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Cameron's Speech Wows Tory Faithful, Slams Labour
Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the Conservative Party Conference just a short time ago. His speech was a competent and occasionally inspiring call to arms. What made it different from most Tory conference speeches was its audience. Mr. Cameron spoke to Middle Britain, not just the people at the conference. He challenged them to engage with their government as part of his "Big Society." Still, the best lines and biggest applause came when he slammed the Labour Party.
He covered the resurrection of the Tory Party after the 1997 electoral disaster. He thanked his predecessors, and one man (96 years old) named Harry Beckough who joined in 1929 and who represented all the foot soldiers of the late campaign received the PM's gratitude and a standing ovation. Mr. Cameron explained the Coalition's formation, and he praised the Liberal Democrats' leader, Deputy PM Nick Clegg. Following this was a laundry list of achievements since May 6. After that, nice words about Afghanistan and national defense. Then, he rounded on Labour, red meat for the Blue Throng:
They left us with massive debts, the highest deficit, overstretched armed forces, demoralised public services, endless ridiculous rules and regulations and quangos and bureaucracy and nonsense.
They left us a legacy of spinning, smearing, briefing, backbiting, half-truths and cover-ups, patronising, old-fashioned, top-down, wasteful, centralising, inefficient, ineffective, unaccountable politics, 10p tax and 90 days detention, an election bottled and a referendum denied, gold sold at half price and council tax doubled, bad news buried and Mandelson resurrected, pension funds destroyed and foreign prisoners not deported, Gurkhas kept out and extremist preachers allowed in.
And, then, Mr. Cameron did something unique in Tory Party history; he also blamed Britain. "Yes, Labour centralised too much and told people they could fix every problem. But it was the rest of us who swallowed it, hoping that if the government took care of things, perhaps we wouldn't have to." The Big Society is about changing that.
There was but one new policy mentioned, and it was not cutting the child benefit for the well off which has been the big story in the media of late. Instead, it was an International Citizen Service "to give thousands of our young people, those who couldn't otherwise afford it, the chance to see the world and serve others. Last century, America's Peace Corps inspired a generation of young people to act, and this century, I want International Citizen Service to do the same. That's the big society spirit, around the world and back here at home." One hopes the ICS is a success, and one wishes the Peace Corps were more popular in the US -- soft power remains under-rated. In any case, it is the Big Society in a nutshell.
In three weeks, The Cuts will be announced, and the howling will begin. Mr. Cameron is going to need the support of the audience outside the conference hall if his government is to succeed. Today, he laid the ground work for defending The Cuts in his speech. It will take more than speeches, though, to accomplish what he wants. No friend of Britain wants him to fail, but no betting person would drop the grocery money on him without substantial odds.
© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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