After a hiatus, Tregernomics is back! Much has changed in the world since my last interview: politicians and businessmen are now faced with challenges posed by COVID, continued Brexit difficulties, and the upcoming US election, just to name a few. There are new, exciting questions to be put to those who are prominent in their fields. As always, I plan to ask them, and post the answers here for all to see. I also intend to continue this blog’s tradition of sharing the wisdom and life lessons of interviewees with the people of my generation. My thanks to all those who have helped make Tregernomics possible over the past five years – Adam Treger, Editor
23rd September 2020
David Cameron served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 2010 and 2016. First elected as an MP in 2001, he quickly rose through the ranks to become Leader of the Conservative Party in 2005. Once in power, first in coalition with the Liberal Democrats and then leading the first majority Conservative government since 1997, he achieved a multitude of legislative victories before resigning in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. Mr Cameron was kind enough to answer questions about his time in office and his legacy, ahead of the publication of the paperback edition of his autobiography, For the Record.
David Cameron: First, can I say what a pleasure it is to join the many great names you have interviewed and to be able to contribute to your excellent blog. I was particularly delighted to be introduced to you by our mutual good friend Mmusi Maimane, who I see has been one of your previous interviewees. This is such a great initiative, to get young people – particularly in South Africa – engaged with international politics and current affairs, so thank you for inviting me to contribute.
Adam Treger: Thank you, Mr Cameron, for the kind words. To begin, which piece of legislation were you most disappointed to not be able to introduce when your premiership was cut short?
DC: I thought we had a great manifesto in 2015 with a strong set of policies. Naturally, I left power in 2016 so I was not able to personally oversee all of our manifesto commitments, but we have had successive Conservative governments since, so much of the direction of travel has not been lost.
One challenging area of policy which has not been adequately addressed – and which we failed at – is capping the cost of social care for individuals. It’s one of my greatest regrets.
There remains a huge social care funding challenge in the UK that we have to answer. People can see their savings wiped out because of the costs of a nursing home. We have made some steps forward, but the problem has not yet been solved.
It’s a difficult conundrum. Lots of effort has been made to try and solve it but we haven’t got there yet.
The planned reforms that we brought forward would have introduced a £72,000 cap on the sums individuals had to pay towards care home costs, with the state picking up any further bills. I was hoping that the cap on care costs would help to deliver an insurers’ model, where a market would grow up where everyone could insure themselves against the cost of their potential long-term care – but insurers were reluctant to enter the market.
Given the catastrophic cost of care that people face – particularly those with dementia – we’ve got to find a better answer. We haven’t cracked this one yet, although I still think there’s an answer out there.
AT: With the hindsight of having been in power, would you reform the British political system?
DC: I am proud of the political reforms we introduced while I was Prime Minister. We allowed public petitions to help trigger debates in Parliament; gave constituents the right to recall their MP if they were found guilty of wrongdoing; and hugely increased transparency across government and Parliament, to name just a few.
But there are other political reforms we failed to introduce, despite our best efforts. I have long believed in having a smaller House of Commons and, in doing so, make the UK’s Parliamentary constituencies more equally sized. Back in 2011, MPs granted us a Boundary Review to do just that.
The average Conservative seat had 72,000 voters, the average Labour one 68,000 voters. In some places, it was far more uneven with some seats having fewer than 65,000 constituents, and some over 85,000. As I argued at the time, rectifying this would increase fairness – and cut costs at the same time.
To my regret, sadly we couldn’t push this through. There ended up being huge party divisions across the House of Commons, especially between the Conservatives and our Coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, who saw this linked to House of Lords reform – another reform I was personally in favour of, but which too many in my own party were against. Ultimately, both reforms were lost, but I am hopeful both (in some shape or form) will see their time come soon.
AT: What do you think your legacy will be?
DC: What matters to me is the positive change we made for the country. When I became Prime Minister, my central task was to turn our economy around. The UK had experienced the worst deficit in our peacetime history, we were spending more on our debts than on our defences, and unemployment was over 8 per cent. On leaving, the deficit was two-thirds lower and the economy was growing faster than any other in the G7. More new businesses had been started than at any time in our history, and we were doing more trade with the fastest-growing parts of the world. Most importantly, employment hit a record high, and unemployment was at its lowest rate since the mid-1970s.
It was not possible to solve everything in just six years. But we did change the narrative. And we did that by helping to change life for millions of people. There were 1.4 million more pupils in ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ schools. Over 200,000 young people had completed National Citizen Service – and I remain Chairman of Patrons at NCS today. Nearly three million had started apprenticeships. More young people and more disadvantaged young people were going to university. The result was a country that offered more opportunity to more people.
