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How To Rule The World Like…

Since being elected party leader in 2005, David Cameron has without doubt reformed and rejuvenated the stuffy Conservative Party and is now tipped to seize power in some form in the UK.

If he wins the UK general election on May 6, David Cameron will be the first Conservative leader to steal power from Labour since Margaret Thatcher. He will also be the youngest occupant of 10 Downing Street since the early 19th century.

The economy should be the key battleground in the election. But Britain’s bloated budget deficit, standing at 12 per cent of GDP, gives the parties little room to maneuver, leaving them to squabble only over the speed and delicacy with which they’ll slash government spending. Conservative Party plans to start cutting right away have been attacked by opponents who say this would threaten the fragile recovery.

Because Cameron has failed to kill off Labour once and for all and the Liberal Democrats have registered a late resurgence thanks to live TV debates, he may be forced to run some kind of minority administration.

Public school relations
Cameron has always struggled to shake off his posh upbringing. No newspaper profile on him can fail to mention that the 43-year-old son of a stockbroker, who grew up in Newbury, Berkshire, attended prep school and went to Eton and then Oxford University, where he got a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

His Oxford tutor, Vernon Bogdanor, describes Mr Cameron as “one of the ablest” students he has taught.

Many have criticised him therefore for being out of touch with large swathes of working class Britons. But Conservative Party supporters argue, why would the country not want a well-educated leader?

Political pundits say his efforts to change the party must have been helped by his own background and experience working within Conservative HQ during their last spell in power.

Cameron worked at the Conservative Research Department after leaving Oxford, briefing John Major for prime minister’s questions and, famously, accompanying Chancellor Norman Lamont on Black Wednesday, as the pound crashed out of the exchange rate mechanism.

He then spent seven years as the head of public relations at commercial broadcaster Carlton, all the while attempting to become an MP himself, something he achieved in 2001, when he won the safe Conservative seat of Witney.

Family politics
Although he has not captured the hearts of the nation in the same way as Tony Blair and his brood did in his landslide victory in 1997, Cameron has always been on a sure footing when it comes to his family values.

He grew up with brother Alec and sisters Tania and Clare, and now has two children, and another on the way, with his wife Samantha.

In general, The Camerons present themselves as just another young, metropolitan couple. But Samantha, a creative director of luxury-goods brand Smythson, has come in for some flack from the posh brigade over her heritage – she’s of King
Charles II.

But, political commentators say most Britons seem prepared to forgive these accidents of birth.

Last year Cameron suffered the death of his severely disabled son Ivan, who was then six. This fact strikes an important note for families living with disabilities, although he has not used Ivan as a political tool in anyway.

Ivan, who was born profoundly disabled and needed round the clock care, died in February 2009. The experience of caring for Ivan and witnessing at first hand the dedication of National Health Service hospital staff, is said by friends to have broadened Cameron’s horizons, from the apparently charmed life he had led to this point.

The Conservatives need to gain an additional 117 seats to win a House of Commons majority in the May 6 election – a feat they has not achieved since 1931. Because of the vagaries of the British electoral system, the Tories may need to win at least eight percentage points more of the popular vote than Labour to secure that victory.