Whatever it is when a party leader forgets to mention the deficit in a keynote speech, it is not the stuff of a Prime Minister in Waiting. But before getting het up about it, this is not how politics works now. Party conferences fire up the faithful but they no longer have any impact on election outcomes, because people and technology have moved on. The gaffe will provide lots of laughs at the Tory conference and elsewhere and will push Ed’s poll ratings down a point or two, but it will be the debates between the party leaders during the actual campaign which will have the impact. And those debates could well have a fourth contributor, Nigel Farage. So anything may happen.
Meanwhile freezing child benefit will not play well on Labour’s doorsteps. Few will believe that just £2.4 billion pounds alone ‘will save the NHS’ and while the 50p top rate and the mansion tax will be popular with voters, they will yield little cash in the great scheme of things, ie the deficit. Which is why perhaps Ed forgot to mention it.