Cameron back to Number 10

Defying all earlier predictions of pollsters about last Thursday’s election in the United Kingdom as being, what most of them had indicated, tied between Labour and Conservative parties resulting in an ‘almost inevitable hung parliament’ in one of the world’s oldest democracies, the British Prime Minister,  David Cameron, is back to Number 10, Downing Street for a second term. Congratulations to him for his dramatic victory, winning an outright majority, though by a very slim margin of just 12, in parliament. The Labour Party has suffered a terrible blow, with a good number of its leading political figures experiencing a sweeping rout in recent history. Liberal Democrats, the erstwhile coalition partner of Cameron’s government, did also cut a sorry figure. Neither could the Nigel Farugi’s extreme anti-immigration United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) make any notable headway. The Scottish National Party (SNP), now holding 56 of the 59 Scottish seats at Westminster, has changed the electoral chemistry. Alongside its grip on the devolved government in Edinburg, the overtly nationalist SNP has now become the third force in the UK parliament. It has caused, what the analysts say, the dramatic political ‘decapitation’ -- that is talked about often in British politics -- to happen now on a scale that has rarely occurred in recent history.
The electoral outcome in the UK -- a union between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland -- is nonetheless a welcome development for the Conservative Party. It is now the first Conservative majority government in 20 years to win a majority in parliament. Mr Cameron has some good reasons to take comfort in the victory of his party. He will now head a vanilla-type, single-party majority government but it will not be a coalition of uncertain composition. And he also knows the challenges or perils of running a Conservative government with a slim majority. He had the opportunity of seeing, at first hand, how the last Conservative majority government under the leadership of John Major in 1992 had to run its affairs and also how the joy of its ‘surprise victory’ in 1992 with a majority of 21, had quickly turned sour. After a series of by-elections, scandals and defections against a backdrop of feuding over Europe and a muscular display of backbench power, Major’s government “melted away”. Mr. Cameron was an adviser to John Major at that election that had led to the Conservative Prime Minister’s re-entry to Number 10 after the evaporation of support for Labour Party on polling day.
The UK’s re-elected prime minister upon his electoral victory last Thursday has been receiving congratulation notes, rolling in from countries across the world. These are diplomatic pleasantries. Mr Cameron however is also well aware of the problems and challenges that he will have to address on both the domestic turf and the international front.  Politics is the art of the possible and also of redefining what is possible. The re-elected British Prime Minister understands it quite clearly, and has already proved that well. For him, bigger matters than the number of MPs will now matter most to shape a befitting outlook of his next government. And fulfilling UK’s commitments to world trade, aid and development-related matters as much as to global environmental issues are also of relevance to the international community, particularly those in the developing world. All concerned will cherish the hope at this stage that the re-elected British Prime Minister would prove himself equal to the challenges.