Cameron's speech gets press praise

Thursday's newspapers have given their verdicts on David Cameron's conference performance and weighed up how it affects prospects for an early election.

The Telegraph's political editor, Andrew Porter, said the Conservative leader's "easy delivery and nerveless display" was "classic Cameron" which contrasted strongly with Gordon Brown's address.

Porter said that if Brown decides to go to the country the electorate will have a clear choice about which style they prefer.

The newspaper's leader agreed that Cameron's autocue-less performance was a trick few other contemporary politicians could have pulled off and that "the material matched the pyrotechnics".

Despite the praise the leader concluded that the strong performance and call for an election were actually an attempt to dissuade Brown from calling a poll now.

However the Independent's Steve Richards said that far from bluffing "it is a sign of the success of his party's conference that in the heady atmosphere that surrounds the leader's speech the declaration of war sounded credible".

It is a point of view that the Times' Peter Riddell agreed with, saying that Cameron's "bring it on" attitude is not just "empty bravado" and that many Tory MPs "think, rightly, that a November election could backfire on Gordon Brown".

In its leader the Times said that Cameron "took the risk in Blackpool of speaking without the mandatory autocue and in a manner that was conversational".

"While impressive in some respects, the length of what he said, the micro-detail and the tone crowded out any overarching argument or narrative," it added.

"Ironically for a man, who, as his opponents often snidely observe, has had a long background in public relations, this was a speech without a memorable slogan," the leader concluded.

The Guardian's political editor, Patrick Wintour, said that although it was a "virtuoso speech" there was "no sign" it "had shaken Brown's allies, who argued it lacked a unifying theme".

However Wintour said that the prime minister will be carefully scrutinising polls over the next three days to see what effect it had before making a decision about calling an early election.

In its leader column the Guardian focused on the unusual style of the speech.

"Forgoing the rhetorical tricks of a traditional conference script, he sounded as much marketing manager as chief executive, but in his best passages he found a conversational, rational tone that washed away a little of the posturing that has beset all three pre-election party conferences this season," it said.

The Financial Times' leader agreed with the consensus that this was a "substantial performance that contrasted favourably with the prime minister's speech".

And the FT said that there was serious policy as well as clever delivery.

"Issue after issue he argued that explaining where the government had gone wrong was the key to doing better. This usefully allowed him to focus both on Labour's failure and the Tories' future," it concluded.

Describing Cameron as a "daredevil", Sun political editor George Pascoe-Watson suggested that he was trying to "stave off" an early election and suggests no-one, even Brown, knows yet whether he has done enough.

The Sun's leader added to the praise: "To everyone's astonishment - perhaps especially the prime minister's as he watched from Number 10 - this was a triumph by Conservative Party standards... the speech was too long and fell flat in parts. But his high wire act, always a stumble away from disaster, kept the audience glued."

But the Mirror does not concur with the Sun's assessment, with political editor Oonagh Blackman branding the performance "desperate" and bereft of new policy.

The paper's leader said that during his "X factor" performance "he pretended he had what it takes to lead this great nation, but was found wanting".

The Daily Mail's leader insisted Cameron's speech "was remarkable not only as a feat of memory and oratorical skill" but for its "real substance, too, drawing together a broad range of issues into a coherent whole - and opening up the 'clear blue water' between the Tories and Labour that's been invisible for so long".

In its leading article the Express said: "Yesterday Mr Cameron was able to challenge the prime minister to stop dithering and call the election - and to look like he meant it."