David Cameron’s speech to the Conservative Spring Forum was one of the most
Conservative speeches he has given in a long time. It was an address that was meant to reassure the party during what looks set to to be this government’s most difficult year.
The Tory leader opened with a list of policy pledges delivered and they were all distinctively Conservative policies: making work pay, the EU referendum lock, teaching British history in schools, freezing council tax, capping immigration and doubling the operational allowance. There was further crowd pleasing material in a substantial section of the speech which attacked AV.
Cameron sought to present the Tories as the moral, upstanding party that is prepared to take tough choices and Labour as the party of ‘dodgy deals in the desert’ that is too cowardly to deal with the deficit. It was refreshing to see the Prime Minister making the moral argument for deficit reduction. If deficit reduction is portrayed as something that is only about keeping the bond markets happy then it won’t be able to command public support through the difficult months ahead.
In a preview of the Budget, Cameron stressed how it would take on the ‘enemies of enterprise’. He promised that it would be the ‘most pro-growth Budget in a generation.’ This talking up of the Budget suggests that it will be a more substantial affair than previously expected. As one source told me recently, things that were off the table a few months ago are now on it. Expect radical action on planning, deregulation and tax simplification.
The blemish on the speech was a section that tried to justify Cameron’s decision to travel to Cairo’s Tahir Square with a bunch of arms executives on board his plane. Cameron won’t let this go but his argument is fundamentally flawed. You can’t attack Labour for making ‘dodgy deals in the desert’ when you’re trying to help British arms manufacturers sell to autocratic Middle Eastern regimes.
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