Cameron passes the test

Bookended by the soothing techno of Moby and a (perhaps unintended) reference to Jimmy Cliff’s “You Can Get It If You Really Want It”, David Cameron today gave a speech that – if nothing else – stretched the boundaries of virtuosity in political performance. To speak with grace and confidence, for more than an hour, with only a few notes was an astonishing feat of memory and endurance.

This, of course, is an important part of the Tories’ election message, starting today. They want to present Dave as gutsy and up for it, in contrast to Gordon the Ditherer, Bottler Brown. The final passage of the speech was as close to “Come and get it if you think you’re hard enough” as this suave Old Etonian will ever get. As The Spectator argues in this week’s editorial, necessity has been the mother of sound politics for the Tories. In truth, Mr Cameron would have died a death on stage if he had not invited the PM out for a fight.