The speech of a Prime Minister in waiting
Matthew d'Ancona 5:33pm
'No new dawns, no immediate transformations. I'm a man with a plan, not a miracle cure': in that line lay the key message at the heart of this astute speech, by a man who now deserves to be seen as the Prime Minister in waiting. Elected as the 'sunshine' leader in 2005, David Cameron said in the Symphony Hall today that he was 'still optimistic because I have faith in human nature'. But this was the speech of an instinctive realist who knows that, if he becomes Prime Minister in the next year and a half, he will head a Government that will have to take some deeply unpopular decisions, very quickly. He said as much: 'if we win we will inherit a huge deficit and an economy in a mess. We will need to do difficult and unpopular things for the long term good of the country. I know that. I'm ready for it' and 'So we will rein in government borrowing. You know what that means.'
There would be fresh review of 'every spending programme', a cull of quangos, an independent Office of Budget Responsibility, and (more vaguely) the savings from 'reforming inefficient public services'. And, as I wrote in the Sunday Telegraph at the weekend, debt reduction will come before 'tax cuts paid for by reckless borrowing'. This was Dave as fiscal conservative rather than supply side tax-cutter: he did not move an inch off the modernisers' most sacred terrain.
There were flashes of the early Cameron - a 'child of my time' who declared in a wonderfully Blairesque sentence that 'I get the modern world'. All the case studies - the couple at a Job Centre plus, the 18-year-old soldier in Afghanistan, the hairdresser who's a single mum - made me recall vintage Blair, and were a reminder that this particular Tory takes a very successful Labour leader as his strategic role model.
But, to an extent that one would never have predicted a year ago, it was the Iron Lady who loomed over this afternoon's proceedings. In her introductory remarks, the parliamentary candidate Louise Bagshawe gained huge applause when she paid tribute to Baroness Thatcher - as did Dave when, in a strong passage, he confronted Gordon Brown's 'novice' line by presenting experience a potential liability: 'Experience is the excuse of the incumbent over the ages. Experience is what they will always say when they try to stop change. In 1979, James Callaghan had been Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor before he became Prime Minister. He had plenty of experience. But thank God we swapped him for Margaret Thatcher'. And there was a sharp put-down to Blair in Cameron's response to the former PM's famous claim that 'we live in a 24 hour media world'. Not so, said Deadly Serious Dave: 'this is a country not a television channel', he declared.
Surprises? The hat-tip to David Davis was unexpected and cheered those of us who would like to see him back on the front bench. The repeated patting of Samantha Cameron's tummy made me wonder if she and her husband have some happy news to announce. There was next to nothing on greenery, although that was perhaps just a recognition of economic reality.
And it was that economic reality - the unforeseen global crisis that will be the great challenge for Cameron's generation - that was the true author of this speech. No swashbuckling; no tricks; no walkie-talkie feats of memory. Just the careful, well-judged, sobre oratory of a man with victory in his grasp, but more convinced than ever that victory will bring with it a mighty burden.
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bill
October 1st, 2008 5:46pm Report this commentWell if I valued the vacuousness of Blair and all he stood for, I might think "I get the modern world" meant something. As for the crisis being unforeseeable: globally perhaps but certainly not in the UK even when he was inspecting chocolate oranges, vsiting the northern wastes, applying for a windmill or having his chauffeur follow his car.
Tiberius
October 1st, 2008 5:58pm Report this commentI'll be watching a recording of the speech later, and your take suggests I'm going to find it just what the doctor ordered, Matt.
I also expect some posts whose view is going to be a little different to yours...
kinglear
October 1st, 2008 6:17pm Report this commentToo right it will bring a burden. It will take 20 years to sort out the shambles Brown is leaving behind
Johnny Fiston-Hewes
October 1st, 2008 6:19pm Report this commentDon't agree at all. The speech was very low on substance and failed to convince me that he had a coherent plan of action, far less a coherent intellectual position.
Party of intervention (to fix the broken society) or small government?
City friends or city regulators?
Cameron showed his Daily Mail Thatcherism today which just made him seem even less authentic than before.
Keith
October 1st, 2008 6:19pm Report this commentMethinks we doth underestimate the lad!
There's hidden steel there!
Bring it on!
Faceless Bureaucrat
October 1st, 2008 6:31pm Report this commentIs it me, or does the PM suddenly look very tired?...
Richard
October 1st, 2008 8:08pm Report this commentJob done.
oldtimer
October 1st, 2008 8:38pm Report this commentI watched, on TV, all three of his conference speeches. Considering the circumstances, he did extremely well with all three. The middle speech impressed me most because he caught, I thought, exactly the right tone and content for the moment. I think it also served the useful purpose of giving him some leeway to attack Brown today - something a few commentators thought he had precluded himself from doing.
The winding up speech today was more political with effective punch lines against Brown. What I found interesting were his attack lines against Milliband and Johnson - two potential Brown successors.
Overall it was too long for me. I think it would have benefitted from some ruthless pruning but, presumably, he did not have the luxury of the time to do this pruning. But, in my final analysis, he did reveal the "fire in the belly" and self confidence that is indispensable to someone who aspires to be PM.
