I didn't see a tremendous amount of coverage for David Cameron's speech to a Google conference at the start of the week. In fact, virtually none. I'm indebted to Radio 4's Friday night comedy The Now Show for tipping me off.
It's a long speech which centres (more or less) around the notion of a 'desire for capitalism with commitment'. The Radio 4 comics made fun of his reference to Craigslist – which, for those who don't know it, is principally a classified ads site, principally personal ads, most notably 'casual encounters'. He also quotes Innocent Drinks and 'environmentally conscious casual clothing and sportswear' company Howies as examples of companies 'expressing a profound dissatisfaction with rootless, rampaging globalisation and a passionate desire for capitalism with commitment, for work that has meaning and for relationships that are about more than just money and markets.'
There's lots of aspirational, visionary stuff – and almost no attempt to attack Blair's Labour government, which probably explains the lack of media interest. So what's in it for Cameron? I think it's quite simple… anything which connects him to such a powerful and 'cool' brand as Google, with its 'don't be evil' motto, is a positive.
And just as importantly, it's an easy area of distinction between him and Blair – who never seems to miss an opportunity to tell us how terrible he is with computers, as if it's something to be proud of. This could be the start of Cameron positioning himself as the tech-literate younger man.
Update, and confession: I'd never heard of Howies before I read this speech. But I love what I read. 'Whenever a real nice day comes along, it'd be a shame to waste it. So if you phone up and no-one answers, don't worry. We are out there doing what we love. So leave a message and we'll get back to you in a while.' Brilliant. Just a shame the stuff is frighteningly expensive. £25 is a heck of a lot for a t-shirt, albeit organic cotton, particularly when the logo is an anti-capitalist statement.