A fully updated edition of Cameron: The Rise of the New Conservative, the first major biography of David Cameron, and now covering his first years as Prime Minister and leader of the coalition government.David Cameron is the first Conservative Prime Minister in a generation, and also the first leader of a coalition government for eighty years. But what is the reality behind his brand of repackaged Conservatism? And who is Cameron the man?Here, for the first time, is an independent examination of the ‘saviour’ of the Conservative Party and the life that brought him to Number 10 Downing Street. Based on extensive interviews with his closest friends, his most senior lieutenants and his critics, it traces his meteoric rise from an idyllic, privileged childhood, to the heart of government by the age of 25, to leader of the country.Critical and insightful by turn, this updated edition now covers Cameron’s first year as Prime Minister – a time that has seen unprecedented scandal in the political world, as well as challenges unique to the Conservative leader.
Оглавление
Elliott Francis Perry. Cameron: Practically a Conservative
Cameron. The Rise of the New Conservative. Francis Elliott & James Hanning
Table of Contents
PEASEMORE A Berkshire boyhood 1966–1973
HEATHERDOWN Prep school 1974–1979
ETON Public school 1979 –1984
OXFORD University 1985–1988
SMITH SQUARE Conservative Research Department 1988–1992
GAYFERE STREET General election campaign 1992
11 DOWNING STREET Treasury 1992–1993
TUSCANY Romance 1992
QUEEN ANNE’S GATE Home Office 1993–1994
ST GEORGE STREET Carlton Communications 1994–1997
KNIGHTSBRIDGE Carlton Communications 1997–2001
WITNEY Member of Parliament 2001–2003
IVAN Firstborn
FINSTOCK ROAD Preparing for the election 2003–2005
BLACKPOOL Leadership election 2005
NORMAN SHAW SOUTH Leader of the Opposition 2005–2007
MILLBANK Leader of the Opposition 2007–
EPILOGUE
NOTES
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
About the author
Praise
Copyright
About the Publisher
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London, New York, Toronto, Sydney and New Delhi
Title Page
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Yet, for all the lack of witting parental pressure to succeed, Ian’s unstated determination made him a hard man to live up to. Without wishing it, he set a high bar. Susan Rathbone agrees that, tacitly, a standard was set. There may be, she says, ‘a subconscious drive that Dave has got from Ian’s incredible example. Ian has vast enthusiasm – which Dave has inherited – and a sort of unstoppableness which I’m sure is very inspirational to live with.’ When he was thirteen, Cameron is said to have told a friend: ‘He is my role model. Dad has never let his disability hold him back. He has proved you can do anything you want in life.’
Cameron’s attitude to Eton was a healthily forward-looking one. ‘I always got the impression that Eton was a preparation, not an end, which is as it should be,’ says Andrew Gailey. ‘It was all about the future. I’m not sure what he wanted to be but I’m not surprised he’s in politics. It’s the interest plus the way he operates which means you’re not going to want to dig too deeply into philosophy but you’re going to want to make things happen.’ James Wood says: ‘I would say he didn’t seem someone who would certainly be in politics; what he seemed was someone who would be successful. His charm and decency – almost a kind of sweetness, actually – marked him out for a kind of general success in whatever he did. But politics did not look likely.’ Cameron’s friend James Fergusson remembers a conversation in which he discussed which boys in his year might emulate some previous Etonians and go on to become Prime Minister. One boy, and Fergusson believes it was Tom Goff, Cameron’s old friend from prep school, said he thought that, if anyone might, it would be Cameron. Asked about the exchange, Goff says: ‘James may well be right but I’m afraid I have no recollection of it.’ Another close friend, in Cameron’s house, says he remembers a conversation between him and Cameron as they looked at the statues of past Etonian prime ministers. ‘We were convinced there would never be an Etonian prime minister again. I certainly didn’t think Dave would have a go at it. His only acting roles at school were as a serving-man and as a girl. He was never outrageously extrovert – just quietly popular.’
