Dave is in Prague this morning to address the party conference of ODS, the future European parliamentary partners of the Tories. Founded by Thatcherite ideologue Václav Klaus, the party is receptive to what is a very rare message today from a politician – “fight for freedom”.  His speech has more ideological content than his normal stump speeches:-

Dave is no Churchill, or even a Reagan, but it is refreshing to hear a politican talk optimistically about freedom. Amidst all the fear-mongering about security that is peddled in the war-on-terror, what we are fighting for, rather than against, is forgotten. The government is far too willing to trade real liberty for fake security.

Such is the fame of Gordon for having the courage only to disappear, in the manner of Macavity, when there is trouble about, that a rumour went round yesterday that he would not be doing PMQs.

However according to the Downing Street website he will show up to be ritually thrashed at PMQs today.

Guido still doesn’t know what the Tory policy is on ratifying the EU Treaty. They want a referendum now, that at least is clear. Gordon is not going to “listen to the people”, that is also clear.

So what therefore would a Tory government do in power in 2010, two years after the treaty could be ratified? That Tory poster promising a Conservative government would hold a referendum was, we were told, incorrectly interpreted. Well that was the line last week…

Hague however said yesterday

“If we don’t succeed in forcing a referendum in this House and if we fail to win in another place (the Lords) and if all EU member states implement the treaty and if an election is held later in this Parliament, which is a lot of ifs … then we would be in a situation where we had a new treaty in force that lacked democratic legitimacy in this country and in our view gave the EU too much power over our national policies. This would not be acceptable to a Conservative government and we would not let matters rest there.”

Now this could be a popular position, standing up to European meddling is always popular in Britain. So what if the continent is isolated from Britain? It would not be the first time that Britain has stood alone against a continental threat, would it?

Apart from Ken Clarke and Michael Heseltine, no Tories that people have ever heard of would have a problem with this stance. So why not state the policy unambiguously? The Brownies are hoping to open up Tory divisions on this issue. The way to avoid that working is to clearly and decisively state that a Tory government will not be bound by a treaty not approved by the people. Ken and Hezza can be thanked politely for their opinion, they would no doubt still try to piss on the Eurosceptic parade, but so what? Ambiguity gives the press a story, clarity will kill the story and Brown’s divide and conquer plan will come to nought. Given that Cameron was elected to the leadership on a rock-solid Eurosceptic platform he can hardly be said to have given in to his Eurosceptic right-wing. He is a Eurosceptic right-winger…

Cameron gave a speech yesterday which he said was his “political philosophy in a nutshell”. So was it a vision moment? He said

“the co-operative principle reflects an important part of the vision of social progress that we on the centre-right believe in: the role of strong independent institutions, run by and for local people. That’s why Conservatives have always argued that free enterprise and the co-operative principle are partners, not adversaries. And now I want the Conservative Party to take the lead in applying the co-operative ideal to the challenges of the 21st century. So I am delighted to announce today the establishment of the Conservative Co-operative Movement. “

Over at LabourHome they have gone all “how very dare they” about Cameron’s Conservative Co-operative Movement. Guido had lunch with LabourHome founder Alex Hilton sometime ago, when Guido paid using a Co-operative Bank debit card he positively spluttered with indignation. “What is a capitalist like you doing banking with the Co-op?” The truth is co-ops are compatible with free enterprise, they can compete with profit-driven businesses and are a very welcome component of an enterprise culture. Guido tried to explain that for years he had worked in what was effectively a co-op. Hedge fund partnerships often work on the same principles as farmer’s co-ops, a few traders get together, share a pool of capital, share risks and share profits, just like members of an agricultural co-op do. Some of the swankiest property in New York is owned by billionaire members of co-ops. They do this because they are smart and don’t want a third party to profit at their expense. Co-ops have nothing to do with top-down state socialism.The chair of the Conservative Co-operative Movement will be Jesse Norman, the author of Compassionate Conservativism. In Latin-American countries political parties from across the spectrum often have a social-action wing that does good works. The thinking here is that state-controlled public services are too bureaucratic, too big and public service reform would be better served by harnessing the flexibility and dynamism of co-ops. Co-op schools would be a great start, with like-mind communities getting together to run schools responsive to the wishes of parents and pupils rather than Ed Balls’ diktats.