Yes, we had to make some tough decisions to get our economy back on track, but throughout it all, inequality fell. There were 500,000 fewer people in absolute poverty, including 100,000 fewer children. The richest were paying a higher share of tax than ever before. There were 500,000 fewer children living in workless households, the lowest figure on record. Thirty thousand same-sex couples tied the knot in the two years after we changed the law to make this possible. The elderly were better off than at any time in our history.
So, looking back, the reforms we made ensured that the economy was undoubtedly stronger, and Britain was fairer and more equal too. I’m incredibly proud of that.
AT: What is the most interesting thing about you that nobody has asked about?
DC: Being Leader of a great political party for over a decade, and Prime Minister for six years, and then writing an autobiography since, means that I have been asked pretty much every question I can possibly imagine – some more strange than others. You accept that being in public life means that lots of people write about you – so I suspect there is very little that remains a mystery or secret, or has yet to be asked. It doesn’t mean that everything written is true of course!
AT: What would you say your best moment as Prime Minister was? What was your worst? What do you miss the most and what are you glad about never having to do again?
Every day serving as Prime Minister is a real privilege. Some days are hard – very hard – other times are particularly enjoyable and there are too many great moments to mention.
Without doubt, the worst moment was watching the horrifying, horrendous footage of British hostages being decapitated in Syria. It is something that will never leave me and I think of their families often.
The best bits? The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were certainly a huge highlight – a fabulous moment for the UK, for British sport and also for good old fashioned diplomacy, as we hosted so many leaders from around the world and showed the UK off at her very best.
I also remain incredibly proud of passing the Same Sex Marriage legislation. One day when I was leaving No10, the doorman – who used to open that famous big, black front door – stopped me. We had never really spoken properly before. He said, “Prime Minister, I’m not really all that interested in politics, but because of what you have done, I am able to marry my partner this weekend, and we want to thank you.” It was one of those very special moments that illustrated that the decisions we made in politics, really affected peoples’ lives. I’ll never forgot that moment.
As for what I don’t miss – I can’t say I miss Prime Minister’s Questions all that much. Waking up on Wednesday mornings knowing that I had to enter a packed House of Commons and face 30 mins – which increasingly became 50 mins or more – of questions and shouting, always filled me with dread. It’s a wonderful part of our democracy, but not something I’ll miss doing!
AT: Which books would you recommend to someone my age?
DC: ‘Why Nations Fail’ by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson helped shape much of my thinking towards development issues and inspire my current work on the Council on State Fragility and with the ONE Campaign. The book examines why some states succeed and prosper, and others don’t – arguing that solid institutions are the driving factor (rather than geography, climate or culture etc).
Further on this theme, you will not go far wrong by reading anything by Sir Paul Collier, author of the ground breaking, ‘The Bottom Billion’. His latest book, ‘Greed is Dead’, is thought provoking. He argues convincingly that a reaffirmation of the values of mutuality – working and believing in something together – will help refresh and restore our politics, business and our society. It’s a compelling read.
AT: What life lessons have you learnt over the course of your distinguished career?
DC: I think the lesson that remains with me – and one I tell my own children – pre-dates my career. My father once said to me, “if in doubt, just do the right thing”. I think that’s pretty good advice for everyone, no matter who you are, what job you do, where you live, or how old you are.
AT: What did you learn in your teenage years which you think has influenced your success?
DC: Hard work might not guarantee success, but you rarely get success without it.
AT: Is there anything you wish you had done which you didn’t do when you were my age?
DC: I wish I had learnt a foreign language well enough to speak it fluently; and although I was fortunate enough to visit and work in Hong Kong in my late teens, I wish I got to spend some time in China too. For all the challenges, it is such an intriguing country and it’s rise over the past decades has been fascinating.
AT: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met, and why?
DC: One of the very best parts of being Prime Minister is having the opportunity to meet so many interesting people from all over the UK and, indeed, all over the world. It is often those chance meetings that leave the greatest impression. I think of those putting the Big Society into action, running superb charities and social enterprises, to those I met caring for my former elderly constituents battling with dementia – who inspired me to take up the cause in government and to continue pursuing it out of office through my work with Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Then, of course, there are the well-known faces. Anyone who has ever met Nelson Mandela will tell you what a very special man he was. I had the great privilege of being able to introduce my family to him, including my young children – I will never forget that day.
And one of the great privileges of being Prime Minister is being able to work with those serving in our military and intelligence agencies. I never tire of hearing their stories and seeing what they do. They really are unsung heroes who help keep us all safe and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.