DAVID CAMERON’S speech went down a storm at the Tory Party conference — and why wouldn’t it?

Those attending represent the gilded minority set to gain most from the extravagant bribes offered by the Tory leader to return him to office next May.

Much of his tub-thumper relied on traditional Tory fare, blaming Labour for national debt, bashing the European Court of Human Rights for promoting “human wrongs” and claiming to stand up to the EU.

But his impersonation of an impassioned defender of the NHS took the biscuit.

Cameron scraped the barrel by misusing the brief life of his son Ivan, who had severe epilepsy and cerebral palsy and died in 2009.

He affected a show of anger in response to Labour’s justified warnings that his party is intent on destroying the NHS.

The Prime Minister implied that his family had made a positive choice to rely on the NHS rather than private medicine to treat his son Ivan when he must know that the health-for-profits sector doesn’t cater for chronic conditions.

No amount of faux rage can obscure the fact that the conservative coalition wants to transform our NHS into a milch-cow for private companies.

This was dramatised by No Health Sell-off Morecambe Bay and the People’s NHS in projecting an image onto the Tory conference building, highlighting that privateers pocket £280 worth of NHS services every second.

No politician who claims to defend the NHS can simultaneously back the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently being negotiated behind closed doors by the US and the EU.

The NHS cannot survive with an internal market at its heart and a TTIP allowing private companies to demand contracts in public services or be guaranteed damages.

Cameron finds himself on stronger ground offering tax-cut election bribes and has shamelessly plundered the Liberal Democrat and Ukip draft manifestos.

First, he plundered his coalition partner’s proposal to raise the level of the personal allowance from £10,500 to £12,500 before any income tax is paid and then he nicked Nigel Farage’s policy of raising the 40p tax threshold from its current £41,900 level.

But to outflank his fellow Thatcherite, he has gone beyond the Ukip proposal of £45,000 and plumped for £50,000.

The mythology behind these measures is that one helps the low-paid and the other tackles what Ukip head of policy Tim Aker calls “fiscal drag for middle earners,” which confirms ignorance or duplicity over what constitutes the middle.

Extending the 40p threshold to either £45,000 or £50,000 would benefit just the top 10 per cent of earners. Some middle — no wonder Tory conference roared with delight.

The Liberal Democrats’ pet policy is no better.

Not only does it exclude the 17 per cent of workers who already pay no tax because their wages are so low but it benefits disproportionately those on higher incomes.

It speaks volumes for Tory priorities that their revelation of tax breaks for the 10 per cent of highest-earners follows fast on the heels of George Osborne’s announcement of a two-year freeze on tax credits and state benefits for 10 million low-income families, half of whom have a member in regular work.

The Tories haven’t changed their spots. Their priorities remain rich people first, second and third.

Cameron’s vivid illustration of this reality underlines the need to build support for the TUC Britain Needs a Pay Rise march in London on October 18.