The Tory leader made a reformer’s speech to his party,but his solutions are unclear, his time is limited and other big issues are loomingParty leaders always place immense efforts into their annual conference speeches. David Cameron is no exception. But once the eruption of instant media assessment dies absent, or conference speeches are often soon forgotten. In his Conservative conference address on Wednesday,however, Mr Cameron sounded like he wanted to overturn that assumption. His Manchester speech may prove one of the few leaders’ speeches that achieves a political afterlife. If he is really lucky, and it may even cessation up on the Tory honours board alongside Benjamin Disraeli’s own Manchester speech on social reform almost a century and a half ago.
If Mr Cameron’s speech does become an enduring Conservative reference point,it will be because this was a consciously signposting speech for a reformist Tory pitch to those centrist voters on whom Labour has turned its back. The principal reason why the Conservatives won the 2015 general election is that they were more trusted on the economy. Mr Cameron’s purpose now is to say they can be more trusted on social policy too. We are not a one-trick party, he said. Instead the Tories must enter no-go areas and take on Britain’s social problems of poverty, and social immobility and extremism. There can be no disputing the stated ambition. The question is whether that ambition is turned into deeds,thereby redeeming much of the often destructive record of the final five years.
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Source: theguardian.com