Fresh from the campaigning trail and met with an enthusiastic audience, Cameron explained the core of his political philosophy which he said was based firstly on the belief that if you trust people they will generally do the right thing, and secondly that every challenge we face is best tackled by recognising the “simple truth that we are all in this together”.

It was based on these core beliefs that Cameron laid out the four priorities in his “vision” for the voluntary and community sector. Put basically, these were: that government needs to recognise when to let go; that we need more fairness in the system; that government needs to trust the voluntary sector more; and that we need more long-term thinking.

He also said that though he had no “precise scientific studies” he could use to back up the observation, there was a current sense of spiritual poverty in the UK, which we needed to tackle by nurturing social consciousness, “and harness it for the benefit not just of people on the other side of the world, but on the other side of the street,” he said.

Commenting on Cameron’s speech, NCVO’s chief executive, Stuart Etherington, said: “We welcome Mr Cameron’s views that voluntary and community organisations deserve a level playing field when applying for public service contracts, particularly concerning full cost recovery.  Mr Cameron also makes the case for longer-term funding, something that NCVO encourages organisations to think strategically about.”

Arguably, and understandably, Cameron's speech was more feel-good than a platform for laying out hardcore policy, reflected by comments from some in the attending audience after the speech. These ranged from, “it’s nice to be stroked sometimes” to “not much real policy in that” to “he sounded like Tony Blair”. Take that as you will.