Those Tories coming to David Cameron’s first conference as party leader in search of detailed policies were always going to be disappointed. It is only ten months since Mr Cameron took the helm. Tony Blair’s first ten months as Labour leader were dominated by an internal party struggle over Clause 4. And one would have been hard pushed to gain a clear impression of what Britain would be like under Margaret Thatcher in her first ten months as Leader of the Opposition between February and November 1975 — a period during which she campaigned vigorously for a Yes vote in the EEC referendum.
What Mr Cameron’s critics had every right to expect in Bournemouth was a sharper sense of the Conservative party’s likely trajectory, of the mission he proposes to undertake on behalf of the nation. Here the Tory leader left many questions unanswered. But he also went a long way to explaining the philosophical basis of his politics — albeit in the demotic language that is now the staple of modern political rhetoric. He was right on Wednesday to insist that substance and policy are not the same thing.
As one would expect of a leader striving to save his party from a fourth successive election defeat, much of what he said in both his speeches was designed, in the jargon of political consultants, to ‘close down the negatives’ and ‘decontaminate the brand’. It is easy to sneer at this, but it is unquestionably a precondition of Conservative victory. According to a poll in last Monday’s Daily Telegraph, 42 per cent say that the Tories still cannot be trusted to run schools and hospitals. This explains Mr Cameron’s heavy emphasis upon the NHS in his second speech to the conference on Wednesday.
It is understandable that, at this stage of the political cycle, the Tory leader should seek above all else to reassure.
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