Running Head: FAILED PREMIERSHIP OF DAVID CAMERON 1

Failed Premiership of David Cameron

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Introduction

David Cameron's legacy as one of the greatest failures in British politics is now assured.

Cameron is seen as the man who to the UK out of the European Reunion, and as people still wait

for the full effects of Brexit, he will be remembered as Britains prime minister who oversaw the

beginning of the end of the United Kingdom. In a battle field, even generals sometimes find their

luck running out, and Cameron proved no exception to this immutable law of politics. The

majority of political careers usually fail, but few go to the lengths that are devastating as

Cameron's. This implicates how political careers end, with a crash, not a whimper. Nothing else

matters since nothing good might be remembered of him since he gambled everything in one roll

of a dice and lost it all.

As a politician and a leader of over ten years of Britains conservative party and six more

as the prime minister, Cameron's legacy and great achievements now simply boil down as the

prime minister who suffered a defeat of devastating proportions. In the history of United

Kingdom politics, no politician has ever been humiliated with his electorate to such levels.

Cameron lost the control of his party and then his own country. The ramifications of these

misfortunes will be felt for years to come, both in the United Kingdom and internationally.

Political historians in the future will be pondering this issue, and their judgment will likely be

harsh (Jones, 2016, p.2). In the perfect scenario, Cameron was supposed to be a new kind of

Tory, one who would be comfortable with facing the reality of modern British politics. Cameron

was elected as a leader charged with transforming the Tory party as it needed much change, and

he was the perfect candidate that would lead a kinder and inclusive conservative party, aimed at

being economically conservative while being socially liberal. Such initiates would include a
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reduction in taxes for the poor, offer support for gay marriage, welfare reforms and increased

spending on international aid for some of the most maligned countries in the world.

Above all, Cameron emphasized that the Tory party had to refrain from discussing the

issue of leaving the European Union. He realized beforehand that the European Union was

becoming a distraction from some of the most pressing issues. Moreover, he was also aware of

the fact that the division among the Tory party had brought about the demise of Margret

Thatcher as well as crippling the premiership of John Major. As such, Cameron seemed to have

been aware of some of the biggest pitfalls that he would face as the prime minister and managed

to do well for the most part of his premiership. Even one year before his resignation, he did not

foresee the need to honor his pledge of holding a referendum to strengthen the countrys EU

membership.

The beginning of his failed leadership is believed to have started in the America. If the

report were right, it is believed that while in the United States, Cameron hatched the plan, with

two trusted colleagues, the decision to hold a referendum (Kershaw et al., 2016, p.1). He

assumed that the best of consolidating his control over the Conservative party prior to the 2015

voting exercise was to pledge the promise of conducting a referendum on United Kingdom's

membership of the EU. Subsequently, in 2013, he declared that he was in favor of a referendum,

in which he stated that he believed in confronting the issue. Not everyone agreed with him, but

he kept on pressing ahead with it in attempts to regain his premiership. However, this step was a

gamble and proved to be disastrous (Kershaw et al., 2016, p.2). This was before he won an

astounding majority in the previous year's election. However, a year later, Cameron found

himself trapped by the manifestos and promises he made during the campaigns. Some of these

included placating skeptics on the countrys EU membership in his party as well as eliminating
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the threat that was posed by anti-EU UK Independence party. This meant that a referendum had

to be held. Even with the threats of a new referendum and the very delicate issue of Britain's EU

membership, Cameron remained confident, and complacent, since he thought it would be an easy

task to win it. Besides, a majority of establishments in the UK were against leaving the EU,

including most of the British multinational corporations.

Due to the vast economic interests of most voters, Cameron believed it would influence

the majority of them to set aside their concerns regarding the country's European Union

membership and endorse the status quo. They would have likely done so driven by enthusiasm,

but Cameron and his government were reluctant in calling for British citizens to vote remain in

the referendum. In case he was aware of the anti-EU sentiments in the United Kingdom, then he

might have been too confident in his ability to suppress it. His efforts to renegotiate the terms of

Britain's EU membership proved to more of an embarrassment and humiliation that eventually

flopped. He had not carefully judged his ability and room to maneuver the consequences that

were coming. The United Kingdom was already out of the EU, with semi attached elements such

as a single currency and the common Schengen travel area, which meant there was not much for

the country to negotiate for within the European Union. When the economic crisis in 2008 hit,

Cameron's tone as a politician changed. Though the social reforms were still in place, they were

accompanied by more conventional Conservatism, such as balancing books through reductions in

public spending. Cameron always declined to believe in the numerous contradictions that arose

during this times and believed that the country could do more with less. Considered as a self-

styled pragmatist, he was always able to find shape his positions to suit the times. It was this

flexibility that allowed him to form political alliances with his allies and opponents alike. On the

other hand, it was this attribute that bred suspicion, and eventually, outright hostilities among his
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purely Conservative fellow politicians, who had a hard time figuring out exactly what he stood

for.

