The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Cameron, David William Duncan
(km´rn), 1966, British politician, b. London. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he worked for the Conservative partys research department beginning in 1988, became an adviser to two high-ranking government ministers, and headed corporate communications (19942001) for a media company. After an unsuccessful campaign for Parliament in 1997, he won a seat as a Conservative in 2001 and advanced rapidly in the party as a protégé of party leader Michael Howard, becoming shadow education secretary in 2005. Seen as a youthful modernizer, he was elected (Dec., 2005) to succeed the resigning Howard as party leader. In the post, Cameron has sought to transform the Conservatives into a less ideological, more centrist party.