Leading the Tories

last updated 8 January 2015

London

Britain’s Conservative Party has chosen a young “toff” from the upper class as its candidate to try to wrest the premiership back from Labor. David Cameron, 39, went to Eton and Oxford and belongs to the same gentlemen’s club as Prince Charles. British newspapers have made much of his pedigree, which includes three ancestors who were Conservative members of Parliament in the 19th and 20th centuries. Cameron himself, though, has only served in Parliament for four years. Before that, he was a spokesman for a TV company. Echoing the words of President Bush, Cameron said he wants to advance the ideals of “compassionate conservatism.”