PM Forced To Alter Speech In Conference Speech Conference Address Embarrassment

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15189614

It was a very complacent display from the Prime Minister in his speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.

I found it quite galling to hear someone with a fortune of £30m telling the most vulnerable in our country that they should 'stand up and fight' in these difficult economic times.

It was no surprise that David Cameron was forced to change the wording of a paragraph in his speech which initially lectured the public on how they should tighten their belts.  A clear embarrassment to the Party illustrating just how out of touch Cameron, Clegg and all the other millionaires in the Cabinet are with the difficulties of ordinary people struggling to make ends meet.

But telling people to fight and that 'we are all in this together' is one thing.

This was a speech which Cameron insisted that their economic strategy of enormous reductions in public spending was right, even though these cuts are hitting the poorest people - the sick, the old, the unemployed and the disabled - the hardest.  And now that they are are really starting to bite, it is clear from all the opinion polls that the coalition's austerity measures are proving extremely unpopular with the public.

And of course much of the speech was devoted to how the Coalition was clearing up the mess that Labour had left behind.  All very predictable stuff designed to please the party-faithful but not at all directed at the public at large.

On a positive note, Cameron did re-affirm his support for gay marriage, which will have pleased those who have been attracted to a more tolerant, inclusive Conservative Party.

And he was right, in my view to point out how counter-productive it was of those who chose to boo Ed Miliband's praise of Tony Blair in his Conference speech. No matter how controversial Margaret Thatcher may have been or how unpopular she became towards the end of her Premiership, she was never booed by Party members at Conference. And neither was John Major in the dying years of the last Tory government, or Iain Duncan-Smith just before he was dumped by the Party.

However, this was a vacuous speech which, despite its 'can-do' message, gave the majority of British people not the slightest glimmer of hope that things will improve for them any time soon.