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As the nation’s columnist in chief, Boris Johnson’s conference speech had one laser focus which could not have been more different from that of his Labour counterpart.
Last week in Brighton Keir Starmer made weighty arguments, set out a fledgling policy agenda and direction, and sought to make Labour a party that could be taken seriously again by the country.
By contrast today the prime minister wrote a speech he hoped would be enjoyed. His goal is to ensure he has permission to be heard, knowing that for decades Daily Telegraph readers turned up for the jokes, but came away from his column remembering a few key arguments.
He knows his audience, and hopes votes follow as a by-product of wit and a clear sense of shared identity.
No one line or section is designed to define him or bind him – instead today will be remembered as a hour-long, hazy, indefinable blur of optimism, jokes, daring promises and success stories. For the audience in the hall, policy announcements were the linking sections between the gags and the tributes.
It would be wrong to present the speech as all humour and little substance. His argument that Britain needs a pay rise at a time of certain labour shortages and rising prices will be the political argument of the autumn.
He is effectively arguing millions of workers should get something for nothing as a result of Brexit, but there are few loud voices yet who are pointing out that this risks a toxic combination of inflation and interest rate rises like that which caused Britain pain in the 1970s.
He also sought to thrill his audience with his audacious attack on his Tory predecessors for their “drift and dither” and lack of “guts”. It is a mark of the ideological flexibility of the entire Conservative project that there was no flinching at the trashing of the ambition of David…
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Source : skynews
