Man with a Message

I caught most of David Cameron's speech yesterday to the Tory Party conference; he looked and sounded like an man with a message, a man with a plan and a Prime Minister with a programme for government.

So whether people identified with his politics or not, the PM had worked out what he wanted to say and said it to great effect, by appealing to supporters inside the conference hall and also by speaking to the country at large.

Compared to Ed Miliband's disastrous performance at the recent Labour gathering in Manchester, David Cameron's speech was a tour de force containing, as it did, real content, passion, humour and the odd personal touch. 

Now the big message of the speech was on tax cuts in the next Westminster Parliament, aimed mainly at the so-called 'squeezed middle' but which also had good news for lower income earners as well.

David Cameron pledged to raise the threshold at which the 40p tax rate kicks in from £41,900 to £50,000 in the next Parliament and the personal allowance or starting point at which people begging to pay tax on earnings from £10,500 to £12,500 in another big move that would benefit 30 million taxpayers, apparently.

So the gauntlet has been thrown down and the Conservatives will frame the debate for the May 2015 election as a clear choice: "Do you want David Cameron or Ed Miliband running the country?" 

Now I happen to think there's been far too much talk about the 'squeezed middle' in recent years and that people in good jobs who have mortgages have done pretty of late, because of the artificially low interest rates the country has enjoyed since 2008.     

So while this group have seen their living costs fall considerably, as mortgage costs fell in 2008 and stayed flat, those on fixed incomes enjoyed no such windfall and others who pay their housing costs in rent saw their cost of living continue to rise.

The bad news for Labour in all of this is that Ed Miliband has been preoccupied with the 'squeezed middle' ever since Ed became Labour leader in 2010 and it is now well nigh impossible for him to change tack in the seven short months before the general election. 
   
So I will be surprised if David Cameron does not receive a bounce in the next set of opinion polls and I suspect he will keep banging on about the squeezed middle, for all he's worth, between now and 7 May 2015.