The conference season blues

Andrew Douglas

Angry Birds, not boxed sets, apparently.

commentator

It's hardly surprising that the conference lacks a coherent agenda: presumably it all has to be pre-agreed with Slick Nick and as we know, he is even more preoccupied with his work-life balance than the PM. Two dilettantes whose effortless progress through life has always been eased by inherited wealth and nepotism.

Why anybody in their right mind would attend the Tory Party Conference voluntarily is beyond me. At least in North Korea the apparatchiks have no choice.

david

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

That every man and woman, every boy and every girl, black and white!

Will be able to join together
and watch boxed sets, till their eyballs bleed

Yes I have a dream.

General Zod

The boxed sets jibe is plain bollocks. He's a father of young children as well as being PM. I am a few months younger (but rather greyer of hair - I suspect application of Just for Men by DC), also a father of three young children and work in the City. We, like the Camerons have plenty of boxed sets on our shelves. They are bought from Amazon in moments of fantasy when we imagine having time to watch them. In reality, we almost never get the time.

2trueblue

Whilst not being a great fan of Brogans this is a well written piece. All of us wonder what Cams policies are. We have little clarity on his real beliefs apart form the broad idea that family etc is important. Cameron is good at the talk but there is little in his speeches to detain the intellect and give us food for thought. He is like Bliar in that he is good at keeping the dialogue going with very little substance behind the words.
I would like to know what direction he is taking the Tory party in.
I would like to know where we stand on the EU question, I do not want platitudes.
I would like to feel comfortable that the Lib Dems (who are a very small proportion of the electorate) are not driving the Tory party.
I would like clarity on the main issues and Cam has not provided that component for me.
I am sure he works hard but feel that he is not telling us what, where, when, on issues that drive those who voted Tory.

I do not want another Bliar. I do want to know what the direction is on the EU. I find it difficult to trust someone who promises a vote on the EU but fails to clarify the conditions which allows him to not have to do anything. Liebore promise us that vote and did not deliver, will he do the same?

In2minds

"the work on Cameron’s own speech is proceeding apace"

Just a general chat about this-and-that but no promises I suppose?

Sean Haffey

Well, of course, General Zod, if you work in the City you won't see your children while they are awake. So the boxed sets are a waste of time.

Duyfken

Never mind the Cameron speech; I'm only interested in which MPs will be organising and speaking at side-events. Will, for instance, the ginger group being headed by George Eustice be showing some muscle?

Russell

Labourlist is busy on here today.

Chris lancashire

For heaven's sake give the bloke a break. Wrestling with the biggest budget defecit ever, wars in three countries and reforming Health and education not enough for Brainless Brogan?

a j scott

Some of you commentators really need to find a brain, or at the very least a sense of humour. Your silly comments add absolutely nothing to the debate (which should be desparate) about our post-Spenglerian situation.
This contribution is from a Grammar school boy who got to Cambridge on scholarship and worked his way on thereafter,hoping that his intellectual betters can spare time to dig themselves out of the pit and actually contribute to the debate. Or get off the pot.

Bob Irving

As one feels about nearly all politicians, the less he does, the better. Oh, happy Belgium, government-less for two years!

2trueblue

a j scott, where people have come from is not relevant, where they are taking us is. Explaining that is the issue, we have little idea what Cameron stands for so difficult to follow. Communication is key.

FvH

Please God spare us from YET ANOTHER Cameron speech - beautifully crafted by his expert writers and containing lots of great new buzzwords and themes
We know he speaks well BUT we also know he actually achieves very little!!
He talks the talk BUT he does not yet walk the walk
Instead of an eloquent speech he should present a list of what specifically he wants to achieve over the next 12 months
AND then in 12 months time he should come back and give a fair assessment of what has been achieved and if not, why not
His endless speeches, buzzwords and cod-brand positioning b******t are becoming nauseating
he is very, very lucky that his main opponent is extremely weak

disenfranchised

boxed sets. just looked it up. how modern man in modern britain.
he, along with the rest of the political class, would be advised to leave the boxed sets to sofa jockeys, and read biographies of the great politicians of history.
may i suggest they start with darling's new masterwork.
only kidding.....

ButcombeMan

If Cameron does not deal with Britain's relationship with the crumbling sick arrangement that is the EU and the eurozone, he will have dodged the main point of his existence and what many people in all parties want him to address.

We need to know what a Tory majority government, led by him, would do. A glib phrase will not be enough, there has to be a vision of where the EU nightmare is going for us. There has to be something about our population growth. There also has to be something about the Union.

Do not hold your breath, he is not up to the challenge. He will duck and dive and be all things to all men. That means more dissillusionment for Tory voters.

URAllPigs

Yeah, give the guy a break. He's only had five holidays this year, after all.

Nicholas

"Ben argues that Cameron will have to use his conference speech to show the country what he stands for and what he wants."

Er, another speech to explain it? After 16 months it should have been demonstrated by tangible action. We were promised a bonfire of quangos, the repeal of New Labour's oppressive and anti-free speech laws and a tougher stance on Europe.

What do we get? More quangos, Harriet Harmon's Hobby Horse law and a cave-in to Europe at the first opportunity, plus the crippling green agenda. Oh, dear, those supporting him by sneering at those who aren't should really wake up and smell the complacency. Don't moan at us - I wished him well and voted for his party but actions always speak louder than words and Cameron has been speaking too much and doing too little.

cuffleyburgers

Why on earth should he be expected to work 20 hours a day?

