Cameron speech...Oh Well!!

[DrRingDing]

I didn't watch it but by the sounds of what's been sadi here he seems to be apeasing the party rather than moving to the center ground to tackle nu-labour.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

As someone who does quite a lot of public speaking, it is worth saying that his whole speaking off the cuff thing is really *really* impressive.

Its just a shame that the content of the speech is such shite....

Matt

I don't think it is though. If you know your brief, and you've got a good memory it isn't that hard. I've seen far better speakers speak without notes and pull it off more convincingly.

 

[agricola]

A nice summary from Dave, nice but Knave (via the Guardian):

Two years ago I stood on this stage and gave a speech about why I wanted to lead the party. Now I want to lead the country.

[10 minutes standing ovation]

20 years ago I was inspired by a trip to Eastern Europe - the dull uniformity, the lack of freedom.

Every generation of Conservatives has to make again the arguments for freedom, free markets and limited government, because the previous generation of conservatives will always have forgotten them once in government.

Our party has campaigned on the NHS, with no sense of shame.

It is not good enough being a one nation party to open the door - we have to drag the ethnics kicking and screaming into the party. But I am proud to have a muslim woman homophobe in my shadow cabinet.

Change, real change, isn't just about the pence in your pocket. It is understanding how to repackage Conservatism - opposition to change - for the modern media. We are not going to lurch to the left or right, we are going to lurch firmly into the past.

This government is always reannouncing old policies. But you won't catch me having any policies. Brown wants to appeal to the 4% in swing seats. How awful. I'm really shocked at that sort of thing.

People want the politics of belief. And we want them to believe us. That's why we're on the same side.

I believe if you really talk about responsibility, common sense and MySpace, for long enough, people won't notice you have not actually said anything.

Please sign up to 'Am I the only person who doesn't like David Cameron' on Facebook.

[Listeners all miss the next 15 minutes of the speech while they go to facebook and invite all their friends to join the group.]

We will say to Vardy and McDonalds, come into the state sector and drive up standards in our schools. But why isn't this working? Because professional teachers are not deferring to my superior judgement on the use of synthetic phonics. Let's get politicians' micromanagement out of education and get teachers to start doing exactly what I say.

One of the aspirations people still have, and rightly so, is the aspiration to own their own home. And we are going to pretend that minor changes to stamp duty will make a noticeable difference.

Oh and hasn't Brown made a mess of the country's pensions? It must be the biggest pensions disaster since the Tory mis-selling scandal of the 80s.

While our economy is getting richer, in many ways we are not going to get far being too optimistic - no we need to hype up the breakdown of society in order to frighten people into voting for us.

There are a million young people with nothing better to do than join groups on Facebook. Why has Labour done nothing about Facebook? Every day you hear some numpty promoting some Facebook group or other.

What are we going to do? Let's look at what works. In states like Wisconsin in America, where single parents are denied benefits unless they travel hours a day for minimum wage work, and hardly ever see their children. This is how we put families first.

The best welfare system of all? The family. If you think about it, it gives us a chance to wash our hands of the problem completely. And by recognising marriage in the tax system, we can further complicate tax credits, and punish widows and the sinful with evangelical zeal.

Anyway, we've got to scrap those top-down targets and trust the professionals in education the NHS.

The other feature of this Brave New World, is the sense of insecurity we feel, the end of the New World Order. When it comes to Iraq, we all want people to forget our culpability in supporting that war. I've been to Afghanistan for photo-ops with the troops. In this world of danger, the old politics is failing, as Mr Blair said when assaulting civil liberties.

I'm very proud to have Milosovic appeaser Pauline Neville Chamberlain in my shadow cabinet.

But we face new threats like climate change. We need to say that we are the party of sensible green leadership. Then people won't notice that we are doing next to nothing.

On crime, we will not be led by the need for headlines on the six o'clock news. This party is not a PR exercise, and I am going to pretend not to be a PR man any more.

