“It’s great to be here. It’s my third time in the North-West this year – and we haven’t even got to the end of February.
I have been campaigning across the North since Prime Minister’s question time on Wednesday.
It’s been a great 12 months to be a Conservative.
Last year, we gained over 900 council seats and took control of 39 more councils.
In total, we control more than 200 councils.
That’s almost three times the number held by Labour and the Libs Dems - combined.
And we’ve made great progress here in the North West:
We control more councils in the North West than Labour.
South Ribble for the first time since 1995. Chester for the first time since 1986.
And we now have our first councillor in Manchester for eleven years - Faraz Bhatti.
And in Blackpool last autumn – Conservative-controlled Blackpool – we had the best conference any party has had for a generation.
We showed a spirit, we demonstrated a unity, we delivered a message, that had Gordon Brown quivering like a jelly, cancelling the election, and retreating into his Downing Street bunker in a way that no one predicted and we will never let him forget.
Message
But my message to you today is not that we are going to have it easy … but that it is going to be incredibly hard work.
Hard work because it is going to be an incredibly tough fight against an opponent that will say anything, do anything, spin anything, to stay in power.
Hard work because, yes, we have a huge mountain to climb in order to win. Because we have got to win over 100 seats in every part of the United Kingdom including right here in the North West.
And hard work because when we have won and believe me we will win, we are going to have to take some incredibly tough and difficult decisions to clear up the mess that Labour has made and give our country the government it deserves.
Party Change
Because I know it is going to need such hard work, I have been unrelenting about the need to change the party and put us back in touch with the British people.
But you’re the ones who have done so much of the heavy lifting.
People said that we’d never get more women candidates without compulsion.
But you selected them.
Nearly one-third of our candidates are women – up from just nine percent in Parliament today.
And across the country, our Party has selected twelve black and minority ethnic candidates – ten in winnable seats. That’s five times more than we have in Parliament today, and ten more than Liberal Democrats who have none.
But let’s be honest.
It’s not nearly enough.
I tell you why this is so important.
We believe in opportunity and aspiration, and in bringing our country together.
That means for every part of our national life, our party included, there must be role models that young people can look up to, say yes, they made it, I can make it too.
Change for purpose
All this change, it has not been for nothing, it has been for a purpose.
I was getting fed up with people not listening to our arguments, but just questioning our motives.
We needed to change to show that we were once again in touch with Modern Britain and the hopes and fears and dreams of people in our country.
That’s part of what the change has been about.
And for the first time in a long time, people are really listening to the arguments we are making.
When I say it is time to scrap restrictions on stop and search, they don’t say: “same old Tories”, they say: quite right - too many young people are being shot and stabbed and the Modern Conservative party is talking common sense.
When I say we have got to stop the waste of 5 million people out of work and claiming benefits, they don’t say “there they go again about scroungers”, they say it’s right that you should only get benefits if you are prepared to work and the Modern Conservative party is talking my language.
And when I say immigration is good forrace or colour or creed - but because of the pressure on housing, schools and hospitals, they don’t say “I’ve heard all this before” they say: “thank god at last a party that understands the need to get a grip of this issue for the sake of our public services and quality of life.”
Party change – candidates and councils
But the thing that makes me most proud of our party is what we are doing in our local communities.
Here in the North West, Trafford Council’s Street Pride is keeping the local environment clean and tidy.
And Rossendale Borough Council have Neighbourhood Environmental Action Teams to clean streets, recycle, tackle graffiti and clean up public spaces from drug taking.
And our candidates are not waiting to get elected to make a difference, they’re making a difference now.
They’re leading social action projects in their communities.
Ben Jeffreys, our Parliamentary Candidate in Cheadle, has got young kids to join a local Rugby Club, teaching them the importance of discipline and teamwork.
He’s taking the coaching himself. He’s got business support. Ben’s not just been talking about anti-social behaviour in his community - he’s been doing something about it.
Contrast to Labour
What a difference to Labour.
You know there’s a debate in Westminster.
Some people say that this is the worst Government since Jim Callaghan.
Others say: no, no, that is completely unfair: this is the worst Government in over a century.
Never mind for a moment the nationalisation of a high street bank, I ‘ll come on to that, this lot seem to want to nationalise every day life.
