the Bank of England/Government (delete as applicable) is expected to bail them out whenever they bugger-up their businesses (quite frequently to be honest given their lack of both brains and qualifications). Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi - known as 'dishy' (but only to the right-wing press, presumably because he married into one of the richest families in India) - appears to have ignored the monsoon (pun) of e-mails such that Dave's share options worth tens of millions look like going the way of the UK economy after Brexit.
Quizzed by a Parliamentary Select Committee in May 2021 on his appointment to Greensill and his lobbying activities on their behalf (in spite of saying that he was going to legislate against such lobbying when PM but never got round to it), he bemoaned the lack of job opportunities for relatively young ex-Prime Ministers (hopefully, something he will be sharing with Boris shortly) but was surprisingly coy regarding quite how many hundreds of thousands his annual Greensill pay was worth. Well Dave, looks like its back to the luxury garden shed and having another go at finishing Chapter 1.
==As foreign secretary==
Yes, it seems that the utter shambles that was Brexit was not enough to end Cameron's career. After it became necessary for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to fire his Home Secretary Suella Braverman in 2023, a cabinet reshuffle was announced. To the surprise of everybody, Cameron was appointed to the post of Foreign Secretary. Some might say that the accidental architect of Brexit who might not be the best person to handle foreign affairs, but what do they know?Landale, James, David Cameron return comes with foreign policy baggage, BBC News (11/13/23).
His actual record as foreign secretary is at least not that terrible as far as these things go - he's been notably more critical than you'd expect of Israel's atrocities in Gaza, and even floated the idea of recognising a state of Palestine prior to any deals around a two-state solution to the crisisUK could recognize Palestinian state before any deal with Israel, says David Cameron, Politico, February 2, 2024 (although naturally that might be a bit easier for him to say since he's not going to be around to actually do it). But then, he also joined the US in saying the UK wouldn't suspend arms sales to Israel either, so, never mind.David Cameron says UK won't suspend arms exports to Israel, BBC, April 9, 2024 He even admitted that Israel "may have" violated international law in the conflict,UK's Cameron says he's worried Israel may have breached international law in Gaza, Reuters, January 9, 2024 but nonetheless did nothing about it - against the advice of the government's lawyers, who he ignored.David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say, The Guardian, September 3, 2024
As a sidenote, Cameron was also made into a lord. This was not pure cronyism, but necessary for him to serve as foreign secretary, as without a seat in the Commons or the Lords he would not be able to do so.
==Pig fucker==
There is an amusing story that while a student Cameron stuck his penis into a dead pig's mouth as part of an initiation ceremony for an Oxford University student dining club, the Piers Gaveston Society. This attracted a lot of media interest and a lot of people dearly wanted it to be true: it seemed to fit in with claims about the debauchery of another of Cameron's student society memberships, the notorious dining and drinking group the . However, there is a sad lack of evidence for the pig incident ever having taken place.
The story first appeared in Call Me Dave, a strongly negative biography of Cameron by Michael Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott, published in 2015 shortly after Cameron left office. Ashcroft was formerly a deputy chairman of the Conservative Party but quit following the 2010 election over Ashcroft's differences with Cameron, Ashcroft's criticisms of Cameron's campaign, Ashcroft's failure to get a cabinet post from Cameron, and increasing criticism by others of Ashcroft's life in tax exile in Belize. Isabel Oakeshott was a long-time Ashcroft collaborator and a Sunday Times journalist. Oakeshott claimed that the pig story came from an MP who she believed was telling the truth but she later conceded that her source might be "slightly deranged"; she defended this on the basis that a biography doesn't have to have the same standards of evidence as a newspaper, suggesting her book's fact-checking policy was more on a par with "Barbie Princess magazine".'Call Me Dave' Author Isabel Oakshott Reveals 'Piggate' Claims Could Be False, Aubrey Allegretti, Huffington Post, 9 Oct 2015
==External links==
*Dodgy Dave just repeating the phrase "Starve the Beast" "Long-term Economic Plan" — It's so long-term, you'll never see it!
*Tough on crime - except while cycling
*David Cameron looks himself up on Facebook and gets a surprise
*Obama on Cameron: "What a lightweight"
*Mastering incompetence so early is tricky. But the Tories have pulled it off
* — Eden, by coincidence, was in charge when it finally became clear to everyone that Britain's world dominance was over.
==References==
Category:Brexit
Category:British people
Category:Chickenhawks
Category:Christians
Category:Culture wars
Category:Government incompetence
Category:Living people
Category:Liberals
Category:Former Members of Parliament (UK)
Category:Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
Category:Shysters