Rt Hon David Cameron MP

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2006

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Rt Hon David Cameron MP, Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition. He was elected last December, beating his rival David Davis by more than 70,000 votes. Educated at Eton and Oxford, should he become Prime Minister, he would be the first Conservative Old Etonian to do so since Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963. He grew up in West Berkshire, the son of a stockbroker father and a mother who was a magistrate.

After graduating with a First in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, he joined the Conservative Research Department in 1988, where he witnessed the downfall of Margaret Thatcher. He became special adviser to the former chancellor Norman Lamont and was at his side on Black Wednesday. His own political career took off in 2001 when he was elected MP for Witney. From the beginning he was tipped for high office and in 2004 he joined Michael Howard's shadow cabinet. He divides his time between homes in London and an Oxfordshire village, where he has won first prize for his home-grown tomatoes.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Tangled Up In Blue by Bob Dylan Book: The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Luxury: A crate of Scottish whisky

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey, history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin.
0:27.8	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.3	Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.
0:35.4	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:38.5	The program was originally broadcast in 2006, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is a politician.
1:01.9	Six months ago, he became the fifth leader of the Conservative Party in nine years,
1:06.2	inheriting an organisation only just beginning to revive after three thumping electoral defeats.
1:11.7	He's only been an MP for five years, putting him in charge was a gamble the party faithful felt they had to take.
1:17.9	Articulate, quick-witted and undeniably clever, he got a first from Oxford.
1:22.5	He was brought up in affluent circumstances in the home counties.
1:25.8	He worked for Conservative Central Office,
1:27.6	then the television company Carlton Communications, before entering Parliament. I think he says of himself
1:33.4	that I probably have more hinterland than frontland. For me, family, friends and home are the
1:39.8	most important thing in my life. If politics interfered with that too much, I'd call it a day.
1:44.6	He is, of course, David Cameron. That's very noble, new man stuff, David, but it can't last,
1:49.8	can it? Because this kind of job eats you alive. Well, I hope it doesn't. And I don't think it's,
1:54.3	you know, impossible to combine a high-profile job and a family life. You just have to lay down
2:00.2	some clear boundaries.
2:01.7	Like what?
2:02.1	I try not to leave home in the morning before about quarter to eight because I help get our
2:07.6	children up, one of whom goes to school. And I try to make sure that a couple of nights a week,
2:11.9	I'm back in decent time, you know, one night a week at least to sort of bath the kids and do
	...

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