We’ve never known a government that is so obsessed with short term gimmicks, with top down control, with endless meddling and interfering in every part of everyone’s life.
Yet we’ve also never known a Government that is so incapable of even the most basic level of competence.
Just take the last few months … and consider life as the ‘Supreme Leader’ wants us to live it.
Think of the announcements that you’ve heard and almost certainly forgotten. Well, I’ve been keeping a tab.
Let’s take what they’ve told our schools and teachers.
Do four hours of culture, compulsory cooking, more sport, more citizenship, financial education, trips to Poland, install metal detectors and introduce new diplomas, but by the way, there’s no extra money, we’re considering confiscating your financial surplus and oh yes, if you’re a small school you should probably close.
And think about what they’ve told the rest of us.
Give us your personal data for a national identity register, pay for a national identity card, have your children finger printed, but by the way, we’ve failed to keep a record of foreign criminals, we’ve failed to even look at thousands of files sent to us about dangerous criminals and oh yes we’ve lost the tax details of half the adult population of the country.
It’s not a question of Brown moving from Stalin to Mr Bean – it is Stalin and Mr Bean.
We’ve had a gimmick for every week that Gordon Brown has been Prime Minister.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.
In Gordon Brown Labour have a Leader who can’t answer a straight question and can’t take a decision.
He dithered over the election that never was.
He dithered over Peter Hain.
He dithered over whether and when and how to sign the EU Constitution.
And as we have just seen, dithered over what to do with Northern Rock.
Northern Rock
Let’s be in doubt what this week – and the decision to nationalise Northern Rock – signifies.
It’s the week that this Government’s reputation for economic competence finally died.
Just consider what they have been asking us to do in Parliament this week.
Please: saddle the taxpayer with this business with all its debts, all its liabilities, all the potential pitfalls and all the problems as the housing market turns down.We can’t tell you how much the business will cost.
We can’t tell you how long we will have to own it.
We can’t actually tell you what we will really own, as half or the mortgages, the better half in fact … really belong to an offshore trust registered in Jersey.
And we can’t tell you whether we think the business should get bigger or smaller.
The truth is that Labour just want to cover up their failure to act more decisively, get this story of the news, get this problem out of the way and they’re quite prepared to ask the taxpayer to pay any price to get it done.
Around the world, newspaper column inches are being written about what a mess Britain’s financial system is.
The Los Angeles Times has written that this decision “could be a blow to Britain's efforts to establish London as the global capital of finance.”
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has argued that the “the temporary nationalisation of Northern Rock continues the fiasco for the British Government.”
Our economy should be an icon for stability and progress.
But because of this Government, it’s rapidly becoming a laughing stock.
Gordon Brown’s eleven budgets have left us with the worst public finances in Europe.
And his mania for taxation and regulations has left our economy inflexible and uncompetitive.
No wonder everyone, from Alan Greenspan to the OECD, the World Economic Forum to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Morgan Stanley to Goldman Sachs, says Britain is not prepared for the bad days that lie ahead.
Tough choices
And that is why I say that it is going to be hard work when we win that election and have to take the big decisions about our country’s future.
Make no mistake: Labour’s economic incompetence has got us into this mess and it’s up to us – the Conservative Party – to get us out of it.
In the past I’ve said that while Margaret Thatcher focused on reversing economic decline, we will have to focus on social decline but the truth is that we will have to do both.
So let me tell you what we will do.
In the short term, we will reform our financial institutions.
That means making the Bank of England stronger and more independent, giving them the power the rescue any future Northern Rocks.
In the medium term, we will restore the health of our public finances. We will stop the reckless growth of public spending - and share the proceeds of growth.
Some people ask me: what does this mean? It is simple; it means that I want the economy to grow faster than the government.
And to guarantee our economic security further, in the long-term, we will bring about a supply side revolution.
It means stripping away at regulations. Simplifying business taxes and giving our children the skills they need to compete.
Movement for Change
But the deeper failure is not economic decline, but social decline.
In our country today we have the highest rates of family breakdown, teenage pregnant, juvenile delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse and anti social behaviour in Europe.
We are six months on from the senseless murder of Rhys Jones, gunned down by a teenager on a bike.
