Theresa May's speech analysed in 6 word clouds
Wednesday 3 October 2018 18:41, UK
Greg Heffer, political reporter
Theresa May's conference speeches in 2017 and 2018 were vastly different in style (cough, cough, cough) - but how did they compare in substance?
This year's speech
Coming at a crucial point in Brexit negotiations, the prime minister used her conference address to mount a strong defence of her strategy for leaving the EU, which has come in for fierce criticism from significant parts of her party.
However, notably, the prime minister did not once refer to her plan by the Chequers name it has become known by; instead referring to "our proposal".
No doubt this was part of a rebrand effort amid the unpopularity of her proposals, while the use of "our" will help tie the wider government and Tory party to her plan.
One of Mrs May's key defences of her Chequers plan is her claim it is the only way to respect the Brexit vote but also avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Therefore she made repeated reference to "Northern Ireland" which, surprisingly, she didn't mention in 2017.
Another phrase the prime minister used this year, which she didn't 12 months ago, was a reference to the "Jeremy Corbyn party".
The reference came after Mrs May had mentioned previous prominent Labour MPs, as part of an attempt to paint Mr Corbyn as more extreme than his predecessors and drive a wedge between the party's left-wing leadership and moderate Labour MPs.
The prime minister also made mention of "workers" and "austerity" in 2018, words she didn't use the year before, as she battles to win back the narrative from Labour on living standards and public services.
Topical references included "Russia" - following the Salisbury poisoning - as well as "Passchendaele" in the centenary of the end of the First World War.
Mrs May also focused more heavily on "opportunity" in 2018, which was the key Tory conference slogan this year.
Last year's speech
Mrs May's calamitous 2017 speech is best remembered for her persistent cough, a collapsing set, and the moment she was handed a P45 on stage by a prankster.
The prime minister's address to the Tory conference also came just weeks after her disastrous decision to go to the polls.
Mrs May apologised for the "general election" result 12 months ago, but did not mention those words again in 2018.
Attempting to suggest she was still serving as prime minister, despite the election resulting in a hung parliament, out of a sense of obligation to the country, Mrs May focused heavily on "our duty" in 2017.
She made only one mention of this phrase a year later.
Another key theme of her speech in 2017 was the "British dream", which she did not repeat a year later.
The prime minister also ditched references to "Global Britain" in 2018 - a phrase she had used in her previous year's speech.
One of the main conference announcements in 2017 was an energy price cap, which Mrs May had set up with mention of "vested interests".
But, again, that phrase was missing in 2018 as she delivered a more business-friendly address.
The UK was struck by a series of "terrorism" attacks in 2017, which the prime minister made mention of that year but not in this year's speech.
Theresa May vs Boris Johnson
In 2018, the Tory conference saw Boris Johnson making what was viewed by many as his own pitch to be prime minister.
In his address, the former foreign secretary was not so shy as Mrs May to use the phrase "Chequers" as he called for her to ditch her Brexit plan.
The Vote Leave figurehead also spoke of "control", echoing the official Brexit campaign's "take back control" slogan.
A mark of many of his speeches, Mr Johnson referred to his audience as "friends" while he also referred to the EU as "Brussels" and despaired how the Tories might be losing "confidence" in their core beliefs.
:: The word clouds in this article were produced by analysing the speeches using AWS services.