Ashcroft Call Me Dave

The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-84954-990-5
Verlag: Biteback Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 592 Seiten

After a decade as Conservative Party leader and six years as Prime Minister, he remains an enigma to those outside his exclusive inner circle. Now, in the wake of his dramatic resignation following the sensational EU referendum campaign, this new edition of the book that 'got the world talking' (Daily Mail) revisits the real David Cameron, bringing the story of his premiership to its final chapter. Based on hundreds of interviews with colleagues past and present, friends and foes, this unauthorised biography charts Cameron's path from a blissful childhood in rural Berkshire through to the most powerful office in the country, giving a fascinating insight into his most intriguing relationships, both political and personal. Exploring the highs and lows of his administration, from his brush with disaster over the Scottish question and his humiliation over Syria to his surprise election victory in 2015 and his controversial win on gay marriage, this fully updated edition offers a comprehensive assessment of Cameron's legacy in office, weighing up the extraordinary achievements of Britain's youngest Prime Minister for 200 years.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ashcroft, Michael

Leseproben

1

CHIPPING SNORTON

‘Politicians are just like anyone else that gets promoted: we worry deeply about being found out as too unimaginative, too idle or just too stupid to do the job we’ve just been given.’

– David Cameron, 25 March 2004

New Year’s Eve, 2008

In the grounds of a honeycomb-coloured Cotswold farm, thudding music from a giant marquee reverberated into the night. Blacked-out Range Rovers, the vehicle of choice for west Oxfordshire’s wealthy, spread across a field like a row of small tanks, unremarkable next to the sleek limousines and sports cars with their personalised number plates. Under black skies, shadowy figures pulled on cigarettes – chauffeurs, collars turned up against the cold, braced for a long night.

The setting was a property in Sarsden, epicentre of the infamous Chipping Norton set. Inside the marquee, more than 500 of the richest and most powerful people in Britain were seeing in the New Year in style. The Moroccan-themed tent was festooned with floor cushions. Beautiful people draped over pouffes sipped drinks by flickering lamp light.

It was the annual New Year bash for ‘the set’, one of society’s hottest tickets, a party so exclusive and impenetrable by paparazzi that guests conditioned to restraining themselves at social occasions for fear of capture on camera were able to relax. They could be confident that whatever happened in the marquee would stay in the marquee, for nobody in this gilded circle risks ostracism by breaking the omerta that governs social gatherings.

The guest list was hand-picked and tightly controlled by the stars of the set: TV personality Jeremy Clarkson; former Blur bassist turned gentleman farmer Alex James and his wife Claire Neate; racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks and his glamorous sister Annabel, and the Queen Bee of them all: Rebekah Wade. Flame-haired protégée of Rupert Murdoch; friend of prime ministers; partner of Chipping Norton racehorse trainer and Old Etonian Charlie Brooks; and editor of The Sun, she was one of the most powerful and best-connected women in the land. Every potential invitee required the approval of all – a process designed to ensure nobody inappropriate slipped through the net.

Among the guests that night was David Cameron, then Leader of the Opposition, and his wife Samantha, who live a mile or two away in the hamlet of Dean, a cluster of pretty villages above a shady dell. There too were shadow Chancellor George Osborne and his wife Frances; Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor; Lord Black, former director of communications to Michael Howard; and Mark Bolland, former aide to the Prince of Wales. Other famous faces included television presenter Alan Yentob, and Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC.

By the time Matthew Freud and his then wife Elisabeth Murdoch swept in, the party was in full swing – loud, boozy and perhaps not entirely free of class-A drugs. Who knows who might have brought such substances onto the premises (or turned a blind eye if they were in circulation)? Certainly not the hosts – but, fairly or unfairly, social gatherings among the upper echelons of society in this part of west Oxfordshire have acquired a reputation for featuring narcotics. So much so that some affectionately dub Chipping Norton ‘Chipping Snorton’.

As the clock approached midnight, guests in varying condition trooped out of the marquee for a spectacular firework display. Many seemed euphoric, including Mrs Cameron. In the small hours of the morning on 1 January, she was giving it her all on the dancefloor; dragging on a cigarette; her husband nowhere to be seen.

Not everybody was happy, however. A newspaper executive well used to scenes of excess recalls being shocked at the concentration of power and money.

‘It was incredible to see all these people letting their hair down. But something felt wrong. There were just too many people in too many powerful positions too close to each other. I remember saying to the person I was with, “This will end in tears.” It wasn’t right.’

