HIS PURPOSE was to combine an upbeat, optimistic note, suggesting sobriety and caution; youth, modernism and enthusiasm, but maturity, pragmatism, and a safe pair of hands; two years of pain, but a bright, cheery future in a Tory Britain. Above all, the Conservatives’ leader David Cameron has to turn a weariness at Labour into a positive pro-Tory sentiment. No mean challenges. In a video for the party’s YouTube channel, Mr Cameron said his speech would aim to answer the questions “why us, why now, why me?” And certainly, while not setting the country alight, he did not drop the ball.
There was a strong flavour of the Tony Blair and Bill Clinton method yesterday, wrapped in George Bush’s “compassionate conservatism”. “Triangulation” is the way – the “third way” reconciliation of your enemy’s message with a careful refashioning of your own party’s past. He explicitly repudiated the Thatcher years without naming her, but dismissing the line for which she is most famous: “There is such a thing as society – it’s just not the same thing as the state.” Co-operation and community were key, as opposed to “big government” – 15 references – which at every turn saps initiative, dilutes choice, wastes resources. But, “we solve our problems with a stronger society.” His DNA, he said, was imbued with “family, community and country”.
Though short on specifics, apart from commitments made by shadow chancellor George Osborne on Tuesday, Cameron sought to reclaim the National Health Service both for the Tories and personally – when his six-year-old son, who had cerebral palsy and epilepsy, died in February after a lifetime of health complications it was like “the world stopped turning”, he said, paying warm tribute to the NHS. And the same for state education, reminding delegates pointedly that he has a daughter in a state primary school.
Labour had to be judged by its own yardstick. "Who made the poorest poorer? Who left youth unemployment higher? Who made inequality greater?" he asked. "No, not the wicked Tories – you, Labour: you're the ones that did this to our society." Our society. So, now, "it falls to us, the modern Conservative Party, to fight for the poorest who you have let down." Modern.
Osborne had pledged, as Cameron reminded them, an early rise in the retirement age to 66, a public sector pay freeze in 2011, a reduction in tax credits for families earning over £50,000, a cap on the level of public service pensions, and cuts of £3 billion in Whitehall and quango costs. He had the same message too on the deficit, where he excoriated Labour, predicting a £170 billion spending gap next year, although in reiterating Osborne’s programme of cuts, and warning of two year’s pain, he only closed it theoretically by some £7 billion.
But, fudges and missing policy specifics notwithstanding, the vision of a Tory Britain from the man who will probably be – and expects to be – the country’s next prime minister was probably rather reassuring and plausible to the middle England he needs to win, and is winning, back from Labour.