A moral policy

Paul B

Well said David. Champagne to the ears.

leobadger

I'm with James Forsyth on this one - politicians can change the moral weather.

It's fabulous to see Cameron is taking a level-headed stand against 'moral neutrality'. And what a wonderfully worded speech. Any Government source that chose to attack it would undoubtedly be cheered on by colleagues, but it would only highlight the gaping chasm between Government policy and public opinion.

Northern Tory

First class. Enough said.

Faceless Bureaucrat

This might just be a seminal moment in the rise of the Cameron Conservatives...

TGF UKIP

Quite so, Dave and to prevent all those predictably nasty accusations of more Tory hypocrisy, I trust you will be firing Spelman and Osborne without further ado.

Ian C

Good stuff from DC. Fraser has cause for his view that is presumably sourced in the expereince of recent years when not only moral neutrality (it did not start with Nu-Lab but accelerated and became esatblished - Rifkind and Hurd were just as bad under Major) but from the post 60's relativism as well.

It' very encouraging that DC is spelling this sort of thing out - and is willing to tackle it.

Jim

I would take this more seriously if the Bullingdon Club didn't go around trashing people's property.

Verity

He ought to have added that we must stop this leftist-motivated soft-pedalling of criticising immigrants for not fitting in to Britain.

Otherwise, OK.

Craig Strachan

Back to basics?

Augustus

The words may be forthright and true, but what amazes me is how anyone can hope to turn the tide of 'decades-long erosion of responsibility' in a matter of even a year or two. Surely, if it ever would be possible to bring the country back to a time when Enid Blyton's Five were happy and safe in an environment of trust and social virtue it will take further decades of re-education.

Thank goodness I live in peaceful rural pastures.

Wilfred

My confidence in Dave has just lifted a couple of notches.

If he does become PM, the electorate and the media should be able to hold him to this. That must be a good start. Perhaps this is a very clever thing to do? It appeals to voters, which gets him elected, and gives him a stick with which to beat the lefty media (esp the BBC) when they try to obstruct the desperately needed conservative revolution.

What a sour individual you do seem to be, TGF. Sorry - I don't mean to assault you, but ..... When was the last time we heard a politician (and prospective PM) say something like this?

Surely you prefer this to the mental illness masquerading as social philosophy that has prevailed for the last eleven years?

adrian drummond

About 30 years to late but better late than never.

Diversity

Some comments above remind me of when John Major did change the moral weather- and got a mud bath for his efforts. It won't wash until the day Cameron's party can be seen to be setting some sort of example - a day like tomorrow; it never comes. Brown is a more natural moralist, but would fall even flatter in the sticky stuff if he tried it.

Tiberius

Not very ugly duckling, TGF, but I do have sympathy with Augustus' opinion.

Anyone following the NuLab devastation will need two terms at least.

Ian C

Come on TGIF - even Verity said it was "OK", so he must have said something worthwhile!!

Max

At last, a speech which will strike a chord with millions.

Sentiments which people have been feeling for years but increasingly have felt constrained from actually sharing except in whispers between consenting adults.

Well done Cameron.

Max

John Page

A nod to the right ... time to say something like this after his green and anti-business comments of late. I wonder why he chose Glasgow to give this speech?

Silent Hunter

Thank God some one said it at last!

Well done Dave!
I'm actually warming to you, even though you're a Tory and I still have issues about Thatcherism.

If he was a public sector worker; he would be sacked for such anti New Labour sedition. LOL

TGF?

U Kip where you want to - The Tories aren't for kipping! ;O)

TGF UKIP

Wilfred, Tiberius, Ian C etc - this was a speech designed to shift opinions of Dave and his cause as the venue, occasion etc indicated. That is what being a politician entails. As I read this I recalled Blair's oratorical embrace of Christian Socialism.

I do not complain, I am a freely confessed Dave sceptic and we are not going to easily convince each other as to who and what Dave is.

But one question for you Tiberius, donning the tunic, sandals and moral compass of the sage of Wolverhampton - should Dave sack, or at least publicly admonish, George?

Nicholas

Yes, yes. But where is the coverage and promotion of the speech other than on Tory-ist blogs? Nothing on Channel 4 News or BBC except very brief clips in the context that the Tories don't have a snowball in Hell's chance in Glasgow East.

