Cameron on Wednesday delivered his best party conference speech as prime minister, the best indeed of his ten as party leader. And the most important indeed since his party conference speech he gave in 2005 before he became party leader, the one he delivered without notes. This week we heard authentic Cameron, at last speaking his own mind, giving the powerful personal oration that many of us have yearned for over the years. This was vintage Cameron at his best, Cameron unbound indeed.
Most Prime Ministers are so strangled by circumstances and by powerful individuals hemming them in that they are unable ever to find their full voice in Downing Street. John Major did only in his final months, and Blair in his final years, hence the title of the second volume of my study of his premiership, Blair Unbound. Cameron’s previous strongest performances came at the party conference in 2012, where he regained the initiative after months of battering exacerbated by George Osborne’s Omnishambles budget and at 2014 where he gave a tub-thumping speech, heavily influenced by the Lynton Crosby straitjacket of what needed to be said to win the 2015 election.
Read our panel's reaction to the speech
But On Wednesday came the voice of Cameron that we had not heard since 2005-07, before the financial crisis. He spoke about racial equality, social cohesion, gay rights, prison reform, human dignity and homes for all. Critics interpreted it as a shift to the centre ground, to neuter Tim Farron’s Lib Dems and win over Labour voters disillusioned by Jeremy Corbyn. It was indeed partly that: but much more, it was Cameron talking from his heart. To quote Gerard Manley Hopkins, "what I do is me: for this I came." For these values to articulate, Cameron came to Downing Street.
Four powerful men have dominated Cameron’s ten years in politics. Questions were asked about how he might cope freed from the first three of them. They were Andy Coulson, his head of communications until 2011, Steve Hilton, his policy chief until 2013, and Lynton Crosby, his electoral strategist until May 2015. All made their mark on him, but not on the conference speech. The fourth figure is George Osborne, and it was telling how little Osborne’s own agenda on the economy, spending and regeneration touched on Cameron’s speech, core ally though Osborne will remain until Cameron leaves Downing Street. No political relationship indeed at the top since Lloyd George and Asquith one hundred years ago has been as important as that of Cameron and Osborne.
The speech revealed how much Cameron has learnt as prime minister, the youngest incumbent to Downing Street in 198 years. It is easy to forget how raw he was five years ago, and without the elder statesmen to guide him that even Thatcher had after 1979. Some prime ministers learn little at Number 10, or like Blair, learn late in the day how to do the job: Cameron in contrast has been a quick learner.
Ever since Cameron made his alleged gaffe during the general election campaign in letting slip that he would not fight another election, the dominant narrative has been that this has emasculated him, because all the energy and in interest has passed from him to the identity and policies of his successor. This narrative has always struck me as implausible – to begin with, the announcement was more considered than clumsy. But it has also freed him up from speculation and pressures which would otherwise have borne down on him. He may even free himself of the "lame duck" period that American presidents customarily enter towards the end of their second terms.
The speech was notably light on the three issues that will come to define judgements on Cameron’s premiership overall. These are the economy, Europe and Scotland. This would have been a calculated decision. The economy is being left much to Osborne, the European negotiations to Osborne and others, but Scotland is very much his baby. He will want to leave Downing Street ensuring that many more Scots feel proud of their Britishness than Blair managed to achieve, and with the Scottish question truly settled for more than a generation.
Blair became unbound too late to enact much of what he sought to achieve, and was fatally wounded in the process by the legacy of Iraq. Cameron has no such angry sore afflicting him, and has yet the time to make substantial progress on ensuring that the 2010s are a socially more inclusive, Cameron decade. Wednesday’s speech will go down as possibly the speech of his premiership.
