Judged against his own priorities, Cameron was a failure as PM
Apparently David Cameron intends to be an active back-bench MP, so he
might dispute the idea that his political career has ended, never mind in
failure. However, he must know that a prime minister’s term in office has
rarely imploded so quickly, or so spectacularly. Barely one year
ago, he confounded the pollsters and became the first Conservative leader to
win an outright majority in the House of Commons for 23 years. Now he is
set to hobble out of Number 10 in the Autumn, leaving behind a party divided by
a bitter leadership contest.
Mr Cameron was the moderniser who became Tory leader on the back of a
pledge to stop “banging on about Europe”. Yet, first he put a
referendum on membership at the heart of British politics and then he lost a
campaign to keep the UK in the EU, with the odds stacked heavily in his
favour.
While Mr Cameron looked to have secured the country’s constitutional
future when Scotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom in 2014, a second
independence referendum now looks likely and, this time, Scottish separatists
will be favourites to win. Similarly, in Northern Ireland, Brexit
has re-energised Irish nationalist demands for a border poll that was
previously a distant aspiration.
There were other, subtler, failures too, for a prime minister who
described himself as a ‘one nation’ Conservative and cited Harold Macmillan as
his political hero. Neither Cameron’s first government, formed in
coalition with the Liberal Democrats, nor the latest Tory administration, were
the careful, progressive guardians of the UK and its institutions that his
supposed ‘small c’ conservatism promised.
The Conservatives’ 2010 election manifesto avoided proposing ‘grand
projects’ like reorganising the NHS, but the coalition government introduced
the Health and Social Care Bill after only a few months in power, and Tory
health ministers’ sweeping reforms are ongoing. Across departments,
Mr Cameron’s two administrations produced a steady stream of tinkering and
legislation, much of it making change for change’s sake; police and crime
commissioners, five year fixed term parliaments and commitments to turn every
school into an academy.
There were contentious attempts to implement a fairer welfare system,
which were based on sound principles of encouraging people off benefits and
into work, but became entangled inseparably with the Treasury’s drive to cut
public spending. The UK’s economy improved during his time as prime
minister, though while unemployment stayed low, living standards
dropped.
David Cameron’s leadership of the Conservatives started with the
prospect of a hange in philosophy. He seemed to favour a return to
traditional values of ‘one nation’ Conservatism - a humane social outlook,
pragmatism in foreign policy and a cautious approach to reform. In
power, those instincts were curtailed, as his government confronted a financial
crisis and Cameron sought to manage Tory
factions.
In the end, his biggest accomplishments were party political; becoming
the first Conservative prime minister for 13 years and then the first Tory
leader to win a general election outright for 23 years. Cameron’s
broader legacy is more questionable and he was unsuccessful judged against his
own stated priorities. He made ‘banging on about Europe’ the focus
of British politics, failed to consolidate the Scottish referendum result by
strengthening the UK afterwards and ultimately he couldn’t impose his vision of
Conservatism on his own party.
Comments