David Cameron attended the prestigious preparatory school-Heatherdown boarding school in Winkfield in Berkshire, where the sons of Queen Elizabeth II studied: Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, as well as the children of British billionaires. For example, Peter Getty, a close friend of David Cameron, was the son of oil tycoon John Paul Getty.
In 1979, David family tradition entered the elite college Eton. In May 1983, shortly before passing his first final exams, he was caught smoking marijuana, but since he admitted to what he had done and did not distribute the drug among other students, he was not expelled, depriving him of the right to go outside the college for some time. According to rumors, before the start of his political career, Cameron may have used “hard” drugs. Despite the marijuana episode, David did well in his exams at Eton in late 1984 and entered Brasenose College at Oxford University, although he did poorly in the philosophy entrance exam. Before starting his studies at Oxford, David had nine months free: he spent three months working as an assistant to his godfather, Conservative MP Tim Rathbone, and attending debates in the House of Commons. After this, Cameron worked in Hong Kong for the Jardine Matheson Corporation for about three months. David returned to Europe from Hong Kong railway, having visited Moscow and Yalta, where, in his own words, they wanted to recruit him as an agent of the KGB of the USSR.
At Brazenose, Cameron studied for a Bachelor of Arts in an interdisciplinary course in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE). According to the recollections of teachers, David was one of the best students. Cameron played on the university tennis team and was an ordinary member of the closed elite clubs of Oxford students - Octagon and Bullingdon, the latter being known for its drinking and brawls in pubs and restaurants. Cameron graduated from the university in 1988 with a first-class diploma and then maintained friendly relations with fellow students, including Boris Johnson.
Start of a career
Cameron began his political career on 26 September 1988, taking a job in the UK Conservative Party's research department, developing party strategy and creating briefings for parliamentary debates. In 1991, Cameron headed the policy branch of the research department. Cameron subsequently developed the party's economic strategy and wrote speeches for Conservative Prime Minister John Major for the 1992 general election, although Major himself later claimed that he did not remember the young aide.
After the Conservatives won the 1992 election, Cameron was transferred to work for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was then Norman Lamont. Cameron served as his political adviser when, through the efforts of George Soros, the pound was withdrawn from the European Monetary System and devalued on September 16, 1992 (an event that was later called “Black Wednesday”). The crisis led to higher taxes and other negative consequences for the country's economy. Lamont was given primary responsibility for what happened, and he resigned in May 1993. Cameron did not lose party confidence: in June 1993, he received a position as a special adviser in the UK Home Office, where he was responsible for briefing Minister Michael Howard, the future leader of the Conservative Party. .
In July 1994, Cameron resigned as a special adviser to take up the post of director of corporate affairs at Carlton Communications, which had recently acquired television rights in the London region. His fiancée Samantha Gwendoline Sheffield (born April 18, 1971) helped him get this position. eldest daughter Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield, a noble British landowner, and Annabel Astor. Astor knew Carlton Communicatons chairman Michael Green and, at her daughter's request, suggested he hire Cameron. Cameron managed to secure digital satellite broadcasting rights for Carlton Communicatons and served on the company's executive board. Green subsequently stated that Cameron was a good candidate for the company's board of directors, but in February 2001 Cameron left the company to participate in the parliamentary elections.
Parliamentary career
Cameron's first attempt to get elected to parliament ended unsuccessfully: in December 1994, he did not have time to apply to participate in the elections in Ashford due to a train delay. In 1997 he lost the Stafford (Staffordshire) election to Labor candidate David Kidney. In 2000, Cameron failed to get on the list of candidates for the elections from Wealden, but in 2001 he won a by-election for the constituency of Witney in Oxfordshire, which took place after Shaun Woodward left the Labor Party.
Following his election to the House of Commons, Cameron chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee, a prominent post, especially for a young parliamentarian. Cameron actively participated in debates and became known as a good speaker. It is known that Cameron proposed reducing liability for the use and sale of the drug “ecstasy”. As a hunting enthusiast, he voted against the ban on hunting wild animals with dogs. Cameron was also against banning smoking in restaurants, but did not vote on this issue since he had a child. In March 2003, Cameron supported an armed invasion of Iraq, but already in 2006 he demanded an investigation into its justification.
Despite Cameron's active participation in the debates, in July 2002 Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith did not put Cameron on the front bench, causing him to subsequently oppose Smith's leadership and even refuse to follow party policy by abstaining from voting on the issue of adoption children of homosexual couples. In July 2003, Cameron became a member of the “shadow cabinet”, taking over the post of shadow leader of the House of Commons, Eric Forth. In November 2003, following Smith's resignation as party chairman, Cameron became vice-chairman of the party under the new Conservative leader, Michael Howard. In this post, he was responsible for coordinating party policy. In May 2005, Cameron became shadow education minister.
