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Conservative Party conference:
With Labour leaning left, Cameron is pitching hard for the centre ground
Although his team denies it, the Prime Minister's speech was a toe-to-toe response to Ed Miliband's
headline-grabbing performance at his own conference last week
David Cameron's speech to the Conservative Party conference yesterday was not one that will go
down in the annals. Its presentation was merely passable, its reception was no better than satisfactory,
and its contents were largely dull. It was, however, well-suited to its purpose.
The audience, after all, was not so much the delegates in the hall as the electorate beyond. And the
central message - Britain is recovering from the financial crisis but we need more time to "finish the
job" - is arguably delivered better by statesman-like tedium than a blizzard of policy initiatives.
Particularly when the speaker is a Tory leader trying to convince voters that Labour's alternative risks all.
In fact, although his team denies it, the Prime Minister's speech was a toe-to-toe response to
Ed Miliband's headline-grabbing performance at his own conference last week. Not because
Mr Cameron answered the question about falling living standards posed by his Labour counterpart.
He did not. What he did do, however, is use much of his time on the podium to tear strips off
Labour, not only for the "mess" left by the last government but also for the "1970s-style socialism"
proposed by a future one. Mr Miliband is no longer a figure of fun to be derided for his weakness;
he has become the would-be custodian of a "land of despair".
Full story Independent