Dave touched on something today that (surprisingly) he hasn’t used before. Brown’s borrowing of an old NF/BNP slogan to blow a dog-whistle to Dagenham voters

“Take the slogan the Prime Minister wheels out every week – ‘British jobs for British workers.’ If he could only see how embarrassed Labour MPs are, how they shudder whenever he says those words. Well, I’ve done of a bit of work on this slogan of the Prime Minister’s. First, let’s be clear what they want us to think. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has told us that there should be no doubt. It is – and I quote – ‘explicitly a British jobs for British people campaign…’… I did a bit more research to find out where he got his slogans from. Here’s one he borrowed off the National Front. Here’s another one he borrowed off the British National Party. Where was his moral compass when he was doing that?“

Knuckle-dragging barrel scraping politics aimed at winning back Dagenham council estate votes for Labour from the BNP. Labour activists are embarrassed by the slogan, Nick Griffin is flattered by it.  In reality it is meaningless, favouring Britons for British jobs is illegal. It is just a Deborah Mattinson focus-group tested dog-whistle slogan.

UPDATE : Ben Brogan has just updated his blog with something Guido hadn’t noticed, Dave “waved a copy of the BNP’s May 2006 newsletter at Gordon Brown during their Commons exchanges earlier” the document was headlined “Keep British jobs for British workers”.

The Daily Mail’s Ben Brogan followed up Guido’s story about the Tory poster committing them to a referendum on the constitution EU Reform Treaty whenever the Tories get into power.

The poster says “A vote on the European constitution” is “now delayed until the election of a Conservative government”. Pretty clear. Yet Dave’s office told Brogan “The point the poster is making is that if there had been an election today and if the Conservatives had been elected we would have had a referendum”.

Well it is coming up to panto season, so all together: “Oh no it doesn’t!”

On the tight-rope issue that is the EU treaty, the Tories are campaigning hard for a referendum, which Gordon will not concede. What Cameron has refused so far to concede to his own right-wing is a retrospective referendum should they be in power in 2010 – two years after the treaty will have been confirmed by Parliament.

Hague has been firmly evasive on this point, Tory EU-headbangers have also been, well, as headbanging as always on the same point. Tomorrow’s new “CANCELLED” poster from the Tories has now muddied the waters. As soon as it appeared on ConservativeHome, UKIP supporting Chad Noble spotted that the poster implies “A vote on the European Constitution” is “now delayed until the election of a Conservative government”.The Lobby are lined up to hear a speech from Cameron tomorrow on his “vision”, what is the betting that they will be asking him about this commitment? It is an issue the Brownies have deliberately been trying to stoke up in the press to cause trouble and division with the Tory ranks. Somebody at CCHQ is going to get a bollocking tomorrow…

UPDATE : The Devil has taken a more detailed look at the Tory (non)commitments overnight. Are they meaningful? He thinks not.

Bob Piper and few other left leaning bloggers are getting excited about Flying Lion Limited and bemoaning Guido’s lack of digging into it. They have been digging into the company (now known as “Con Air” because it ferries Tories around) in the hope of uncovering something murky. The Bahamian registered company has got them more than a little agitated.

It is hard to see why they are getting so excited since they should already know it is owned by Ashcroft and a quick perusal of the Electoral Commission website shows £19,819.60 given in the last twelve months. In the year before more than £50,000 worth of flights were registered as reported by The Times in May 2006. So the only reason Guido hasn’t been digging into it is because it is not news…

(Incidentally Dave flew BA to Berlin last week.)

Well the audience, as ever, loved Dave. Guido was watching the press pack and some of Cameron’s apparatchiks. The press seemed if not bedazzled, not unimpressed. Team Cameron seemed happy, tension that was in their faces at the start of the speech dissolved into satisfied smiles by the end.

On balance Dave did it, their is no comparison between Gordon’s speech cut ‘n paste from Al Gore and read off an autocue with Dave’s on his feet oratory. Politicians are notorious fakers, inauthentic to the core spinners. Dave was trying to overcome that perception, he was honest about having a privileged upbringing (Gordon was not so honest about his elite education). The strategy appears to be to turn that into a plus, because he came from a secure family with a good education he knows how important it is and he wants it for everyone. This will be a key charge from Labour – that he is an out of touch toff. If he can prove he isn’t, he’ll neutralise that negative.

Will the speech make any electoral difference? Probably not, but he made the case for his party well. Gordon has talked up the election which the Tories, whatever they say, would rather not fight from this position in the polls. Cameron has basically said bring it on, he’s ready for a fight, if Brown chickens out now he’ll look bad…