For the Record
Описание книги
‘The political memoir of the decade’ Sunday Times The referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU is one of the most controversial political events of our times. For the first time, the man who called that vote talks about the decision and its origins, as well as giving a candid account of his time at the top of British politics. David Cameron was Conservative Party leader during the largest financial crash in living memory. The Arab Spring and the Eurozone crisis both started during his first year as prime minister. The backdrop to his time in office included the advent of ISIS, surging migration and a rapidly changing EU. Here he talks about how he confronted those challenges, from modernising a party that had suffered three successive electoral defeats to forming the first coalition government for seventy years. He sets out how he helped turn around Britain’s economy, implementing a modern, compassionate agenda that included education and welfare reform, the legalisation of gay marriage, the referendum on Scottish independence and world-leading environmental policies. David Cameron is searingly honest about the key players from his time in politics. And he is frank about himself – the things he got right and the things he got wrong. He opens up about family life too, including the tragic loss of his eldest son. We learn why he kept Britain’s promise on overseas aid spending and what it was like to commit British troops to conflicts in Libya, Iraq and Syria. He sets out how he won the first outright Conservative majority in nearly a quarter of a century, and describes the events leading up to the EU referendum, the renegotiation, the campaign – and his thoughts on it all today. It is the most compelling record yet of what it’s like to lead in modern times and to live behind the most famous door in the world.
Оглавление
David Cameron. For the Record
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Five Days in May
A Berkshire Boy
Eton, Oxford … and the Soviet Union
Getting Started
Samantha
Into Parliament
Our Darling Ivan
Men or Mice?
Hoodies and Huskies
Cliff Edge, Collapse and Scandal
Going to the Polls
Cabinet Making
Special Relationships
Afghanistan and the Armed Forces
Budgets and Banks
Nos 10 and 11 – Neighbours, Friends and Families
Progressive Conservatism in Practice
Success and Failure
Party and Parliament
Leveson
Libya and the Arab Spring
Referendum and Riots
Better Together
Treaties and Treadmills
Omnishambles
Coalition and Other Blues
Wedding Rings, Olympic Rings
Resignations and Reshuffles
Bloomberg
The Gravest Threat
Sticking to ‘Plan A’
Love is Love
A Slow-Moving Tragedy
Leading for the Long Term
A Distinctive Foreign Policy
The Long Road to 2015
Junckernaut
A ‘Small Island’ in a Small World
Back to Iraq
Scotland Remains
The Sweetest Victory
A Conservative Future?
Rolling Back the Islamic State
Trouble Ahead
Renegotiation
Referendum
The End
Picture Section
Index
About the Author
About the Publisher
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That late-night phone call had been set up by our aides to confirm that a full coalition was off the table, and we were now only looking at confidence and supply. But Clegg and I both went off script. ‘Why are we doing this?’ we asked each other. We agreed that we should try again to go the whole hog. I said I would have another look at an AV referendum, and push my party towards a full coalition.
By Monday, though, I was utterly dejected. The soaring hopes of the morning before had been trampled, as the Lib Dems signalled their annoyance at the lack of movement on voting reform.
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