From 2002 until his election as leader of the Conservative Party, Cameron was a non-executive director of Urbium, which owned the English chain of Tiger Tiger bars.
Party leader
Following Labour's victory in the general election, Conservative Party leader Michael Howard announced his resignation. On September 29, 2005, Cameron officially announced that he would run for this post, passed qualifying rounds with voting among members of parliament, and on December 6 defeated David Davis in the all-party election, gaining 66 percent of the votes of fellow party members. On December 14, as leader of the opposition, he entered the British Royal Privy Council.
Soon after his appointment as Leader of the Opposition, Cameron overtook Prime Minister Tony Blair in the polls. In June 2007, following Blair's voluntary resignation, Labor briefly regained its leadership under new leader Gordon Brown. But already in October 2007, Cameron again became the most popular politician, and voter support for the Conservatives was the highest in the last 14 years. At the same time, Cameron called for early parliamentary elections. Cameron has repeatedly described Brown's policies as old-fashioned and criticized Labour's economic platform.
Cameron voted against Labour's proposed anti-terrorism legislation and the introduction of UK Citizen ID cards. Cameron called himself a Eurosceptic and believed that Britain should not submit to foreign policy USA. In 2008, Cameron proposed extending the copyright term from 50 to 70 years in exchange for musicians refusing to "glorify materialism, misogyny and the cult of guns."
In the context of the global economic crisis that began in the fall of 2008, the British population considered the economic measures taken by Labor to be effective, as a result of which the Conservatives lost their leadership in opinion polls. Although Cameron supported the government's plan to combat the crisis in October 2008, a week later he sharply criticized Brown's policies, saying that he had not prepared the country's economy for the crisis during the years of stability.
In May 2010, the next parliamentary elections were held in Great Britain. In them, the Conservative Party took first place, although it did not receive a decisive majority in the House of Commons. This situation led to the so-called hung parliament and could lead to its dissolution and early elections. In this situation, the Conservatives began negotiations for a coalition with the third-place Liberal Democrats, but the condition for such an alliance was electoral reform, which the Conservatives did not support. However, following negotiations, the Conservatives agreed to hold a referendum on reform, and on May 11, 2010, Cameron was officially appointed Prime Minister of the coalition government. The press emphasized that Cameron's government became the first coalition government since 1945, and he himself was the youngest prime minister in almost two hundred years.
Cameron has been called a young, ambitious leader who wants to modernize British politics. Cameron was considered a good speaker and one of the contenders for the post of Prime Minister of Great Britain after the next parliamentary elections. However, the press has often criticized Cameron for the fact that his policies are based on the country's elite, graduates of Eton and Oxford, and he is poorly aware of the needs of ordinary people in the United Kingdom. Cameron has also been repeatedly criticized for being too religious. Cameron is involved in the British-American Parliamentary Group and the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
Prime Minister of Great Britain
After heading the government, Cameron began to promote the concept of transferring power and authority from the center to the people, so that the management of local institutions and transport would be carried out by local communities. In July 2010, the Prime Minister announced the creation of similar self-government in several localities. Cameron's idea drew criticism from Labor members, who expressed doubts about the possibility of organizing financing for such projects.
In February 2011, a statement Cameron made at a security conference in Munich caused a great stir: the Prime Minister criticized public policy non-interference in the functioning of different cultures in Great Britain and advocated the formation of a national identity that could prevent the radicalization of youth (primarily Muslim) in the country.
At the end of February 2011, shortly after the outbreak of mass protests in Libya against the leader of the state, Muammar Gaddafi, which led to the outbreak of civil war, Cameron supported the idea of introducing a “no-fly space” in Libyan skies in order to prevent the use of Libyan aviation against civilians. On March 18, the British Prime Minister supported the relevant UN Security Council resolution and advocated the use of military force to enforce this ban. After this, British military forces joined the military operation in Libya, in which the United States and France had already participated. On April 15, Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama issued a joint statement recognizing the "unthinkability" of a future for Libya under Gaddafi.
On May 22, 2011, Great Britain announced the completion of the withdrawal of its military units from Iraq, where since 2003, as part of a broad coalition, they had participated in the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime and were subsequently engaged in maintaining order.
In August 2011, major riots took place in London and some other British cities, accompanied by pogroms, arson, looting of stores and clashes with the police. On August 10, Cameron announced the need to arrest the rioters, and subsequently supported the idea of evicting them along with their families from social housing. On August 15, Cameron gave a speech in which he noted the moral decline of many Britons, manifested in irresponsibility and selfishness, and associated it with “moral neutrality” - the reluctance of society to explicitly define moral standards. Some observers called the unrest the worst crisis since Cameron took office as British Prime Minister.