I don't want a hyper active PM, just a competent, honest one. Unfortunately DC fails to manage even this rather low bar.

he has lied consistently on Europe, betraying his people at every turn, and for a supposed PR professional has had a series of damaging crises of which this is just the latest. His handling of Clegg (ie not putting him back in his box asap) has been poor and the rest of the coalition, worse. His government is proving to be barely better than Brown's in a number of important respects.

daniel maris

It's hard to credit Cameron with strong beliefs on anything. Presumably he feels in a vague sort of way that people like him are gifted in the arts of government and that he can run UK PLC better than anyone else as a kind of modern inclusive company where the staff are expected to do pro bono work if they want their careers to advance.
Meanwhile the people cleaning the offices at night are all underpaid illegal immigrants.

Axstane

I watched Cameron answering the Commons Select Committee yesterday. I was amazed at the grasp he showed of economic affairs so to call him intellectually lazy is in itself rather lazy.

He did that without thumping the table and without tabbed box-files such as Blair needed to answer almost any question about the economy or finance.

commentator

Axstane, you will believe anything. DC is utterly clueless about how to make the UK economy grow. There are no net cuts, taxes are rising, inflation is out of control, the banks' balance sheets remain loaded with toxic debt and the public sector carries on its merry way with minimal interference. Cameron's comments on the Eurozone yesterday were unbelievable. As if hardworking Germans are going to hand over their money for ever and a day to unreformed Southern European economies "to make the Euro work", just because a multimillionaire who has never done a real day's work in his life tells them to do so.

Biffo

So...the party is short on ideas and themes? When it is up to its ar*se in problems? This is a bit of a worry.

perdix

The Tory Conference agenda with listed speakers is up on the Party website.What's the business about "can't find speakers"?Do keep up JF.

Woody

The real lazy people are the journalists who can't land a blow on the PM so they go for this nonsense.

Get out from behind your laptops and find some real stories. You wonder why newspaper sales are falling.

Whatever happens to Cameron in the future, he is essentially a very decent man. I wouldn't be surprised if he speaks to Nadine Dorries privately to apologise.

Can someone tell me why Nadine Dorries gets so much flak, I have obviously missed something along the way? Is she just one of those people in public life who gets 'picked on' by the media, while others get away with it.

Sir Everard Digby

Why the shock and outrage? Political parties lead by vacuous millionaires who have no idea what real people now have to go through in this country will never make any connection with those people. They don't even want to try.

Our job is supposed to be unquestioning adoration.

Politics is not real;think Big Brother with more freakish housemates.The main difference is everyone goes home with some cash.

Axstane

Commentator

I do not believe eveything that I am told, in fact little of it or else as a regular reader of these blogs I would commit suicide since eveything is so hopeless and only Redwood/Carwell/Davis/Hannan/Genghis /Farage could be trusted to sort it out.

I actually witnessed the questioning and wrote about what I saw.

commentator

Axstane, no doubt you also believe that George Osborne has a special loan from the Tooth Fairy. Anyone who questions the wonders of David Cameron's Potemkin Village is an "extremist" in your little bubble of complacent self-delusion. Meanwhile, back in the real world, try reading Terry Smith's letter to the FT today and his firm's recent verdict on the Coalition's economic policies. Or are they crypto-fascists too because Danny Finkelstein has told you so?

Axstane

Commentator

Tery Smith has never been anything other than a prophet of doom.

If Osborne's policies are incorrect then perhaps you will point out whose are correct? I am talking about people who have the actual responsibilty to manage national finances, not pundits, short-seekers and currency speculators.

wrinkled weasel

Such is the poverty of British Political life, that all Cameron has to do is to tread water in order to keep in power. Ed Milliband will never become Prime Minister and so the likely result of the next General Election is to see Cameron hanging on and the Lib Dems squeezed, probably to the point of extinction.

Cameron is clever enough to be a pragmatist. I was interested to hear Michael Gove saying recently, "I am not an idealist, I am a pragmatist." That pretty much sums them all up. No vision, no great moral compass, no rudder but merely, an eye for what needs to be said to stay where they are.

It matters not what Cameron says because nobody seriously thinks he means to "say" anything.It will be an exercise in mellifluence and a brand of studied righteous indignation of the kind that Tony Blair perfected.

He will never speak to the disenfranchised working poor and he will never address the question of our EU membership. He will not tell us that black youth culture is responsible for the majority of knife crime and neither will he stand up for the rights of ordinary English middle class people.

In essence he is just a television voice for a television age, a simulacrum for a people who believe that Ken Barlow really exists and "reality" means C list celebrities.

Chairman of Selectors

BLAH BLAH BLAH. Cameron will do another of his "no notes appeal to the Tory grass roots" speeches and get commentators humming, then as usual, HE WILL DO NOTHING AS THE EU WONT LET HIM. And in 3 years time, Ed Milliband wil be our new Prime Minister. Jesus WEPT.

Heartless Perry

Does the 'conservative' party (I won't dignify it with an upper case 'C') actually mean anything any more, - or is it just a mish mash of Bliarist babble mouthed by the H2B and his jobsworths, - and with the same intent to con people?

commentator

Axstane, you really are the quintessential 1950's shires Tory aren't you? A bunch of underqualified schoolboys with boatloads of arrogance, superficial polish and clipped public school accents tell you that all will be well; you tug your deferential forelock; and fall for their bs every time. There's a sucker born every minute.

Terry Smith is an extremely successful financier. All you can do is hurl abuse at him because not you cannot lay a finger on his analysis. Your pathetic sniping about "speculators" simply reminds of the attacks of that other financial charlatan, Harold Wilson, on the "gnomes of Zurich" who had exposed his house of cards for what it was.

How many people have voluntarily handed over their money to be managed by Osborne, Ed Balls, Gordon Brown and those other history and PPE graduates with "actual responsibility to manage the national finances" whom you hold in such high regard?