So there you have it. I have told you want I believe today. It's about me. Am I up to it? Yes I am. I had inherited wealth, a privileged upbringing and went to a fantastic public school. But am I smug? I will let you be the judge.

After 10 years of Labour, I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more. Everybody go to your window and shout it. So, Mr Brown, call that election. We will fight, but Britain will win.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Saw his speech on Newsnight. He just looks so young in comparison to Brown and lacks gravitas. I don't think they've got a cat in hell's chance in the coming election thank fuck. I reckon Labour will increase its majority to about 100.

 

[London_Calling]

Notes or no notes, when it comes to conviction politics Brown chews Cameron's nuts off, varnishes them and keeps them on his mantlepiece in a glass case.

Different league.

 

[Haller]

Notes or no notes, when it comes to conviction politics Brown chews Cameron's nuts off, varnishes them and keeps them on his mantlepiece in a glass case.

Really? I can't see either of them being motivated by convictions. Pure opportunism in both cases. The difference is that Cameron does the illusion of sincerity better.

 

[Urbanblues]

Disruptive schoolchildren should be expelled from the sink secondary schools that serve them so badly, and given places in public schools. After all, they have plenty of resources; and, as registered charities they can actually begin spending some of the ‘charity capital’ they’ve stashed away over the years.

 

[Matt S]

K_E,

If it had been for twenty minutes or something, I'd agree. But it takes a very organised brain to hold all of the arguments and topics one wants to touch on for more than a hour, while speaking convincingly and without losing the thread...

I'm not saying he's the next Martin Luther King or something, just saying I thought it showed an impressively organised and competent approach to speaking.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Not convinced; seen people do exactly the same, without notes (Cameron did in fact have them, if you watch the footage every now and then he goes over to check them on the table to keep on track) and better too.

As already said on this thread if you've said something hundreds times you can pretty much say it again verbatim with little or no problem...

 

[Wookster]

The Tories must be kept out of power at all costs.

They would be utterly disastrous for Britain. Don't believe for one minute that the party has changed, not while the likes of Ian Duncan Smith/ David Davis/ Boris Johnson/ Oliver Letwin etc. etc. are still in the party.

Cameron has had his chance and he blew it. He's proven himself to be low on substance and high on waffle.

Edit: Didn't see his speech but remember this - Tony Blair was a sensational orator, yet his talk was just full of lies, lies and more lies.

 

[Dr. Furface]

I understood that the change in (not abolition of) inheritance tax was to be funded by a levy on non-domicile tax-payers. I don't think that impacts on benefits.

Sounds like a nice idea, but from what I've read the Tories have hugely overestimated the amount of non-domiciles there are in the UK, and therefore the amount of money they'll be able to raise this way. And they are BIG amounts.

 

[Wookster]

Inheritance tax is a bit of a red herring.

Its all pretty much avoidable with some basic tax planning. Generally the people who end up paying inheritance tax are those who are wealthy but not wealthy enough to have a tax advisor. For this reason its actually a fairly regressive tax.

 

[Haller]

Didn't see his speech but remember this - Tony Blair was a sensational orator, yet his talk was just full of lies, lies and more lies.

And he won three general elections. Somehow I think Cameron would settle for that.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

More on Cameron's speech and how it was written by someone else, wasn't off the cuff etc...

 

[Wolveryeti]

Wow big deal, Cameron can take a couple of nights off the coke in order to learn a few lines.

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they were lying in this instance- the new tories are devious little shits when it comes to the press.

I went to a George Osborne televised press conference in which they had people from the party taking photos - but only when the cameras were rolling - just so they had the 'click' 'click' 'click' going on the footage to make it sound more important.

 

[Streathamite]

I didn't watch it but by the sounds of what's been sadi here he seems to be apeasing the party rather than moving to the center ground to tackle nu-labour.

as every other tory leader of the past 2 decades have done, qand with similar lack of reward at the ballot box