David Cameron is a bad Prime Minister. This is not because he is from a rich family, or because he attended Eton. It is not because he was part of the elite riotous Bullingdon club during his time at Oxford University. It is not even because of any of the policies he has enacted during his time in office.
No. David Cameron is a bad Prime Minister because he follows opinion rather than leading it. This makes him a weak leader. His government frequently changes its policies as soon as it senses they are unpopular, such as over the pasty tax and cuts to school sport. Of course this is due to the fact that David Cameron, like Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband doesn’t really believe in anything. He, like Ed Miliband, simply wants to “be Prime Minister”.
Strong leaders do what they think is right and risk losing the next election in order to enact those policies. Sometimes, however, voters credit them for their bravery and re-elect them. Margaret Thatcher is a good example of this, she refused to change course in her first term despite lots of pressure to do so and despite some of her policies being disliked by both those within her own party and her opponents, especially her economic policy. Tony Blair in comparison was a weak leader for spending his decade in office doing what he thought would make him re-electable rather what he thought was the right thing to do, and for having nothing to show for his 1997 landslide victory. Of course Blair, like his heirs who lead all three parties today, didn’t really believe in anything.
The same is true for Bill Clinton, who like Blair brought his party out of the electoral wilderness and made it electable again. Clinton didn’t really believe in welfare reform, executing mentally ill prisoners and opposing gay marriage, but thought those stances would make him popular and would help him win votes. He like Blair has little to show for his time in office. In comparison, Barack Obama has showed that he is a strong leader over his position on healthcare reform by pushing through what he though was the right thing to do not rather than what he though would make him well-liked.
BY: Thomas Williamson
