Want to see how it all ends? Skip to approximately 8 minutes in.

The problem with the UK is since the Thatcher era we have been constantly punching above our weight and when Labour came into power some twelve years ago, it was with the promise of a new revitalised UK.

Northern Ireland (with an untold amount of money thrown at it) no longer was a nagging sore, deals were done and the Irish Taliban, senior IRA personnel, were given shoe-in positions of power, when at least one of them should have been facing a trial for 18 well documented murders and the UK authorities to this very day have all the evidence – firmly under lock and key.

The involvement of an Irish Priest at one point caused at least one of the major fugitives to be released having been captured after a long and bloody search by the military.

I know this as the senior military figure in Belfast at the time (now sadly passed on) recounted the story in detail to me. It was at the end of his distinguished military career when he, Major Napier was looking forward to retirement, but was unexpectedly posted to Belfast with the Kings Own Troop Royal Horse Artillery.

Ironically, I later heard the London Met. Police (at the time, on virtual permanent secondment to Northern Ireland) view on the same series of incidents in Northern Ireland and all the strands matched up.

So given the Northern Ireland experience and the fact that Tony Blair was in the driving seat, you can see why Gordon Brown is keen to make Afghanistan work, even though the current rate of murders (you really can’t call them battlefield casualties) is exceeding the Falklands daily tally.

There but for the grace of God

Ministers keep to the line that if we pull out, the Taliban will join with other terrorist groups, overrun Pakistan and use nuclear weapons against us in the UK.

So the classic Westminster model thinking is (as used back in colonial times) support the functioning Government of the day, put in place basic elements of a rag tag police force and implant basic civic systems, use a combination of bribes dressed up as aid and threats (withdrawal of bribes ie aid) to exert a nominal hold over the incumbent Government.

Trouble is everyone knows that the UK is financially stretched and the populous does not have the jingoistic (politically incorrect) will to support the action in Afghanistan.

Children have grown up during the 12 years of Labour inspired multicultural rule and with information computer technology, know far more about world affairs than many politicians from a previous more sane world.

Take a walk around any major UK conurbation, find the Central Library computer room or in-town internet cafés, the collective high tech teaching of discredited and deported Mullahs are to be found streaming hate and vilification 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Essentially it’s Gordon Brown looking at the Autumn of his political aspirations versus the Mullahs? No contest in some ethnic and religious groupings. The days of a stiff upper lip, swagger stick and a loud “Now look here…” no longer works. ‘Johnny Foreigner’ lives in the UK, has a growing family, a taxpayer and is now a second/third generation British Citizen.

Ministers say the threat comes from a variety of ‘dark’ fanatical well financed, trained, equipped forces combining together and then our own mainland is threatened.

For this reason if you follow the logic, we fight hand to hand skirmish actions with conventional weaponry and highly restrictive rules of engagement in Afghanistan?

Rather than unleashing a concerted arms length missile based attack and blanket carpet bombing of poppy fields,Taliban strongholds and used of a whole range of weapons of mass destruction NATO forces have stashed away. The whole Dr Strangelove scenario if you like, and where are all those NATO troops and associated support?

There is no front line

Publicly when we were ‘winning’ it looked good, and gave MPs something to talk about.

The UK looked good (in Gordons’ good eye anyway) at international symposia such as the G8 or G20 and soon wonderful Copenhagen. Such actions keep the arms industry in operation and many thousands employed in areas traditionally associated with high unemployment.

On the money side conventional warfare is also cheap, the Treasury likes that, having dipped into and virtually emptied the secret off balance sheet military ‘contingency fund’ or ‘war chest’ to pay off (or bail out) the bankers, prop up the massive underfunding of the Olympics, the private sector was supposed to have filled.

The truth is that few really understanding what goes on inside the many privately funded faith schools, parents and young impressionable people also have access to superior worldwide family and wider networking avenues only open and normal to people of Asian origin. All perfectly legal and supported to the hilt, by the Human Rights Act.

