Cameron’s clarion call

The Conservative party conference was by a considerable measure the best I have attended.  I have blogged already about the excellence of Manchester as a venue, but excellent also was the party’s own organisation, design and choreography.  As Steve Richards puts it in this morning’s Independent:

Tonally their conference was pitch perfect, conveying a seriousness of purpose and without a hint of complacent triumphalism.

David Cameron’s speech was excellent: a clarion call not only to his party, but to his country, giving a vision of how life could be once the dead hand of Labour’s big state is finally wrenched away:

I won’t promise things I cannot deliver. But I can look you in the eye and tell you that in a Conservative Britain:

If you put in the effort to bring in a wage, you will be better off. If you save money your whole life, you’ll be rewarded. If you start your own business, we’ll be right behind you. If you want to raise a family, we’ll support you. If you’re frightened, we’ll protect you. If you risk your safety to stop a crime, we’ll stand by you. If you risk your life to fight for your country, we will honour you.

Ask me what a Conservative government stands for and the answer is this, we will reward those who take responsibility, and care for those who can’t.

Family, community, country: I, for one, can happily go into battle under that banner.