I'm typing this as I listen to David Cameron's speech. I'm impressed. OK most of you might expect me to be. Some of you might even expect me to say I was even if I wasn't. I particularly liked the opening few lines about Boris. Especially the bit where he said "We're not New Labour. We don't mind if people go off message." I'm sure I caught Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome smiling at that stage... I of course wouldn't do such a thing. Oh no.
This is a speech which I hope will resonate with people who haven't decided to come back to the Conservatives yet, but are thinking of doing so.
The NHS passage was particularly strong and I liked what he had to say about the armed forces. My only slight quibble was when he said "We are the servants of the NHS". I would beg to differ. The NHS is the servant of the people, not the other way around. It has to respond to patient needs, not the other way around. It is not a static public service. It has to evolve and respond to new discoveries, new medical procedures and new patient requirements.
His commitment to abolishing the Human Rights Act is welcome, but before all the lefties start ranting, it will be replaced by a British Bill of Rights, which is long overdue.
The best section was on foreign policy and relations with the US. "I became involved in politics in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were defeating the Societ Union. Unlike some people, I never had any doubts whose side I was on." I will leave you to speculate on his intended victim.
He continued: "But now Mr Blair objects when I say our foreign policy should not simply be unquestioning in our relationship with America. William Hague and I have said we must be steadfast not slavish in how we approach the special relationship. Apparently Tony Blair disagrees. Well if he's accusing me of wanting to be a British Prime Minister pursuing a British foreign policy... ...then I plead guilty. Questioning the approach of the US dministration......trying to learn the lessons of the past five years... ...does not make you "anti-American."Ask John McCain. I'm not a neo-conservative. I'm a liberal Conservative. Liberal - because I believe in spreading freedom and democracy, and supporting humanitarian intervention. That is why we cannot stand by and watch further genocide in Darfur. But Conservative - because I also recognise the complexities of human nature, and will always be sceptical of grand schemes to remake the world. We need more patience, more humility in the way we engage with the world."
This was a grown up speech, almost free of the traditional party political jousting. It was an overt attempt to appeal to liberally minded people who want their politicians to ooze decency. David Cameron looked like a man you'd to have leading your country. Anyone who says there was no substance to this speech must have made up their minds before he opened his mouth. He has refashioned the Leader's speech to his own character. This was not a rabblerouser. Not a tubthumper. It was reflective, statesmanlike and substantial.
In short, it hit the mark, even with a wizened old cynic like me.
37 comments:
Impressed Iain? it sounds very simplistic to me I guarantee the Conservatives will hardly move in the polls tomorrow it is flat and vanilla. I have heard it all before and recycling it will not make it any better.
"I believe in spreading freedom and democracy, and supporting humanitarian intervention."
Sigh - how tedious. Foreign intervention *always* leads to state expansion at home.
Intervene in Darfur? And which band of lunatics are we going to arm in the process? Blowback anyone?
How about I *keep* my hard-earned cash and let Africa and the ME sort themselves out.
Blair's an actor.
Cameron's a manager.
Better a manager than an actor to run a country.
Some good bits (NHS), some okay bits, some bad bits. One grossly cynical bit (Darfur - just say the name and wait for the applause! Okay, he's not alone on this, but a really sick bit of speechwriting)
The adulatory bits for Liam Fox and Letwin were equally formulaic and incoherent.
The freshness of last year cannot be repeated. Harder from now on.
A bit of an "all shall have prizes" waffle, all told.
This Cameron chap is starting to grow on me. Having said that, I would prefer it if Hauge was still leader.
I do wish though that Cameron would demote Osborne to Trade & Industry!
Blair should be dialling 999 soon, Cameron's stolen his clothes.
The Conservatives are back on the centre ground, back on track and will be back in Downing Street soon.
Anonymous x 2, it takes a clever person to make something complex seem simple. Flat and vanilla but sincere is preferable grandstanding oration without substance.
As for foreign intervention, do you really think it is a case of leaving Africa and the Middle East to sort themselves out? What about those people in Africa and the Middle East whose plans include attacks on the western democracies? Do you think we should just sit back and let them prepare assaults on democracies? Very sensible.
Cameron does have a fair few faults - he's done drugs, apparantly, he has no real idea of the world outside the media and westminster politics (PR manager is not really a career option, is it?)
He's also tooo much like Blair for most people's taste - once bitten, twice shy as they say!
No he's not perfect, but he's more electable than Boris - even if Boris talks more sense!
The only thing that worries me about David Cameron is that he seems too perfect. Does he have any faults?!