It also has to be said, the traditional British family unit crumbled a few generations back. As to the UK’s world financial standing, reading The Daily Telegraph as the Taliban certainly do, “UK is ‘skint’ says M&S’s Sir Stuart Rose”. If the Taliban didn’t know it earlier they certainly do now!

So no strong public backing for the war, no extra money to fight it and a Government on the way out probably by late March. MP’s collectively tarnished as corrupt with Duckhouses and moats to clean, all out of the public purse. Whilst mounting job losses are announced daily and not just in the hundreds but thousands. Nothing like a good recession to have a bottom upwards corporate clear out, it’s not looking good.

A weak, corrupt Afghanistan Government and subsistence level poorly paid Afghan trainee police officers drawn from the general population, with minimal vetting. Extra income and wider families covertly maintained by the opium warlords and in a country where everyone is related. That is what our troops are facing, and Gordon Brown knows it.

The sad reality of war: RIP

So what should be done. Gordon needs to save face. He’s lost his saintly spin doctor, rudderless if you like, nervous about returning highly professional motivated battle hardened but disciplined British troops en-mass to the UK, but that is what has to be done, the real threat is from within and as we are now fully within Europe, the Lisbon treaty having been ratified, take full advantage of it.

Europe can now collectively take over the Police training role and supply on a rota basis, the NATO troops required, our insular role is effectively done and dusted. We should leave Afghanistan, within weeks and if there is any training to be done, it can be carried out at arms length in neutral territory in any one of a number of European countries.

We’ll continue to supply the hardware and remote drone assisted air support but our British troops on the ground in hostile conditions? This is the battle tactic of 64 years ago, the Battle of the Somme without the mud. Just as futile and pointless.

The heartbreaking thing is that all the Ministers know it, but have to keep it going until they can collectively pass the buck or baton to a new administration. “Not our problem old boy. Fancy a pink Gin?”

END

About Julian:  Julian Bray is a broadcaster, moderator, speaker, journalist and lectures on leadership, company turnarounds, corporate and recession busting strategies, politics, aviation, travel and The City.

House of Commons

Recess dates 2009-10 (Note: All recess dates are provisional)

State Opening: 18 November 2009

Recess
House rises
House returns

Christmas
16 December 2009
5 January 2010

Half Term
10 February 2010
22 February 2010

Easter
to be confirmed
to be confirmed

Whitsun
to be confirmed
to be confirmed

Summer
to be confirmed
to be confirmed

House of Lords

Recess dates 2009-10 (Note: All recess dates are provisional)

State Opening: 18 November 2009

Recess
House rises
House returns

Christmas
16 December 2009
5 January 2010

Half Term
10 February 2010
22 February 2010

Easter
to be confirmed
to be confirmed

Whitsun
to be confirmed
to be confirmed

Summer
to be confirmed
to be confirmed

The full text of his speech follows bringing the Conservative Party conference and our coverage of it to a close.

I want to get straight to the point.

We all know how bad things are, massive debt, social breakdown, political disenchantment. But what I want to talk about today is how good things could be.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no illusions. If win this election, it is going to be tough. There will have to be cutbacks in public spending, and that will be painful. We will need to confront Britain’s culture of irresponsibility and that will be hard to take for many people. And we will have to tear down Labour’s big government bureaucracy, ripping up its time-wasting, money-draining, responsibility-sapping nonsense.

None of this will be easy. We will be tested. I will be tested. I’m ready for that – and so I believe, are the British people. So yes, there is a steep climb ahead.

But I tell you this. The view from the summit will be worth it.

AFGHANISTAN

If we win the election the first and gravest responsibility I will face is for our troops in Afghanistan and their families at home.

I know that.

I know about the mothers and the wives, the husbands and the children, counting the minutes between news bulletins, fearing the announcement of the next casualty. I know what they want – and deserve – from their government. A ruthless, relentless focus on fighting, winning and coming home.

That must start at the top. Instead of a revolving door at the Ministry of Defence with a second rate substitute in charge, we need a politician from the front rank, and in Liam Fox we have one.

We need a clear chain of command that flows right from the top. My national security council, with the key ministers and defence chiefs, will sit from day one of a new government, as a war cabinet.

