For me, the most striking feature of Brown’s speech was what was missing from it: not the election date but the Conservative Party. You would not think that less than a year ago most senior Labour figures feared that David Cameron’s appeal to switchers in marginal seats was so strong that a hung Parliament was the best they could hope for. Now, in private at least, the same ministers debate the scale of the majority which they now confidently expect, whenever the election is called. Brown barely deigned to mention the Conservative Party or to pay David Cameron the compliment of launching a full-frontal attack on him. Instead, he spoke, as Fraser predicted last week, as the father of the nation.
There’s a whiff of Giuliani in his embrace of the emergency services and his praise for their performance in the terrorist attacks, floods and other crises that have marked his first 100 days in Number Ten. There was a generous dose of Sarkozy – translated into the British context – in his approach to playing by the rules, British values, the need for migrants to speak English and ‘British jobs for British workers’. All topped up by a reassertion of the need to put the consumer first in public service reform (Blair) and to respect and nurture aspiration the aspiration of the voters (Thatcher).
Brown promised that he would not let us down, that the British had proved themselves capable of dealing with adversity over the summer, that – as he knew from his own battle to save his eyesight – life was a struggle in which courage and effort are rewarded. What he meant was: I understand how hard life is, what it is like to earn everything you have and achieve – unlike the foppish, privileged potheads in the Tory Party who dare to think they can run the country. In a subliminal sense, he was playing the class card in every sentence, implicitly contrasting the supposed Cameroon Britain of ease, privilege and inherited security with his own Britain of strength, fair play and hard work. Ahead in the polls, unchallenged in his party, visibly more comfortable than ever in his skin, Brown prepares to smash the Conservative Party into a billion tiny pieces. Truly, Dave has his back against the wall – which, to add to the drama, is when he does best. Blackpool 2007 will be a make-or-break moment in the history of modern Conservatism.
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