Wednesday, February 25, 2015
By James Forsyth for The Mail on Sunday
Published: 00:17 GMT, 28 September 2014 | Updated: 07:33 GMT, 28 September 2014
The stage was set for David Cameron to make his pitch to the electorate.
Ed Miliband had had a poor party conference, forgetting the deficit and immigration in his speech. The Prime Minister had his chance to show voters how the country would be better off under him.
Then, one of his MPs rabbit-punched him.
Scroll down for video
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MP Mark Reckless (left) defected from the Conservatives to Ukip yesterday on the eve of the Tory conference
Mark Reckless’s decision to defect to Ukip on the eve of the Tory conference was an act of malice.
Nigel Farage sat grinningly as his new recruit tore into the party. But the person with the biggest reason to smile was Ed Miliband. For Reckless’s defection, and split on the Right, may deliver him the keys to No 10.
Yesterday afternoon, when you talked to Tory Ministers, they sounded like they’d just been hit in the stomach. But the challenge at this conference remains the same as it was before Reckless’s defection. They, as one Downing Street source acknowledges, have to turn their long-term economic plan into ‘a plan for you’.
Their aim, argues one senior Tory, is to show ‘the future benefits for hard-working taxpayers’ of sticking with them and their long-term economic plan.
You are going to be hearing a lot about ‘hard-working taxpayers’: words, a Cabinet Minister says, that are designed to stoke people’s worries they’ll pay more under Labour and remind them the Tories are the tax-cutting party.
Miliband might have had a difficult conference last week, but even Tory Cabinet Ministers concede he could well be in No 10 in just eight months’ time.
For this reason, the Tories know this is the most important conference speech Cameron has given since the one in 2005 that propelled him to the Tory leadership.
Cameron’s speech-writing team gathered at Chequers last Sunday to finish a speech they’d started work on before the summer break.
Steve Hilton, who had flown back from California to help his old friend out, was urging it should take a personal tone. By Monday, work still wasn’t finished. So what was the problem?
One Downing Street source explains what’s tripping up the writers is that ‘the party want us to go ideological but the voters don’t’. This source argues that the Tories’ research shows, ‘People aren’t supporting us because they’ve become committed Tories but because they want efficient and effective government.’
For this reason, the main themes will be the economy and leadership. But, as one senior party figure admits, the Tories also have to ‘reassure core voters who might be tempted by other parties’. In other words, they have to neutralise Ukip – a task made all the more pressing by Reckless’s defection.
Their chief weapon for doing this will be English votes for English laws. One Secretary of State boasts the issue ‘gives us a powerful lever to engage with those who’ve left us for Ukip’.
If the Tories leave Birmingham united and give the public a clear sense of what they’d do if they win next May, then it will be mission accomplished for Cameron. But if they fail on either of these fronts, it won’t matter what Miliband forgets; he’ll still be heading for No 10.
The Queen wasn’t the only female leader David Cameron risked offending with his indiscreet chat last week.
When Tory MPs gathered at Chequers to discuss English votes for English laws on Monday, Cameron regaled them over lunch with the tale of how he and Angela Merkel had once gone walking nearby.
The pair managed to get a bit lost, meaning that they had to scramble over a barbed wire fence to get back to the house.
This, Cameron joked, meant he was the first Englishman in recent history to have helped a German over barbed wire. Will Chancellor Merkel see the funny side?
When Ed Miliband walked off stage on Tuesday, he didn’t need reminding that he had left out the two most important issues in British politics: the deficit and immigration.
Even Miliband’s staunchest defenders admit the speech and his slip ‘wasn’t good enough’.
I’m told he was distracted by the recall of Parliament just before the speech and had to skip a final run-through. Indeed, he had only five rehearsals, fewer than when he previously tried his no-notes trick.
The excuse will cut little ice, not least because Miliband’s real error was deciding to persist with the technique when it would have been far more sensible to use a lectern.
Ed Miliband forgot to mention the deficit and immigration during his keynote speech at the Labour Party conference in Manchester last week
When I asked a member of his entourage why he did not, he rolled his eyes in exasperation. Others say his habit of learning a speech by heart makes it too like a script, and too hard to adapt to changing circumstances.
