So long, Dave...

...you'll be missed.
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by PAM

"It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve our country
as Prime Minister..."

Just when I'm really, really liking David Cameron, UK's immediate past Prime Minister (PM), due mainly to the wider involvement of UK in global development through education and cultural exchange; and have been considering his opinion on many things in my collage-of-things-that-I-enjoy-thinking-about just because we are in the same age bracket, he decided to exit 10 Downing Street prematurely - after merely a year into his second term as British PM. Okay... from another perspective, it could also be said that fate decided to evict him from 10 Downing Street.

Of course, his move out of 10 Downing Street crystallized from 'Brexit', UK's decision to leave the European Union in a tumultuous referendum, which happened about three weeks back.  People would argue that Cameron brought this to himself by calling the referendum,

Giving tribute to his beloved wife and children as he said his last
goodbye to the country that he so ably served as Prime Minister
for six years.

which exposed a horrendously messy Tory Party, and divided UK to a bitter debate.  Cameron was usually adept in taking 'calculated risk' since his fresh-faced MP days... and he is a real risk taker, too.  But he got this one wrong... obviously!  

The EU leave-remain referendum eventually resulted to a 52%-48% win for the Brexiteers, led by one of Cameron's old friends from his Old Etonian boyhood, the flamboyantly indomitable former Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.  While in heated and bitter debate, it was indeed remarkable to watch the two prominent Old Etonian battle it out, making their case to the British public with Cameron campaigning to remain in EU and BoJo campaigning for the opposite.  It turned out that Cameron's charm, or the lack of it, was no match to Johnson's no holds barred messily out-and-out appeal that incited the British public to let the worst in them poke its nasty head through, especially on the issue of immigration. The scandal on his late father's involvement in seeking to grow his business through investment in tax havens, implicating Cameron, which unfolded prior to the vote didn't help his case. His popularity dipped as more and more flaws in hid government were found and magnified under the lenses of the referendum.  These got everyone's mind wandering away from all the other practical issues of being in or out of EU.  I watched in awe of the eloquence, and admittedly, sometimes in pure disgust, as the debate between the two camps went bitter and ugly.  While always remaining quite intelligent in words, the opposite sides missed going in depth on essential aspects of their respective arguments.  And yet, I have to admit that it was a wonderfully entertaining alternative to the Philippines' own Presidential and Vice-Presidential race around the same time.  But, let's not go there... because I cannot say that I've recovered from that as of yet.

Going back to David Cameron, I'm really fascinated by his sharp mind and eloquence, becoming the

Farewell, PM Dave!  
Will miss all the eloquence and rhetorical swagger.

youngest British PM in almost 200 years at the age of 43 years... it's the UK, so that's gotta mean something huge.  While he did have a 'snubbish' upbringing... and many believed he brought this to 10 Downing Street, including myself, he got a number of things good for UK.  He moved to 10 Downing Street while raising a young family, and that's after the world saw him and his beautiful wife, Samantha, mourn the death of their eldest son, Ivan, from a neurological disorder.  I also enjoyed tremendously his gag of a sense of humor - that 'very British' kind - that he used so masterfully in besting counterparts across the aisle in the Commons. :)  Amid the challenges that go with his work as British Prime Minister, he seems to be a good family man.  It is particularly wonderful to see how he beams with pride of his wife, and what tender words he has for his children.  All the wonderful speeches, all the progress that UK enjoyed under his Premiership... there are simply so many things to think and marvel about his brand of leadership.  Although, of course, other people have other ideas, believing he made a mess of the government he led and failed miserably to forge unity in the Tory party on the way to Brexit.  Anyway, I just realized that I took all the good 'Cameronian' stuff for granted over the last six years.  In fact, I'm so utterly surprised that, after all these years, I can't find a 'David Cameron' tag in my blog!  I was fascinated, but I never actually expressed it, believing then that there was plenty of time to, one day, write something here about David Cameron.  

And then... Brexit happens.  And the 'future' suddenly became the past.

And all that was left for me to do is to stay up all night and watch him go about the business - a remarkable British tradition with Her Majesty, The Queen - of "changing of guards" in the highest office of the British government, family in tow.  And, I have to say that, with a shade of yellow in her first-day-as-PM coat, Theresa May is probably off to a good start... never mind that she doesn't have children!  *wink-wink*... *sigh*  See, if some Brits can hurl something hurtful like that to a woman who was bound to become their PM, there is no telling how they'd rate their outgoing PM based on 'sky-high standard'. 

Anyway, I wish Cameron and his family the most wonderful days after life at 10 Downing Street.  I will always be fascinated... then again, from the "Lord of the Rings" to James Bond to Beatles to Adele, I've always been fascinated by many things British since girlhood... it just doesn't always seem that way.  Or, doesn't it?

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Photo credit:  Grabbed from the BBC video - many thanks!

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