Therefore, his attempts at renegotiating for better terms of EU membership was a

complete disaster, which led to inevitable failure and party divisions, that in turn resulted in a

strategic blunder. Thus, any hopes for British citizens to vote Remain in the referendum

evaporated when Boris Johnson, who was being considered as the most suitable heir to Cameron,

and perhaps the most charismatic and popular politician in Britain at the time announced that he

would vote for Britain to leave the EU. To make it worse, the tempers and characters during this

period provide Cameron with little, if any, encouragement. In today's world, populism is the

currency and elites are considered a fair game everywhere. On the contrary, the European Union,

which has never served as a source of inspiration and enthusiasm in Britain, was therefore

viewed as a force that could not be controlled, not democratic and out of touch.

In a more relevant, although less fair, this was the case of Cameron, who hailed from a

more privileged background and an aristocracy. Consequently, Cameron's plan for a conservative

nation came dwindling down when his countrymen dismissed his vision as an ill-fated. His

attempts to take back control and restore the sovereignty of Britains Parliament, involved

parading experts, from Barack Obama, IMF chiefs as well as those from the World Bank, all of

whom provided clear warnings against the consequences of leaving the EU. It, therefore, seemed

that even experts were out of touch with Britain. Many British politicians and experts noted that

while the experts hired by Cameron were 'about economics, Britain was much more about

democracy.'

Moreover, the anti-EU campaigns greatly focused on the issue of immigration, an issue

that had greatly affected the country, due to a large number of refugees flowing from conflict
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prone the Middle East. In one of his promises, Cameron pledged to cut the number of refugees

entering the UK to only a hundred thousand a year (Rentoul, 2016, p.1). However, it turned out

this was one of his biggest undoings, because in 2015 along, one year to the referendum,

migrants had increased the United Kingdom's population by over three hundred thousand people

(Rentoul, 2016, p.2). His only hope, therefore, rested on his rhetorical campaigns against

migrants from refugee camps such as Calais and the others which he believed could improve the

credibility of his policies, although it failed. This again proved his out of touch with the British

people. The Leave campaign, on the other hand, insisted that enough was enough, arguing that

leaving the European Union was the only way of giving Britain the power to control its borders.

Thus, to date, Cameron finds himself the laughing stock of Europe. His attempts to

reinvent the Conservative Party, bringing it back after losing three elections under Tony Blair did

not count for anything. Above all, Cameron and the many politicians that will come after him

must think of the manner in which he lost the confidence of the British people. The root cause of

this problem is something that runs long and deep but also seemed to have been connected to the

recent financial crisis. Since the crisis, the British people had to put up with the austerity

measures that the government put in place, although they did so out of enthusiasm.

It was believed that Cameron like those that came before him was a lucky politician who

would do his best during such a crisis. He had previously had triumphantly faced Labor

politicians such as Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, both of whom were also heroically

unpopular in their different ways. For instance, Cameron was able to eliminate the threat of

Scottish independence in 2014, and up until the months leading to the referendum, he seemed to

have the ability to see off the threat of Brexit too. However, the referendum portrayed an image

of a highly polarized Britain with the majority of the elderly population voting to leave, while the
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younger generation voting in large numbers to remain. Today, Britain remains a country that is

divided by class and geography in a way that has never been witnessed before

(newstatesman.com, 2016, p.3). This too forms Cameron's legacy, coupled with the proof of his

failed premiership. The country is today viewed as a shipwreck, and the captain who drove the

ship onto the rocks will be forever known as Cameron. This is the legacy that he will be

remembered for.

Conclusion

It is difficult to exaggerate how seismic the planned rupture between Britain and Europe

has been. It is a sign of the decades of disintegration among the EU member states, the rejection

of past liberal orders after the Cold War, something that now threatens the integrity of Britain

herself, with Scotland still willing to remain a member of the EU, but is being prevented by the

United Kingdom. Cameron, on the other hand, will be remembered as the man who wagered his

political career and everything he had built as a politician on a plebiscite and lost, virtually

laying to waste over fifty years of progress made by his predecessors. He left office with hardly

any admirers, a nation in crisis, and a failed premiership. This is enough to make one pity him,

but owing to the way the consequences were will continue to be serious, not quite. I, therefore,

believe that his premiership was a tragedy for which Britain and other countries will continue to

pay for years to come.

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References

Jones, O. 2016, July 12, David Cameron's premiership is a tragedy for which we will all pay |

Owen Jones. Retrieved August 14, 2017, from

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/12/david-cameron-premiership-tragedy-

pay-eu-referendum

Kershaw, I., Seldon, A., Todd, S., & Bogdanor, V. 2016, July 15, David Camerons legacy: the

historians verdict. Retrieved August 14, 2017, from

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/15/david-camerons-legacy-the-historians-verdict

Rentoul, J. 2016, September 13, On the week he resigns as an MP, let's not forget David

Cameron's five biggest failures as Prime Minister. Retrieved August 14, 2017, from

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/david-cameron-step-down-mp-why-biggest-failure-prime-

minister-theresa-may-tory-party-government-a7239931.html

David Camerons epic failure. Retrieved August 14, 2017, from

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/07/david-cameron-s-epic-failure
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