David Cameron speech: recovery begins but a long way to go
Peter Cheney looked on as David Cameron made his keynote speech in Manchester. He weighs up its main messages.
Make no mistake. The hand of Lynton Crosby was all over the Conservative conference from the six banners about government achievements to the slick trailer upping the tempo before the PM’s speech. Clips of Cameron were interspersed with headlines from the Tory press and The Killers track ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’. It’s a campaign favourite for Cameron.
“It is this party with the verve, energy and ideas to take our country forward,” the PM declared, without notes but guided by three giant autocues. Labour’s “land of despair” contrasted with the Tory “land of opportunity”.
A press officer smirked at the suggestion that Cameron was taking Miliband pretty seriously. Labour got 26 mentions in the speech, the most barbed one being a suggestion that the party allowed the neglect at mid-Staffs Hospital to take place. The Tories have since backtracked from accusations that Andy Burnham covered up failures as Health Secretary.
“Red Ed and his Blue Peter economy” sparked the most laughs. Finishing the job meant paying off the whole deficit and returning the UK budget to a surplus: deeper cuts would obviously be needed to make this happen.
The Lib Dems hardly featured. Yes, Cameron is aiming for a majority but knows well that he could be depending on Nick Clegg to stay in government for another term. In contrast, the Conservatives were the best election-winners in 20th century Britain.
Profit, wealth creation, tax cuts and enterprise were “not dirty, elitist words” but instead the solution: “It’s not government that creates jobs, it’s businesses.” He was quick to praise Jaguar Land Rover “not just because they actually let me get in a car and drive it around on my own” but also for their workforce’s pride and selling “the best of British design and engineering.”
This northern city seemed an unlikely venue for a Conservative conference; none of its 96 councillors are Tories. After backing HS2, Cameron went out of his way to name-check the North of England and its potential: clean energy on the Humber, Blackpool’s shale gas, Manchester’s advanced materials.
Cameron also knows that getting too involved in the Scottish referendum debate could backfire. He kept his comments to a simple message: “Think of all we’ve achieved together, the things we can do together.” Adding a personal touch, he recalled the help given to his family by a social worker (after the birth of his son Ivan) and publicly thanked the profession for its hard work.
“Together we’ll build that land of opportunity,” Cameron rounded off. Speaking afterwards, MP David Burrowes told agendaNi: “It’s not just simply about an economic recovery. It’s about an opportunity to get people jobs, to ensure that [our children] get a decent education and to fix the welfare system.”
The PM, it was put to him, could be too optimistic about the economy. “You’ve got to stick with the plan, which is a serious plan they’re working up,” Burrowes commented. People were “finding it hard” but he added that “now’s not the time to go off track and just simply follow some quick gimmicks just for headlines.”
Cameron’s 1.4 million figure for job creation is important for understanding work in the UK in 2013. The same number of people are part-time workers looking for full-time hours – the highest figure since 1992 – and another 1.4 million are still waiting for a job. In the 18 months left to the general election, these people on the edges of the workforce will be wanting to see whether they will also benefit from the recovering economy.
Photo credit: Andrew Parsons / i-image
