In his second speech to conference in a week, David Cameron sought to address critics who say he lacks substance.

He insisted that substance was not about churning out headline-grabbing initiatives but was about belief, vision, character, judgement and consistency.

All fine qualities, but no politician is going to disagree with that, and nor would they be against social responsibility - his key recurrent theme.

The speech lasted more than an hour and was delivered slowly as if to give weight to an address that pointed out plenty of problems facing Britain and the world but did not offer much in the way of solutions.

Take the section on foreign affairs where he said something should be done about the genocidal conflict in Darfur, but then offered no explanation of what that action should be.

Similarly, more equipment was pledged for troops serving overseas, but with no details on cost (given that this equipment can be extremely expensive) or how it would be paid for.

That sat rather at odds with his comments on being straight with the public and ending spin.

In his opening section he spoke of his personal belief in the NHS. He committed his party to maintain Labour's spending and promised no unnecessary reform.

"Do you remember '24 hours to save the NHS?' Twenty-four ways to reorganise the NHS more like." The quip was a reference to Labour's 1997 election slogan.

Where "education, education, education" had been Tony Blair's priority, Cameron said he could sum his in three letters: "N. H.S."

In the delivery and commitment to the public services, it is straight out of the Blair handbook and the Tories clearly believe it is still a winning formula.

The move was repeated when the Tory leader said New Labour was right to call for policies that were 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime'.

In another move away from traditional Tory ground he expanded on his thinking on the environment. Cameron warned his party, and the public, that tackling climate change effectively would be painful - with measures like setting binding targets for carbon reduction presumably increasing tax on flights and road travel.

He also came close to a commitment when he promised to build more houses for the young, again this was not "pain free" but was vague in how or where that would happen.

Cameron's too-long section on the importance of marriage did at least contain a piece of political bravery as he told the assembled Tories that he backed it "whether you're a man and a woman, a woman and a woman or a man and another man".

It was of apiece with his attempt to redirect the party in amore socially inclusive direction and one sensed that delegates knew this even if it caused some of them pain to hear it.

He concluded with an upbeat assessment of the prospects for Britain's future, promising "the best is yet to come".

Tory strategists probably hope that is true as they prepare to take on Gordon Brown at next year's gathering.

Curiously, though, the chancellor received not one mention in Wednesday's speech.