Cameron strikes the right tone in face of momentous challenges

NOT before time, the United Kingdom has a new government. At the age of just 43 David Cameron last night became the youngest prime minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812, and faces the onerous responsibility of leading the country at a time of unprecedented economic austerity and political uncertainty.

The challenges ahead for Mr Cameron are enormous, but his actions in the immediate aftermath of the general election, in which his party failed to win the outright majority, it expected offer initial hopeful signs for the very difficult times that lie ahead.

Mr Cameron has shown bravery and leadership in defying those who had urged him to seek to run the country as a minority administration – with all the instability and uncertainty that would have brought – or looking to the Liberal Democrats for a looser "confidence and supply" arrangement.

Instead, Mr Cameron must take praise for looking his party in the eye and going ahead with his plans for a full coalition with the Lib Dems which, if it is confirmed today, should in theory at least make for a more stable government which is what the country hoped for in these troubled times.

In his remarks on the steps of Downing Street last night, Mr Cameron struck an admirably serious, sober note in stark contrast to the uplifting, optimistic rhetoric of Tony Blair when he took over at the dawn of the new Labour era 13 years ago.

Given the troubled economic times in which we live and the fact his party had not won the election, it was appropriate for the new Prime Minister not to sound a triumphalist note.

Mr Cameron was also honest in his assessment of the national position, admitting there were deep and pressing issues facing the country, including, as he accepted, the huge deficit, deep social problems, and a political system in urgent need of reform.

And in the face of these, his ambition to form a full coalition with the Lib Dems and provide the country with what he said would be "strong, the stable, the good and decent government" was the least that the electorate, which gave no one party an outright mandate, would expect.

Although the details of the new coalition government were not released last night, Mr Cameron did give a welcome sign he and Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, wanted to put party interests to one side and genuinely work in some harmony.

So, in clinching a deal with the Lib Dems and taking office, the new Prime Minister has passed his first early test of leadership. But there are many more tests to come in the hours, days, weeks and months ahead for an untried alliance.

The second challenge will be to form a government made up of members of two parties which differ substantially, not just on a wide range of policy issues but also in outlook and temperament.

In this we expect that both Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg – who is likely to take a senior role, probably that of deputy prime minister – will have to ensure that now they have convinced their internal sceptics to form the first post-War coalition in this country, they can retain the support of their parliamentary parties though the trying times ahead.

But the most difficult task is obviously to reduce the UK's huge national deficit and debt which has soared as part of the process of saving the country from the calamity of the banking crisis.

It is to this Herculean task Mr Cameron and his government must turn their immediate attention and it is essential they find a way to stick to their manifesto pledges to make the spending cuts necessary to lay the basis for what will be a long and painful recovery.

As he left Downing Street for the last time, Gordon Brown, who we will now have to get used to calling the former prime minister, was dignified in his acceptance of his fate and pointed, with some justification, to Labour's achievements in office.

However, the fact is Mr Brown and his party have left Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg a legacy of near financial ruin which will take all their qualities of leadership to begin to address, while at the same time adjusting to the unaccustomed roles in power.

Yesterday was the most dramatic day in recent British political history as the country witnessed the final demise of New Labour, which had promised so much but, in the end, badly failed to live up to expectations.

Mr Cameron was right not to try to echo Mr Blair, but to offer hope for the future only after dealing with the problems of the immediate past.

Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg, the Tories and the Lib Dems, have a daunting challenge ahead of them. We wish them well.