How did Cam do?

Ian

Machiavellian, maybe, but perhaps it was DESIGNED not to be too good? Too good, and it might have put GB off an election....

Dave Bartlett

I thought it *was* a home run myself. We'll see what the pollsters say in the sunday papers.

George Steiner

It is hard to believe that a speach can overcome the natural inability of the conservatives to be conservative.

pabw

The important bit of this is not what we think of it (clearly v good) but how the media sells it. What story does the media want to tell?

Ian

Seems to me that DC wins both ways - if it is perceived (by Labour) to be too good, it'll frighten Brown off an election, and DC can claim to have him on the run; if it isn't, he'll be tempted to jump, which I think will suit DC anyway.

Mike A

I also though it was very good and a different league from Brown's of a week ago. Brown will look like an idiot if he doesn't go for the election now. This is a pivotal moment politically that may decide the political terms of trade for the next few years if not decade. Brown risks it and goes for it with unknown consequences. I don't fully accept the polls and if Cameron is a good campaigner he may severely trim Browns majority and may even force a hung parliament. That will be a an unmitigated disaster for Brown. He will be a humiliated and significantly diminished figure. Note that I don't think Cameron will win. Or... He doesn't go for it and will be seen as a bottler and the terms of political trade turn against him as having been too scared to call a snap election. The economy will only get worse and Cameron stronger. The 2009/10 election will be fought on Browns record. Judging by his speech he is devoid of new ideas (other than those he pinches off the Tories), so he'll lose.

Corban Rushworth

He has to call for an election. He might not be prepared, but what is the alternative? Encourage Gordon Brown to stay on for another 2 years!?

David Lindsay

Brown never mentioned the Tories once when he addressed the Labour Conference, and already has two Tory MPs and a Lib Dem as Ministers in all but name and salary. That is "a new style of politics", Dave. In his posh Scottish way (complete with the requisite English public school, Oxbridge degree, Southern English seat, and wife whose father is an English baronet), Dave simply cannot believe that some state school, non-Oxbridge son of the manse from Kirkcaldy has the effrontery to be Prime Minister when he himself wants the job. He honestly imagines that this state of affairs cannot and will not survive a General Election, and so does anyone who thinks that he either could or should win. Moreover, those who believe in that possibility are psephologically innumerate. But in that case, deprived of even the theoretical possibility of a Tory victory, what is the point of the Labour Party? What is it for anymore? Why are even so very few people still in it?