David Maddox: The urbane space man plays for more time

IT MAY not have been a final frontier for David Cameron, but when he delivered his second conference speech as prime minister, he was confronted by an uncomfortable sense of space.

First, there was the echoing space left by hundreds of empty chairs in the main hall. There was a space as he paused noticeably before starting his address. Then there were the spaces left in his speech.

There was the space left by a line deleted about how we all need to go and pay off our credit card bills.

The conference had been promised a section on the Human Rights Act. Instead that, too, was cut from the speech, a space perhaps created by Theresa May’s stray-cat reference earlier in the conference.

Not satisfied with that, there was the space on the debt crisis gripping the country. Mr Cameron seemed keen that it was other people in the country who filled that leadership space by being more British and generally sorting the problems out themselves.

Last year, his speech was punctuated by spaces where applause should have been every time he mentioned his fabled, but not entirely explained, big society.

This year, he tried to fill that space by using the term only once and talking instead about why Conservatives should support gay marriage. There was the threat of another – slightly horrified – space as the party of family values digested the message. Fortunately for Mr Cameron, the space was filled, after a pause, with applause.

In essence, though, Mr Cameron was looking for space. Space to solve the economic crisis and space from those trying to force him on to a more right-wing agenda. But it may only be a matter of time before critics start asking if the spaces he left yesterday are really a void.