Not bad, not great - updated

Of what I heard of the speech I would say it wasn't a bad speech, but it wasn't a great speech. Things to do so I will comment further tomorrow.

Loving Guido's mischeivous graphic though.



Update: Ok, I said tomorrow but I have done the things I need to do. I've had a better look at the speech now, rather than the little bits I heard on the Radio, and, on the TV screen, whilst it remains not the greatest speech in the world it was bloody good.

Cameron appears to have hit all the right buttons for the party faithful, on crime; on tax; on the pernicious tax credits and their marginal rates on the poor; he got angry about Brown trying to make out the Tories were 'wicked' which was good too. There was a bit of a fudge on Europe but I guess the subject is a tightrope really.

I'm stil in two minds on the stuff about the loss of his and Samantha's son. I don't for a single minute doubt his sincerity, and having actually seen it now it looked like he struggled with real emotion doing it - as a father I can imagine how difficult it must have been - however, I wonder what cynicism there might be towards it.

All in all it was speech that summed up the conference as a whole. Not triumphant as such; a tone of seriousness about the business ahead; very much One Nation Toryism in the closing paragraphs as well. It will be interesting to see the papers tomorrow, and even more interesting to see the mindtrack results from Sky News, especially plotted against Brown's speech.