Cameron’s Daunting Task Of Changing UK

By Paul Arhewe, Online/Foreign Editor

The political terrain in United Kingdom has embraced a new atmosphere. This is not only because the Conservatives, in a coalition with the Liberal democrats, have taken the rein of power from the opposition position it has been subjected to since the past 13 years , but that young stars, like Obama, are now calling the shoots in one of Europe’s biggest economy. 43-year-old David Cameron is UK’s youngest Prime Minister since the last 200 years (since Robert Banks Jenkinson in 1812), with six months younger than former PM Tony Blair, and his deputy from Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg is also 43.

The results of UK general election last week have shown that there are neither vanquished nor outright winner for the three major political party leaders. For Cameron, prior to the votes, he was greatly favoured to sweep the polls and maintain an exclusive government, but he ended up with a hung parliament; embracing a plea bargain to woo the liberal democrats in coalitional government. Clegg was the hero during the great debates; outshining his opponents, but became the loosing team that others must take along in realising their kingship. Gordon Brown of the Labour party outrightly admitted his flop and party’s failure, but his decision to quit was really timely, and has won him the respect as a quintessential contemporary politician, what Blair would have loved to achieve during his time.
The tasks before Cameron, no doubt is daunting. As the loquacious and major critic of Brown, especially since the latter became Prime Minister in June 2007, Cameron would need to outshine Brown’s performance and proffer results to those many economic and financial criticisms he had levelled against his predecessor. He will be assessed based on how successful he is able to turn around the British post recession economy, and manage those many flaws Brown had incurred.
The British society is one that is conservative in nature; hence, there is the need for the new Tory administration to cut down the rising government expenditures, another pitfall which Brown administration carried along. The taxpayers in Britain are the ones bearing the huge cost used in maintaining the about 100 ministers, where there are about 170 cars for ministers alone that gulp 20 million pounds annually. No wonder, a segment of the British society are calling government to introduce public transportation to ministers so as to save the huge cost in funding cars and the entourages that go with public officials. Boris Johnson, a columnist with UK Telegraph, sums this up by arguing that “Politicians should stop wasting our money and start taking public transport”.

Britain is a major player in the global economy. Cameron has a huge task in cooperating with his America counterpart, Barack Obama to give a facelift to the world’s economy that is still finding its feet after the great recession that hit major economies last year.
The realities of contemporary challenges on global economy may just be a different ball game in tackling by extrapolation from the past. There is also the challenge emerging super economies are portending to the developed western states, of which UK belongs. China, India, and Brazil are all set to surpass the ‘old’ economies of the west within no more than a decade or two. The Third world or developing economies in Africa and part of Asia are no longer developing; they are ever ready to continue their plea for aids and bailouts, even though they provide the raw materials on which engine the global economy. The new British government under the leadership of the Tories need to put the machinery in order to provide a deep and valuable trading partnership with the aforementioned nations.
On the political scene, Cameron would really need to win the trust of his co-travellers, especially in the coalition government that is formed with the opposition, as a writer rightly puts it “The formation of a coalition means conspiring with political enemies and smiling in front of the cameras pretending to agree”. There is also the glaring eyes of Labour party that will be watching to catch on the flimsiest gaffe.
In addition to this the new government need to rebuild the trust of the electorate in their government, which was the undoing of Brown at the later part of his administration. Cameron’s speech when assuming the mantle of power as PM lays credence to this: “One of the tasks that we clearly have is to rebuild trust in our political system. Yes, that's about cleaning up expenses, yes, that's about reforming parliament, and yes, it's about making sure people are in control and that the politicians are always their servants and never their masters”.
The UK support with U.S. on the Iraqi and Afghan wars is another tough decision Cameron would need to look into. Of recent, the deaths of British soldiers in Afghanistan are on the rise, and this is not too appealing to the British citizenry. Cameron would decide whether to cut short the number of UK troops in these war zones or decide to totally hands up, which is not too possible, as it would not be a pleasing pill that the American government will love to swallow.
The tasks before Cameron has made his new position not too enviable, as he has a lot on his hands today, but changing the expectations of the British people has to be high up on his priority list.