Cameron's speech

I drove back to Rugby yesterday evening. If we’re going to be fighting an election this time next week, there are still preparations to be made and I’ve taken the view that my time is better spent here.

I’ve just watched David Cameron’s conference speech in my office on the BBC website which wasn’t as good as being there but enabled me to take some notes as he spoke. I liked the tributes to his colleagues – it’s important to show the breadth of thinking in our party; the attacks on Gordon Brown and Labour hit home and I enjoyed his remark that “we’ve got to be better than that”. A large chunk was about education and how we need to raise standards & give head teachers proper control. I too met someone on a doorstep recently who told me how much better off she and her partner were when they lived apart. On each issue he set out how we will do things differently; it not enough just to oppose and blame Labour, we need to show how we will solve the problems Britain faces. Good understanding and support for our troops in Afghanistan contrasts with Brown’s opportunism yesterday. I liked the support for families. He brought the speech to a strong conclusion which obviously received huge support in the hall.

As a candidate in a marginal seat approaching an election, I was encouraged by what I saw and heard and I am sure that those people in the country who just saw and heard Cameron will be too. Most people, however, will react to the accounts given by the media and the edited versions on tv. It will be very interesting to see the comentators take on the speech. This will lead to opinion polls at the weekend and it will be the polls that will steer Brown as to whether he calls an election or not. For my part I’m ready and confident & very happy about the prospect of starting my election campaign next week.