Miliband’s confidants say that despite his gaffe, Labour made progress at the conference. They say their polling shows that while they have a lead over the Tories as the party of the many not the few, they needed to also show that they have ambitions for the future.
They think the ten-year plan they set out in Manchester is a robust response to the Tories’ long-term economic objectives.
But in private, many MPs worry that conference showed how the party’s operation will struggle under the scrutiny of an election.
Certainly, the Tories won’t let Miliband forget his error. Delegates in Birmingham will be greeted by a Miliband-themed pub, with posters saying: ‘Drink up, and don’t mention the deficit.’
‘The definition of relief, if you’re the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is ringing up the Queen and saying, “It’s all right, it’s OK.” That’s relief. She purred down the line.’
David Cameron breaches Royal protocol by telling former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg how the Queen reacted to the Scottish independence vote.
‘They need to be eradicated. They can’t continue – they can’t be doing this to people and get away with it.’
Marianne Faithfull criticised scantily clad pop stars
Bethany Haines, daughter of murdered aid worker David Haines, backs British military action against Islamic State.
‘Can you run for a mile non-stop, lift weights? Are you agile? These are more valid questions than, “Can I fit into these size zero jeans?”’
TV presenter Clare Balding urges young girls to take sport more seriously.
‘I think they’re all rubbishy sluts. They want to be in the music business but they are prepared to make fools of themselves.’
Marianne Faithfull hits out at today’s raunchily dressed pop stars
‘He’s not very good, is he?’
Ex-Labour Chancellor Lord Healey isn’t impressed by Ed Miliband after the Labour leader forgets parts of his keynote conference speech.
‘They’re the brainiest people I know.’
England manager Roy Hodgson reckons the public would be surprised by the intelligence of his players.
‘They’re the things that put postmen out of work.’
Veteran MP Dennis Skinner reveals why he refuses to send emails.
‘Rob felt a boom and then suddenly he was bust.’
Friend of journalist Rob Merrick, who needed four stitches after tangling with Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls during a charity football match.
‘I keep making the mistake of calling him Chumbawamba.’
John Prescott confuses the name of Labour’s rising star Chuka Umunna with a 1980s pop group.
‘I would have had a whole football team if I could have done.’
Natasha Kaplinski admits that she wishes she hadn’t left motherhood until her late 30s.
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Published: 00:17 GMT, 28 September 2014 | Updated: 07:33 GMT, 28 September 2014
The stage was set for David Cameron to make his pitch to the electorate.
Ed Miliband had had a poor party conference, forgetting the deficit and immigration in his speech. The Prime Minister had his chance to show voters how the country would be better off under him.
Then, one of his MPs rabbit-punched him.
Scroll down for video
Mark Reckless’s decision to defect to Ukip on the eve of the Tory conference was an act of malice.
Nigel Farage sat grinningly as his new recruit tore into the party. But the person with the biggest reason to smile was Ed Miliband. For Reckless’s defection, and split on the Right, may deliver him the keys to No 10.
Yesterday afternoon, when you talked to Tory Ministers, they sounded like they’d just been hit in the stomach. But the challenge at this conference remains the same as it was before Reckless’s defection. They, as one Downing Street source acknowledges, have to turn their long-term economic plan into ‘a plan for you’.
Their aim, argues one senior Tory, is to show ‘the future benefits for hard-working taxpayers’ of sticking with them and their long-term economic plan.
You are going to be hearing a lot about ‘hard-working taxpayers’: words, a Cabinet Minister says, that are designed to stoke people’s worries they’ll pay more under Labour and remind them the Tories are the tax-cutting party.
Miliband might have had a difficult conference last week, but even Tory Cabinet Ministers concede he could well be in No 10 in just eight months’ time.
For this reason, the Tories know this is the most important conference speech Cameron has given since the one in 2005 that propelled him to the Tory leadership.
Cameron’s speech-writing team gathered at Chequers last Sunday to finish a speech they’d started work on before the summer break.
Steve Hilton, who had flown back from California to help his old friend out, was urging it should take a personal tone. By Monday, work still wasn’t finished. So what was the problem?
One Downing Street source explains what’s tripping up the writers is that ‘the party want us to go ideological but the voters don’t’. This source argues that the Tories’ research shows, ‘People aren’t supporting us because they’ve become committed Tories but because they want efficient and effective government.’
