On day 4 of Party Conference, David Cameron made his main speech. I was sitting on stage along with many of my fellow candidates and members of the Shadow Cabinet. David's speech was detailed, thought provoking and visionary. He tacked the critical issues:
1. The Economy - in this financial crisis, we must put our differences aside and work together with the government in the short-term to ensure financial stability. They have already taken up our idea of increasing the protection for depositors to £50,000.
2. Afghanistan - we back our troops there 100%. We are going to stop sending young men to war without the equipment need and do all we can to keep our country safe.
3. Responsibility - personal, professional, civic, corporate. Our responsibility to our family, neighbourhood and country. Our responsibility is to behave in a decent and civilised way, to help others. We will only be a strong society if we are a responsible society.
4. Experience - Gordon Brown talks about his economic experience. The problem is, we have actually experienced his experience. We’ve experienced the massive increase in debt. We have experienced the huge rise in taxes. We experienced the folly of pretending that boom and bust could be ended. This is the argument we will make when the election comes. The risk is not in making a change. The risk is sticking with what you’ve got and expecting a different result. There is a simple truth for times like this. When you’ve taken the wrong road, you don’t just keep going. You change direction.
5. How we got here - Gordon Brown made two mistakes - he took away the Bank of England's power to regulate financial markets and he became a spendaholic.
6. How do we get out of this financial mess:
a) sound money - rein in government borrowing, review spending programmes, reform inefficient public services
b) low taxes - we will cut taxes when it is responsible to do so and when we've made government live within its means
c) enterprise - it is entrepreneurs who create jobs, not governments. Support business and industry
7. Long term mission is to repair our broken society. When times are tough, its not a bigger state we need, it is better, more efficient government. More than that, we need a stronger society. Trusting people and sharing responsibility.
8. We need to clean up politics and put an end to expenses issues - expenses and allowances that would never be allowed in the private sector. Also put an end to MPs voting on their own salaries.
9. Have a referendum on the European constitution.
10. NHS - we will give patents an informed choice about where to go for their care so doctors stop answering to Whitehall and start answering to patients.
11. Social reform - we currently have a broken society. 2m children are brought up in households where no one works. Some housing estates in Britain have a lower life expectancy than in the Gaza Strip. 27 kids murdered on the streets of London this year. A gun crime every hour. A serious knife crime every half hour. A million victims from alcohol related-attacks. To resolve this, it needs:
a) families - support flexible working, back marriage in the tax system
b) schools - can help give children a second chance so we will establish 1000 new Academies and allow for new schools to be set up
12. Welfare - we will end the something for nothing culture. If you don’t take a reasonable offer of a job, you lose benefits. Go on doing it, you’ll keep losing benefits. Stay on benefits and you’ll have to work for them.
We will give hope, broaden the horizons and build aspiration of the poor and the marginalised. It will be Conservative means that will fight poverty, extend opportunity and repair our broken society.
We are a changed and a united Party.
We will get through these difficult times due to the work you do, the families you raise, the jobs you create, your confidence and your determination. We can bring the country together, in the hope, belief and knowledge, that better times lie ahead.
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