At the same time, Cameron’s Conservative government recognized that “for too many, the bottom rungs of the ladder of opportunity are broken.” Austerity measures and corporate tax cuts were accompanied by a minimum wage hike, increased spending on education and job training, and eliminating the income tax on low wage-earners.
“I’m a believer in free markets and free enterprise, but I’m also a believer in responsible capitalism,” Cameron said. “Business needs to stand up and do more, that is the next logical step of confronting doubts of global overarching economics … these are problems so large, they won’t be solved without the help of business.”
Cameron added that, though he generally supports and agrees with U.S. policies when it comes to NATO, China and North Korea, he worries about President Trump’s relationship with Russia, and is concerned that weakening or scrapping the West’s nuclear deal with Iran will lead to a nuclear Islamic state in the Middle East.
In a world of sound bites, the U.S. and its allies must cope with rogue states and potentially unfriendly emerging superpowers with thoughtful leadership and coherent messaging, said Cameron.
“How do we lead in the midst of these troubles, in a troubling world? One big problem is just having the time and space to make decisions,” Cameron said. In 1940, when Prime Minister Winston Churchill was deciding whether to defend Britain from a potential onslaught from the German Third Reich, he convened a five-day meeting with his ministers to decide whether or not to resist German invasion. “When you look at it today, no leader would have five days. He’d have five minutes.”
Cameron believes that Western values themselves already hold the best solutions to economic fairness, populism, isolationism, terrorism and rogue states.
“Freedom delivers the innovation and creativity that can drive our countries to be successes once again,” said Cameron. “Commentators tell us that in order to succeed, we need to be more like someone else. We should say no to that, we don’t need to be more like someone else, we need to be more like us: The real us: The guardians of freedom, tolerance, equality of opportunity and of justice. Those are what really made America, and for that matter Britain, Great. If we believe in them, we can really be great again.”