We need a strategy that is credible, and do-able. We are not in Afghanistan to deliver the perfect society. We are there to stop the re-establishment of terrorist training camps.

Frankly, time is short. We cannot spend another eight years taking ground only to give it back again.

So our method should be clear……send more soldiers to train more Afghans to deliver the security we need. Then we can bring our troops home.

And I know the most urgent requirement of all. That those brave men and women we send into danger have every piece of equipment they need to do the job we ask of them. I will make sure that happens.

And I have something else to say. When the country is at war, when Whitehall is at war, we need people who understand war in Whitehall.

That’s why I’m proud to announce today that someone who has fought for our country and served for forty years in our armed forces will not only advise our defence team but will join our benches in the House of Lords and if we win the election could serve in a future Conservative Government:

General Sir Richard Dannatt. As we welcome him to serve with us, let us all salute those who serve our country.

FAMILY, COMMUNITY, COUNTRY

We could have come to Manchester this week and played it safe. But that’s not what this party is about and it’s certainly not what I’m about.

When I stood on that stage in Blackpool four years ago it wasn’t just to head up this party, sit around and wait for the tide to turn. It was to lead this party and change it, so together we could turn the tide.

Look what we’ve done together. More women candidates, campaigning on the environment, the party of the NHS. And this year, here in Manchester, our most successful, dynamic conference for twenty years.

I’d like to thank everyone involved, the police who kept us safe and your chum and mine, Eric Pickles.

But also this year, in these difficult times, we’ve won the argument on the economy and debt as George Osborne showed in that magnificent speech on Tuesday.

That was the success we achieved this year.

But for me and Samantha this year will only ever mean one thing. When such a big part of your life suddenly ends nothing else – nothing outside – matters. It’s like the world has stopped turning and the clocks have stopped ticking. And as they slowly start again, weeks later, you ask yourself all over again: do I really want to do this? You think about what you really believe and what sustains you.

I know what sustains me the most. She is sitting right there and I’m incredibly proud to call her my wife.

My beliefs. I am not a complicated person. I love this country and the things it stands for.

That the state is your servant, never your master. Common sense and decency. The British sense of community.

I have some simple beliefs.That there is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same thing as the state. That there is a ‘we’ in politics, and not just a ‘me.’

Above all, the importance of family. That fierce sense of loyalty you feel for each other. The unconditional love you give and receive, especially when things go wrong or when you get it wrong. That powerful sense you have when you hold your children and there’s nothing, absolutely nothing – you wouldn’t do to protect them.

This is my DNA: family, community, country. These are the things I care about. They are what made me. They are what I’m in public service to protect, promote and defend. And I believe they are what we need in Britain today more than ever.

I know how lucky I’ve been to have the chances I had. And I know there are children growing up in Britain today who will never know the love of a father. Who are born in homes that hold them back. Who go to schools that keep them back.

Children who will never start a business, never raise a family, never see the world. Children who will live the life they’re given, not the life they want. That is what I want to change.

I want every child to have the chances I had. That is why I’m standing here.

BIG GOVERNMENT

But we won’t help anyone unless we face up to some big problems. The highest budget deficit since the war. The deepest recession since the war. Social breakdown; political disillusionment. Big problems for the next government to address.

And here is the big argument in British politics today, put plainly and simply. Labour say that to solve the country’s problems, we need more government.

Don’t they see? It is more government that got us into this mess.

Why is our economy broken? Not just because Labour wrongly thought they’d abolished boom and bust. But because government got too big, spent too much and doubled the national debt.

Why is our society broken? Because government got too big, did too much and undermined responsibility.

Why are our politics broken? Because government got too big, promised too much and pretended it had all the answers.

Of course it was done with the best intentions. And let’s be clear: not everything Labour did was wrong.

Devolution; the minimum wage; civil partnerships, these are good things that we will we keep.

But this idea that for every problem there’s a government solution for every issue an initiative, for every situation a czar….

It ends with them making you register with the government to help out your child’s football team. With police officers punished for babysitting each other’s children. With laws so bureaucratic and complicated even their own Attorney General can’t obey them.

