Front Page of NYT Suggests UK's Conservative ('Nasty') Party Lacking 'Generosity of Spirit'

May 9th, 2015 8:10 PM

Conservative Party leader David Cameron led his party to a shocking outright win in Thursday's general election in Britain, claiming no less than 331 out of 650 possible seats in the House of Parliament, meaning the party will be able to govern with an outright majority, and not as part of a coalition as it had before.

But the honeymoon is already over for Cameron, at least on the front page of Saturday's New York Times, which featured London bureau chief Steven Erlanger's "news analysis" of the win by the mean and "nasty party": "To Cameron, the Tory Victor, Go the Headaches."

Prime Minister David Cameron, having achieved a smashing and unexpected outright victory in Britain’s general election, heads into his second term facing severe challenges to his nation’s identity and place in the world: how to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union and Scotland in the United Kingdom.

In vanquishing the opposition Labour Party and winning an absolute majority in Parliament, Mr. Cameron gained the right to govern without a coalition partner, allowing him to claim a mandate on Friday to pursue his own agenda. But his majority is so narrow that it will force him to tread carefully with his own fractious legislators to pass legislation and address issues that could fundamentally redefine 21st-century Britain.