Hysteria
October 1st, 2008 9:14pm Report this commentgreat speech (you can see it all and read the text on - who woulda thunk it - BBC on-line)
I love these lines
Labour minister said something really extraordinary last week.
It revealed a huge amount about them.
David Miliband said that "unless government is on your side you end up on your own."
"On your own" - without the government.
I thought it was one of the most arrogant things I've heard a politician say.
For Labour there is only the state and the individual, nothing in between.
No family to rely on, no friend to depend on, no community to call on.
No neighbourhood to grow in, no faith to share in, no charities to work in.
No-one but the Minister, nowhere but Whitehall, no such thing as society - just them, and their laws, and their rules, and their arrogance.
You cannot run our country like this.
Miranda
October 1st, 2008 10:10pm Report this commentA very fair summary. I add only one thing, after listening to him in the hall I now feel a small glimmer of hope. Especially as he as promised the EU referendum.
Dirty Euro
October 1st, 2008 10:59pm Report this commentMan with a Plan was a film from the USA. It is about a man who runs for U.S. Representative from Vermont with a markedly bizarre campaign. Will he triumph over incumbent Bill Blachly?:
Anonthistime
October 2nd, 2008 1:23am Report this commentThe Leader is not the best, but he can pick the best, so where is David Davis? Tired of Browns PR cheap shots and attempts to tear apart a nation with class hatred, where in crisis it does not exist. Jesus was not a snob and a wife is a help-mate, loyal, strong and wise whatever she does.......kissing your wife is still essentially a show of affection not a political statement, but at least its a healthy one. If we share we will survive so let the greedy take care for they will lose all. Aiport by the sea - ignore Mrs Kelly and bring it on Boris. For a visitor Willie Walsh should know it is confusing and chaotic - we met a Jew in LHR battling with the phone, he had missed his connection to NY The airline staff were absent and somehow Japanese Airways personnel were not a lot of help. My husband bought him a ticket in an indifferent airport
generous and humble men are so lovable..they dont need to do PR stunts. They work hard and honestly and use their own cash not other peoples. Take note and they are not greedy
Verity
October 2nd, 2008 2:02am Report this commentThe repeated patting of Samantha Cameron's tummy made me wonder if she and her husband have some happy news to announce ... way, way too intimate. Everything to do with his wife, way, way OTT. If they think they're copying the United States, they're cringingly wrong. Cameron gives me the creeps. He misreads absolutely everything.
Miranda
October 2nd, 2008 8:09am Report this commentJohnny Fiston-Hewes
Only a Labour Party troll would choose a name like this and give a comment full of Labour spin. Not very good Johnny - you'll have to try harder than that.
Tim Carpenter LPUK
October 2nd, 2008 8:29am Report this commentMaybe some good lines, but all that glisters is not gold. Cameron was basically disingenuous to the border of lying when he "described" Libertarianism. He is no Libertarian for sure (a Statist soap merchant wanting to secure a 5 year exclusive contract, more like), but he surely does not need to mislead people as to what Libertarianism actually is. He sounded like a Trot. Unless, of course, he feels he may be exposed when someone holds Libertarianism up against his mix of Federastic, Centre-led/Authoritarian (the puff about "nudging"), Blue Blair, Corporatism.
Anyone who wants to know what Libertarianism can actually be like should take a look at the Manifesto of the Libertarian Party at www.lpuk.org
bill
October 2nd, 2008 9:35am Report this commentHe gives me the creeps too, Verity.
Susan Hill
October 2nd, 2008 11:09am Report this commentI bet anyone, anyone at all, that the referendum on the EU mentioned in passing will mysteriously never happen. He wouldn`t dare. And if it did, it would not be a yes/no, it would be some fudged wording to make sure he wasn`t bound by it.
Cameron is a lightweight. He has absolutely no concept of how ordinary people live - how could anyone whose wife sells fuchsia pink suede Bibles that cost £100 ? Years ago, someone said of another Cameron-type 'you have to learn to take the smooth with the smooth.' Too right.
(And I wish he would stop patting her tummy too. To her credit, she did look faintly embarassed.)
NorthernJohn
October 2nd, 2008 11:19am Report this commentHe's a good guy with exactly the right instincts and I hope to God he wins.
Hysteria
October 2nd, 2008 2:40pm Report this commentThee are some of us here who have had a visceral distrust of DC over the last few years. And whilst I am not convinced he has all the answers I think an objective view of the speech needs to be taken.
I was impresed with his reliance on values that spoke to the core of traditional Conservative values.
And let's just face reality - he is the only right(ish) leader we have - so what is the alternative?
We have to get the Socialists out. (Preferably for good).
BTW - the financial market news goes from bad to worse and we will need some extremely tough measures to be taken - If AT&T can only get loans on the overnight markets, M&S slashing Capex by 50% over the next 24 months etc. things are indeed going to be grim.
Blue Porcupine
October 2nd, 2008 5:10pm Report this commentWhat is his plan exactly?
I actually think more health visitors is a perfectly good idea. I just don't have much faith that this combined with twenty quid a week to stay married is going to turn society around in the way he wants (which is not necessarily the way I want, but I'm going by his goals here).
The speech was notably unclear on statism, which I found interesting. Are you or are you not a party of statist interferers?
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