In October 2011, the British Commonwealth approved amendments to the law on succession to the throne, according to which representatives of both sexes had equal rights to the crown. Commenting on the old system of succession, in which the younger brother had priority over the older sister in claims to the throne, Cameron called it outdated. In addition, the ban on the marriage of the future monarch with a representative of the Roman Catholic Church was lifted.
In the summer of 2012, XXX Summer was held in London olympic games. During the Olympic football tournament, an incident with the North Korean women's football team became famous: on July 26, when this team entered the stadium in one of the matches, the South Korean flag was mistakenly displayed, which caused indignation of the North Korean delegation; Cameron personally had to make an official apology. Athletes from Great Britain showed their best result at the games since 1908, winning 65 medals, including 29 gold. Cameron, noting the successes of British athletes, announced the government's decision to continue to maintain funding for the Olympic team at the same level as before the games in London, and to allocate 500 million pounds sterling for its preparation for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Family and personal life
Cameron took part in charitable activities: he was the patron of numerous charitable societies and donated money to the rehabilitation of drug addicts. Like London Mayor Boris Johnson, even after his election to the post of head of the British Conservatives, Cameron rode a bicycle to work: the theft of his two-wheeled vehicle in July 2008 created a wide resonance (the bicycle was then found).
Cameron met his future wife Samantha Gwendolyn Sheffield in 1992, and they married in 1996. Samantha graduated from Camberwell College of Art, was executive director of the Oka chain of stores selling home furnishings, and in 2008 became creative director of Smythsons of Bond Street. Samantha is considered to have great influence on her husband's political views. The couple named their first child Ivan; he was born in 2002 as a disabled person suffering from epilepsy and cerebral palsy, and died in March 2009. Then David and Samantha had two healthy children: daughter Nancy (born in 2004) and son Arthur Elwen (born in 2006). The Camerons live in an expensive area of London - Notting Hill. David loves to cook, enjoys tennis, horse riding, hunting, and football, and is an English fan. football club"Aston Villa".
Materials used
Ollie Williams. London 2012: Which sports won and lost at GB's home Olympics? - BBC News, 13.08.2012
Helene Mulholland. David Cameron extends Olympic funding until Rio in 2016. - The Guardian, 12.08.2012
Vincent Fribault. Exclusive: North Koreans "angry" at flag mix-up. - Reuters, 26.07.2012
London 2012: Wrong flag displayed for North Korean women’s soccer team. - The Associated Press, 26.07.2012
Girls equal in British throne succession. - BBC News, 28.10.2011
Nicholas Watt. Royal succession gender equality approved by Commonwealth. - The Guardian, 28.10.2011
Andy Bloxham. Centuries-old rule of primogeniture in Royal Family scrapped. - The Daily Telegraph, 28.10.2011
PM: Tackling Gangs "New National Priority". - Sky News, 15.08.2011
Matthew Holehouse. London riots: teenage "looter" and his mother served with eviction notice by Wandsworth council. - The Telegraph, 13.08.2011
Timeline - Riots in Britain. - Reuters, 11.08.2011
Sophy Ridge. Riots: PM Fights Back But Plans "Lack Detail". - Sky News, 11.08.2011
Laurie Hanna. Navy is the last of British troops to pull out of Iraq. - Daily Mirror, 23.05.2011
Britain ends military mission in Iraq, withdraws troops. - CNN, 22.05.2011
Imed Lamloum. Leaders say "unthinkable" for Kadhafi to stay. - Agence France-Presse, 15.04.2011
Timeline: UK's road to action in Libya. - BBC News, 15.04.2011
Libya: UK joins in second night of missile strikes. - BBC News, 21.03.2011
UK air force joins Libya operations. - Xinhua, 21.03.2011
Joe Murphy. Cameron sends war planes to Libya: Jets scramble for attacks on Gaddafi forces. - London Evening Standard, 18.03.2011
IN 1983
IN 1988
1988 -1992
1992 -1993
IN 1993
IN 1994
↓IN 1983 graduated from Eton College. After graduating from college, he was an assistant to his godfather, member of the British Parliament from the Conservative Party Tim Rathbone, and attended debates in the House of Commons. Worked for about three months at Jardine Matheson Corporation in Hong Kong.
IN 1988 He graduated from Brazenose College at the University of Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in an interdisciplinary course in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE).
1988 -1992 gg. - worked in the research department of the Conservative Party, also preparing John Major's speeches and economic issues.
1992 -1993 gg. - Political adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was then Norman Lamont.
IN 1993 Cameron began working at the Home Office.
IN 1994 year intended to take part in the elections in Ashford, but did not have time to submit an application due to the delay of the train.
In the elections 1997 was elected from Stafford County but was defeated.
