Harriet Harman in many ways had the easiest speech of the conference to deliver. All she had to do was throw red meat to the delegates – but she did so effectively. Certainly, the standing ovation that the two thirds full hall gave her was far more sustained and heart-felt than the one David Miliband received earlier in the week.
Harman’s speech was based around a highly feminised attack on David Cameron. It is personal and unpleasant–it assumes that Cameron is the kind of man who’ll say anything to have his ‘wicked way’ with you and then will forget about you. But I wonder if it could be effective; it does, though, require a woman to deliver it. Certainly, after Brown’s attack on Cameron’s parenting yesterday and this speech from Harman it is clear that Labour intend to take the low road and try and character assassinate Cameron.
If there is to be a leadership race, Harman has helped her cause with this speech. She cast herself effectively as a loyalist candidate and by using such highly feminised attack-lines on Cameron and Clegg she showed the Labour selectorate that she would give the party weapons and attack-lines that the other candidates wouldn’t.
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