Story highlights
Kids denied mobile phones
He forgot which soccer team he supported
He likes to drink wine and sing karaoke
David Cameron has been British Prime Minister for five years, and he was the leader of the opposition for more than four years before then.
You’d think that by now virtually everything about him would be pretty well-known. But it ain’t really so.
Here are five facts about him that surprised us, and that may surprise you, as well:
He has been called “bro” by President Obama
This was revealed by Cameron in January in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“It’s normally Barack and David,” Cameron said, as reported by USA Today. “But every now and again, there has been some other things thrown around. … ‘Bro’ was one of them, but I took that in good heart.”
Asked by the show’s host, Bob Schieffer, if he had a pet name for Obama, Cameron said he did not.
“No,” the Prime Minister told Schieffer. “If I did I probably wouldn’t tell you.”
Well, thanks for that, bro.
His children are not allowed to have mobile phones
Pity his poor children, Nancy, 11, Arthur, 9, and Florence, 4.
In an interview with the British tabloid The Mail on Sunday, Cameron said he had banned his children from having mobile phones and music or video game devices.
They are not allowed to watch any TV on Saturday and Sunday mornings. And Cameron does not want his children to know what twerking is.
Heavens, Dave – no mobile phones, no weekend TV and no knowledge of twerking? How are they supposed to learn about the real world?
He forgot which soccer team he claimed to support
In a campaign speech explaining his vision for ethnic minorities in Britain, the Prime Minister said the following:
“We are a shining example of a country where multiple identities work. Where you can be Welsh and Hindu and British, Northern Irish and Jewish and British, where you can wear a kilt and a turban, where you can wear a hijab covered in poppies. Where you can support Man Utd, the Windies and Team GB all at the same time.
“Of course, I’d rather you supported West Ham,” he added with a chuckle.
The only problem was that Cameron claims to be a supporter of Aston Villa. As presidential candidate Rick Perry famously said in a 2011 televised debate, “Oops.”
He was Britain’s youngest prime minister since 1812
When Cameron took office in 2010, he was all of 43½ years old. No prime minister has been younger since Robert Banks Jenkinson, the 2nd Earl of Liverpool, took office in 1812, one day after his 43rd birthday.
Cameron eclipsed Tony Blair, who was only days away from turning 44 when he took office in 1997.
The Earl of Liverpool served as prime minister for nearly 15 years. Cameron still has a decade to go to reach that mark.
He seems to relate well to machines
Despite his prohibition on cell phones and weekend morning TV for his kids, the Prime Minister gets along with machines just fine.
To unwind when he’s out of the office, he likes to play tennis with a machine that he calls “the Clegger,” after Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, according to a 2012 biography.
And he acknowledged in a newspaper interview that he hogs the TV remote and channel-surfs, to the frustration of his wife, Samantha.
Beyond that, the biography said, the Prime Minister likes to have a few glasses of wine with dinner, put on a karaoke recording, and belt out “My Way.”
Come to think of it, we’re kind of glad we didn’t know that.
Until now.