1994 -2001 gg. - Director of Corporate Relations at Carlton Communications.
In the elections 2001 was elected Member of the House of Commons for Witney, Oxfordshire.
IN 2005 After the resignation of Michael Howard, under whose leadership the party lost the parliamentary elections, he was elected leader of the party in the third round. Under Cameron's leadership, the party's political course was liberalized.
In parliamentary elections 2010 Cameron is the Conservative Party's candidate for prime minister.
At the pre-election debates in the spring 2010 Cameron, according to polls, lost in the first round of debates to Nick Clegg, but won the last.
On the evening of May 11 2010 Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced his resignation as head of government and leader of the Labor Party and submitted his resignation as prime minister to the Queen.
That same evening, the Queen's proposal to form a government was received by David Cameron, whose party won the largest number of seats in the general elections on May 6 2010 year (but did not receive an absolute majority in parliament). Cameron announced his intention to form a governing coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Illustration copyright
Reuters Image caption David Cameron has announced his intention to resign by October so that his successor can take up negotiations with the EURegardless of what David Cameron achieves during his six years in power, he will forever be remembered as the Prime Minister who took Britain out of the European Union.
It's a strange epitaph for a political leader who has vowed to one day end anti-European sentiment in his party. It is unlikely that he wanted to remain in history exactly like this.
Cameron brought the Conservative Party back to power after more than a decade of the Tories on the political fringes and has led it for almost 11 years.
IN modern history only Earl Stanley Baldwin, Lady Thatcher and Sir Winston Churchill held the post longer than he.
When Cameron burst onto the political scene in 2005, beating his better-known rivals for the leadership of the party, he wanted to be seen as a new kind of Conservative - young, liberal-minded, socially concerned and, above all, modern.
Under Cameron, there should have been no place in the Conservative Party for conflicts poisoning the political atmosphere over membership in the European Union, which under previous leaders brought the party to the brink of collapse.
Instead, the party needed to adopt a positive, optimistic, inclusive view of Britain. Cameron has said he wants to turn the Conservatives into a party that cares about state system health and environment, and striving to "share the fruits economic growth"with the poor.
"Pragmatist and practitioner"
In 2008, when the banking crisis hit, Cameron's tone changed: social reform was still on the agenda, but now combined with the traditional Conservative emphasis on solving fiscal problems by cutting social spending.
He refused to see the contradiction between these two tasks, arguing that the country should be able to do more with little force.
Cameron, being a pragmatist, suspicious of any ideology, was always ready to adapt his position to the trends of the times.
It was this flexibility that allowed him to form alliances with his political opponents. The most obvious example of this is the first coalition government in Britain since the Second World War, formed with the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg.
Illustration copyright AP Image caption David Cameron has always spoken admiringly of his fatherBut this quality of his caused mistrust of Cameron on the part of his ideologically charged colleagues in the Conservative camp, who wondered what, exactly, the ideals of the prime minister consisted of.
His privileged background and upbringing also led to hostility from some party colleagues, who preferred leaders like Thatcher and Major who had gone to public school and made their own careers.
Cameron was the first Conservative leader since the early 1960s to graduate from Eton College, one of the most exclusive private schools in Britain.
Privilege
Cameron's ancestry can be traced back to William IV. This means that he is a distant relative of Queen Elizabeth II.
He never made a secret of his privileged background. According to him, he would like everyone to have the same benefits in life.
His privileged background became a problem only recently when it emerged that his late father Ian was named among the clients of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca at the center of an offshore scandal.
Cameron eventually became the first ever British Prime Minister.
The documents show that he received a gift of 200 thousand pounds from his mother, which could potentially go to him without paying inheritance tax.
It pained Cameron to see his father, whom he had always spoken of with admiration, vilified in the media.
Ian Cameron, who died in 2010, was born with severely deformed legs, which he eventually had to have amputated. He also lost sight in one eye. But David's father never considered himself disabled and rarely complained about anything.
David Cameron says he had happy childhood, in which “there was no place for whining.”
Illustration copyright Reuters Image caption "I'm a practical and pragmatic person," says David CameronDavid Cameron in quotes:
- December 2005: "I am a practical and pragmatic person. I know what I want to achieve, but I am not committed to any one ideological method."
- August 2008: “I intend to be as radical a reformer in the social sphere as Thatcher was in the economy.”
- July 2013: “I don’t support gay marriage because I’m a conservative, I support gay marriage because I’m a conservative.”
- February 2015: “I hope people will say about me that I’m an optimist, that I love life and that I’m fun to be around. But I’m also persistent in pursuing what I believe in” (answering a question about what they would say about him his friends).
- May 2015: "We will govern as the party of one nation, one United Kingdom. This means that this recovery (of the economy) must reach every part of the country - from north to south, from east to west."
