So, what did you make of it?
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25 Comments
Brilliant! End of.
I only walked in briefly and heard right wing stuff about a war on teachers or something?????
Full of platitudes. I particularly liked the idea that spelling reformers were causing society to break down.
http://joeotten.blogspot.com/2008/10/david-cameron-blames-spelling-reform.html
Dave, nice but knave has the full speech.
http://davenicebutknave.blogspot.com/2008/10/that-conference-speech-in-fullagain.html
A superb speech in which he showed that he is a man of vision. He clearly set out his belief in the family at the core of society and left Brown’s attacks on him as a “PR man without substance” dead in the water. Not spectacular stuff but it got the message across and succeeding in framing him as a PM in waiting.
Before anyone asks, I’m a Conservative who has had reservations about Cameron in the past, particularly over grammar schools!
:
BE AWARE!
Throughout this coming term, those of you in the lower classes will be expected to bend over and smile whenever the head boy, David Cameron, attempts to steal your lunch money.
Otherwise, Boris Johnson, and other solid chaps from the Bullyingboydom Club, will drag you in front of the House of Lords and give you such a wedgying that no amount of compensation will ever bring back those precious family jewels.
(New pupils should speak to miners from previous years)
A good speech. Tempted to now vote Conservative.
Difficult to see the Tories as the people to mend a broken society – it was them who broke it! And I think the new Gove education policy will worry many people.
Difficult for you, Terry. Not for me (or an increasing number of people if the polls are to be believed).
And you should ask yourself why, if the problem was solvable by centralised planning and redistributed, things have been getting worse over the last ten years rather than better.
I would be interested to know which people you think the Gove proposals will worry. If it is centralist busy-bodies in LEAs then they may well be concerned to see their powers eroded. But it will be the children and the parents that benefit.
Anyway, Cameron’s speech did it for me, but then what would you expect 🙂
Passing Tory: Surely it will worry those who fear they will not be able to get their kids into one of Gove’s top 400 schools? Me included, as a dad of two toddlers! I, like you, have issues with excessive prescription and central planning, but there are far better school buildings, and maths and english results now than under Thatcher/Major.
so what actually is the plan?
A great speech from a thoroughly decent man who is going to be the next Prime Minister.
Terry, better school buildings maybe, for they are a problem that can be solved by throwing money at it (as this government is rather prone to doing) but better results?! Only if you believe the hype and look beyond the falling standards in the way exams are marked (see Cameron’s comment re use of a 4-letter word to give a slightly outlandish example). I should know, for I got an A* in my maths GCSE and how that happened I shall never comprehend!
Terry. I am not quite with you. Are you saying that the current situation is so bad that 400 new schools isn’t enough, or that there isn’t a problem so these new school’s aren’t necessary.
If you are familiar with Gove’s plans you would also appreciate that the aim is to introduce these new schools in such a way as to leverage the improvement across whole areas. I realise that leverage has had bad press over the past few weeks, but that doesn’t mean it is always a bad thing.
We have more than enough knowledge, talent and desire to educate our youngsters in this country really well. The travesty is that the current education system simply fails to do this.
Are you telling me that it you were in an area with no good primary schools, you would not appreciate the opportunity to set one up and do it properly? Why doom thousands and thousands of children to an inadequate education just because it suits a centralised educational establishment indoctrinated by some 40-year-old theories of social engineering?
“The people to mend a broken society”
‘There’s no such thing a society’ remember
Interesting that he spent the first part of his speech speaking about the armed forces. Struck me as a little odd. Also interesting that he chose to concentrate on “big situations and big decisions that can crop up on your watch” – trying to portray the Tories as the safe pair of hands.
Cam says: “Just think about it: if we listened to this argument about experience, we’d never change a government, ever.”
So he’ll be supporting a change to the Tory Government in 5, 10, 15 years will he?
Oh, he’d like to make tax cuts to income tax, but worries that he can’t. He will make cuts to corporation tax, however.
I still don’t see why “cherishing marriage” means giving tax breaks . . .
oh, then some guff about being a father.
If Cameron had a shadow chancellor with the savvy of Vince Cable,then I would have taken the Tory party seriously.
