David Cameron “Yes We Can” Keynote Speech Fails to Reassure

At a time when the mood is gloomy with unemployment figures rising and a stagnating economy, David Cameron urged Britons to "show the world some fight" in order to bounce back from troubled times, but his speech failed to reassure.

Adopting an optimistic and upbeat attitude, the Prime Minister said the country should "turn this time of challenge into a time of opportunity" in order to avoid further decline.

Despite a confident address, things behind the scenes did not run as smoothly since Cameron had to hastily rewrite part of his speech yesterday, after being advised to drop his planned call to households to pay off credit card debts fearing the economy would suffer if consumers heeded his advice, with some calculating it would shrink GDP by 15% at a stroke.

Cameron's assurance his government will successfully tackle the deficit and help prevent a global recession was much needed for his supporters as just hours before his speech, the Office for National Statistics issued bleak British growth figures.

Cameron's strategy was clear, patriotism will help us through the tough times, under his leadership of course, as the Prime Minister emphasised the country's ability to recover from the bad times, such as the loss of empire, the threat of communism or economic decline in the 1970s.

"Britain never had the biggest population, the largest land mass, the richest resources - but we had the spirit," he said. "Remember it is not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. Overcoming challenge, confounding the sceptics, reinventing ourselves, this is what we do."

Calling for the country to rid itself of "too much 'can't do' sogginess", Cameron warned "We've been told we were finished before. They said when we lost an Empire that we couldn't find a role. But we found a role, took on communism and helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

"They called our economy the sick man of Europe. But we came back and turned this country into a beacon of enterprise.

"No, Britain never had the biggest population, the largest land mass, the richest resources, but we had the spirit. Remember: it's not the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog. Overcoming challenge, confounding the sceptics, reinventing ourselves, this is what we do. It's called leadership.

"Let's turn this time of challenge into a time of opportunity. Not sitting around, watching things happen and wondering why. But standing up, making things happen and asking why not."

Despite attempting to define his leadership as the leadership, Cameron has only been in office for 18 months and the Euro crisis has taken a predominant place.

The Prime Minister strongly backed the government's position on spending cuts, saying controversially "This is a one nation deficit reduction programme - from a one nation party."

His new economy, he said, would be different and much stronger, built on solid ground and benefiting everyone. However despite the beautiful promises, very little details on how government policies would effectively boost growth appeared.

His new potion had in fact very few new ingredients as Cameron said a mix of deregulation, controlling debt, tax breaks for enterprise and above all a strong will to push ahead planning changes to give industry the space to grow will somehow turn the country around, nothing we had not heard before.

The government's deficit reduction programme, he added was "just one big bail out of the last Labour government. Criticising Labour he said the party was "on a sort of national apology tour", before adding: "There has not been a peep on the one thing they really need to say sorry for - wasting billions and billions of your money."

Cameron then lengthily turned to the need to help the poorest and the neediest and vowed he would focus on pushing for black children to be adopted by white families. "We've got people flying round the world to adopt babies while the care system at home agonises about placing black children with white families."

Talking about gay unions, and trying to reach to a broader audience, the Prime Minister also said "I don't support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative."

The education system he insisted is also going through a massive change as "Rigour back in learning. Standards back in schools. Teachers back into control. Yes, the Conservatives are back in government."

Cameron also called for private schools to sponsor more academies: "The apartheid between our private and state schools is one of the biggest wasted opportunities in our country today, so let it be this party that helps tear it down."

"Believe me, I do understand and I am disgusted by the idea that we should aim for any less for a child from a poor background than a rich one. I have contempt for the notion that we should accept narrower horizons for a black child than a white one. Yes, it is the age-old irony of the liberal left: they practise oppression and call it equality," he also added.

Once again hailing Libya as a temple for his government's success in terms of foreign policy and action in the international arena, Cameron vented about the mission in Libya.

"This is a party - ours is a country - that never walks on by. Earlier this year some people said to me: 'Libya's not our concern', 'don't start what you can't finish', and even - 'Arabs don't do democracy'.

"But if we had stood aside this spring, people in Benghazi would have been massacred. And don't let anyone say this wasn't in our national interest ... let's be proud of the part we played in giving the Libyan people the chance to take back their country."

One country, one nation and one leader, who urges the public to "show the world some fight" despite gloomy figures, gloomy predictions and austerity measures. By delivering a 'yes we can' speech and expecting the public to adopt an optimistic attitude at such a difficult time, Cameron is asking a lot.

His pep talk about the need to fight and keep on pushing harder for the country to recover has put an emphasis on the need for the people to stand up and face the struggle, however that is what everyday people do on a daily basis and should not be an excuse for the government to downplay its duty to support the people it represents.