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Summary A key member of Prime Minister David Cameron's government quit over clash with police.
A key member of Prime Minister David Camerons government quit Friday amid a simmering dispute over an incident last month in which he was accused of abusing police officers with foul language and derogatory remarks about working class people.Andrew Mitchell, who was chief whip and attended Cabinet, was accused by police of confronting them angrily after they asked him to get off his bicycle to pass through gates at Downing Street, the famous road where Cameron has his official London residence.In an official record of the confrontation on Sept. 19, a police officer insisted Mitchell had sworn and used the words moron and pleb a pejorative term for the working class. Mitchell acknowledged he had sworn, but bitterly denied using the other words.The pleb remark put new pressure on Camerons government, particularly is it carries out billions of pounds worth of cuts to public services and welfare programs many of which are causing hardship to ordinary Britons.Pleb short for plebeian comes from the Latin plebeius, the mass of ordinary citizens apart from the elite of upper-class patricians.Camerons Conservative Party, which dominates the coalition government, is seen by many as elitist and lacking empathy with the poor. The leader has made huge efforts to overturn that image, but opponents point out that half the members of his Cabinet went to private schools which educate about 7 percent of all Britons, while two-thirds are millionaires.
