College announces David Cameron as next Sacerdote Great Names speaker
The Spectator thespectator.medium.com
The Right Honourable David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) from 2010 to 2016, will be Hamilton College’s next Sacerdote Great Names speaker, according to a press release from the…
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Medium
by Will Kaback ’20, Editor-in-Chief

The Right Honourable David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK) from 2010 to 2016, will be Hamilton College’s next Sacerdote Great Names speaker, according to a press release from the College. The event will take place on Monday, Oct. 15, at 7:30 PM and will be free and open to the public, although tickets are required. Tickets will be available on the College’s website.

According to the press release, Cameron is the “second British Prime Minister to speak as part of the Sacerdote Series. Margaret Thatcher appeared at Hamilton in 1999.”

Cameron sports a lengthy and impressive background in the UK politics and media. According to the release: “Cameron had been a Member of Parliament for the rural constituency of Witney in West Oxfordshire from 2001. Before he became a Member of Parliament, he worked in business and government. He was educated at Eton College and Brasenose College at Oxford University, studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and gaining a First Class Honours degree. After graduating, he joined the Conservative Research Department where he worked for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her successor John Major. He held other senior government positions and spent seven years at Carlton Communications, one of the UK’s leading media companies.”

Upon assuming the role of Prime Minister in 2010, Cameron, the UK’s youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812, led Britain’s first coalition government in nearly 70 years and, following the 2015 general election, became the first-ever British Prime Minister to increase both his party’s share of the vote and number of seats in the House of Commons, having already served a full term as premier.

The release continues: “Cameron came to power in 2010 at a moment of economic crisis and with an unprecedented fiscal challenge. Under his leadership, the UK’s economy was transformed. The deficit was reduced by over two-thirds; one million businesses were set-up; a record number of jobs were created (1,000 extra jobs for every day he was Prime Minister); and Britain became the fastest-growing major advanced economy in the world. That created the stability Cameron needed to cut taxes, introduce a national living wage, transform education, reform welfare, protect the National Health Service, and increase pensions. The number of families on welfare fell; the number of students attending university — including those from disadvantaged backgrounds — increased rapidly; and the number of people employed was higher than at any previous point in British history.

“Internationally, Cameron developed a foreign policy in the post-Iraq era that

addressed the new challenges of the Arab Spring, as well as a more aggressive Russia, while ensuring that Britain played a full role in the global fight against ISIS. Under his leadership, Britain built a strong partnership with India and became China’s preferred partner in the West. Throughout, he championed Britain’s special relationship with the United States, working closely with President Barack Obama.”

Other highlights of Cameron’s tenure included hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London and serving as chair of the 2013 G8 Summit in Northern Ireland, where he pushed an agenda focused on fair taxes, increased transparency within the government, and open trade.

He also pursued many initiatives related to environmental issues. In addition to cutting national carbon emissions, he created the world’s first green investment bank and helped the UK play a key role in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

As the infamous “Brexit” referendum polarized Britain in 2016, Cameron was an advocate for the “Stay” option, arguing that Britain was “stronger, safer, and better off inside the European Union.” In June 2016, however, 51.9 percent of the UK voted in favor of the “Leave” option. Shortly after the vote, Cameron announced his resignation as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative party. In Sept. 2016, he also resigned as a Member of Parliament. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by Theresa May in July 2016.

Cameron has remained involved in public life since his time as Prime Minister. Currently, he is the Chairman of Patrons at National Citizen Service (NCS), the UK’s flagship youth development program, and is President of Alzheimer’s Research UK, Britain’s leading medical research charity with special focus on funding biomedical research into the cause, prevention, and cure of dementia.

Members of the community who were on campus for the 2017–18 academic year will note that Cameron’s visit to campus differs from the College’s last two speaker events. Last fall, in lieu of a Sacerdote Great Names speaker, the College presented the first installment of its Common Ground speech series, which brought together two public figures from opposite ends of the political spectrum for a moderated debate, with the goal of presenting a model of respectful, constructive discourse between people of opposing ideologies.

The inaugural event featured Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, and David Axelrod, Chief Strategist and Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. The debate was moderated by Susan Page, the Washington Bureau Chief

for USA Today.

In the spring, Condoleezza Rice, the 66th United States Secretary of State in President George W. Bush’s administration, and Susan Rice, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and the 24th National Security Advisor from 2013–2017 under President Barack Obama, came to campus as part of a joint event funded by the Sacerdote Great Names and Common Ground programs. The debate was moderated by Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent.

The Sacerdote Series is named in recognition of a significant gift from the family of Alex Sacerdote, a 1994 Hamilton graduate. Other speakers in the series have included former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, musician Aretha Franklin, scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, Madeleine Albright, Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lady Margaret Thatcher, and F.W. de Klerk.