WASHINGTON -Conservative leader David Cameron moves to 10 Downing St. as Britain’s new prime minister after the resignation of Labor Party’s Gordon Brown late Tuesday. At 43, Cameron will be the youngest prime minister since 1812 after only nine years in Parliament. But his victory came with much uncertainty.
REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton
Britain’s new prime minister, David Cameron, and wife Samantha enter 10 Downing St. in London Tuesday. Cameron said he aimed to form a full coalition government between his Conservative party and the smaller Liberal Democratic party.
The American Enterprise Institute held a panel discussion Tuesday called “The British Election: Lessons for America.” Senior Fellow at AEI Karlyn Bowman said the panel aimed to discuss what U.S. politicians can learn from the British elections.
“We thought it would be valuable,” Bowman said. “To compare and contrast the electorate’s moves in the U.S. and the U.K.”
Instead, the discussion on the possible lessons learned turned into a discussion on “what ifs” for U.K.’s government.
After the May 6 general election, no party claimed victory, resulting in a hung parliament, the first since 1974. A hung parliament is when no party wins the majority of the 326 seats in the House of Commons and has to either form a coalition with another party or attempt to govern without a majority. Negotiations for a possible coalition continued till five days after the election. Then Brown submitted his resignation to the Queen moving forward the coalition of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. But the question still stands as to whether a strong and stable government will be formed.
“From Friday to Sunday, it seemed like there would be a Conservative Liberal Democrat deal. Then yesterday, it looked like a [Conservative] Labor deal,” said Michael Barone, moderator of the panel and co-author of the Almanac of American Politics . “I haven’t checked in the past 15-20 minutes so I’m unable to say anything more. You should all check your BlackBerry.”
The panelists said that the new U.K. government will be facing some of the same issues as the Obama administration is tackling.
“The most important issue they have to address is the deficit,” said William Schneider, public policy professor at George Mason University. “We both have economic deficits.”
Henry Olsen of AEI agrees, but adds that there is another issue shared by the two nations.
“A second issue is immigration,” Olsen said. “It’s a concern across Europe and is main concern of those on the lower-end of the [U.K.] state who find immigrants a competition.”
Upon Cameron’s arrival on Downing Street, he said that government will be “hard and difficult” emphasizing the tough decisions ahead. Despite the doubt that loomed over the past few days, Cameron said it was time for the parties to put aside their differences for the good of the country.