Tory boy George Osborne and mr.showman
Dave Cameron is too much of a toxic mix
as an alternative to GordonBrown and
Darling in any crisis.Cameron believes
in Thatcherism and modernism Iam at a lost
Bye bye Laurence! Seriously, I didn’t hear the speech, but David Cameron could not have said anything to make me change my mind about the Tories: they are, always have been, and always will be an organised conspiracy by the ruling class to retain their wealth, power and privileges. Of course, they will do whatever they think it takes to retain (or occasionally recapture) that power, whether it be shadowy plots to undermine the Wilson government in the early 70’s, ‘dog whistle’ politics at the 2005 general election (remind me who was responsible for the manifesto again?), or painting themselves a delicate shade of green and pretending to be in favour of more City regulation at the moment. I’m sure David Cameron is a really nice man and a good father, just as Tony Blair was, but he’s a Tory for goodness sake, and he will do what Tories always do which is to make sure that their upper and middle class supporters get the cake and everyone else gets the crumbs, if they’re lucky. I’ll say it again: I hope that a Liberal Democrat government would have spent money on the public services more effectively than New Labour, but anyone who argues that there has been no improvement in the health and education services in the last 11 years doesn’t remember the way that 18 years of Conservative government brought many public services to their knees. And the 18 years started with that emollient speech in Downing Street: “Where there is…” – it still makes me want to puke today.
Passing Tory: Gove’s plans will turn out to be nothing but a smokescreen to legitimise a greater share of resources for the ‘best’ schools (Read: Those which are in upper and middle class areas, and thus have a huge head start in attracting the best teachers and pupils); the idea that the Tories plan to ‘leverage’ any significant benefits for all is simply laughable, and goes against all my experience of Tories over 25 years in active politics. The Lib Dem pupil premium is a far better and more equitable solution.
Mr Blore: I suspect from your comments that you are too young to remember the chaos created by the last Tory govt? Well done on your GCSE Maths – but how on earth can you tell that it was easier than mine 28 years ago? All the evidence suggests it was not. Don’t do yourself down for the Tories – they aren’t worth it!
“They are, always have been, and always will be an organised conspiracy by the ruling class to retain their wealth, power and privileges.”
You remind be a bit of a lady on the latest Panorama programme who charged Cameron to his face with having a number of millionaires in his shadow cabinet. It was a devastating criticism to which Cameron had no real answer . . .
What I want to know is who supplied the shadow cabinet behind Cameron with wasps to chew? It could be the only way they could keep up their faux seriousness throughout his oratory. Osborne and Hague were particularly strained throughout…
Was I the only one who heard “I’m a man with a plan” and thought “got a counterfeit dollar in his hand”?
Strangely passionless and platitudinous speech from Cameron, he was obviously trying to say as little as possible for as long as possible.
Even the bits which made sense looked like a complete reversal of party policy. He is clearly a leader at odds with his party membership and these tensions must be behind recent falls in membership.
I’m not sure this speech was the one the public wanted to hear from a prospective PM so I think it is a missed opportunity which will hurt their chances.
Cameron really needs to work on his voice because when he tries to be sincere he sounds weak and when he tries to be serious he sounds insincere. The best moments (I counted two) were when he let down his guard and showed his human snobbish side as this rang more obviously true and struck a previously untouched chord with the audience.
All in all his performance left a lot to be desired.
Cameron did not even mention Iraq. And, come to think of it, barely mentioned Europe. Perhaps this is how he claims the party is united – just pretend all the areas of disagreement don’t exist.
Terry, you clearly haven’t read Gove’s proposals at all. The pupil premium you seem to want is a Tory policy, and so far from concentrating resources on middle class areas it should do the precise opposite. I don’t particularly have a problem with you basing your arguments on prejudice alone – each to their own and all that – but don’t expect me to take you seriously when you do so.
As for your dissing of Mr Clore – are you claiming that there has been no change in basic numeracy in the last 25 years? Do you live in the UK? Have you actually read any studies in this area? I am perfectly willing to debate this one if you want, but I assure you that you are on extremely shaky ground there.
Of course, we could look at _why_ there is a drop in basic numeracy, and that is quite interesting (well, to nerds like me anyway). But pretending that it hasn’t happened is just plain silly.
I thought he landed it big time. He shot, or at least badly wounded the inxperience/shallow salesman charge. He looked Sober and Prime Ministerial. He has clearly grasped the importance of “change” in world political narratives at the moment. If he runs on change and Labour on experience then Labour will be crushed.
A complete lack of plicy detail of course but sadly you can get a long way in Poliics with a lack of policy detail.
With regard to the party my thoughts were.
1. he told the truth about Taxes. I just don’t see how us promising net tax cuts in a recesion while the tories saying they are unaffordable is going to play out. I realy don’t.
2. Clegg pent half his speech attackig cameron and cameron just completely ignored the LD’s. I think that tells you what the private polling and Focus groups is telling both HQ’s.
I’m now fairly sure the central part of the post Election post mortum will be recognising that we didn’t take the rebirth of the Conservative party seriously enough, early enough and failed to develop a coherent way of inserting our selves in to the change/death of Labour narritive early enough.
Now the Tories have there beach towels all over those sun loungers.