04/10/2013 00:00
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by RAY FLEMING
DAVID Camerson's speech to the Conservative Party yesterday was that of a man who feels he has at last got the majority of its members on his side and therefore can speak to them with confidence about the future -- even to the point of conceding that some tax rises might be necessary under a Tory government. It was a well-judged speech in relation to the global financial crisis which inevitably takes attention away from almost every other topic.

The most frequently used theme word in his speech was “responsibility” as the quality he thought most important in a leader and a party in power, and he insisted that he has the qualities of “leadership, character and judgement” to be prime minister. Mr Cameron dismissed the importance of “experience”, saying that “it is the argument used by the incumbent over the ages” and “what they say when they want to stop change”. It is easy to see why Mr Cameron is driven to coin phrases of that kind, given the total lack of ministerial experience in his team, but it is not a very profound observation. It is not the case, surely, that major corporations appoint people without experience to their top jobs. In one of the most interesting passages in his speech Mr Cameron said that “The problem with our country is not its leader - it's Labour” -a formulation that seems to take the burden off Gordon Brown's shoulders but also ignores the still substantial support which the party enjoys in the country.