Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Conservative Party in 2005. By 2008, he was on the cover of
Time
magazine, which
hailed him as the future of conservatism.
In 2010, Cameron's Conservative Party came to power, but it was hardly a
sweeping Conservative mandate: Three parties split the vote, forcing Cameron's
Conservatives to form a coalition with the (more left-leaning) Liberal Democrat
Party. The Labour Party, which had held power in Britain for 13 years under Gor-
don Brown and Tony Blair, is the coalition's chief opposition.
Politically, Cameron is a moderate Conservative who is more pragmatic than
ideological. Socially, he's “liberal” in the classical sense, advocating for personal
freedoms—gay rights, decriminalization of drugs, allowing hunting and smoking,
and ensuring citizens' privacy against government intrusion. Fiscally, he rails
against big-government waste. His fiscal policies have emphasized austerity and
belt-tightening in order to get the budget under control. The immediate result was
a double-dip recession. His most right-of-center stance is his support for distancing
Britain from the euro and the European Union; his veto of EU treaty amendments
during the euro crisis led some to predict “the beginning of the end” of Britain's EU
membership.
Despite his personal appeal, Cameron can't quite shake the Conservatives' im-
age as the party of the upper class. Cameron was born rich, married rich, and has
worked within the corporate culture. His colleagues form an old boys' network
from his days at Eton, England's most exclusive prep school. The mayor of Lon-
don, Boris Johnson, is not only an old Oxford frat buddy but also a distant cousin.
Cameron's reputation has been tarnished by his links to discredited media mogul
Rupert Murdoch, and some have questioned his handling of riots in London and
other urban centers in the summer of 2011.
As the Conservatives try to unite the country to solve Britain's severe economic
and cultural problems, it remains to be seen whether David Cameron has brought a
fresh enough approach to #10. The people of Britain will get a chance to weigh in
on May 7, 2015, when Cameron's party is up for re-election.
The guarded metal gates were installed in 1989 to protect against Irish terrorists. Even
so, #10 was hit and partly damaged in 1991 by an Irish Republican Army mortar launched
from a van. These days, there's typically not much to see unless a VIP happens to drive
up. Then the bobbies snap to and check credentials, the gates open, the car is inspected for
bombs, the traffic barrier midway down the street drops into its bat cave, the car drives in,
and...the bobbies go back to mugging for the tourists.
