In his closing speech to the party faithful, Cameron started slowly, delivering the usual tosh about colleagues being loyal, his wife Samantha being inspirational and his budgerigar being worthy of a place in the X Factor final. Fortunately this Conservative kitsch was put aside and the real messages were rolled out.

Cameron skilfully challenged Brown on his premise that the Tory Boy was a novice and that a man of experience (eg Boom and Bust Brown) should be trusted in what will be challenging times.

Firstly, Cameron pointed out that if that were the attitude the public should take, then no sitting Prime Minister would ever be removed! Recalling that the most experienced sitting Prime Minister ever – Jim Callaghan was Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer – would never have been replaced by that relative novice Margaret Thatcher. He then offered up the nightmare spectre that the logic of Brown's argument suggested that the PM should get to keep the position for life. That passage would have had even Labour cabinet members reaching for the strychnine.

What he didn't say, but is equally true, is that if Brown's call for experience had been the yardstick in 1997, John Major would have stayed in harness and Blair and Brown – with no ministerial experience to rub between them – would have languished in opposition forever.

Having riddled that rather desperate Brown ploy with accurate cannon fire, Cameron let it be known – by suggesting that serious and tough decisions on public spending would have to be made once he had the opportunity to look at the books – that if sorting out Brown's economic carnage required public spending cuts or tax rises, he was prepared to be unpopular to do the right thing. I thought he could have been more explicit and more forceful here, for he will be painted as a mad axe man by Labour anyway, but as a passage that said "I am a man of substance and character willing to lead from the front and take the hard decisions" it was effective.

Then, to give some balance to the tough guy image he had just painted and to challenge directly Labour's appeal as the party of compassion, Cameron took ownership of the National Health Service by claiming it was the Tories that were now the party of the NHS.

Given the NHS was invented by a Liberal, William Beveridge, and has been managed most of its life by Tories, Labour's own claim of ownership has always been self-serving. After Cameron read out a particularly tear-jerking and blood curdling series of letters about the death of a constituent's wife from MRSA, his own commitment to care about the NHS is now beyond reproach.

Skilfully, with one stone, he destroyed the reputation of Health Secretary Alan Johnston – just in case he replaces Brown. Likewise, he demonised David Miliband, just in case he becomes the new Labour field commander.

Railing against political correctness in education and stressing the need for the benefit system to help families rather than punish them, Cameron's repeated mention of the "broken society" laid out his battle plan for all to see. The forthcoming election won't just be about the economy, stupid, but it will suggest that for all Labour's great spending splurge, our society has more problems than ever before and that Boom and Bust Brown is the reason, not the solution.

The final battle may be 18 months away, but already Brown is on the back foot, and after the forthcoming Glenrothes skirmish, he may be stripped of his commission by his own officers. Why anyone would want to be leader of the Labour Party next year is beyond me.

Brum sets example

AFTER visiting Labour in Manchester last week and now the Tories in Birmingham, I thought both cities in their own ways add to the richness of British life. Despite staying in a joke of a boutique hotel, where the air conditioning in my room refused to go below 26C and there was no wardrobe or even a sock drawer, Birmingham edged it for me.

It's attractive maze of canals and kaleidoscope of architectural styles provided a very attractive setting, despite the daunting road network that makes Edinburgh seem a dawdle (even with the trams upheaval). The development of new squares and plazas, with their bubbling fountains and attractive walks, reminded me that if Edinburgh is to remain the best place in Britain, it must continue to invest in and develop its townscape and public facilities.

A new Filmhouse on Festival Square, upgrading Princes Street Gardens and tackling the poverty of ambition in Princes Street itself would be good places to start.