His best friend is shallow Shadow Chancellor.
Lovely balanced piece. At what point did you cum during the speech?
My partner and I watched it and he managed to touch on a lot of values that will appeal to most people without giving any specific policy just direction and a general feel of what he believes in and where he wants the Conservatives to be heading in the future.
I noticed that Billy liar and his Cyclopean friend next door have already stolen one of the few bits of policy that were on display by removing the income tax demand on our overseas Armed forces. Typical Nu-labour approach to steal anything that looks like populist policy, but at least our lads and lasses that are serving for the nation get something tangible out of it.
All in all pretty good. Even some of the coffin dodgers looked misty eyed in there today.
Sorry gran !!!
No more Human Rights act, but a British bill of rights, whatever that is.
Nice choice: cameron, brown or campbell !
The first half of the speech was garbage, the second half was quite good. But he's nowhere near looking or sounding like a future Prime Minister. Give it another year or two of David Davis knocking him into shape and we might be getting somewhere with him.
Good speech, but I do think the fault lies in his cronies, rather as Blair. Lots of old etonians like Jacob Rees-Mogg (see newsnight lastnight) just push the voters away. People will be fine with one or two in the shape of Cameron and Osborne, but everyone else too?
At long last this was some kind of insight into what Cameron really thinks, but I doubt it will convince the people that still need convincing.
If Cameron wants to make a big impact on swing voters, he needs clear and unambiguous policy statements. Nothing less will do.
NHS
I get the Health Service bit, but National. Who does he think he is kidding.
He will have no remit with the Scottish & Welsh Health Service.
A couple of problems here, Dave:
A promise to abolish the Human Rights Act is a Grade A propaganda gift to Labour, whatever you say about a British bill. It's a political non-starter, as they will crucify you for this, whatever the objective rights and wrongs. (I bet this will go down like the promise to leave the Euopean People's Party: pleasing for the Europhobes who'd be voting for you anyway, but just not ever going to happen in real life.)
And promising not to stand by and do nothing about Dafur is... well, foolish. Because what you will in fact do is... stand by and do nothing. There is no alternative to doing nothing if you're the opposition, and even by the quickest time you might realistically not be, the issue will have already been resolved for good or evil. So, at least a Grade B propaganda gift to Labour.
Rail against the inhumanity of Dafur by all means, but DO NOT promise what you cannot possibly deliver.
I thought, whatever your other failings, you were supposed to be a PR man? Why have you just blown your own PR like this?
Or (please) were you just having an off-day?
I think it is fair to say Iain, that you have fallen for the headline again.
The Tories are a bit 'questioning' regarding the USA foreign policy.
No you're not! You flip flop around and float with the wind.
First you support the war, then you don't and then you do again.
I don't know where you are at this time.
Sell beds in the N-H-S (three words) to the highest bidder and then dave is Mr. N-H-S.
Oh come off it. A leopard never changes its spots.
The Tories are banned from the whitehouse and banned from running this particular show.
A sterling effort by Dave but just saying sorry isn't good enough.
Clinton got it right by saying that it is easy to 'forget our successes'.
Blair hit the mark by saying it's our future now, 'make the most of it'.
Dave is saying, in a roundabout sort of way, 'We (I) got it totally wrong this last few years. Sorry. Can I turn the clock back'.
For Dave to be the mad right wing auctioneer for bed space a few years ago and then tell us he's a 'Liberal Conservative' will quite rightly be crucified in tomorrows press.
The Tory membership are as mad as hell tonight at such soft talk.
Doom.
His commitment to abolishing the Human Rights Act is welcome, but before all the lefties start ranting, it will be replaced by a British Bill of Rights, which is long overdue.
Cannot be any different in content - it is still subject to the ECHR and the ECJ and must comply with the European Convention and The European Charter
Cameron is either damned ignorant or he didn't pay much attention at BNC when Vern was setting essay questions........"Cameron......discuss Kelsen's Theory of Norms"
According to his conference speech, Dave said, "Tony Blair attacked me for what I said about hoodies.
"In that one cheap joke, he gave up on one of the best things he ever said - that we need to be tough on the causes of crime.
"Everyone in this hall, everyone watching at home, knows that we will only tackle crime if we tackle family breakdown if we tackle drug addiction if we mend broken lives."
