Around the Web: Conservative manifesto

You can read Fraser’s verdict here, but this is what the rest of the Web had to say:

Janet Daley described it as ‘the perfect pitch’:

'The Conservatives have just given a launch performance for their manifesto which was as close to perfect as any I have seen. It was clear, coherent and genuinely compelling: the message was simple: people power rather than state power.'

'Today was also about David Cameron. He made a long speech, too long, and so reminded us that when he is scripted he is less effective. It was later when he let rip with a bit of Angry Dave about the substantial numbers of people who have yet to express a view – the black hole of ‘don’t knows’, about how “the politicians have been treating the public like mugs for about 40 years” that he brought the occasion to life. More please. Not less.'

The FT’s Phillip Stephens wants to know where the absent arithmetic is:

'The problem in the manifesto is not so much the sums do not at up; rather that there is an almost complete absence of arithmetic. And no, cutting waste does not do the job.'

The Mirror attacks the absence of any tax pledges:

'The manifesto does not match Labour's pledge yesterday not to raise the basic, higher or top rates of income tax over the course of the next Parliament. And there is no mention of VAT, which Labour and the Lib Dems claim will have to be increased to 20% or more to pay for Tory tax cut and spending pledges.'

Con Home’s Paul Goodman argues that this manifesto proves that the Tory party has changed.

'Manifestos reveal much about the approach, temper and tone of the parties that publish them. This one marries the modernising spirit of Margaret Thatcher to society rather than the economy.   It's partly Hannan and Carswell as well as Cameron and Hilton.  It's transatlantic in its can-do spirit - and is another sign, were one needed, of the Americanisation of British politics.  If its vision is deemed too radical, what does that say about the voters?  Will they want to leap at the chance of transforming their country…or roll over and go back to sleep?'

And The FT’s Alex Barker’s word clouds of the 2010 and 1979 manifestos confirms Goodman’s point.