Profile of David Cameron on Famous Like Me

David William Donald Cameron (born October 9, 1966) is a British politician of the Conservative Party. He is Member of Parliament for Witney and Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Skills as a member of the Shadow Cabinet.

Early life and career

Raised near Wantage in Oxfordshire, the son of stockbroker Ian Donald Cameron, he was educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford. He graduated in 1988 with a first class honours degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He is married to Samantha Sheffield and has two children.

Cameron worked for the Conservative Research Department between 1988 and 1992, spending two days a week in Downing Street on the Prime Minister's Question Time briefing team. After the election he became a Special Advisor to the Conservative government, first at the Treasury (working for Norman Lamont at the time of Black Wednesday) and then the Home Office, where he worked for Michael Howard. Between 1994 and 2001 he was the Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications and until August 2005 he was a non-executive director of Urbium PLC, operator of the Tiger Tiger bar chain.

Parliamentary career

Cameron's first attempt to reach Parliament was as the Conservative candidate for Stafford at the 1997 general election, but he was defeated by the Labour candidate David Kidney. He was selected as the Conservative candidate for Witney for the 2001 general election succeeding the former Conservative MP Shaun Woodward who had defected to the Labour Party. He regained the seat for the Conservatives winning 22,153 votes (45.0%) a 7,973 majority. At the 2005 election he increased his vote to 26,571 (49.30%) a majority of 14,156.

Cameron has risen quickly through the Conservative ranks since he was first elected in 2001. He was appointed a Shadow Minister, Privy Council Office – part of the frontbench team shadowing the Leader of the House of Commons in June 2003 and promoted in March 2004 to Shadow Minister for Local Government. In June 2004, he became Head of Policy Co-ordination for the Conservative Party, and since September 2004 has been a member of the Shadow Cabinet. In May 2005, in the post-election reshuffle he was made Shadow Secretary of State for Education. In this post he has focused on use of phonics in teaching, calling for a review of the closure of Special Schools and "returning integrity" to the systems of examinations.

Party leadership

Cameron announced that he would be a candidate for the vacancy for the leadership of the Conservative Party on the 29th September 2005. He has gained support from colleagues including Boris Johnson, Alan Duncan, Bernard Jenkin, Shadow Secretary of State for the Family and for Culture, Media & Sport Theresa May, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, Shadow Defence Secretary and deputy Conservative leader Michael Ancram, and Oliver Letwin.

In the first ballot of Conservative MPs held on 18 October 2005, Cameron came second with 56 votes (which was more than had been predicted for him at this stage of the contest). David Davis came first with 62 votes (less than his supporters had claimed as the number of votes pledged to him), Liam Fox came third with 42 votes and Ken Clarke came last and was eliminated with 38 votes. In the second ballot held two days later on 20 October 2005, Cameron polled 90 votes, David Davis 57 votes and Liam Fox was eliminated with 51 votes . All 198 Conservative MPs voted in both ballots. The next stage is for the 300,000 Conservative party members to be polled on which of Cameron or Davis should be Conservative leader.

In a speech to the Centre for Social Justice in July 2005, Cameron set out his view of the direction the Conservative Party should take. In his speech he stated that "the biggest challenge our country faces is not economic decline, but social decline".

His speech to the 2005 Conservative Party Conference (delivered without notes) was widely praised and significantly boosted his chances in the contest. In the speech he vowed to make people "feel good about being Conservatives again...I want to switch on a whole new generation". Cameron is currently seen as the front runner in the race, and is the bookmaker's favourite.

In a recent poll by the Daily Telegraph, Cameron has been placed top of the selection, with 59% of the poll, although the poll sample was small.

His campaign's Chief of Staff is the author Alexander Deane.

Experience of drugs

As his campaign has gained strength he has also come under pressure to reveal exactly what experience he has had of illegal drugs. At a conference fringe event, when asked if he had taken drugs, he replied: "I had a normal university experience." Pressed on this point during the BBC programme Question Time, he insisted that everyone is allowed to "err and stray" in their past and that everyone is entitled to a private life before politics. He also pointed out that members of the governing Labour Cabinet never answer this question when it is put to them. After being chosen as one of the final two Tory party leadership candidates (with David Davis) on 20 October 2005, Cameron expanded slightly on his previous answers. In response to a direct question he explicitly denied having 'snorted cocaine' since becoming an MP. The distinction he makes is that questions regarding his life before he entered politics he won't answer but regaring the period since he entered public life he will.

He has consistently supported drug law review, and its possible reform, on the grounds that the current approach does not work . Cameron voted for recommendation 24 of the Home Affairs Select Committee report: 'The Government's Drugs Policy: Is It Working?' (published on 9 May 2002), which recommended that "the Government initiates a discussion within the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of alternative ways—including the possibility of legalisation and regulation—to tackle the global drugs dilemma".

Disability champion

Cameron, who has a young son with cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy, was named Disability Champion in the ePolitix Charity Champion Awards 2004. In the article supporting his nomination the National Society for Epilepsy wrote, "David has been a vocal supporter for improvements in services for those caring for severely disabled children and those with long-term conditions ... What is particularly significant is his willingness to draw on and speak about his own personal experiences as a father of a disabled child."

Family background

David Cameron is the cousin of the Conservative political journalist and editor Ferdinand Mount and the grandson of Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet. Through the Mounts, he is related to many British aristocratic families, being descended from the 7th Earl of Denbigh, the 1st Earl of Ducie, the 1st Earl of Carnarvon, the 2nd Earl of Egremont, the 6th Duke of Somerset and the 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury, as discussed here.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article David Cameron