Biography
David Cameron was born on October 9, 1966 in London, the third child in a family of four children.
He spent the first three years of his life in Kensington and Chelsea (the central districts of the capital), after which his family settled in former house parish priest near the town of Newbury in Berkshire.
David's mother Mary served as a justice of the peace for 30 years. In the 1980s, she decided on the case of environmental activists protesting the deployment of nuclear weapons at a military base in Berkshire, including the case of her sister Swampy, who protested against the construction of a bypass road around Newbury.
Illustration copyright PA Image caption Cameron traveled a lot in his youth. He also traveled around the Soviet Union.At the age of seven, David was sent to privileged primary school Heatherdown, where members, among others, studied royal family- Prince Edward and Prince Andrew. After graduation, according to family tradition, Cameron entered Eton.
The most prominent mention of him in the Eton College school magazine is a note about how young David Cameron twisted his ankle while dancing to bagpipes during a school trip to Rome.
Before going to Oxford, he spent a year working as an assistant to Conservative MP Tim Rathbone and then as a freight forwarder in Hong Kong, from where he returned home by train, passing through Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
At Oxford, Cameron was not involved in student political movements because, as his university friend Steve Rathbone says, "he wanted to have a good time."
Professor Vernon Bogdanor, who supervised him at Oxford, calls Cameron one of the brightest students of all his years and notes that his political views were "moderately and reasonably conservative."
David was captain of the college tennis team and a member of the elite Bullingdon Club, known for its drinking and rowdy behavior. It was a period that Cameron did not like to talk about afterwards.
Cameron also regularly avoided answering questions about whether he tried drugs at university.
Start of a career
After graduating from university, he considered a career in the press or banking, but ended up answering an advertisement for a job in the Conservative Party's research department.
As they say, on the day when Cameron was supposed to undergo an interview, the central office of the Conservative Party received a call from Buckingham Palace.
The caller, who has not been named, said: "I understand you are meeting with David Cameron. I have done everything I can to dissuade him from spending his time on politics, but I have not succeeded. I am calling to tell you that you meet a truly wonderful young man."
Cameron claims he didn't know about the call or who called. However, his opponents often use this example to highlight David Cameron's privileged background.
Illustration copyright Getty Image caption Cameron enjoys playing tennis and watching cricket_______________________________________________________
Cameron in his free time:
- Music: Bob Dylan and indie rock - Killers, Smiths, Radiohead and Pulp
- Books: Robert Graves' autobiographical novel Let's Say Goodbye to All This, romantic trilogy Cider and Rosie by Lawrence Lee
- Films: "Lawrence of Arabia", "The Godfather"
- TV series: "Game of Thrones", "Breaking Bad", "The Killing"
- Entertainment: karaoke and computer games
- Sports: tennis, snooker, running. Loves watching cricket. Supports Aston Villa football club, although during the election campaign he got confused and said “West Ham”
_______________________________________________________
As a researcher, he is said to have been a capable and hard worker, working on a team that prepared policy briefs for then-Prime Minister John Major's parliamentary speeches.
It was there that Cameron met George Osborne, who later became finance minister and closest political ally.
By the early 1990s, Cameron decided to run for parliament, but realized that he needed life experience outside the world of politics. After briefly serving as an adviser to the then Home Secretary Michael Howard, he went to work for the Carlton television company.
There he spent seven years as head of corporate communications, traveling the world with the firm's chief executive, Michael Green, who described him as "boardroom fit."
He became a Member of Parliament in 2001, winning the seat of the traditional Tory constituency of Witney in Oxfordshire after the seat was vacated by Sean Woodward, who defected to Labour.
Family
His current wife Samantha Cameron, daughter of Sir Reginald Sheffield, 8th Baronet, worked as creative director at luxury stationery firm Smythson of Bond Street, whose clients include Stella McCartney, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell.
Samantha has a tattoo on her ankle; She studied at an art school in Bristol, where, in her own words, she was taught to play billiards by substitute rapper Tricky.
Samantha and David were introduced by his sister Claire, Samantha's best friend, at a party at the Cameron family's house. They got married in 1996.
They have three children - Nancy, Arthur and Florence. Their first child, Ivan, was born with severe disabilities and required round-the-clock care; he died in 2009.
Illustration copyright AFP Image caption Samantha Cameron, who comes from an aristocratic family, is said to have helped David Cameron change his image as a "Tory boy"The experience of caring for Ivan, during which Cameron saw the dedication with which doctors at the public hospital work, according to his friends, expanded the horizons in the minds of the future prime minister. Before that, according to friends, he led a cloudless life, devoid of problems.
After being elected to parliament, Cameron's career growth was rapid, but when he, as shadow education minister, entered the fight for the party leader's seat, few believed in his success.
