Conservative leader David Cameron is the new UK prime minister after the resignation of Gordon Brown. Mr Cameron, 43, is in Downing Street after travelling to Buckingham Palace to formally accept the Queen's request to form the next government. He said he aimed to form a "proper and full coalition" with the Lib Dems to provide "strong, stable government".

 

His party won the most seats in the UK general election last week, but not an overall majority. In a speech at Downing Street, Mr Cameron said he and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg would "put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and the national interest".

 

He paid tribute to outgoing PM Gordon Brown for his long years of public service and said he would tackle Britain's "pressing problems" - the deficit, social problems and reforming the political system. Mr Cameron stressed there would be "difficult decisions" but said he wanted to take people through them to reach "better times ahead".

 

The Conservatives have been in days of negotiations with the Lib Dems - who were also negotiating with Labour - after the UK election resulted in a hung parliament. But the Lib Dems said talks with Labour failed because "the Labour Party never took seriously the prospects of forming a progressive, reforming government".

 

A spokesman said key members of the Labour team "gave every impression of wanting the process to fail" and the party had made "no attempt at all" to agree a common approach on issues like schools funding and tax reform. "Certain key Labour cabinet ministers were determined to undermine any agreement by holding out on policy issues and suggesting that Labour would not deliver on proportional representation and might not marshal the votes to secure even the most modest form of electoral reform," he said.

 

However Labour's Lord Mandelson told the BBC they had been "up for" a deal with the Lib Dems, but they had "created so many barriers and obstacles that perhaps they thought their interests lay on the Tory side, on the Conservative side, rather than the progressive side".

 

After it became clear the talks had failed, Mr Brown tendered his resignation and said he wished the next prime minister well. In an emotional resignation statement outside Number Ten, Mr Brown thanked his staff, his wife Sarah and their children, who joined the couple as they left for Buckingham Palace. Mr Brown said it had been "a privilege to serve" adding: "I loved the job not for its prestige, its titles and its ceremony - which I do not love at all. No, I loved the job for its potential to make this country I love fairer, more tolerant, more green, more democratic, more prosperous and more just - truly a greater Britain."

 

He also paid tribute to the courage of the armed forces, adding: "I will never forget all those who have died in honour and whose families today live in grief." Later he thanked Labour activists and MPs for all their efforts and told them Labour's general election performance was "my fault, and my fault alone". The Lib Dem and Conservative teams met for hours of negotiations at the Cabinet Office on Tuesday - four days after the UK general election resulted in a hung parliament. The talks resumed after Lib Dem negotiators met a Labour team, which followed Mr Brown's announcement on Monday that he would step down as Labour leader by September.

 

But there were signs throughout the afternoon that the two parties - who together would still not command an overall majority in the House of Commons - would not reach a deal. Several senior Labour figures, including John Reid and David Blunkett, warned against a coalition with the Lib Dems, particularly if the price involved offering them a referendum on changing the voting system to proportional representation.

 

After Mr Brown announced he would be stepping down and would see if Labour could do a deal with the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives upped their offer to a promise of a referendum on changing the voting system from existing first past the post system to AV.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8675265.stm

About time too! Thank goodness for that!;)

All hail the new leader!

All hail the new leader!

 

Well the country has been pretty much leaderless ever since GB "seized" power.:dozey:

Commence the ignorant ****s who think he's Thatcher mark II. I suggest these people go and study some politics the thick arseholes

Commence the ignorant ****s who think he's Thatcher mark II. I suggest these people go and study some politics the thick arseholes

 

That's almost certainly an impossibility as they are extremely likely to be totally illiterate.:rolleyes:

They are the ones who are in severe denial over this country's problems.

At last an end to Labour being in power,here's hopng Cameron proves to be a proper Tory though and isn't dictated to by the Lib Dems too much.

so I hear he's trying the "ol'can't we all just get along" approach to Parliment... any thoughts? I haven't heard much about this guy... but I'm happy Brownie resigned.

Well he did back Section 28, so the Thatcher Mark II thing aint too far off. He did apologise though. Oh, then this happened.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBlDfp85gP8]YouTube- David Cameron losing the plot in Gay Times interview.mpg[/ame]

Well he did back Section 28, so the Thatcher Mark II thing aint too far off. He did apologise though. Oh, then this happened.

 

Thank you for that!

It's another argument why people should be more sceptical about this guy.

 

Btw, am I the only one thinking the LibDems signed an awful coalition deal? :thinking:

Well he did back Section 28, so the Thatcher Mark II thing aint too far off. He did apologise though. Oh, then this happened.

 

If you'd look at his policies such as on welfare then you'd realise he certainly isn't Thatcher. Does Cameron have a Capitalist Revolution to take on? No.

Jeez, I wasn't being serious about him being "Thatcher Mark II". Just disappointed that we have a Prime Minister who once thought it was wrong to "promote" (I hate that word) homosexuality, and who has appointed someone who's voted against gay rights as our new Equality Minister. Go figure.

Nice picture of Mr C shaking a wax model of the queen ;)

If it hasn't been said already, welcome to Canada! :kiss:

 

At least Cameron seems to be far more capable of playing nice with parliament than PM "I hate Canadian democracy" Harper is. With any luck your Conservatives and Lib Dems will balance each other out quite nicely.

 

And even if they can't get along in the end, hey, we've survived a dysfunctional conservative minority for several years now. So it is doable.