Emerging from the loos later that evening, the former newsman, a working-class boy made good, bumped into Cameron.

‘You’re not one of us, are you?’ the Leader of the Opposition quipped cheerfully. The guest was left wondering whether the remark was a reference to his politics, his social status, or both.

It is at such exclusive social occasions, in his constituency in Witney, that David Cameron can really be himself. In manor houses, converted barns, farmhouses and stately homes belonging to friends, the Prime Minister kicks off his shoes and lets his guard down, safe in the knowledge that anyone with a long lens would first have to find him (no mean feat in an area replete with muddy farm tracks and unmarked country lanes) and then run the gauntlet of security cameras and electric gates.

Details of these parties rarely leak. Members of the gilded circle generally have a strong interest in keeping their mouths shut about the fascinating personal relationships between key players; their lavish lifestyles; and what they get up to behind closed doors. Theirs is a world of helicopters, domestic staff, summers in St Tropez and fine food from Daylesford, the organic farm shop owned by Lady Carole Bamford, wife of billionaire industrialist and Cameron supporter Sir Anthony Bamford. The Camerons dip in and out, knowing the political damage too close an association could cause.

A first-hand account of a private Conservative Party fundraiser held at the Georgian stately home of Cameron’s millionaire friend and neighbour Lord Chadlington, for example, makes unedifying reading. It took place a stone’s throw from Cameron’s own house in the tiny hamlet of Dean.

According to one dismayed attendee:

There was a huge marquee full of ladies with big hair and even bigger jewellery. The entertainment for the evening was Dave in conversation with Jeremy Clarkson, who seemed to be smashed off his face. There was a lot of drink around. David was loving the whole laddishness of it. He was really, really playing up. Clarkson’s opening line to Dave was, ‘Come on; let’s face it, no one in this tent could care less about comprehensive schools. What they want to know is why organic milk is so expensive at Daylesford?’ David tried to bluster his way out of it, but Clarkson just went on, saying things like, ‘Seriously, Dave, everyone sends their kids to private schools…’

There are other embarrassing snippets. One member of the set has told how the Prime Minister became so inebriated at one late-night party that he lost his mobile phone.

‘He was wandering around drunk, asking if anyone had seen it. I couldn’t believe it,’ she recalled.

When she feels as if she is in safe company, Samantha herself can be extraordinarily indiscreet, once regaling guests at a private party with a colourful account of how she and Cameron became so intoxicated on holiday in Morocco that they vomited.

Such is the caricature of the Prime Minister: an Old Etonian ‘toff’ most at ease among the super-wealthy after his own apparently effortless climb to the top. Political opponents are eager to exploit and propagate the image, portraying him as hopelessly privileged and out of touch. It is a stereotype he painstakingly avoids reinforcing in public (he was so anxious to avoid being seen in tails that he toyed with the idea of wearing normal work clothes to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton), but appears to live up to behind closed doors. The events in Sarsden and at the home of Lord Chadlington are just a soupçon of life in the Chipping Norton set.

But if this is the ‘real’ David Cameron, a man at home with some very wealthy and louche characters, it is only a small part of the picture.

His may be a tale of privilege, but his rise to the premiership is the result of some remarkable qualities, not least an unflinching self-belief and a rare political ability to attract – or at least not repel – many of those who would not normally vote Tory. Unlike Tony Blair, with his zealous interventionism driven by religious conviction, and Gordon Brown, with his black moods and roaring temper, Cameron is a well-balanced character without glaring flaws. His personality is considerably more subtle than other recent prime ministers, which makes him harder to write about but lies at the heart of his electoral success.

He is the political product of the hopes and ambitions of others, too: exceptionally talented and ambitious friends and relatives who invested in him and helped propel him to the top. His bid for the premiership came as he was coping with not one but two personal traumas: a desperately disabled son and the personal difficulties of a close family member. With remarkable resilience and optimism, he made it to the top anyway, becoming the first leader of a coalition since the Second World War. Not only did he make the coalition last, he then defied all expectations and historical precedent to lead his party to victory in the 2015 general election. Had he failed – as pollsters and pundits predicted – he would have been the Prime Minister who never won an election. Instead, he is a winner, delivering the first Conservative majority since 1992.

Amid the shock and euphoria among Tory supporters, a new narrative quickly sprang up among his critics: that his remarkable career is the product of remarkable luck. This uncharitable interpretation characterises Cameron as the accidental beneficiary of a succession of political and economic...