David Cameron skips conference announcements to boast about Tory record

Normally when a Prime Minister gives a speech to a party conference, the ‘line’ for the next day’s newspapers is pretty clear. A policy announcement means it’s easy to write the introduction to the story, which is supposed to sum up what happened in under 25 words. But David Cameron’s speech today could only really be summed up as ‘Today the Prime Minister gave a speech on all the things he’s done and asked for time to finish the job’. His speech had no policy announcements in it, other than a hint that under-25s could lose their benefits unless they were ‘earning or learning’.

This is an impressive bet by the Conservatives: that the speech will still get written up by the press with a list of achievements in it rather than trying to tempt voters with a new policy. That under-25s benefits policy isn’t new by any means. And they haven’t gone for any gimmick-style policies.