LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron was mocked by the press yesterday after US chat show host David Letterman left him stumped on questions about British history and culture.
In an awkward appearance on Letterman’s “Late Show” on Wednesday, filmed in New York, Cameron failed to guess the composer of the hymn “Rule Britannia” or the meaning of “Magna Carta,” an early English charter of rights.
Britain’s Independent newspaper said Cameron had suffered a “humor and history failure”, while some commentators jokingly sug- gested the prime minister should be deported for failing the mock “citizenship” test. Cameron, 45, who was educated at the elite Eton boarding school and Oxford University, wrongly guessed that Edward Elgar composed “Rule Britannia” — the poem by James Thomson was in fact put to music by Thomas Arne.
He was also baffled when Letterman asked what “Magna Carta” means. It translates from Latin into English as “Great Charter.”
