The fall of David Cameron … what we will miss

I watched the fall of David Cameron, United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, on live television with sadness. After his triumph in the Scottish Independence referendum he appeared confident to win the European Union referendum. However, as the votes were being counted, and they seemed to skew towards outing Britain from the European Union, it was obvious […]

I watched the fall of David Cameron, United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, on live television with sadness. After his triumph in the Scottish Independence referendum he appeared confident to win the European Union referendum. However, as the votes were being counted, and they seemed to skew towards outing Britain from the European Union, it was obvious to those familiar with the British political terrain that Cameron’s glittering career had come to the end of the road. But the end came sooner than even he expected. After the loss of the referendum vote on 24th June he declared that he was resigning and would leave by the start of the Conservative Party conference scheduled for October 2016. But matters seem to have gone out his hand and just a few days later found him out of office. 
 Many would say the Prime Minister was the architect of his own failure. For how could one explain having two heavy referendums within one parliamentary lifetime that promised no clear, likely, favourable outcome for the Prime Minister’s party? Even if it was an electoral promise, was there any compulsion to run them early in the life of the parliament? Where I come from in Borno, my folks would just shrug their shoulders and explain what had befallen Prime Minister Cameron as “hau”. This is a malevolent spirit in Kanuri mythology that afflicts a normally reasonable person, doing very well in the course of his life, to take an abnormal and unusual course of action that could lead only to doom.
To charge into a referendum holding a “Yes” banner to staying in the European Union when at that time the whole of the continent of Europe was being swamped by the kind of refugees – mostly Asian, mostly Muslim – the average European is not kindly disposed to, amounted to a political suicide. Probably Cameron thought victory was within his grasp, but when even senior members of his Conservative Party, some serving in the font benches as Ministers of his Government, were rebelling and openly campaigning for a “No” vote, it was clear to us observers that Cameron was heading to the abyss.
To me it was a great error of judgement and Cameron paid for it dearly. British party politics is cruel to leaders who loose elections. A leader who loses an election doesn’t just loose face, he must go ahead to commit a political suicide or what the Japanese would call a political hara-kiri (self-annihilation), and should he hesitate the party would rally round to assist him to do so. It is always done in an orderly, gentlemanly fashion. This is what happened to Jim Callaghan when he lost to Margret Thatcher in 1979, John Major when he lost to Tony Blair in 1997 and Gordon Brown when he lost to Cameron in 2010 to cite a few examples.
 That was the scenario that unfolded after the “No” votes triumphed in the referendum. We watched in amazement Cameron making his resignation speech while speaking directly to a beleaguered country, in front of No 10 Downing Street, the official residence and office of the Prime Minister that morning. In a matter of hours, party members particularly those who shared the front benches with him in the parliament threw their hats into the ring to contest replacing him as party leader and Prime Minister. To Cameron’s dismay the most disloyal to the party causes, Michael Gove, then Minister of Justice and Boris Johnson, former Mayor of London were being touted by the media as his likely replacements.
 To his relief, his close working colleague, Theresa May, Minister of Internal Affairs, who faithfully toed the Party lines to campaign for the “Yes” vote in the referendum, won the contest, and that probably made it easy for him to hasten his departure from No 10. Then we were again opportune to watch on live television a show of revolving doors in Buckingham Palace where the outgoing Prime Minister came in to ask his sovereign, the Queen, to relieve him of his post. A few minutes later Theresa May came in to be so anointed by the Queen to take up the post.
I have been a close observer of British political life ever since I set foot on the soil of that country in 1979 on my way to Swansea University to start a post-graduate course and I have always been captivated by the way and manner politicians in that country conduct government business. Everything is in the open. Leadership, at all levels, is held accountable for its actions at all times. Probably that is the beauty of the Parliamentary system. You don’t wait for a number of years to take action on a failed leader. The sentence is immediate, however gruesome.
 I believe that David Cameroun will have a place amongst the great Prime Ministers of modern times. He will definitely be missed. When his party won the elections in 2010 with a small majority, he was only forty-three and expectedly he brought plenty of youthful energy into No 10 Downing Street. He came to the office very well groomed for the job. After earning a First Class Degree in PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) from Oxford University, he was recruited into the Research Department of the Conservative Party where he worked directly with many leaders of the party and was properly mentored. He was Special Adviser to a number of top Ministers, including one Chancellor of Exchequer and a Home Secretary, before achieving his ultimate ambition of getting into Parliament in 2001.
 When he led the Conservative Party to win the elections in 2010 he had a small and inadequate majority and had to team up with another youthful colleague, Nick Clegg, then also forty-three, leader of the Liberal Democrats to form a parliamentary alliance and achieve a majority that would effectively keep the Labour Party in the colds for the following four years. And when it was time for another round of elections again last year he confidently earned the needed majority to even muster enough clout to dispense of the support of Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.
 I kept a close watch of him particularly because I consider him one of Britain’s great Prime Ministers of our time. One may not have any sympathy for the politics of the Conservative Party but one must not hesitate to salute what the party has done to the British economy in the last six years. They have successfully brought down budget deficit from 11% to 3% which is a major achievement in any country and they have put down measures that have made the economy stronger and more competitive. The economy is buoyant and Cameron is always ready to reel out figures of rises in employment figures in every region of the country.
 For me what I will miss most is the debating eloquence he has brought to the Prime Ministers Question Time (PMQ). At present the PMQ is where one can gauge the performance of a British Prime Minister as it is carried live on Sky television and can be watched anywhere in the world. Though there is a question time in the Parliament one hour daily from Monday to Thursday for Members of Parliament to direct specific questions at Ministers of the Crown, Wednesdays at noon are reserved for only the Prime Minister. Questions directed at the Prime Minister could range from mundane constituency matters to more esoteric ones dealing with policy and such.
 However it is the encounter with the opposition leader that is the most enthralling part to watch. Since coming to the front benches in the Parliament as Leader of the opposition in 2006, Cameron had mastered the debating theatrics. By the time he took over the reins of power as Prime Minister his oratorical skills had soared to new dimensions. At every outing on Wednesdays he made successive Labour Party leaders such as Gordon Brown, Ed Miliband, and now the dour and untidy-looking Jeremy Corbin, looked like bumbling school kids. Cameron was always on top of the situation with facts and figures at the tips of his fingers and a ready wit to put down any wise-cracking challenger from the opposition whether from within his party or otherwise.
 Even outside parliamentary hours Cameron had displayed abundant oratorical skills. One of his most brilliant orations, that I ever watch him render, was last year at the 50th year anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s death. I guess that speech must have impressed even the great Winston Churchill himself, a past war-time Prime Minister, revered world-wide for his eloquence and wit.
It is the humanness that Cameron brought to the office of the Prime Minister that will live long after his exit. It was amazing that as Leader of the Opposition, he once took a paternity leave when his wife Samantha gave birth to a son in 2006. He actually withdrew from his legislative duties and handed over to David Davis, his Deputy, and went to stay at home to help his wife cope with the situation. And when his daughter Nancy was ready for secondary school last year, he did what has never been done by any Tory Prime Minister. He registered the girl in a state school even though, he, as a boy, had attended Eton, probably the very best private school in Britain. When he was Prime Minister, I have watched him at play in the tennis court, jogging in the street, taking his family to lunch in a pub or stripped down enjoying a swim in the beach. This is what makes their leaders human, and when they are called to speak at whatever fora, they speak with an engaging and intimate knowledge of what their citizens feel and think.
Dori can be reached at [email protected]