Cameron wants to encash goodwill to clear the mess
August 18th, 2010 - 3:28 pm ICT by IANS
London, Aug 18 (IANS) British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is to complete a hundred days in the office this week, insisted Wednesday he wants to sort out the problems faced by the country at the earliest, saying he has a limited time to use the goodwill.
Cameron said he is on a lightning mission to reform Britain.
In an interview with The Sun, the premier declared he wants to sort out the country quicker than Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair did.
“One of the lessons I learned, not just from Margaret Thatcher but also from what happened under Labour, is you’ve got to act early,” Cameron, 43, said.
“That is the time to take difficult decisions. You have a limited time to use the goodwill that you have to try and turn that into concrete results.”
“When it comes in, the golden moments are at the beginning,” he said of any new government.
Cameron said how as soon as he took the office May 11 and faced the mess Labour had left behind he knew he had to get cracking straight away.
With no time to lose, the nation has been bombarded with a staggering range of what he described as “radical changes”. Less than 15 weeks on, they include: A blitz on public spending to save 83 billion pounds — as the Tories and Lib Dems tackle Britain’s monumental deficit.
Unlike other governments, his had no opportunity to “waste the early years just trying to get comfortable”, Cameron said.
The prime minister hit back at criticism — including from some of his own party backers — that he was moving too fast.
“To reform things like education and healthcare you have to start various things all at once because they all take time to get to fruition,” he said.
Talking about Afghanistan, he said the greatest burden for a modern British premier is “getting Afghanistan right”.
He said: “Afghanistan is what keeps me up at night — making sure that we succeed.”
“Obviously the most difficult and the biggest responsibility is the fact that we have troops in Afghanistan risking their lives on a daily basis.”
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Tags: backers, blitz, british prime minister, concrete results, david cameron, difficult decisions, fruition, goodwill, governments, hundred days, labour, left behind, lib, limited time, margaret thatcher, minister david, public spending, radical changes, tony blair, tories