For this reason, the main themes will be the economy and leadership. But, as one senior party figure admits, the Tories also have to ‘reassure core voters who might be tempted by other parties’. In other words, they have to neutralise Ukip – a task made all the more pressing by Reckless’s defection.
Their chief weapon for doing this will be English votes for English laws. One Secretary of State boasts the issue ‘gives us a powerful lever to engage with those who’ve left us for Ukip’.
If the Tories leave Birmingham united and give the public a clear sense of what they’d do if they win next May, then it will be mission accomplished for Cameron. But if they fail on either of these fronts, it won’t matter what Miliband forgets; he’ll still be heading for No 10.
The Queen wasn’t the only female leader David Cameron risked offending with his indiscreet chat last week.
When Tory MPs gathered at Chequers to discuss English votes for English laws on Monday, Cameron regaled them over lunch with the tale of how he and Angela Merkel had once gone walking nearby.
The pair managed to get a bit lost, meaning that they had to scramble over a barbed wire fence to get back to the house.
This, Cameron joked, meant he was the first Englishman in recent history to have helped a German over barbed wire. Will Chancellor Merkel see the funny side?
When Ed Miliband walked off stage on Tuesday, he didn’t need reminding that he had left out the two most important issues in British politics: the deficit and immigration.
Even Miliband’s staunchest defenders admit the speech and his slip ‘wasn’t good enough’.
I’m told he was distracted by the recall of Parliament just before the speech and had to skip a final run-through. Indeed, he had only five rehearsals, fewer than when he previously tried his no-notes trick.
The excuse will cut little ice, not least because Miliband’s real error was deciding to persist with the technique when it would have been far more sensible to use a lectern.
When I asked a member of his entourage why he did not, he rolled his eyes in exasperation. Others say his habit of learning a speech by heart makes it too like a script, and too hard to adapt to changing circumstances.
Miliband’s confidants say that despite his gaffe, Labour made progress at the conference. They say their polling shows that while they have a lead over the Tories as the party of the many not the few, they needed to also show that they have ambitions for the future.
They think the ten-year plan they set out in Manchester is a robust response to the Tories’ long-term economic objectives.
But in private, many MPs worry that conference showed how the party’s operation will struggle under the scrutiny of an election.
Certainly, the Tories won’t let Miliband forget his error. Delegates in Birmingham will be greeted by a Miliband-themed pub, with posters saying: ‘Drink up, and don’t mention the deficit.’
‘The definition of relief, if you’re the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is ringing up the Queen and saying, “It’s all right, it’s OK.” That’s relief. She purred down the line.’
David Cameron breaches Royal protocol by telling former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg how the Queen reacted to the Scottish independence vote.
‘They need to be eradicated. They can’t continue – they can’t be doing this to people and get away with it.’
Marianne Faithfull criticised scantily clad pop stars Bethany Haines, daughter of murdered aid worker David Haines, backs British military action against Islamic State.
‘Can you run for a mile non-stop, lift weights? Are you agile? These are more valid questions than, “Can I fit into these size zero jeans?”’
TV presenter Clare Balding urges young girls to take sport more seriously.
‘I think they’re all rubbishy sluts. They want to be in the music business but they are prepared to make fools of themselves.’
Marianne Faithfull hits out at today’s raunchily dressed pop stars
‘He’s not very good, is he?’
Ex-Labour Chancellor Lord Healey isn’t impressed by Ed Miliband after the Labour leader forgets parts of his keynote conference speech.
‘They’re the brainiest people I know.’
England manager Roy Hodgson reckons the public would be surprised by the intelligence of his players.
‘They’re the things that put postmen out of work.’
Veteran MP Dennis Skinner reveals why he refuses to send emails.
‘Rob felt a boom and then suddenly he was bust.’
Friend of journalist Rob Merrick, who needed four stitches after tangling with Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls during a charity football match.
‘I keep making the mistake of calling him Chumbawamba.’
John Prescott confuses the name of Labour’s rising star Chuka Umunna with a 1980s pop group.
‘I would have had a whole football team if I could have done.’
Natasha Kaplinski admits that she wishes she hadn’t left motherhood until her late 30s.
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