Originally posted @ 11:17 am, Wed 24th Sep 2008
Whilst waiting for stewards to maximise the numbers who could sit in the hall to hear the speech, a moving videos were shown on the progress made in the next 11 years and the next steps to come.
Then I made a quick video which I hope to post to Labour:Vision. The women members from Altrincham joined in by putting “Go 4th” stickers on my jacket whilst I was making a shirt speech.
Then Sarah Brown made an introduction and another video was shown (with the hall falling silent to hear every word that Barack Obama had to say).
In the run up to the Gordon Brown’s speech, the emphasis was not just on his need to perform well, but to have a compelling story. The media had their doubts.
The pressure was on and Gordon responded with the best ever speech I’ve seen him give.
It started with an acknowledgement that it must always be on the side of those with middle and modest incomes.
And then the serious of our financial situation following from the credit crunch and subsequent failure of some American financial institutions. The week that the financial world had turned on its axis.
The turbulence needed a new settlement. World finances must be – transparent, based on sound banking with better ways to price risk; there must be responsibility; Integrity with the removal of conflicts of interest; global standards and global supervision; and end to the dictatorship of oil; and action to mitigate climate change (including a new target for Britain of 80% reduction by 2050).
Some surprise than that later on, the BBC Politics Show said the speech did not cover economics. Even reporters from the regional newspapers (in a restaurant) were surprised to hear that contention when I told them.
Then a wide-ranging lists of announcements, from which I was pleased to hear of the investment in clean coal. The 3 members of Altrincham cheered at the commitment to free prescriptions for cancer sufferers, something they’d been asking for, for years; and something which was highly personal too.
He was by now flying. A great rhythm to the speech and plainly reaching every one of the 1600 or so in the hall.
But there were still important statements to make.
About values, to go beyond the traditional perceptions of aiming to provide universal services and making them affordable to all; by being committed to being personal services to each. That we should expect something back for something given.
And then the passage that many Labour voters will have wanted to here. The fight-back. Time and again, Labour’s supporters on the doorstep have complained that Gordon has not been fighting back. Some great lines –
On rebutting Tories complaints about public spending - “we did fix the roof while the sun was shining”.
A bitter complaint of George Osborne’s assertion that “a function of the finance markets is that people make a fortune out of the misery of others”.
That on running the economy, this was “no time for a novice”.
That “Britain is not broken, it’s the best country in the world”.
And to finish a reminder that many of the radical measures that Labour has pushed through in the last 11 years, as well as major changes such as the creation of the NHS, what had once seemed extraordinary had become the common sense of our age.
It was a great speech and I was interviewed by German TV and ITN. And it’s just possible that more Brits will see me on German TV than ITN.
And for all the content, it seems that the media ended up being interested in the performance of Gordon and Sarah, than the narrative.
Comments