An election? Bring it on now

You've got to give Cameron his due. He was certainly calm under fire. Indeed, when he declared, "Call that election. We will fight. Britain will win", you almost believed him.

Indeed, at times he bordered on aggressive:

"So Mr Brown, what's it going to be? Why don't you go ahead and call that election. Let the people pass judgment on 10 years of broken promises. Let people decide who's really making the arguments about the future of our country, let people decide who can make the changes that we need in our country."

The only problem is that, when he mentions ten years of broken promises, I think of all the new schools and hospitals that have sprung up under New Labour. I think of the fact the Britain is the fifth largest economy in the world and that, under Labour, the economy is the strongest it has been for decades.

This Labour government has been a very good, if slightly right wing, one.

Cameron is making a mistake when he attacks Labour for "ten years of broken promises" as that's not most people's perceptions of Labour. Labour's greatest failing in the eyes of the British public is the Iraq war, and that was a point which Cameron alluded to:

Afghanistan, Mr Cameron said, would be his top foreign policy priority. "I think if we have learned anything over the past five years it's that you cannot drop a fully formed democracy out of an aeroplane at 40,000 feet."

However, I feel this point would have more weight were it not for the fact that the Iraq war only gained Parliamentary support because the Conservative Party voted with Blair to approve it. More than 120 Labour MP's voted against this motion, making it the largest revolt in the history of Parliament.

So Cameron is on very thin ice when he attempts to attack Brown - who it is rumoured was forced to vote for the war or lose his job as Chancellor - over the fact that Britain is stuck in Iraq. Indeed, because Brown has moved the British troops out of Basra Palace and into the airport, alluding to Iraq only reminds most of us that Brown is trying to tactfully withdraw Britain from Blair's mess.

As always with Cameron the speech was more about style than substance, with meaningless platitudes replacing actual policy.

He decided yesterday morning to use only a few notes when he was on his feet, reasoning it would help counter his perceived lack of authenticity. "I haven't got a script. I have just got a few notes. It might be a bit messy, but it will be me," he said.

So we are asked to admire the fact that he can talk without auto cue, rather than listen to a thought out argument.

"There's something else. It's about me. People want to know, are you really up for it, have you got what it takes, and I answer unreservedly, yes."

This kind of rhetorical questioning would only ever be interesting if the answer was no; but, unsurprisingly, Cameron thinks he has what it takes.

In truth, he's in a hellish spot. He's trailing in the polls and has no option other than to pretend that he really wants Brown to call a snap election that he is, at this moment, almost guaranteed to lose.

The threat of an election has meant that the Tories have rallied around him, putting aside their fears that he is leading them down a path they really don't want to be on.

He even went as far as to address that other great unspoken truth: his privileged background: admitting he had no hard luck story to tell since his father was a stockbroker and his mother a magistrate.

It's hard to imagine that he could have done more with what he has at his disposal. He really is trying to be a green Conservative. However, his problem remains that he is a Tory leader who was chosen to face Blair, for whom he would have been the perfect foil, who now faces Brown.

Brown has a gravitas that Cameron lacks, and when Cameron talks of "ten years of broken promises" it strikes me as the kind of spin that Blair used to employ.

He can take some comfort from the fact that Brown is unlikely to rush into a snap election; but I still find it hard to believe that the man who addressed yesterday's Conservative conference, albeit without notes, will ever lead this country.

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Tags: Conservative party conference, Cameron, leaders speech