Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy greet the crowd after the performance. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
If you could take anything away from Mrs Sunak's surprising introduction of her “best friend” it is that, for all her husband's tough talk, he is a lover, not a fighter.
He confirmed this himself when he spoke rather mawkishly of “love passed down from generation to generation,” referring to a promise to adopt more family-friendly policies.
And while his “youthful optimism” and “aspiration” may have brought him to where he is today – elected by Tory MPs against Boris Johnson's majority – mere competence will not be enough to win the next general election.
Of course, it was nice to hear him say, “Women are women and men are men,” but it’s also notable that he didn’t have the courage to discuss leaving the ECHR when he was talking about migration, or to properly respond to the broad widespread concern about our historically high tax burden.
His insistence that “I will do things differently” quickly lost its credibility when he boasted that we have “the lowest corporate tax rate tax in the G7″ and the Chancellor's “business tax cuts”. ” What will the business tax cuts be, Prime Minister?
Meanwhile, his suggestion that we have made the most of our Brexit freedoms will also be lost on those Red Wall voters who voted Leave but feel little has changed since the referendum.
No there is no doubt that the political announcements were reassuringly bold – and promised to reform the NHS, put more people into work and jail sexual and sadistic murderers for living without hope of release will surely be greeted with the same enthusiasm as the promised modernization of the northern railway and our road network.
But the truth is that if Sunak does become the candidate for change, he will have to change fundamentally – compassionate conservatism simply won't cut it.
If he really does is going to accept the status quo and win, then he won't have to just be bold but controversial.
Radical Rishi? He might just be able to handle it, but that would require an amount of HS2 steel.
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