There was much to be impressed about in David Cameron’s speech to the LSE earlier. It contained some fizzy soundbites; made effective attacks on Brown’s repsonse to the downturn; and clearly spelt out the dividing lines between the Tories and Labour. Most of all, though, it said: “We are not the do-nothing party”. Given that the “do-nothing” charge is the key component in Brown’s spin war against the Tories, it’s an important point for Cameron to make. And he did so by drawing a distinction between the wrong and the right “exceptional measures” (see this video clip from the Beeb):
“I do believe that exceptional times call for exceptional measures – but they’ve got to be the right exceptional measures.”
The hope is that this sentiment – coupled with subsequent swipes at the effectiveness of all that borrowing – will weaken Brown’s appeal as a “wartime” leader. At the very least, it should reassure those Tories who feel that Team Cameron has dwelt for too long on the Damian Green affair, at the expense of the party’s post-PBR message.
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