Political positions of David Cameron

This article concerns the policies, views and voting record of David Cameron, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (May 2010 to July 2016). Cameron describes himself as a "modern compassionate conservative" and has said that he is "fed up with the Punch and Judy politics of Westminster". He has stated that he is "certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite.""Cameron: Tories need new identity"
''BBC News''. 17 November 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2006. '' Our Society, Your Life'', a 2007 policy statement for the Conservative Party launched shortly after David Cameron became leader of the party, has been seen by some (such as Richard Kelly, head of politics at Manchester Grammar School) as a triangulation of Conservative ideology with that of Tony Blair's New Labour, linking into the idea of the Third Way and an attempted revival of one-nation conservatism. There have been claims that he described himself to journalists at a dinner during the leadership contest as the "Heir to Blair", and Cameron stated in 2005 that he did not intend to oppose the Labour government as a matter of course, and will offer his support in areas of agreement. He also wants to move the Conservatives focus away from purely fiscal matters, saying "It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB – general well-being". However, commentators have questioned the degree to which Cameron and his coalition have embodied this, instead locating them in the intellectual tradition of Thatcherism. However, Cameron has claimed to be a "liberal Conservative", and "not a deeply ideological person".Rawnsley, Andrew (18 December 2005)
"'I'm not a deeply ideological person. I'm a practical one'"
''The Observer'' (London). Retrieved 6 November 2006.

He and others in the " Notting Hill set" have sought to focus on issues such as the environment, work-life balance and international development – issues not previously seen as priorities for the post-Thatcher Conservative party. In a speech to the Conservative annual conference in October 2006, he identified the concept of "social responsibility" as the essence of his political philosophy.''Cameron: We stand for social responsibility''
, conservatives.com, 1 October 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2006 The idea of the Big Society, championed by Cameron under the 2010 coalition government, proposes "integrating the free market with a theory of social solidarity based on hierarchy and voluntarism" drawing upon "a mix of conservative communitarianism and libertarian paternalism" in principle.

In 2008, Cameron organised a seminar for senior Conservatives with the economist Richard Thaler and began discussing the influence of Thaler's ideas on Conservative policy. Thaler is the co-author with Cass Sunstein of ''Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness'', and the pair are informal policy advisors to Barack Obama. Cameron included the book in a 2008 reading list for Conservative MPs.

Economic policy

Cameron has said that it is "essential to reduce taxes on employment and wealth creation in order to enhance our economy's competitiveness. But I don't think it's sensible today to write a Conservative budget for 2009 or 2010, with specific pledges on tax reduction." He has stated that he hoped to cut taxes and raise public spending, "as the economy grows".

Air travel

Cameron has expressed interest in abolishing Air Passenger Duty for those who travel abroad only rarely, while introducing "frequent flyer" taxes on those who frequently fly around the globe.

Copyright

Cameron intends to increase the period of copyright from 50 to 70 years, bring copyright infringing downloads under stronger legal control and require Internet Service Providers to "block access and indeed close down offending file-sharing sites". He supports music industry representatives going into schools to teach children about copyright, technology hindering copyright infringement (DRM), and encourages the music industry to exercise self-censorship on its material in return for the above music industry friendly measures.

Environment

Cameron has regularly stressed his green credentials since becoming leader, describing himself as "passionate about our environment." He has argued that "there is a price ... for tackling climate change" but it is a "social responsibility to the next generation".''In full: Cameron speech''
BBC News, 4 October 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2006 He has stated he is committed to achieving the 2010 emissions limit and has announced he would change the current Climate Change Levy to a carbon tax in order to counter global warming. Cameron proposed a Climate Change Bill which would include committing to binding annual carbon reduction targets. However, a memo that was leaked to the Labour Party suggested the binding targets proposal may be dropped, and these do not form part of the proposed Bill as of November 2006.

Cameron has expressed his opposition to Green Taxes in Prime Minister's Questions in October 2013, stating that, in order to cut taxes generally, he would 'roll back' the Green Tax. The 'Big Six' energy companies are advocates of this, according to the Express, in order to avoid Labour's plans for an energy price freeze, which would 'deter much-needed investment' from the energy industry (according to ''The Daily Telegraph''). Labour – on the other hand – implied that Cameron was being hypocritical, because even though he was proposing reducing renewable investment, he had said previously in the 2010 election campaign, '...vote blue to go green...' (in other words, that the Conservatives would be eco-friendly).

The prospect of large-scale solar energy farms being built in the British countryside was discarded by Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, on 8 June 2014. At the time, the solar energy industry received £600mn per annum in subsidy. Pickles killed a project because it would have had "major ... adverse impact on the landscape... The loss of a substantial area of productive agricultural land for at least 25 years is another negative factor".

Globalisation

At a speech in Mumbai in 2006, Cameron said there were depressed towns "where the winds of globalisation eltlike a chilling blast, not an invigorating breeze". While stressing "the benefits of globalisation", Cameron also argued that globalisation – not immigration – was to blame for lower wages in the UK, and opposed saying "We must also be honest about lobalisation'scosts, because the alternative is that people project their fears and anxieties on to other ethnic groups or other countries."