In this race he was fourth - behind Ken Clarke, Liam Fox and David Davis.
However, after Cameron’s brilliant, not on paper, speech at the party conference, the attitude towards him in party circles changed.
At 43, David Cameron became the youngest British Prime Minister since Robert Banks-Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, who took office in 1812.
His Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, was even younger. Cameron and Osborne became such close associates that critics excluded from their inner circle called them the same word: Camborne.
The coalition government that Cameron formed with Nick Clegg performed better than anyone expected.
Illustration copyright PA Image caption Cameron and Osborne became such close associates that critics called CamborneTo the surprise of many, and perhaps Cameron himself, the main problem was not managing the coalition with the Lib Dems, but controlling the increasingly noisy and rebellious right wing of his own party, which could not stand the alliance with the Lib Dems and began to campaign for a referendum on EU membership .
In August 2013, Cameron suffered a serious defeat that shook his authority. He became the first British prime minister in more than 100 years to lose a vote on a foreign policy issue.
It came as dozens of Conservative MPs joined with Labor to vote against his plans for military intervention in Syria.
Scottish referendum
But perhaps the most serious crisis of his premiership occurred in September 2014, when Cameron had to cancel his speech at a meeting of parliament and urgently go to Scotland.
The reason was polls that showed that Scots could vote in the upcoming referendum to leave the United Kingdom.
After the referendum, in a conversation with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Cameron inadvertently said that the Queen "purred into the phone" when she heard that Scotland had voted against independence. Outsiders heard these words, and the prime minister
For some, his handling of the Scottish referendum, his last-minute concessions to nationalists, was evidence that Cameron only begins to work at full capacity when all seems lost.
David Cameron agreed to hold a referendum on Scottish independence because he believed it would settle the issue once and for all. The same logic guided the prime minister when, in January 2013, he promised to hold a referendum on EU membership. Both of these decisions, each in their own way, turned out to be obvious miscalculations.
Illustration copyright Reuters Image caption Cameron had to apologize to the Queen for an inadvertently dropped phraseHe promised to hold a referendum on EU membership at a time when the Conservatives were losing ground to the Eurosceptics of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), whom Cameron had once flippantly written off as "weirdos and racists in disguise."
Thanks to Cameron's promised referendum, Europe was not such a hot-button issue in the 2015 general election, where UKIP won just one seat in parliament.
However, his honeymoon after winning the election did not last long. Soon the government suffered several defeats as a result of dissatisfaction with its decisions on the part of its own Conservative deputies. One such example is George Osborne's plan to cut disability benefits, which sparked protests from backbenchers.
Shuttle diplomacy
Having decided to hold a referendum this summer, Cameron was forced to engage in shuttle diplomacy in an attempt to reach an agreement with EU leaders that would keep Britain in the EU.
But the agreement he was able to reach in Brussels was rejected by critics as falling short of his promises, especially on the issue of freedom of movement for European Union citizens.
But Cameron insisted that the cuts social benefits for visitors from the EU, which he wrested from EU leaders, will help bring migration under control.
At the same time, from a person who “did not exclude any options” if Brussels did not meet him halfway, he stopped at .
This metamorphosis was too much for many members of his party, most of whom wanted Britain to leave the EU.
Even though Cameron had led them to victory in the election months earlier, they were in no mood to heed the Prime Minister's instructions.
He was forced to allow ministers to use their discretion to speak in a referendum for or against leaving the EU, although the government was officially in favor of Britain remaining a member of the European Union.
The former mayor of London and Cameron's classmate at Eton College, Boris Johnson, who had long been considered a contender for the position of prime minister and party leader, dealt him a crushing blow by joining the campaign to leave the EU.
Illustration copyright PA Image caption After Boris Johnson (left) decided to campaign for Brexit, a black cat ran between school friendsBut even more painfully, one of his closest friends and associates, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, also decided to campaign for Brexit.
Despite promises of a civilized discussion, the campaign turned violent civil war at the top of the Conservative Party, although this is exactly what Cameron was so keen to avoid throughout his political career.
He promised to remain as prime minister regardless of the result of the referendum, but this turned out to be an unrealistic hope.
David Cameron was able to transform the Conservative Party in many ways. There are more women and minority Conservatives in Parliament.
He was able to lead the party to victory in 2005 in a situation where its position seemed almost hopeless.
But Cameron was never able to win over its powerful right wing, which was distrustful of his liberal model of conservatism and his elitist, patrician style of government.
It was these reasons, as well as his desire to solve the problem of relations with the EU head-on, that ultimately destroyed him.
He worked as an assistant to British MP Tim Radbone. Attended debates in the House of Commons. Worked for about three months at Jardine Matterson Corporation in Hong Kong.
Cameron formed a government in coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party.
