“Leaving politics has made me a better father and a better husband,” former Prime Minister David Cameron admitted this summer to The Telegraph, from his summer retreat with Samantha and their three children in Cornwall. To his closest friends, however, he had acknowledged his intimate desire to one day return to politics. The echo must have reached Sunak himself and his unspeakable dream ultimately became an unexpected birthday gift (he celebrated his 57th birthday last October 9).
Gone are these seven years spent peacefully in limbo, since that suspicious chant (“Do-do-dodooo”) with which he provided the soundtrack to his resignation in July 2016, after having resoundingly lost the EU referendum. (52% compared to 48%) and having paved the way to the most turbulent era in the recent history of the United Kingdom with four successive “premiers” (Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak).
Oblivious to the endless political crisis unleashed by Brexit, Cameron dedicated himself like any other leader to living off the income from his years in power (2010-2016). His discreet career as a lecturer was in fact catapulted at the start of 2023 with his “signing” for the New York University team in Abu Dhabi, where he was invited to give a series of lectures curiously titled: “Doing politics in the era of disruption”…
David Cameron has earned around 140,000 euros per speech in his second life as a lecturer, less than half of what Boris Johnson now charges, another who is not satisfied with early retirement and continues to wage war in the rear (now as a star presenter of GBNews and columnist for The Daily Mail).
Unlike Boris, Cameron tried not to make excessive noise after his departure, although his work in the shadows scandalously made headlines with the bankruptcy of the firm Greensill Capital, which he came to advise and for which he even interceded on its behalf. inclusion in Covid financial rescue programs (before then Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak).
The British Parliament even opened an investigation into Cameron’s links with financier Lex Greensill. The House of Commons intelligence committee also examined his role in the launch of a multimillion-dollar China-United Kingdom investment fund, after having toasted with Xi Jinping with beer for “the new golden age” in relations with the giant. Asian.
All of Cameron’s attempts to clean up his image and come out on top had so far fallen on deaf ears, including the publication of his voluminous 700-page memoir, “For the record.” Critics criticized his book as an endless “exercise in self-indulgence,” with special emphasis on his coming to power in 2010 and his years as a conservative “wonder kid,” and as a missed opportunity to reconcile with the British.
“Brexit depresses me,” he confessed on the occasion of the publication of “For the record.” “Every day I think about the referendum and losing, about the consequences and how different things could have been… I know there are a lot of people who will never forgive me.”
In his book, Cameron threw the ball around and claimed that he had no choice but to call the referendum in the face of internal pressure from the Tories, convinced that “the issue was not going to disappear overnight.” In any case, he accepted his “personal failure” for the fiasco of the permanence campaign and for not having known how to dismantle the “false narrative” of his eternal rival Boris Johnson.
His most recent public appearance was last June, in the official Covid investigation. Cameron also then, in his own way, declined responsibility for his role during the era of austerity, when cuts began that left the National Health System (NHS) dangerously exposed.
No matter how hard he tries now, austerity and Brexit are the two saddlebags with which Cameron arrives at the Foreign Office, with the mission of reestablishing ties with old partners who will have to rub their eyes before they can extend their hand and say: ” Welcome back!”