Cameron’s Conference speech

David Cameron has just finished his big keynote speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester. He talked about ‘releasing Britain’s potential’ and speculated on the Britain he would like to be Prime Minister of – namely a country where everyone can ‘pull together, come together and work together’. His themes reinforced those of the last twelve months, on ‘broken Britain’ and economic recovery.

He set out his stall on a range of platforms; Afghanistan; family; big Government; the debt crisis; pensioners; growth; financial reform; broken society; Labour and poverty; welfare; the NHS; crime; terrorism; schools; the country; politics; the EU and ‘what we can promise’.

It was a competent and polished speech, but somehow lacked some of the compassion which Tony Blair showed at this stage in the electoral cycle in 1996. Cameron was most passionate when attacking Labour on its record on poverty, a signal of the extent the Conservatives have shifted in tone since the days of Margaret Thatcher. He also set a personal tone, by talking about the recent death of his child and how his wife Samantha had helped sustain him when he doubted why he should carry on in such a job at all.

On Government debt, he pointed out that the Government will next year spend more on debt interest than it will on education. He pointed the finger squarely at Labour for the problems affecting the economy, calling it ‘Labour’s Debt Crisis’.

On growth, his central theme was a typically Conservative one, entrepreneurialism and a reduction in Government red tape.

Cameron’s four-year detoxification of the Conservatives carried on with warm words about the NHS and pensioners. On schools, he spoke about a need to return to ‘discipline, setting by ability and regular sport’ and how he had asked his schools Minister, Michael Gove, to set about ‘radical’ reform.

He talked about what being British means to him; ‘an emotional connection to a way of life, an attitude, a set of institutions.. to be British is to be open minded.. and to be skeptical of authority and the powers-that-be’. The latter was a clear reflection of concerns within the country on issues such as ID cards, which Labour all but scrapped in a major U-turn last week.

Cameron again emphasized his wish for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, saying; ‘if there is one political institution that needs decentralization, transparency, and accountability, it is the EU’. In a rare mentioning of the environment – a former number one priority for Mr Cameron – the Conservative Leader demanded the EU work on ‘combating climate change, fighting global poverty and spreading free and fair trade’.

Cameron ended by saying he could not promise what he could not deliver. But he said this about what a Conservative Government would stand for: ‘we will reward those who take responsibility and care for those who can’t.

It was an effective speech which closed a well presented and heavily stage managed conference which shows the Conservatives incredibly well placed to form a majority in May next year.