If, If, If. Everybody has been trying to do this for years anyway, but the only way to stop it is by having an ideal family with ideal kids, all having ideal behaviour. Since liberal ideas and policies from the Labour government screwed it up in the first place, how are we now going to put it right within a generation and without authoritive discipline. The 'Hug a Hoodie' idea was about the most stupid remark I have ever heard in my life from a politician. ....and here we have the substance....zilch! No bloody idea, or inclination how to do it. Just keep making broad statements without any follow through to a proposal, or solution! ...and that is the impression Dave is giving to a very wide audience!
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate."
Noam Chomsky
Kind of sums up Cameron's approach. No dissent permitted on the subject of abolishing statist controls over healthcare and education or about restoring full parliamentary democracy to Britain. But we can go "off message" about cookery books...
On my blog just a day ago I wrote this:
"It is our society that needs fixing, not our economy. It is not 1979."
36hrs later, David Cameron said this:
"When our Party was last in power, our task was to restore economic responsibility....The task for us today is different...Our fundamental aim is to roll forward the frontiers of society."
I have always agreed with David Cameron, but I had no idea he agreed with me.
I don't understand why ITN are declaring this a "barnstorming" speech. I watched it on News 24 and I thought it was as flat as a pancake. So bored was I that I started paying more attention to the audience, who, at least as far as I could tell, look to be the same old bunch of white middle class pensioners as always. And one other thing struck me too, amidst all this talk of new directions. How many women in the Shadow Cabinet? How many Scots and Welsh, or Brummies, Mancunians and Geordies? How many black and ethnic minorties? I heard Andrew Neill talking yesterday about the educational histories of the shadow cabinet and I damned near fell off my seat. How many at Eton did you say? How many at Oxford - really? How many who bypassed any sort of life outside politics and went straight from OUCA to Central Office and Islington to a seat in the Shires? The Tory party looks nothing like the country, and that's why people won't vote for it. Consider the varied reactions to Boris Johnson. If you're a Telegraph reader from Richmond-on-Thames with two kids in the local Grammar and a spouse in the City, he's an eccentric and an affable intellectual. If you're a mechanic from Gateshead with your kids in the local Comp and a spouse in the local Call Centre, he's an upper class twerp and an over-educated buffoon. It's been said that Boris is the Tories' John Prescott. I can see one similarity - Prezza playing to the IoD or on the stump in Windsor would probably die on his feet. But Boris playing to Manchester, Glasgow, or - Lord help you - Liverpool would either be howled off the stage or would be talking to an empty room. Now ask yourself this - how many votes are there in Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool? How many in Windsor? Remember that old David Icke interview on Wogan, when Terry famously said "they're not laughing with you, they're laughing at you" ? Well dub that over Boris clips, and you might well have the basis for a pretty effective Party Political on YouTube.
Excellent speech overall. Modernising thatcheris without turning his back on it. Not impressed with Dafur - it did come across as point grabbing.
Impressed by the reaction of the eight or nine uni students polled after the speech who changed from two possible voters before the speech to ALL possibles!!!
And George Osborne not biting when Andrew Niel tried to condemn the party.
Get ready Labour - the Tories are on their way back.
One of the many things I like about this speech is the reference to DAFUR.I have this in the local press at the moment
Did anyone notice? On October the 1st Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon drawing this dreadful conflict to a close .Under cover of darkness, a column of tanks and about 200 Israeli soldiers slunk home. We must all give thanks that a war that claimed some 1800 lives is over.I suspect that no one much did notice, and this makes me rather angry.
It was only recently that local Liberal and Labour politicians were advertising their distress at the tragedy. Amongst the many who went into print were James Kempton, Emily Thornberry and Lucy Watts .Some thought it odd that the war provoked such a public reaction from “local” officials, but I took them at face value .Not any more; all of these people stand in my eyes as pious frauds until they speak out on Darfur
.Darfur hits a Lebanon total of deaths every ten days and the current butchers bill is estimated by NGO`s at 400,000. It is not a natural disaster, it is the ethnic cleansing policy of the Khartoum Government . Last year, under international pressure, a Comprehensive Peace Treaty was agreed for South Sudan and the nervous calm holds good .Everything hangs in the balance now, most urgently for Darfur, but also for the South. So why, when the smallest voice could help, are our local representatives silent ?
We can only speculate .A Jewish attack on advanced Hezbollah positions pricks their consciences. An Islamic Arab mass genocide against Black African Christians does not.I shall try to think the best our local spokesmen. The arrival of the formally agreed UN force is , after all, of considerably more importance .There is one condition though; that James Kempton , Emily Thornberry Lucy Watts , join me in condemning Islamic Arab slaughter of African black men and women in Sudan, today .