In a 2013 speech at London Gateway, Cameron rejected the "unthinking embrace of globalisation, exemplified by New Labour, or the timid alternative of go-it-alone Little Englandism", according to Patrick Wintour of ''The Guardian''. Cameron also stated that welfare reform and education reform were necessary in order to compete on the global market, while emphasising national sovereignty and what he perceived to be the UK's role in international affairs.

Rail transport

After the 2010 General Election, the new Conservative-led Coalition continued Labour's policies on rail transport largely unaltered after a pause to review the finances, keeping the privatised system in place. There was continuing support for the High Speed 2 scheme and further developing plans for the route. Whilst initially showing scepticism towards the electrification of the Great Western route, they later gave the project its backing and work began formally in 2012. Crossrail and the upgrade to Thameslink are due for opening in 2018.

The Government has moved towards allowing more competition on the intercity network through open access operators. In 2015 it approved a service run by Alliance Rail to operate between London and Blackpool, and both Alliance and FirstGroup have applied to run open access services on the East Coast Main Line.

In January 2015, Cameron said "We've made sure that rail fares cannot go up by more than inflation. So the rail fare increase this year, as last year, is linked to inflation, and I think that's right. In previous years it's gone up by more than inflation. But, of course, what you're seeing on our railways is a £38bn investment project. And that money is coming, of course, from taxpayers, from the government, and from farepayers as well." He said Britain was seeing "the biggest investment in our roads since the 1970s, but in our railways since Victorian times".

Regulation

Despite initial strong opposition, Cameron has since declared his support for the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 introduced by the Labour Party. More generally though, he has strongly supported deregulation of the private sector, promising an immediate deregulation bill upon election. He has also pledged to remove Britain from the European Union's social chapter and to withdraw unilaterally from certain directives stemming from the European Union. He has said that Britain must not be a "soft touch" and has called for a crackdown on "access to justice".

In November 2013 at the World Islamic Economic Forum, Cameron said it was important for the UK to promote and boost Islamic finance: "I don't just want London to be a great capital of Islamic finance in the western world, I want London to stand alongside Dubai and Kuala Lumpur as one of the great capitals of Islamic finance anywhere in the world." During his speech Cameron said that the UK would become the first sovereign state outside the Islamic world to issue an Islamic 'sukuk' bond. In June 2014, HM Treasury, under direction of Chancellor George Osborne, issued a £200 million Sakk, which was 11.5 times oversubscribed.

Taxation and public spending

In 2007, the Conservative Party under Cameron's leadership pledged to meet Labour's spending on public services. However, since 2010, the coalition government led by David Cameron issued a nationwide programme of austerity. Comparing coalition austerity measures with the Opposition's, the ''Financial Times'' commentator Martin Wolf commented that the "big shift from Labour ... is the cuts in welfare benefits." The government's austerity programme is a series of sustained reductions in public spending, intended to reduce the government budget deficit and the welfare state in the United Kingdom.

However, the health service and education were "ringfenced" and protected from spending cuts, although some (such as Dr Louise Marshall in ''The Guardian'') have questioned as to whether the National Health Service (NHS) really is exempt from austerity measures. In particular, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 caused an increased privatisation of the NHS by 500% in 2014 alone, Paul Evans claims in openDemocracy.

By 2014 the Treasury extended the proposed austerity period until at least 2018.

Crime and justice

Capital punishment

Cameron opposes the death penalty, saying that while "There are MPs who think we should restore the death penalty... I don't happen to take that view."

Terrorism

In 2007, Cameron wrote a piece about his experiences in a national newspaper about his visit with a Muslim family in Birmingham. It turns out he has been leery since before that time of the adjective "Islamist" used to describe the type of terrorism seen in some Muslims:theguardian.com: "What I learnt from my stay with a Muslim family"
13 May 2007

In July 2014, emergency laws were brought in to force phone and internet companies to hold records of customers' calls, texts and visits to websites, purportedly to defend national security against the terrorist threat from Iraq and Syria in light of the civil war in that part of the world. The legislation brought to domestic shores the Five Eyes program revealed in 2012 by former Booz-Allen contractor Edward Snowden, and were a response to a ruling by the European Court of Justice which struck down mere regulations that forced communications companies to retain metadata for police use for 12 months. MI5 investigations had employed this data over the past decade to catch drug dealers, paedophiles and fraudsters and prevent miscarriages of justice. The legislation carries a 2-year sunset clause.

ISIL flag

A domestic ban on the ISIL flag was promised by David Cameron on 16 August 2014, in the wake of the "onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement"; he went so far as to address the issue with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe:

The ban promised by Cameron was tested to failure not 11 months afterward, when a man and his daughter were photographed on a summer weekend in broad daylight near Parliament Square mere days after the 2015 Sousse attacks. Hogan-Howe now said carrying the black flag of the terrorist organisation was "not necessarily the worst thing in the world", adding that the police should not overreact, while Boris Johnson, then still the Mayor of London, saw no problem with the terrorist flag in the UK because "we live in a free country".

