'Compassionate' Cameron targets Labour voters

So the Conservative Conference is over and what have we learned?

Well, it was certainly bad news for incapacity benefit claimants, in their late 50s with a taste for Bacardi Breezers.

(For those not paying attention, they're shifting people off Incapacity Benefit, the pension age would be raised to 66 in 2016, and they want to put more tax on alcopops).

But I also found what I saw of David Cameron's speech intriguing.

As I wasn't in Manchester and was out filming, I only got a chance to read it and see selected soundbites on the news.

So although some who saw it all live thought it workmanlike and a little flat, the highlights gave a more dynamic impression.

Much of it went into traditional Tory territory - the family, attacks on big government.

Unlike Gordon Brown's speech there wasn't much in the way of policy, but more of the vision thing.

The sections of compassionate Conservatism and his appeal to Labour voters were particularly interesting for our patch.

He rubbished the Government's record on poverty and pledged to do better to close the gap between rich and poor.

Labour, of course, will rubbish his attempts to steal their clothes, but it's important for a Tory leader with considerable personal wealth to show he cares.

Let me know what you think.

We'll be looking at the likely impact of a Conservative government on our region on the Politics Show this Sunday.

it'll be interesting in any case to see whether the conference season has made any difference to the standings of the three main parties.

All three have had problems, all three have had plus points.

I suspect it's honours even then, which will probably be good news for the Conservatives as they set out with such a large poll lead.

But I suspect there's still many twists and turns ahead as the General Election looms ever nearer.

Incidentally, I gather the attempts to get Newcastle to switch its General Election count back to Thursday failed on Wednesday night.

So that certainly looks like one of our main councils that's determined to break with tradition and count on a Friday.

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