Analysis: Policy versus personality
Gordon Brown did not mention David Cameron by name once during his speech
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By Matthew Champion. |  |
Tuesday, 29, Sep 2009 06:25
Gordon Brown has challenged David Cameron on the only territory he has a hope of winning on: policy.
By Matthew West.
At the very start of his speech the prime minister went off script for several minutes reminding conference delegates of Labour's achievements to greater and greater applause and cheers from the floor. This was the rousing almost all of the delegates needed if they were ever to summon the energy to go back out into the country and fight an election. He even managed a joke about Alistair Darling and his own relationship with the press: "I would say Alistair Darling is the best chancellor we have ever had but then the press would probably say 'Brown snubs Brown'".
But there was no mention of the televised debate that had been much rumoured in the press the day before. Instead the prime minister challenged his opponents both within his own party and in the Conservative party to take him on over his plans for the country.
One of the more enduring criticisms of the current government is that it is exhausted, bereft of ideas, unable to meet the challenges of running the country.
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Yet there were a whole raft of policy proposals in this conference speech, some new, some not so new and some forced on the government by circumstance.
There was an acknowledgment by the prime minister that he had all but lost the fight over compulsory ID cards and that they weren't a vote winner.
There was an acknowledgment also that the public don't like the government holding too much information on them so new biometric passports would contain no more information than their predecessors.
There was an acknowledgment that the voting system needed to be reformed and that voters wanted to be able to remove bad and corrupt MPs. But it appears Gordon Brown has realised that there needs to be a genuine debate over the issue of electoral reform at least and so the planned referendum will not take place on the same day as the general election.
Meanwhile, there were attempts to regain ground from the Conservatives over antisocial behaviour, the plight of the elderly and teenage pregnancies.
Proposals included restoring the link between earnings and the basic state pension, tougher rules on binge drinkers, the extension of family intervention units for the "most chaotic families" in Britain and supervised shared housing units for teenage mothers designed to help them cope with parenthood. This was taking on David Cameron on his own turf, an area he has occupied for the last two years after his Broken Britain speech. But the prime minister went even further promising a new National Care Service and proposals designed to help in the fight against cancer by offering screening GP surgeries.
Brown hinted at a Labour legacy when he talked of the dreams of former leaders John Smith, Neil Kinnock and former prime minister Tony Blair over issues like the minimum wage.
He also attempted to draw a clear line between a Labour party that made the right decisions over the economic crisis and a Conservative party that had made "the wrong decisions over Northern Rock, jobs and spending, mortgage support and working with Europe". Again and again he attacked the Tories over policy.
"The Conservative party might think the test of a party is the quality of its marketing but I say the test for a government is the quality of its judgment," he said.
"And I say a party that makes the wrong choice on the most critical decision it would have faced in government should not be given the chance to be in government."
This speech was so focused on policy and proposals that there was no single mention of David Cameron as if by ignoring the issue of personality and David Cameron in particular Gordon Brown could negate its importance. Brown instead tried to paint himself as almost singled handed taking on the entire Conservative party.
He even challenged the electorate telling them that "the election to come will not be about my future - it's about your future. Your job. Your home. Your children's school. Your hospital. Your community. Your country".
He told voters to ask themselves if the Conservatives were offering change, was it change that would benefit their family or just a privileged few?
"Listen to what they say but more importantly demand to know what they would do," he said.
The entire speech was geared towards Labour being judged on what it had done versus what the Conservatives say they would do. Brown was asking to be judged on his record to date but also asking for a new distinct relationship with the British public. The question is whether the public want a relationship with him anymore?