We are not far away from the place where Gary Newlove was beaten to death on his doorstep by a bunch a drunken thugs who were making his neighbourhood hell.
To those who say there is nothing that can be done to heal this broken society, I say: no, we can mend it.
We can give clear an unambiguous backing to families that come together and stay together … but it means scrapping the penalty against couples in the benefit system and recognising marriage in the tax system and fighting off the legions of so called experts who say it is unfair by saying “no: this is right and we will do it.”
We can restore discipline in our schools, but it means saying to head teachers yes you can expel unruly pupils and no you won’t be overruled by an appeals panel. We can get the Police out from behind theirallenge the form filling and political correctness that has put them there.
And in this battle, we will have a great ally – the people of this country themselves.
They are no longer putting up with it.
They’ve realised this Government has run out of ideas and is running out of steam.
They want change – and they want it now and they want to make it happen themselves, directly.
You can see it globally, in the mobilisation of millions in the name of causes like climate change and global poverty.
You can see it locally, in the campaigns for new schools, for a decent environment for their kids to grow up in.
You can see it in the social entrepreneurs who’ve had enough of decline in their communities, can’t wait for this Government to get its act together and want to make a difference – bring about change – themselves.
Social entrepreneurs like Greg Davies in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester.
Greg brought the social capital of Wythenshawe to life and has established a thriving social enterprise, giving hope and opportunity to a community failed by state welfare.
Those who care about our planet, who care about keeping power local, who want more control over their lives and want to make a difference to their neighbourhood… these people are not anti-politics – they’re just alienated by the old politics.
People are realising that society doesn’t function simply because we can tick a box every four or five years – not if we think that in doing so we are handing over responsibility to the central state.
Society functions when everyone does their bit…
when we’re all in this together…when we each fulfil our social responsibilities to our families, our neighbourhoods and our nation as a whole.
That realisation – the limits of state control, the potential of social responsibility – that is the great change that is happening across Britain today.
And our Party – that includes every one sitting here today – must be on the side of this change.
We as Conservatives believe in active politics – our members are the most socially-engaged, the most civic-minded, the most neighbourly bunch of people in Britain.
And we as Conservatives know we’re at our best when our coalition is at its broadest…so we must open our arms and welcome all those – rich, poor, young, old, Black, White or Asian – who say enough of all this.
Enough of social decline.
Enough of the broken promises.
Enough of the indecision and dithering.
Yes, our country can change.
Yes, we can build a better future for ourselves and our children.
Yes, we can get it if we really want it.
And I emphasise the ‘we’.
We the Conservative Party, and we the nation as a whole, working together to get the things we all want for Britain.
Our agenda
Our vision has three elements.
First, our opportunity agenda.
In response to the 21st century's new world of freedom, where people expect to make more and more decisions for themselves, we want to give people more opportunity and power over their lives.
More incentives to get off welfare into work… more help to buy your own home… to get a good school for your kids… and abolishing inheritance tax to leave them something when you die.
Second, our responsibility agenda.
We understand that the new world of freedom we're living in can also create a sense of unease, and so in response we want to strengthen the ties that bind society together.
Helping families to stay together rather than paying them to live apart… giving the elderly what they’re entitled to, by raising the basic state pension… and taking the next generation of uninspired teenagers and introducing a National Citizen Service school-leaver programme.
Finally, our security agenda.
In response to the new world of insecurity, Conservatives want to make Britain safer and greener.
Reforming the police they spend more of their time on the beat than at the desksner supply of energy… and as I have laid out, restoring our country’s economic security so people don’t have to worry about having a roof over their head and a job to go to.
Conclusion
These three elements of our vision – opportunity, responsibility and security – are intimately connected to one another. It’s a virtuous circle.
If you give people more opportunity and power over their lives, as Conservatives who are optimistic about human nature, we believe that they will behave more responsibly.
A society where people behave more responsibly will be a more secure society.
And in turn, a more secure society provides a stronger platform for individual opportunity.
So let’s be clear what we are fighting for.
A society with more opportunity.
A society that is more responsible.
A society that is greener and safer.
And let’s go forward together – a Party united and strong, confident in what we believe and determined to deliver for Britain.”
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