Prime Minister David Cameron announced in his keynote speech that Britain could hold a referendum on leaving the European Union at the end of this decade if his Conservative Party wins the 2015 elections.
As a result of the general elections held on May 7, 2015, the Conservatives won about 37% of the vote and secured an absolute majority in the House of Commons (lower house of parliament). Conservative Party of Great Britain David Cameron is the Prime Minister of the country.
A referendum on the country's exit from the EU, initiated by David Cameron, took place in the UK. About 52% of Britons voted for leaving the EU, 48% voted against.
British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation following the results of the referendum on the country's membership in the European Union. Cameron, who opposed Brexit, was going to retain his post regardless of the outcome of the vote, but changed his mind.
Cameron intends to resign in October at the Conservative party conference, at which time the party will have to identify a new candidate for the post of prime minister.
David Cameron is married to Samantha Sheffield. The couple has three children - two daughters and a son. The Prime Minister's first child, Ivan, who suffered from epilepsy and cerebral palsy, died in 2009 at the age of 6.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
David Cameron is currently the Prime Minister of Great Britain and has been the leader since 2005. From 1994 to 2001, he served as director of corporate communications for a well-known television broadcaster called Carlton Communications. It is also worth noting that from 1992 to 1994, David Cameron was a special adviser to the Home Office. In addition, he was an adviser to the British Treasury.
The British Prime Minister's height is 1.85 m.
Youth
David Cameron was born in 1966 on October 9 in London. His father, whose name is Ian Donald Cameron, is a direct descendant of William IV, and is also known in business circles as a major stockbroker. It is worth noting that among the close relatives of the current Prime Minister there are quite a large number of various influential financiers.
David's mother was the daughter of a baronet, and several of her great-grandfathers and grandfathers held positions in parliament from the Tory party. It is worth noting that for the first few years of his life, David Cameron lived in the counties of Kensington and Chelsea, but over time he and his parents moved to a small village called Peasemore, which is located next to Newsbury.
Education
During the first years of his life, David Cameron (whose photo was shown above) went to the fairly prestigious Hatherdown preparatory school, located in Winkfield. It is noteworthy that the sons of the current Queen Elizabeth II, as well as many children of British billionaires, studied at the same school. For example, Peter Getty, a classmate and fairly close friend of the British Prime Minister, is the son of the famous oil businessman John
According to family tradition, in 1979, David Cameron (photo No. 2 at the university) decided to enter the elite university. Moreover, in 1983, before he had to take his first final exams, he was caught smoking marijuana. However, he admitted to the act, and since he was not involved in distributing the drug among other students, he was not expelled, but was banned from leaving the college for a certain time.
Rumors suggest that British Prime Minister David Cameron may have used hard drugs before his hectic political career, but these rumors are unconfirmed.
Despite the episode, David managed to pass his exams well enough to gain admission to Brazenose College at Oxford University, although he did not do so well in the philosophy entrance exams. Before starting his studies at Oxford, British Prime Minister David Cameron had worked for nine months, three of which he worked as an assistant to his godfather (who was then a member of Parliament from the Conservative Party), and also took part in debates in the House communities David then lived and worked in Hong Kong for Jardine Matheson for three months. He returned from Hong Kong using rail transport, as a result of which he managed to visit Yalta and Moscow, where, according to him, he was offered to become an agent of the KGB of the USSR.
Further training
At Braiznose he studied for a Bachelor of Arts, taking an interdisciplinary course in politics, economics and philosophy. It is worth noting the fact that the teachers spoke of David as one of the best students. During his studies, Cameron was on the university tennis team, and was also an ordinary member of various closed elite clubs in Oxford. In 1988 he received a first degree diploma.
Start of a career
On September 26, 1988, David Cameron appeared on the political scene in England. Politics for him began with the research department, in which he was involved in the detailed development of his party's strategy, as well as the formation of all kinds of briefings for debates in parliament. From 1991, Cameron was offered a post in the political department of the research department, and subsequently he was directly involved in developing economic strategy for his party, as well as writing speeches for Prime Minister Major, which he used during the 1992 elections, but Major himself spoke subsequently that he did not remember the young assistant.
After the Conservatives won the 1992 election, David Cameron began working for the Chancellor of the Exchequer as his political adviser. The crisis that arose at that time led to a significant increase in taxes in the country, as well as a host of other negative consequences in the economy. It was the Chancellor of the Exchequer who was then given full responsibility for these events, as a result of which he resigned, while Cameron, retaining the party's trust, received the post of special adviser, working at the Home Office, where he was briefing the minister, who later became the leader of the Conservative Party .
