David Cameron

David Cameron was prime minister from 2010 to 2016.

Thursday

David Cameron

Why I drove a lorry to Poland

From our UK edition

‘Why the hell did you hire a lorry without a spare tyre?’ asked Rizvana. Fair question. Luckily we had just pulled into a service station near Leipzig when the front tyre blew. The bang was so loud that the cashier rushed outside fearing an explosion. We waited for five hours in the biting wind. German technical prowess came to our rescue. The mechanic arrived with hydraulic lifts, the correct replacement tyre and near-perfect English. Some onlookers gathered as three of us jumped on his torque wrench to loosen the nuts. Our mission was not going to plan. Rizvana Poole is a Labour councillor in my town of Chipping Norton and she’s the reason we drove to Warsaw in a lorry filled with supplies for Ukrainian refugees.

Wednesday

David Cameron

David Cameron’s farewell speech: full text

From our UK edition

When I first stood here in Downing Street on that evening in May 2010, I said we would confront our problems as a country and lead people through difficult decisions, so that together we could reach better times. It has not been an easy journey, and of course we have not got every decision right, but I do believe that today our country is much stronger. Above all it was about turning around the economy. And with the deficit cut by two-thirds, two and a half million more people in work and one million more businesses, there can be no doubt that our economy is immeasurably stronger. Politicians like to talk about policies, but in the end it is about people’s lives. I think of the people doing jobs who were previously unemployed.

Saturday

David Cameron

It is not enough for Labour to lose this election

From our UK edition

‘Sit back, keep quiet, let the government unravel and you will be in Number 10.’ If I had a pound for every time these words of advice have been uttered to me over the last year or so, I’d be able to make a sizeable contribution towards easing the pain of Labour’s debt crisis. But the advice — however well meaning — is plain wrong. The election is far from won and I still hold to the belief that governments don’t just lose elections; oppositions must deserve to win them with a positive mandate for change. And there is one central idea which shows clearly that we are not sitting back waiting for Labour to lose, nor backing off the changes that have been instrumental in the Conservative revival of recent years.