With his head raised and his gaze straight, David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 2010 and 2016, enters the House of Lords, the heavy ermine cloak on his back. This Monday, November 20th, at the age of 57, he prepares to assume his new role as Lord by pledging allegiance to the King. “I, David, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and faithful to His Majesty King Charles, his heirs and successors according to law. “May God help me,” he declares solemnly, handing over the Bible.
This is the grandiose and outdated protocol of the House of Lords at Westminster, which many consider a relic of British class society: with its 785 members appointed for life, it is overcrowded and still has almost a hundred hereditary lords (the able are to pass on their dignity). seat of their descendants) and the introduction there amounts to ennobling.
For this reason, David Cameron, who was already considered a representative of the upper class with his aristocratic accent and privileged background (Private College of Eton, University of Oxford), won the title of Baron and, as usual, chose a place to associate with it – Chipping Norton , a pretty town in the Cotswolds, a country paradise for millionaires northwest of London.
Lord for life
David Cameron owes these honors not to his controversial political legacy: it was he who, in order to appease the right wing of the Tories, organized a referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union in 2016, with the result we know. He is also the man behind the austerity policies imposed in 2010, whose damaging effects on British public services are still clearly felt.
The main reason why he became Lord for Life is because Rishi Sunak elected him Foreign Secretary on November 13th to try to save what could be saved from the Conservative Party – just a few months before the next general election, everyone says Polls predict a return to power for Labor. To sit in government, British ministers must actually be able to answer for their decisions in Westminster.
They are usually MPs and take part in question-and-answer sessions in the House of Commons. Otherwise, and with rare exceptions (including that of David Cameron, who resigned from his elected seat in 2016), they sit in the House of Lords. But this accelerated entry of the former leader into the red and gold hall (where he was appointed by the king on the advice of the prime minister) causes great anger.
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