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| The Guardian view on Theresa May’s speech: the Tories’ faltering voice | The Guardian view on Theresa May’s speech: the Tories’ faltering voice |
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| Wed 4 Oct 2017 18.57 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 15.57 GMT | |
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| Down the years, two criticisms have regularly been made about the attention lavished on party leaders’ conference speeches. The first is that the political world attaches too much significance to them, drawing excessively weighty conclusions from speeches that are, in fact, quickly forgotten. The second is that the instant reaction to a speech is frequently overturned in the days that follow, so that a speech initially hailed as a success becomes seen as a failure, or vice versa. | Down the years, two criticisms have regularly been made about the attention lavished on party leaders’ conference speeches. The first is that the political world attaches too much significance to them, drawing excessively weighty conclusions from speeches that are, in fact, quickly forgotten. The second is that the instant reaction to a speech is frequently overturned in the days that follow, so that a speech initially hailed as a success becomes seen as a failure, or vice versa. |
| All of this may turn out to be just as true of Theresa May’s 2017 conference speech in Manchester on Wednesday. But the similarities end there. For this was the most unusual leader’s speech delivered to a Conservative conference since Margaret Thatcher’s after the Brighton bomb in 1984. Mrs May’s will be recalled long after most are forgotten – but for the occasion’s extraordinary theatrics and ephemera rather than for its content. | All of this may turn out to be just as true of Theresa May’s 2017 conference speech in Manchester on Wednesday. But the similarities end there. For this was the most unusual leader’s speech delivered to a Conservative conference since Margaret Thatcher’s after the Brighton bomb in 1984. Mrs May’s will be recalled long after most are forgotten – but for the occasion’s extraordinary theatrics and ephemera rather than for its content. |
| A prankster getting up to the stage to present a P45 to the Tory leader on live television was astounding enough – and a very serious security failing. The prime minister handled that shock with aplomb, but her ensuing coughing fits and losses of voice, surely triggered by the interruption, threatened to make the speech almost impossible to watch or listen to – it was an excruciating public agony. And if all that was not enough, letters then started to fall off the conference platform slogan. | A prankster getting up to the stage to present a P45 to the Tory leader on live television was astounding enough – and a very serious security failing. The prime minister handled that shock with aplomb, but her ensuing coughing fits and losses of voice, surely triggered by the interruption, threatened to make the speech almost impossible to watch or listen to – it was an excruciating public agony. And if all that was not enough, letters then started to fall off the conference platform slogan. |
| The metaphorical potential was lethally obvious. Mrs May came to Manchester as the most politically vulnerable prime minister of modern times. The conference has often felt more like a trauma ward than the gathering of a party that won a general election less than four months ago. Fear of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour and the absence of agreement on a successor prevented it from descending into the chaos that some predicted. Mrs May still had a huge amount to prove when she walked to the rostrum. | The metaphorical potential was lethally obvious. Mrs May came to Manchester as the most politically vulnerable prime minister of modern times. The conference has often felt more like a trauma ward than the gathering of a party that won a general election less than four months ago. Fear of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour and the absence of agreement on a successor prevented it from descending into the chaos that some predicted. Mrs May still had a huge amount to prove when she walked to the rostrum. |
| It was, in fact, quite a good speech; an interesting one with some significant content. But that was lost amid the disruptions that overshadowed it, especially for those in the hall. It is almost inevitable that the distractions will unfairly damage Mrs May, reinforcing her vulnerability and her image as an accident-prone loser. To be on all the bulletins and front pages accepting a P45 presents the public with an irresistible image and party managers with a nightmare. | It was, in fact, quite a good speech; an interesting one with some significant content. But that was lost amid the disruptions that overshadowed it, especially for those in the hall. It is almost inevitable that the distractions will unfairly damage Mrs May, reinforcing her vulnerability and her image as an accident-prone loser. To be on all the bulletins and front pages accepting a P45 presents the public with an irresistible image and party managers with a nightmare. |
| Yet public opinion can surprise. It is possible that Mrs May will get a sympathy vote for battling on in such rotten circumstances. A line near the end of her speech about judging a leader by her response when things get tough was very warmly applauded. Reduced to a TV news report package, or even to a social media clip, the speech may present less pitifully than it did in the hall, where Mrs May must have been a hair’s breadth from abandoning the stage. A dose of adversity may have made her seem more human than her robotic image. | Yet public opinion can surprise. It is possible that Mrs May will get a sympathy vote for battling on in such rotten circumstances. A line near the end of her speech about judging a leader by her response when things get tough was very warmly applauded. Reduced to a TV news report package, or even to a social media clip, the speech may present less pitifully than it did in the hall, where Mrs May must have been a hair’s breadth from abandoning the stage. A dose of adversity may have made her seem more human than her robotic image. |
| Many modern politicians – including Michael Howard and Gordon Brown – have tried to summon up the idea of a “British dream” as Mrs May did. It will take a better orator and less star-crossed circumstances to get that idea to fly. But the speech was well-structured and optimistic. It attempted to fill out a bit more of the socially responsible Toryism that still makes Mrs May interesting and distinctive in spite of her failings and limitations. Even if she cannot now turn these ideas into practice, it remains the only viable course for a broad party of the centre-right to follow, here as elsewhere in Europe. | Many modern politicians – including Michael Howard and Gordon Brown – have tried to summon up the idea of a “British dream” as Mrs May did. It will take a better orator and less star-crossed circumstances to get that idea to fly. But the speech was well-structured and optimistic. It attempted to fill out a bit more of the socially responsible Toryism that still makes Mrs May interesting and distinctive in spite of her failings and limitations. Even if she cannot now turn these ideas into practice, it remains the only viable course for a broad party of the centre-right to follow, here as elsewhere in Europe. |
| Once again, though, the policy shifts, while significant and welcome as far as they go, failed to live up to the way they had been prebriefed. The re-embrace of council housing is historic, for example, but the number of houses to be built in the current programme remains far too small. The decision to impose a cap on energy bills – another tribute to the ideas of Ed Miliband – would be much more impressive if the new legislation promised actually happens; officials cast some doubt on this after the speech. Capping tuition fees is a modest stopgap measure on a policy issue that haunts the government. | Once again, though, the policy shifts, while significant and welcome as far as they go, failed to live up to the way they had been prebriefed. The re-embrace of council housing is historic, for example, but the number of houses to be built in the current programme remains far too small. The decision to impose a cap on energy bills – another tribute to the ideas of Ed Miliband – would be much more impressive if the new legislation promised actually happens; officials cast some doubt on this after the speech. Capping tuition fees is a modest stopgap measure on a policy issue that haunts the government. |
| Mrs May’s speech had one undoubted achievement: it managed to get the Tory party to think about something other than Brexit, on which she said little. Unfortunately for her, the effort to associate her party with social reform and a compassionate agenda was stillborn. Instead, amid security scares, coughing fits and a backdrop malfunction, the party left Manchester still looking for the new start that eluded Mrs May yet again. | Mrs May’s speech had one undoubted achievement: it managed to get the Tory party to think about something other than Brexit, on which she said little. Unfortunately for her, the effort to associate her party with social reform and a compassionate agenda was stillborn. Instead, amid security scares, coughing fits and a backdrop malfunction, the party left Manchester still looking for the new start that eluded Mrs May yet again. |
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