I doubt I`ll hear anything
OI JT : when did you start reading Chomsky then are yiou an anarchist now ? ( or a linguist )
ANONY THING SAID
`How many at Eton did you say? How many at Oxford - really? How many who bypassed any sort of life outside politics and went straight from OUCA to Central Office and Islington to a seat in the Shires? The Tory party looks nothing like the country, and that's why people won't vote for it."
I have no special problem with Boris Johnson actually far more serious is the rise of creepy little carreer policy wonkers and other lifetime political liggers who infest every aspect of public life with their timid non views on everything .
`Still what you say is a breath of fresh air in this blog which can be self regarding ,insular and miles from the nearest life station. You actually mention Islington where I am where these cyphers sicken everyone with their ignorance presumption and sheer inadequacy (as they know so little )
I wrote this on one of them .(Labour )
Picture the scene; Labour’s baby Councillor, James Murray (22 and ¾), is lounging on the lush green playing fields of £20,000 per year St. Paul’s. “Fag" he orders ,” Bring me my book about poor people”. “Gosh “ he mutters and "Crumbs", then, in a moment of golden epiphany, “ Yaroop chaps, I `m going to be a Socialist ! ”
It was probably on the arm of an admiring Don at Oxford he decided to devote his life to Islington, a Borough he hardly knows, can you doubt his radiant sincerity?
Well yes actually. James Murray is a paradigm of everything wrong with political life in this country. From privilege to Government without ever earning the money he wants to tax , his intentions are clear. His job as a "research assistant" is the acknowledged first rung towards parliamentary candidature, and James’s concern for the poor of Islington will shortly come a bad second to his hermetically sealed career.
The gulf between the ruled and the rulers is not confined to the Labour Party. Ironically, perhaps, David Cameron sees the problem and wants a Mayoral candidate for London with some real experience, I hope he finds one.
We can expect Mr. Murray to be skipping youthfully about Islington in support of Ken Livingstone at the vital forthcoming Mayoral elections. By the time King Ken’s London plan has turned Islington into a 21st Century slum, however, he and his principles, will be long gone.`
You have no idea how right you are ... but its both parties which makes it even worse
2b 1k2b SAID
`stand by and do nothing. There is no alternative to doing nothing if you're the opposition,`
No disagree the UN force is formally agreed and must be sent in quickly . International pressurre from any source just for once would help. I also can do nothing but I have written to my MP and to the local papers . I take little interest in "foreign" as a rule but in this case it is heart breaking .400,000 , a Lebanon every 10 days . Also considering who is doing the ethnic cleansing there is another domestic agenda here in code
No usually I would agree but this is a special case
"Blair's an actor.
Cameron's a manager.
Better a manager than an actor to run a country."
Er, first off Cameron's not a manager. He's a PR guy ie a b*llsh*tter.
Second, two words.. Ronald Reagan.
Anonymous wrote,
I don't understand why ITN are declaring this a "barnstorming" speech.
I do! The "Barn" they were referring to was one of those with big doors each end and when both are opened the wind rushes through!
Newmania, my objection to what Cameron said about Dafur was not that he demanded something be done. Of course it must, and he was right to demand that.
No, what was wrong was to say he was not going to "stand by and do nothing."
I think that clearly implies more than just standing by and shouting from the sidelines. But standing by and shouting from the sidelines is in actuality all he CAN do right now.
In the vew of most people "doing something" consists of more than demanding that OTHER people are "doing something".
Good cause, stupid way of raising it: it guarantees a broken promise before he even gets into office--and does nothing for the poor people of Dafur into the bargain.
You'd think a semi-competent PR man would have spotted that...
I think Rick is a little unfair on Dave over abolishing the Human Rights Act.
Everyone knows that he just can;t get away with it, and he will always answer to someone in a modern world.
Dave is playing the British game of politics.
It is very obvious to me that Dave is gently leading the Tories into a 'rule Britannia' election in 2009.
Big bad Europe persecuting little old Britain. They'll be fighting on the streets at this talk every saturday night in the run up.
Johnny Foreigner ain't telling us what to do stuff.
In my view, another suicide note.
Hague is again, to be the fall guy in Dave's plans but he just can't see it.
save the pound, save British rights, save green shield stamps, save Britain. Vote Tory to save Britain.
You've done this before and lost. You need to do it again to convince yourselves that it just doesn't work.
Doom.
I'm a 26 year old, Science degree holding first time homeowner. I have never voted conservative and have always gone with my gut instinct that, of the 3 largest parties, the liberal party was aligned closest to my views.