The ideas are sound but the marketing is rubbish. Surprising, really, coming from a PR type.

Max Kaye

It's a step in the right direction.

Ray

It's a shame this conversion to honesty and truth has come too late to save the parliamentary careers of Patrick Mercer and Nigel Hastilow.

Verity

Ray - Too right.

Also, I would vote for Patrick Mercer for leader in a New York minute. Military men command a broad band of respect across the parties.

And I still wonder what Dave was up to pushing Boris Johnson to stand for Mayor. There's more to this than meets the eye.

Chris

I would take the comments from UKIP and their supporters a lot more seriously if it wasn't for the fact their one and only MP voted in favour of 42 days detention with charge....

As for David's speech. Very welcome here. Well said.

mckenzie

Sounds good to me. Watch out all you fat bastards, piss heads and smack heads.. Here comes Johnny!

Elizabeth

Hang on a bit folks.
'We as a society have been far too sensitive. In order to avoid injury to people's feelings, in order to avoid appearing judgemental, we have failed to say what needs to be said. We have seen a decades-long erosion of responsibility, of social virtue, of self-discipline, respect for others, deferring gratification instead of instant gratification. '
Read that bit again.
The last years have been extremely judgemental indeed. Its just that the wrong people have been judged.
Our country is comsumed with political correctness and if THAT! is not judgemental I know not what is.
And the Tories must share the blame.
There is a strong judgemental climate against white people. straight people, male people, people who dare to have a fag or fly the wrong flag - that of St George for instance not a green crescent.
What there is, is oppressive judgement against those to whom the neo liberal elite consider 'enemies of the state'.
The same elite fall over themselves giving 'rights' benefits and the protection of the law against decent honest folk who may call a spade a spade, to those groups considered to be 'U'.
We need to tip the scales, completely over, and Dave has no excuse in ignoring this, right in the heart of his party not a week or so gone.
A chap who just made the comment 'then they should go home' sacked, gone, disgraced even though 80% of the public will have agreed with him.
An extremely dubious character who just happens not to be white and Buffoon Boris is there making a cake of himself and beating his breast.
Hang on there Dave. Honest? decent?. What you doing about the Tory MP's who voted for the pig trough. What you doing about Caroline Spelman.
Them in glass houses should not throw stones.
Fat people. Poor people no doubt and the evil smoking class. All will be on the black list or will it be the Dave list. What about the widespread use of cocaine within the liberal darlings, what about clamping down on drug dealing which is destroying the lives of many of the poor on sink estates.
How about clamping down on benefit fraud, the thousands of foreign criminals who are knowingly allowed to enter the country from oligarchs, to mafia to knife carrying scum.
Empty words I am afraid. Sound bites, Dave. Full of sound and fury and signifying B all.
PC will continue to rule supreme
and with its almost totalitarian judgement of those who dare to step out of line and say the truth.
How about a promise Dave, to dismantle the Race relations system of tyranny. To restore all freedom of speech.
If that denial is not judgemental, I don't know what is.
Judgement of what a person has a right to say.
I want more than a bit of typical Dave rhetoric, I am afraid I am sceptical of anything the Shameroon has to say.
Empty vessels make the most noise - we saw that in the last leadership contest.

Tiberius

Very lucid, Elizabeth.

TGF: my radar is often unwisely set too high. Perhaps you'd like to explain your latest problem with George Osborne over on the Wall?

Herbert Thornton

Well said Elizabeth.

It may sound fine to some, but after a lifetime of hearing politicians' platitudes about "encouraging personal responsibility", "confronting and solving our problems", "moving forwards together into a better future" and "replacing complacency with bold and imaginative innovation" - and hundreds more - I am weary of their emptiness.

Like you, I am not impressed by Dave's empty rhetoric and I am disheartened to see that some people are hailing it with such enthusiasm, as if he were Moses coming down from the mountain bearing the Ten Commandments.

Frank Pulley

The sermon was far too long, haven't they got a good subby on the script team.

We need another Churchill: all wit and pith, not another Gladstone: all wind and piss.

Frank Pulley

btw Elizabeth, that broadside was worthy of Trafalgar. All guns blazing and every ball on target.