Deportation and the ECHR

In the context of the successful conviction at trial, which occurred in the state of New York after a lengthy extradition battle in the UK, of Egyptian-born Finsbury Park Mosque hate preacher Abu Hamza Cameron said that:

Abu Hamza al-Masr, formerly known as Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, had preached at the Finsbury Park mosque after having been jailed for seven years for inciting murder and racial hatred.bbc.com: "Abu Hamza: Cameron calls for faster extradition process"
20 May 2014 Hamza was on trial in New York accused of conspiring to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and helping abduct two American tourists and 14 other people in Yemen in 1998. More terrorists could be kicked out of the country if it were not for the Liberal Democrats led by Nick Clegg with whom the Conservatives were allied in coalition government between 2010 and 2015, suggested Cameron on 20 May 2014. The Government needed to restore Britain's ability to deport extremists, said Cameron, but it was crucial to overhaul the European Convention of Human Rights to do this. Cameron's proposal to abolish the Human Rights Act 1998 and create a British Bill of Rights would have enabled some of these measures, as well as resolving issues including the rights of terror suspects and the ability of prisoners to vote. However, Cameron has opposed leaving the ECHR altogether.

Cameron had expressed previously his joy at the hate preacher's extradition, and said in October 2012 that the Government must consider ways of stopping similar cases reoccurring:

Cameron had said previously in April 2012 on the occasion of the ECHR decision that facilitated Hamza's extradition: "I am very pleased with the news. It is quite right that we have proper legal processes, although sometimes one can get frustrated with how long they take. I think it is very important that the deportation and expulsion arrangements (work) promptly and properly, particularly when people are accused of very serious crimes."

Youth justice and ASBOs

In July 2006 Cameron spoke to the Centre for Social Justice in which he highlighted the problem of young offenders and called for more understanding. At the time, the '' News of the World'' headlined its report of the speech "Hug a hoodie, says Cameron",''News of the World'', 9 July 2006, p. 16 coining a phrase which came into popular use, although Cameron never actually used the phrase. Cameron afterwards stated that he never advocated hugging "hoodies" and on 17 May 2007, Cameron labelled the speech as the "most misrepresented thing he had ever said".

Cameron has criticised ASBOs as "reacting" to crime, rather than reducing it, and argued that they should be replaced with "challenging community punishments." In the same speech he also argued that young offenders should be shown "a lot more love" and more understanding into why youths commit crime, specifically calling for more youth counselling, education and training. Cameron was mocked by many Labour MPs for the speech, but he received unexpected backing from right-wing peer Norman Tebbit. Cameron has repeatedly defended his argument, saying that although "I understand, you break the law, you get punished" it was important "to understand what's gone wrong in these children's lives."

Social policy

In a July 2005 speech to the Centre for Social Justice he stated, "the biggest challenge our country faces today is not economic decline, but social decline", stating that in life in Britain "there is a complex web of interconnected problem ... Family breakdown. Persistent unemployment among some groups. Low expectations. Chaotic home environments. Drugs. Crime. Poor quality public space." Upon becoming leader of the Conservative Party, Cameron set up a number of committees, such as the Social Justice Policy Group chaired by Iain Duncan Smith, to generate policy ideas on these issues.

He describes Big Society project as his "great passion"; with 10 Downing Street saying that the policy "create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will 'take power away from politicians and give it to people'."Government launches "Big Society" programme
10 Downing Street website 18 May 2010

Some commentators have seen the "Big Society" as invoking Edmund Burke's idea of civil society, a legacy which Cameron "eagerly latched" onto, according to ''Forbes''. The idea of a "Big Society" became the flagship policy of the 2010 UK Conservative Party general election manifesto and formed part of the subsequent legislative programme of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement.

Upon the launch of the "Big Society" on 19 July 2010 it was deemed damaging and unworkable by the Labour Party, the national press, and the country's two largest unions.

Counter-Extremism policy

In the midst of the bombing campaign of ISIS in Iraq and the raft of murders by fundamentalist Islamic terrorists in the past decade both at home and abroad, Cameron outlined in a speech in July 2015 a plan based on what he termed "liberal values" to counter what he labelled as "extremism". He argued that people were attracted towards extremism for four primary reasons, and later set out four planks of a response. Among other items, he promised a Counter-Extremism Bill, empowered parents to cancel the passports of their children, said that the government would publish a ''Counter-Extremism Strategy'', reiterated his goal to promote identity politics, and offered a revitalised Cohesive Communities Programme.

It has been suggested by David Anderson QC (on behalf of a governmental anti-extremism watchdog) that:

If the wrong decisions are taken, the new ounter-extremismlaw risks provoking a backlash in affected communities, hardening perceptions of an illiberal or Islamophobic approach, alienating those whose integration into British society is already fragile, and playing into the hands of those who, by peddling a grievance agenda, seek to drive people further towards extremism and terrorism.

Media

In May 2007, Cameron viewed the BBC
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