Cameron's other speech
Peter Hoskin 5:10pm
There is no rest for the Prime Minster. After delivering his speech on immigration in
Romsey this morning, there was another to deliver, 62 miles away in Woking, this afternoon. This second CamSpeech of the day was billed as a scene-setter for the local elections — and so it
proved. Rather than dwelling on a single policy area, the main purpose was to rattle through 101 reasons to vote Tory on 5 May.
If there is anything to be taken from the text, it is just how upfront and unapologetic it is. There is little room for nuance, but plenty of room for sweeping, and forceful attacks, on Labour. This passage stood out:
"I think we should remember how far we’ve come. We inherited an economy built on the worst deficit, the biggest housing bubble, the most leveraged banks, the most indebted households, the most out-of-control public spending, and the most unsustainable immigration. And you can add to that an education system dumbed down and a welfare system messed up.
Once again Labour didn’t so much run our country as run our country into the ground. And once again it has fallen to this party to come in, to clear up the mess and to give our country the leadership she needs."
But there are many more like it. On the public finances, "we've got to get a grip on this debt before it gets a grip on us." On pensions, "the scandal of Labour's 75 pence rise in the pension will never, ever happen again." On the military … well, you get the picture.
Cameron also bashed the "wrong, wrong, wrong" option of AV, which is unsurprising given the proximity of the referendum. But it's still fairly strange, after a year of coalition, to see the Prime Minister flipping back into campaign mode. When it came to dishing out credit to coalition ministers, he highlighted George Osborne, Michael Gove and Philip Hammond — not a Clegg, nor an Alexander, among them. Party hostilities have clearly resumed, even if only temporarily.
UPDATE: PoliticsHome have spotted some funny similiarites between this speech and Cameron's effort in Wales recently.
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Vulture
April 14th, 2011 5:38pm Report this commentDon't be silly - no-one is going to be fooled by this blancmange-faced charlatan ever again.
Karma Shameron, as Stephen Glover says in today's Mail ' has a regrettable tendency to say what he thinks his audience wants to hear'.
He is a rubbery, slippery incompetent and his so-called Conservatives will hopefully be slaughtered on May 5th. If it takes another Labour Government to get rid of this sham Tory and his clique then so be it.
Robert Eve
April 14th, 2011 5:50pm Report this commentWhatever Cameron's faults are I have no problems with him reminding people how awful Labour were.
Dogs of Warsi
April 14th, 2011 5:52pm Report this commentDavid Cameron approved that photo.
ellis000
April 14th, 2011 6:31pm Report this commentIt is quite possible that Cameron is gearing up for the Coalition to fall apart soon (post a No to the AV referendum?) and is preparing the ground for an election. The signs are there and I for one think he would win.
TGF UKIP
April 14th, 2011 7:07pm Report this commentSounds like the sort of speech he should have been making on the run up to the Election last May. As it turned out though, my mate The Labour Mole very cleverly got him to waffle on about his Big Society and we all know what happened next.
Perry
April 14th, 2011 7:29pm Report this commentDid the H2B mention that His Hero arranged for the immigrants to upset the Tory way of thought?
No, thought not.
Paddy
April 14th, 2011 7:42pm Report this commentIt isn't being shown on any of the news channels.
But they have shown Miliband "spouting" the coalition is in disarray......whilst travelling first class British Rail.
Miliband and his entourage did have to remove back seat covers first.....to make out they were travelling economy.
Cogito Ergosum
April 14th, 2011 9:55pm Report this commentI was there.
It was a fluent and relaxed performance, intended to get the party workers working for the local elections.
His comment on defence was that we need a working economy to support a realistic defence posture, or something like that.
Overall, a quick gallop through what the other lot left us with, and what we had done so far.
What do YOU think of it so far?
Trevor
April 15th, 2011 12:23am Report this commentDavid Davis for PM! This Cameroon lark has gone on long enough, joke's over, Davis should have won the leadership election anyway.
How about a real Tory leader instead of Cameron - a "shoddy little compromise" if ever I saw one!
Trevor
April 15th, 2011 12:26am Report this commentAlso, on debt:
Gow can a pro-business PM also be against debt? Is he so detached from the reality of modern capitalist Britain that he thinks our economy can run on anything other than debt?
What a deluded, nonsense-spewing, wittery little rat this man Cameron is.
Verity
April 15th, 2011 1:39am Report this commentDavid Cameron approved that photo.
Think of the ones he must have rejected.
Verity
April 15th, 2011 1:44am Report this commentTGF UKIP - ah yes, the nursery school Great Big Society idea!
Any society with 60m people in it is, by definition, big. Especially on a tiny island in the N Atlantic.
So what was Dave's silly, twiddly, nursery school point?
paulg
April 15th, 2011 3:02am Report this commentWell we must make the choice soon!
oldtimer
April 15th, 2011 8:22am Report this comment@ Cogito Ergosum
"What do YOU think of it so far?"
As all watchers of Eric and Earnie know: "Rubbish!"
2trueblue
April 15th, 2011 8:32am Report this commentVerity, Population 60m? You are of course referring to the ones we know about? A lot of the new additions to our population are not spending their money here it is going back 'home', so that is another problem. Society is what people participate in and work within population is just a vegue number that we suppose are residing here. under Liebore we have no idea what the figure got to and Liebore didn't much care as it fueled their cheap labour and they kept the benefits bill and non jobs numbers growing so everybody was happy. We have a society where people think they are entitled to a standard of living that comes into their bank accounts and they do nothing to participate in society for that benefit. That is what Cameron is trying to correct.
I don't care what Cameron looks like, don't care where he comes, after Liebores 13yrs I would have voted for a monkey. He has let us down on Europe big time but right now this country is a mess and we have the 'beeb' spouting rubbish economics which is far more important than what Cameron looks like.
AY
April 15th, 2011 8:42am Report this commentmain message is we will avoid calling spade a spade even if that spade hits us in the face.
It's not that "immigration" itself is damaging.
Immigration of Russian mathematicians, Polish programmers, German violinists, that sorts of people, is more than welcome.
Immigration of barbaric tribes soaked in inhumane ideologies and terrorism, is suicidal.
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