I have long labelled the tories as mean, selfish xenophobes. I am far from alone amongst my piers in the feeling that Cameron and his apparent enthusiasm for a greener liberal policies is now beginning to represent a choice for us.
Nu Labour has been a complete disgrace and is not even an option to us. If Cameron can continue showing us this appealing liberal conservatism, I suspect he'll grab a lot of new 'first-time' conservative voters...
Nice one James.
Is there any chance you and your peers may inform us how you came to this conclusion?
Which policy of the Conservative party best suits your politics in 2006?
Of which detail within that policy, finally convinced you of Liberal Conservatism over Liberal socialism?
Equality for gays, women, men?
Liberal Conservatism is more patriotic than liberal socialism?
Tax policies of George are superior to those of Gordon?
The Tories stand higher than Labour on the environment?
Europe?
Dave convinced you. I'd like to know how.
I gather you're 26.
Doom.
think the best thing is to pack your bags and apply for a Visa to Australia or New Zealand as soon as possible. There's not one real statesman in any of our political parties, they are all long on words and short on substance. Not one of then is prepared to stand up face up to the problems now confronting these islands. The disaster called multicultralism, religious extremism, violent crime, social breakdown, community disintegration, mass immigration and destruction of the environment through rampant housing, depletion of our natural resources etc, etc.
As soon as the money runs out, the problems will hit our streets with a vengance.Must stop because I am getting quite depressed when I look to the future.
Anon x 2 responds to Monty
As for foreign intervention, do you really think it is a case of leaving Africa and the Middle East to sort themselves out?
Yes I think there is a case. If we (the west) continue to send enormous amounts of taxpayer's money to these countries for being bad then where is the incentive to change?
What about those people in Africa and the Middle East whose plans include attacks on the western democracies?
So? What are the odds of being a victim to terrorist attack? Not very high I'd imagine. Certainly not high enough for me to yield one iota of my freedom in the 'war against terror' given that we live in a world where tens of thousands die of hunger every single day. Sorry - I'm just not scared of terrorists.
Do you think we should just sit back and let them prepare assaults on democracies?
If 'democracies' stopped propping-up their dictatorial overlords then we could 1. Save a large chunk of taxpayer's money. 2. Give them a *lot* less reason to assault said 'democracies' - or do you really believe they hate us because we allow women in the workplace??
Very sensible.
Indeed.
Anonymous x 2, it takes a clever person to make something complex seem simple. Flat and vanilla but sincere is preferable grandstanding oration without substance.
Clever alrighty, clever and dangerous (remember Musolini, Hitler and Blair).
Oh, whenever some cites Noam Chomsky, I switch off because Chomsky is a naive soico-political simpleton and darling of the ultra-left.
@ Doom,
I'm not convinced yet...
I work for a DEFRA family organisation and i'm fully aware of how eager the tories were to completely shaft us as part of the previous manifesto.
There was no way I would have voted for them back then. Since then, under Labour's stewardship, the financial and intellectual drain from our organisations has been far worse than what was in the tory manifesto. Its been a really bad couple of years and in spite of the rhetoric and apparent leadership Blair has shown on the issue, the reality is of massive under-investiment and a brain drain from public bodies to consultants who we then have to use costing us half a dozen times more than if we did things in-house.
Part of my consideration of Dave Cameron is simply out of hopelessness for the current situation I find myself in where I work. Even if Cameron is simply re-branding the tories green, I can hope that the electorate will hold him to that image and he might think about some investment or even just consolidation in this sector. A continuation down the current path looks very bleak from my perspective.
Patriotism is of minimal relevance I am British and happy to be in England but feel no pride for being british particularly. There is too much for me that I feel ashamed of about this country.
Europe is important to me and perhaps one of the largest lingering doubts with regards to thinking about putting the X next to conservative. The little-englander mentality I still associate with Tories seems outdated and a misplaced fantasy about the role of Britain in the world. This attitude needs to die away and be replaced with a more business-like sensible perspective of Europe and our position within it.
So again, Dave hasn't convinced me... He has me interested. I'm considering voting Tory for the first time in my life. Not really because of a particular policy. More because of his demeanor and general perspective on issues. I havent made up my mind yet because I havent heard what his policies are.
What I am saying is that I know he's got a lot of us 20-somethings interested... There are very few of us who have much positive to say or think about Nu Labour... We have ideologically lended our votes to the Lib Dems in the past few elections but are now considering switching...
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