Word Game

Mildly interesting stuff from the BBC on what the key words were at the political conferences:

The battle lines for the next general election are clearly drawn in the conference speeches of David Cameron and Gordon Brown.

The prime minister made "fairness" the key theme of his speech, mentioning it 22 times. Mr Cameron did not mention it at all, perhaps to avoid fighting Mr Brown on his own terms.

The Conservative leader instead made "responsibility" and "character" the twin themes of his own speech (20 and 10 times respectively), words that were barely used by Gordon Brown.

Mr Cameron, along with his Lib Dem counterpart Nick Clegg, clearly sense that Mr Brown is vulnerable on the issue of taxation. They each mentioned taxes at least 10 times, while the prime minister did not say the word once.

There is an additional fight going on over who is the party of change. Cameron said it 20 times, Brown 17 times and Clegg nine times.