Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it?

NorthernMonkey Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 07:03:28 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook



So Gordon's made his first speech as Prime Minister and Labour Leader to Conference.

What did you make of it?



I thought it was a good, solid performance. There was the right mixture between firm Labour policies like extending maternity leave with attempts to reach the centre-ground through his endless references to Britain and national security.

I thought the mention of the Glasgow Airport baggage handler was a particularly good thing to include as it will play well on the news.

Although not as charismatic as Blair, his speech still had more emotion and life in it than we normally see from his speeches.

Overall, not bad at all.

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Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? | 19 comments (19 topical)

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#1)

by Curlew on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 07:17:16 PM GMT

I thought it was a very good speech and if everything goes ahead as promised (including every member has a vote on every policy), then I will be happy.

How will we afford all those NHS promises though?  Annual check-ups, mass recruitment of matrons, proper cleaning. 


Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#2)

by NorthernMonkey on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 07:25:46 PM GMT

Yes, I was thinking this. There were lots of 'big spending' announcements here and I sure hope Brown knows how he's going to pay for them all.


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#4)

by alexhilton on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 08:31:59 PM GMT

I think we are going to see "social investment" terms enter the lexicon of the treasury. While borrowing rules take into account the tenish year economic cycle, they're not flexible enough to to take into account investments with longer term returns.

"Off the books" PFI deals for schools and hospitals for example are effectively returning the investment not just over the economic cycle but over several.

Another example is transport. London Underground's District line was built at a time when women of a certain class still wore bustles. Yet that investment has been returned at various rates of efficiency every years and we are still using the district line today. Given the realities of such investment, why shouldn't the borrowing rules be relaxed for Crossrail for example, which is predicted to return to the GDP many timews its cost over the course of its lifetime.

Far more complex - but actuarially well-understood - is investment in individual's health. While regular check ups (i think he said regular - not annual) will of course cost money up-front, you have to factor the saving over the life of the individual of becoming aware of illnesses early and other benefits. Taking a half-day off each year could save two days each year in sickness leave (though you will forgive me for plucking that figure out of the air).

Why should borrowing for social investment be regulated on the terms of a politically-defined and amorphous economic cycle when there is a more efficient, tangible, flexible and measurable market test that can be applied?


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#5)

by alexhilton on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 08:34:51 PM GMT

Hell, they could even sell health bonds on the financial markets


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#3)

by alexhilton on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 08:18:14 PM GMT

Sky News reckons it's a Tory leader's speech a week early. What do you think?


Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#6)

by southside on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 09:11:42 PM GMT

Would smokers be classed as sub-prime?


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#8)

by alexhilton on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 10:25:33 PM GMT

Funnily enough, because the cost/benefit ration of supporting a smoker early is much higher than someone with a relatively healthy lifestyle, the returns ratio would for such investment would be higher, so I suspect such fantasy health bonds would be less expensive. It's the already healthy people who have diminishing returns.

While this is a bit of a fantasy idea - and ultimately an excuse to keep more stuff off the books - I'm still suggesting that services are free at the point of delivery - it would be the state issuing such bonds, not the private sector.


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#9)

by alexhilton on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 10:29:36 PM GMT

Hmm put it this way - every non-smoker is a potential future smoker and therefore a risk. And even if they don't take up smoking, how many extra working years will the GDP gain anyway if they have a healthy lifestyle?

Every smoker on the other hand is already calculated to slip off the books at an average age of 55 (*guess). Early intervention to help them improve their health prospects could keep them contributing to GDP until 65 or beyond.

This is what I love about socialism - counting people as assets rather than liabilities.


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#7)

by doctordunc on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 09:23:59 PM GMT

Sounds about right to me, I'm afraid.


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#10)

by Sensible Comrade on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 10:50:25 PM GMT

You can honestly imagine a Tory leader making a speech like this? Attacking the privilege of private schools and pledging equality of opportunity? If only the Tories were so cuddly. 


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#12)

by Sensible Comrade on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 10:54:39 PM GMT

Plus talk of making the country a class-free society. When did a Tory leader last pledge to abolish class?


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#15)

by doctordunc on Tue Sep 25, 2007 at 07:04:29 PM GMT

John Major.

It was the speech David Cameron would have liked to have made.

Very clever of course, to wrong-foot the Tories (yesterday seemed to be all about that) but it does make me wonder about his assertion that he's a 'conviction politician'.  If he is, I rather fear that his convictions are entirely different from my own.


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#16)

by doctordunc on Wed Sep 26, 2007 at 11:06:55 AM GMT

Just to explain the John Major thing, the exact quote was:

"In the next ten years we will have to continue to make changes which will make the whole of this country a genuinely classless society."

From 1990.


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#17)

by MM on Wed Sep 26, 2007 at 01:01:47 PM GMT

Perhaps Sir John Major will be the next former Prime Minister invited round to Number 10 for a photo-shoot?


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Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#18)

by doctordunc on Wed Sep 26, 2007 at 08:48:51 PM GMT

Possibly.  Although I suspect that Gordon realises that Labour Party members wouldn't find that entirely demoralising and depressing and so won't bother.


[ Parent ]

Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#11)

by Lorin on Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 10:53:01 PM GMT

Good speech.

Very Blue :)


Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#13)

by MM on Tue Sep 25, 2007 at 12:31:52 AM GMT

I agree with the sentiments of NorthernMonkey, it was a solid speech.  Not in the same league as Blair's speeches.

Given the good poll leads that Brown has, I thought he could afford to really tell us what his vision was for public services and international affairs.  He seemed to get awfully bogged down in small policy details that really could have been handled by Ministers of State.  (Is this another case of Brown trying to hog the glory like he used to as Chancellor?).  I really wanted to hear what his vision was for the role of the private sector in the health service etc.

I found some of the policy announcements interesting thou.  He mentioned something about deporting foreign nationals who are convicted of dealing drugs/involved in gun and knife crime, is this possible under EU law?

It's also interesting how much focus their is about 'British values' and playing by the rules etc.  I car'nt help but wonder if David Cameron had said some of things that Gordon Brown had said today such as 'British jobs for British workers' we would not all be accusing him of lurching to the right etc.  Funny old world!


Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#14)

by Jeff Rubin on Tue Sep 25, 2007 at 02:20:00 PM GMT

I agree that it got too bogged down in detail and failed to offer a broad vision, binding all the individual policy commitments into a coherent vision of where he wants the country to go. Whole thing ended up sounding like a list rather than a speech. 

Having said that there were some good moments, particularly some of the personal anecdotes.


Re: Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? (#19)

by SW on Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 09:51:30 AM GMT

Brown's speech was like the music at Absolutely Equal - a set of crowd-pleasing tracks that did not challenge their audience or hint at a more complex worldview. Blair's speeches always confronted us, put forward a long and coherent argument to take us, usually, somewhere we did not think we wanted to go. But it was always a lesson in political realities. Reading Campbel's (actually very dull) diaries shows them preparing for conference speeches like composing an overture, bringing in top and subsidiary themes, building repetitions, building toards a crescendo. Of coure Brown's was more palatable, but, long-term, will he regret not establishing his right to challenge and confront the membership?


Gordon's Big Speech: What did you think of it? | 19 comments (19 topical)