inside the lens

David Cameron has entered 10 Downing Street as prime minister, returning the Conservative party to power after thirteen years.  Cameron accepted the Queen’s invitation to form a new government shortly before 8:30PM BST and soon thereafter spoke to the country outside Downing Street. It was then that he announced that he will establish a “proper and full” coalition with the Liberal Democrats–the first in British politics since 1945.

The coalition comes as a result of four days of intense negotiations between all three main political parties–which began due to last week’s election where the results delivered a hung parliament.

I remember when I first began following David Cameron’s political career; it was while on a trip to London in December of 2008. I bought a colleague of mine Cameron on Cameron, as he was quickly becoming an ardent supporter of the now current Prime Minister. Personally, I had my doubts about David Cameron being able to oust Gordon Brown and the Labour Party. However, the political analyst in me had the realization that he had become a viable candidate by merely being the loudest dissenting voice against the waning Labour Party.

Much like the American story circa 2008, it was less about the candidate and more about the dissatisfaction with the ruling party. The candidacies of Barack Obama and David Cameron can be viewed in many ways as parallel stories, e.g. benefiting from failed policies, poor economy, party dissention and unpopular leadership.

Looking ahead, Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, will work to create a lasting coalition government, which has been hailed as the coming of a new era in British politics. They are working hard to downplay the significant policy differences and concentrate rather on the country’s most pressing problem—the deficit.

“This is going to be hard and difficult work,” Cameron said, adding that coalition government “will throw up all sorts of challenges. But together, I believe we can provide the strong and stable government this country needs.”

We shall see.

Good luck, Mr. Prime Minister.

[sb]

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