Cameron claims Britain needs Tory leadership
The leader of the Conservative party has set out a ‘responsibility agenda’ for the country.
Speaking at the party’s conference in Birmingham, David Cameron attacked the Prime Minister’s claim to have the experience to see the country through tough economic times.
“Experience is the excuse of the incumbent over the ages. Gordon Brown talks about his economic experience,” he said.
“The problem is, we have actually experienced his experience.
“We’ve experienced the masssive increase in debt, We have experienced the huge rise in taxes. We experienced the folly of pretending the boom and bust can be ended.”
Mr Cameron spoke from a lectern, in contrast to last year when he wandered the stage and spoke without notes.
He said that the Prime Minister made two mistakes: removing the Bank of England’s power to regulate financial markets and “government borrowing money in the good times when it should have been saving.”
Mr Cameon, addressing delegates in the Birmingham Symphony Hall, said that sound money and fair taxes would be restored if his party is elected.
He spoke about the Armed Forces’ work in Afghanistan and said that if we “fail in our mission, the Taliban will come back. He attacked the government for “treating our soldiers like second class citizens.”
Mr Cameron said that responsibility is the what the Tory party is all about.
“I am a 43 year old father of three who thinhks that the family is the most important thing there is,” he told delegates.
“I am not an ideologue. I know my party can get things wrong, and other parties sometimes gets things right.
“Good government thinks for the long term.”
He attacked the Labour party as believing only in the state and the individual.
“No family to rely on, no friend to depend on, no community to call on. No one but the minister, nowhere but Whitehall, no such thing as society, just them, their laws, their rules and their arrogance. You cannot run our country like this.”
The Tory leader said that he is a “fiscal Conservative” who believes in low taxes.
“I know it’s your money. I know you want some of it back. And I want to give it to you. But we will only cut taxes when it is responsible to do so once we make the government live within its means.”
He pledged to cut corporation tax by 3p to encourage enterprise and small businesses.
The Tory leader also claimed that “Labour have had their chance to show they can be trusted with the NHS, and they have failed. We are the party of the NHS in Britain today.”
He also defended his claim that British society is broken, referring to the “angry, harsh culture of incivility” and said that state intervention and state money is needed to mend it.
“Miss the context, miss the cause, miss the background and you will never get the true picture of why crime is so high in our country.”
Mr Cameron defended his support for marriage through tax breaks, calling the family “the best welfare system there is.”
“To those who say ‘why pick out marriage, why do you persist in aggravating people who for whatever reason choose not to get married.’
“I say ‘I don’t want to aggravate anyone, but I believe in committment and many of us, me included, will always remember that moment when you say, up there in front of others, it’s not just me anymore. it’s us, together, and that helps to take you through the tough times and that’s something we should cherish as a society.'”
The Conservative leader said these “difficult times” need leadership, character and judgement.
“That’s what Britain needs at a time like this and that is what this party now offers.”
PinkNews.co.uk Editor Tony Grew reports from the Conservative Party Conference
