Cameron’s Rallying Call
Anyway, now that a few days have passed and the initial hype about how great all speeches are and the great feeling you get listening to them and how energised everyone is after them, I can now perhaps provide some reasonable analysis of David Cameron’s speech. He spoke for little over 1/2 hour which was about right I thought. He covered a wide variety of subjects, with an emphasis on how Labour have failed the country and the SNP aren’t interested in Westminster and so therefore the only way to not waste your vote is by voting Conservative.
He made a strong point about Gordon Brown not seeing Alex Salmond for over a year during the worst economic conditions the country has been faced with for 30 years. Following from that, he pledged to meet with the first minister within seven days of winning the election. This is a welcomed move by Cameron. There is a need for a new relationship between Westminster and Holyrood becuase the present situation is simply not viable and it is no surprise therefore that you end up with poorly informed decisions such as freeing the Lockerbie bomber which has implications in diplomatic terms for the whole of Britain, not just Scotland.
The key theme from the speech for me was the fact that he did not apologise for the Conservative’s poor standing in Scotland. He simply attacked labour and the SNP where necessary for their failings and then showed how it would be different under a Conservative government. In recent years, the Scottish Conference leader’s speech has seemed almost like a Thatcher style “we in Scotland” moment, almost as if the Conservative Party is an English party making a speech in Scotland with the tag line ‘tories on tour’.
This speech was different. There was much more of a positive message from it. A rallying call if you like, but definitely not a rallying cry. For Cameron has the Scottish Conservatives on his side and they are ready to fight to take back seats and restart the process of sending Conservative representatives to Westminster. The party has 11 target seats in Scotland, 6 of which we have a very realistic chance of winning and internal party polling polling is in line with this as well.
Cameron has always been good as public speaking and he is particularly good at delivering conclusions to speeches. In Friday’s conclusion he said:
“So we will fight this election campaign in a completely different way. Not just trying to win back those who voted for us before and went away, but reaching out to those who’ve never voted Tory before and saying to them:
Yes, we have changed, yes we are a modern, progressive Conservative party, yes, we have bold and radical plans to change our country and succeed where Labour failed, so come and join us – for a fairer, safer, greener country where opportunity is more equal. For a stronger, better, brighter future where our best days lie ahead of us, not behind.
That is our choice, that is the change, that is the modern, progressive vision the country is crying out for.”
Here we see a call, a call for a clean election campaign and a positive election campaign, one that points out the government’s failings, but focusses mostly on what the Conservatives will do to rebuild the country and put it back on top of the world.
Overall, it was a very good speech. I don’t think it can be classed as Cameron’s greatest speech, but perhaps the best speech he has given in Scotland. I don’t think it will turn the tide much, but it may convince a few. It certainly got very good coverage in most newspapers in Scotland which can only be good. Indeed in my conversations with various journalists at the conference, many do seem quite perceptive to what Cameron has to say. Whether they will endorse it come election time is another matter.
P.s. You can read a full transcript of the speech here
