New British Prime Minister David Cameron wants to form a coalition government between his Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, he said Tuesday.
Cameron was invited to form the next government by Queen Elizabeth II about one hour after she accepted Gordon Brown’s resignation Tuesday evening.
The right-wing Conservatives won the largest number of seats in last week’s election, but not enough to let them govern on their own.
Brown’s left-wing Labour Party came in second, and the Liberal Democrats third. A Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition would have the majority of MPs in the House of Commons.
Cameron echoed U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s famous “ask not what your country can do for you” speech in his first remarks as prime minister.
He aimed to build a society “where we don’t just ask, ‘What are my entitlements?’ but ‘What are my responsibilities?’… Where we don’t ask, ‘What am I owed?’ but more ‘What can I give?'” Cameron said.
“Those who can, should, and those who can’t, we will always help,” he promised, stressing freedom, fairness and responsibility.
“Real change is not about what government can do,” he insisted. “Real change is when everyone pulls together, comes together, works together.”
Cameron praised his predecessor in the brief remarks outside 10 Downing Street before disappearing into prime minister’s official residence with his wife Samantha.
He said he aims “to form a proper and full coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats,” saying it would be “the right way to provide this country with the strong, the stable, the good and decent government that I believe we need so badly.”
He added he wanted “to put aside party differences and work together for the common good and the national interest.”
Cameron becomes the country’s first Conservative prime minister since the Labour Party, under Tony Blair, defeated John Major in 1997.
He is Queen Elizabeth II’s 13th prime minister — including Harold Wilson twice, for his two non-consecutive terms — since she was crowned in 1952.
As he was traveling from Buckingham Palace to 10 Downing Street — a short drive — the palace issued a statement saying: “The Queen received the Right Honourable David Cameron this evening and requested him to form a new administration. The Right Honourable David Cameron accepted Her Majesty’s offer and Kissed Hands upon his appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.”
(Read More: CNN)
2 Responses
So. Is he Jewish?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6677414.ece
1. We go by descent in the maternal line, so the answer is “no.” Feel free to sell him your hametz over Pesach.
2. Virtually everyone is descended of Jewish descent (no hiddush, we’ve been around a long time, and genes get widely dispersed – it isn’t like intermarriage only began a few years ago).