Break
Next, we will look at the political break that David Cameron took (the biography briefly describes these events). In 1994, he left his post as a special adviser and began working as director of corporate communications for the well-known company Carlton Communications, which at that time had just acquired television rights in London. He received this position with the help of his fiancee Samantha Gwendolyn. The fact is that the mother of the bride personally knew the chairman of this company, as a result of which, at the request of her daughter, she invited him to hire Cameron. During his work, the future prime minister was able to provide the company with rights to digital satellite broadcasting, and also took a direct part in the executive council. Subsequently, Green, who serves as chairman of the company, said that Cameron was a worthy candidate for the board of directors, but instead decided to participate in parliamentary elections.
Career in Parliament
It is worth noting the fact that before 2001, the name “David Cameron” could also be present on the list of candidates for parliament. The biography states that he tried to apply to stand for election in Ashford back in 1994, but did not do so because the train was late. In 1997 he failed to win the Stafford election, which was then won by the Labor candidate. It is also worth noting that in 2000 Cameron was not able to get on the list of candidates for the elections, and now he already wanted to be elected from Wilden.
In 2001 he won the Witney seat after Sean Woodworld decided to retire to
After Cameron was elected, he headed a separate committee dealing with internal affairs. This was a fairly prominent post, especially for a relatively young parliamentarian. David took an active part in debates, as a result of which he became famous as an excellent speaker. It is known that Cameron made a proposal to reduce liability for the sale and use of the drug “ecstasy”, and also, being a hunting enthusiast, opposed the ban on hunting animals with dogs. Among other things, Cameron opposed the ban on smoking in restaurants, but did not take part in the vote on this issue, since at that time he had a child.
In March 2003, David Cameron actively supported the armed invasion of Iraq, but 3 years later he initiated an investigation into the validity of this action.
Becoming a Leader
Despite Cameron being extremely active in the debate, Conservative Party leader Ian Duncan Smith decided not to promote him to the front seat in 2002, leading David to oppose Smith remaining as leader and even speak out against party policies. In particular, he abstained from voting on the bill on the adoption of children by homosexual couples.
In 2003, Cameron was given the opportunity to join the shadow cabinet, where he became deputy to the shadow leader of the House, Eric Fort. In November of the same year, Smith resigned as chairman of the Conservative Party, as a result of which Cameron received the post of vice-chairman under Michael Howard, who became the new leader. While occupying this post, he was directly responsible for coordinating party policy, and in 2005 he took up the post of shadow minister for education.
Among other things, it is worth noting the fact that from 2002 until his ascension to the post of leader of the Conservative Party, the future prime minister was also a non-executive director of the commercial company Urbium, which owned a large English chain of bars called Tiger Tiger.
Party leader
After Labor won the general election, Michael Howard announced his resignation as party leader, as a result of which Cameron ran for this post and defeated his main opponent with a devastating result, gaining 66% of the vote. In opposition, in the same year he became a member of the Royal Privy Council of Great Britain.
Already shortly after Cameron took the post of leader of the opposition, according to social surveys of the population in 2007, he was rated higher than the then Prime Minister Tony Blair. After Blair announced his resignation that same year, Labor was able to maintain its leadership by nominating a new chairman, Gordon Brown, but within 4 months Cameron again had higher ratings, and Conservative support among voters was the highest in 14 years. years of the party's existence. It was then that Cameron called for early parliamentary elections, and also repeatedly called Gordon Brown's policies old-fashioned, criticizing Labour's economic platform in every possible way.
Active actions in parliament
Cameron opposed the anti-terrorism legislation proposed by Labour, as well as the introduction of specialized identification cards. He always called himself a Eurosceptic and said that England is not obliged to submit to the foreign policy of the United States. In 2008, he proposed a 20-year extension to the copyright term in exchange for musicians refusing to glorify misogyny, materialism and gun culture.
In the context of the crisis that arose in 2008, it was decided that Labour’s economic measures were effective, as a result of which they again took leading positions in social surveys.
Prime Minister
May 11, 2010, David Cameron - Prime Minister of Great Britain. Experts have repeatedly said that his government is the first coalition since 1945, and the politician himself is the youngest prime minister in the last 200 years.
Once in charge of government, David Cameron began to actively promote the transfer of powers and power to the people from the center so that local institutions and transport were controlled exclusively by local communities. Already in July, after his election to the post, he announced that such self-government was being created in just a few localities.
Personal life
David Cameron (height and date of birth are indicated at the beginning of the article) was engaged in active charitable activities, and in particular, donated money for the rehabilitation of drug addicts, and was a patron of large quantity charitable societies. It is worth noting that the prime minister goes to work on a bicycle, which was even stolen in 2008.
In 1992, the future wife of the politician Samantha Gwendolyn and David Cameron met. He had a wife already in 1996, and it was then that they decided to formalize the relationship. According to him, Samantha has a strong influence on her husband’s political views.