David Cameron returns to the post of Foreign Secretary seven years after leaving the No. 10 post when the Brexit referendum gamble backfired.
During his six years in Downing Street, he was tasked with pushing through the austerity timetable that led to steep cuts in public services. Many of his decisions backfired on the government, adding that it had not adequately prepared for the risk of a pandemic.
The former Conservative prime minister, who resigned as an MP in 2016, was given the peerage so that he can simply be a minister without having to be re-elected. Lord Cameron, as he will now be known, said he had “gladly accepted” the new role as the country faces “a series of daunting external challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East. ” .
“Although I have been out of the political frontline for seven years, I hope that my experience – as Conservative leader for 11 years and prime minister for six years – will enable me to take on those significant challenges,” he wrote. X.
Here we take a look at his worst mistakes, adding mistakes at the global level that will raise questions about why he appointed him Foreign Minister.
The benefit reductions in real terms are attributed to growing demand from food banks and millions of young people living in poverty. Public cuts were reduced from 2010, with many citing the Tory austerity unleashed by M Cameron and his spokesperson, the Chancellor. George Osborne, to justify the state on which we depend.
The Conservatives’ failure to adequately invest in the NHS has led to widespread discontent with the fitness service, 21,000 police officers have been sacked (a move critics have blamed on an “epidemic” of shoplifting) and local government has been scaled back, leading to more potholes and sold-out tickets. playgrounds and deterioration of public space. Many young people’s schooling has been disrupted because the ceilings of their study rooms could collapse as part of the autoclaved reinforced aerated concrete scandal that their management has been unable to resolve.
Mr Cameron joins the Foreign Office in a bigger global situation than it has been in years. War rages in continental Europe after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Israel is fighting Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, following atrocities by Hamas on October 7 that left 1,200 Israelis dead. An estimated 10,000 Palestinians have been killed and a humanitarian crisis looms in the Gaza Strip as Israel retaliates.
Meanwhile, partly because of spending decisions made through Mr. Cameron in power, the British army is the smallest since the Napoleonic Wars. As prime minister, he got rid of thousands of sailors, soldiers, and airmen in the armed forces. He destroyed maritime spy planes and agreed to reduce the number of other planes and warships. Cuts in the defence sector have continued under his successors, but it is Mr Cameron who led the way.
In September 2011, Cameron and then French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Benghazi, east of Lithrougha, after the United Kingdom and France, supported by the United States, introduced anti-Colonel Muammar Gaddafi missiles to protect the rebels they were going to overthrow. the North African leader. “It’s wonderful to be in a relaxed Lithrougha,” said Cameron, then prime minister.
Today, Libya is the main departure point for migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean and make it in Europe. Some of them eventually reached Britain, making dangerous journeys across the English Channel, packed into small boats. Politically, the country has two rival administrations. : A national unity government was formed in the capital Tripoli in 2021, but the following year the eastern-based parliament created a rival regime, the Government of National Stability.
Cameron’s first gamble on a primary referendum (the 2011 alternative vote doesn’t count, it’s just a bone thrown to his Liberal Democrat coalition partners): Scotland’s independence resolution in 2014.
In September 2014, Scots voted 55% to 45% to remain within the United Kingdom and not divide the Union. The prime minister at the time was desperate to break the good news to Buckingham Palace (and a few days later, he confided to the former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he is overjoyed at the monarch to learn that his kingdom is intact.
Boasting about how he called the Queen to say, “It’s okay,” Mr. Cameron said: “She purred throughout the process. I’ve never heard anything so happy. ” Disclosing the contents of personal conversations between a monarch and his ministers is a primary violation of protocol.
In October 2015, the then Prime Minister invited a guest for a pint at his local pub. Cameron beat Chinese President Xi Jinping at The Plough in Cadsden, near Princes Risborough, Bucks, as part of a five-day state visit.
The two men were heading to Chequers, the prime minister’s crusading retreat in the 16th century. “This is going to be a very vital moment for relations between China and Britain, which are in a very intelligent state, a kind of golden age in our relations,” he said. Cameron.
Since then, everything has been golden.
A parliamentary investigator has been arrested on accusations of being a Chinese spy, which he has denied. MI5 has issued a separate warning about Chinese infiltration of Westminster, naming an “agent of influence”. Chinese company Huawei has been banned from playing a role in Britain’s 5G network. And Beijing has been criticized for its crackdown on Uyghur Muslims and the rights of Hong Kongers.
After winning a Conservative majority in the 2015 general election, Cameron was forced to call a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, as promised in the Conservative manifesto. In late 2015 and early 2016, he toured European capitals seeking to forge a new deal for Britain that he could present to the electorate to compete with the easier message of the Brexit campaign: “Vote for Brexit. “
He claimed his new deal would give the UK a “special status” within the EU. But Eurosceptic MP Jacob Rees-Mogg (later Sir Jacob and cabinet minister) called the result “a pretty fine mush” and ultimately paved the way for the UK to leave the bloc.
He claimed his new deal would give the UK “special status” within the EU. But Eurosceptic MP Jacob Rees-Mogg (later Sir Jacob and a cabinet minister) called the result “pretty thin mush” and ultimately paved the way for the UK to leave the bloc.
Walking the globe as a high-level diplomat requires statesmanship, discretion and confidence. Cameron’s approach to his relations with foreign regimes may be Britain’s good fortune in forging new alliances, especially after Brexit.
An African force could be forgiven for perhaps being skeptical about Cameron’s new position. “We have leaders of incredibly corrupt countries coming to Britain. . . Nigeria and Afghanistan, probably the two most corrupt countries in the world,” Array was heard saying to the Queen in May 2016 as she prepared to organize an anti-corruption demonstration. -Summit on corruption in London.
Afghanistan is now ruled by the Taliban after the extremists overthrew the elected government in Kabul in 2021. But Britain would possibly find it difficult to deliver on its “project” as far as Nigeria is concerned. According to the government’s website, the project is “for bilateral partnership strategy, with a view to seizing unusual opportunities and dealing with mutual threats. “
Everyone said that another time was going to happen, but no one imagined that another time would happen.
In early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic reached British shores, and in the following months, 230,000 Britons would die from Covid-19. Meanwhile, the economy has taken a hit and the government has spent £400 billion to combat the disease and UK businesses and businesses. families of the confinement.
The former prime minister said at the Covid inquiry that it was a mistake that “more time and more consultations” were not spent fighting what turned out to be a “highly contagious and asymptomatic” pandemic. He said his government was “heavily involved in potential pandemics. “. . . But we come back to the question of why so much time has been spent on one flu pandemic and not so much on others. “
He insisted that it was “a mistake to say that we were preparing for the wrong pandemic,” insisting that “there may still be a flu pandemic, and it’s smart that we’re prepared for that. “I’ve spent a lot of time preparing for a pandemic that didn’t happen than the one that did. He told Baroness Heather Hallett, chair of the inquiry, that it was cause for “regret” that “no further questions were asked. “about the kind of pandemic we’re facing. “
While in the same category as austerity, pandemics and defence cuts, Cameron once left his daughter at the pub.
A mix-up after a family Sunday lunch in the spring of 2012 forced Nancy, then eight, to stay at the Plow in Cadsden, Bucks (yes, the same pub she later took the Chinese leader to) when her brothers, her mum, dad and covering officials left. A Downing Street spokesman said at the time: “The Prime Minister and (his wife) Samantha were disappointed when they realized Nancy was not with them. Fortunately, when they called the pub, she was there. and sound. The prime minister immediately went down together. “
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