Do you know the worst thing about their big government? It’s not the cost, though that’s bad enough. It is the steady erosion of responsibility. Our task is to lead Britain in a completely different direction.

So no, we are not going to solve our problems with bigger government. We are going to solve our problems with a stronger society. Stronger families. Stronger communities. A stronger country. All by rebuilding responsibility.

THE DEBT CRISIS

The clearest sign of big government irresponsibility is the enormous size of our debt.

If we win the election, we will have to confront Labour’s Debt Crisis, deal with it, and take the country with us. I want everyone to understand the gravity of our situation.

Our national debt has doubled in the last five years and our annual deficit next year will be over £170 billion.

That’s twice as big as when we nearly went bankrupt in the 1970s. It is a massive risk to our economy. If we spend more than we earn, we have to get the money from somewhere.

Right now, the Government is simply printing it. Sometime soon that will have to stop, because in the end, printing money leads to inflation. Then the Government will have to borrow it.

But we’ll only be given the money if lenders are confident we can pay it back. If they’re not, we’ll have to pay higher interest rates and that could stop our economic recovery in its tracks.

So we have three choices.

Option one: we can just default on the debt. Not pay it. Other countries have done that in the past. But I don’t think anyone in this country wants to go down that road.

Option two: we could encourage inflation, which would wipe out the value of the debt, making it easier to pay off. But that’s not just an economic disaster – it’s a social disaster too. It doesn’t just wipe out debts, it wipes out people’s hard-earned savings.

So we have the third option – for me the only option. We must pay down this deficit. The longer we leave it, the worse it will be for all of us.

I know there are some who say we should just wait.

Don’t talk about the deficit. Don’t even plan for what needs to be done. Just wait. Don’t they understand – it’s the waiting that’s the problem.

The longer we wait for a credible plan, the bigger the bill for our children to pay. The longer we wait, the greater the risk to the recovery. The longer we wait, the higher the chance we return to recession.

Here’s the most obvious reason we can’t wait. The more we wait, the more we waste on the interest we’re paying on this debt.

Next year, Gordon Brown will spend more money on the interest on our debt than on schools. More than on law and order, more than on child poverty.

So I say to the Labour Party and the trades unions just tell me what is compassionate, what is progressive about spending more on debt interest than on helping the poorest children in our country?

The progressive thing to do, the responsible thing to do is to get a grip on the debt but in a way that brings the country together instead of driving it apart. That means showing leadership at the top which is why we will cut ministers’ pay and freeze it for a parliament.

It means showing that we’re all in this together which is why we’ll freeze public sector pay for all but the one million lowest paid public sector workers……for one year to help protect jobs.

And it means showing that the rich will pay their share which is why for now the 50p tax rate will have to stay and Child Trust Funds for those on middle and higher incomes will have to go.

Yes we have made some tough choices. But in British politics today that is the only responsible thing to do.

PENSIONERS

Dealing with this debt crisis is not just about cuts in the short term. We must also live within our means over the long term. Everyone knows we have an ageing population.

Our pension system was designed in a time when many people didn’t live till 70 …. It is out of date and it has to change. That’s why this week we made the difficult decision to bring forward the raising of the pension age.

I know that working longer will be tough for many people. But it will also allow us to help pensioners more.

I got an email from a lady who wrote to me in desperation. She doesn’t want me to reveal her name because she’s so frightened of what might happen to her.

She and her husband left school at fifteen and started work straight away. They bought their own home, where they’ve lived for forty years. But they’ve been let down terribly. She lost out on the 10p tax and took a drop in her pension. She and her husband aren’t entitled to pension credit because they saved for their old age.

Here’s what she says:

“during the cold spell this winter, we sat watching TV with blankets wrapped around us.

The drug dealer and the druggies who live nearby had their windows wide open and the heating full on.

We don’t bother watching police dramas on the TV, we just look out of our window.

Our savings are making no money.

If one of us dies we cannot afford to stay in our home.”

This lady doesn’t want pity. Pensioners don’t want pity. They just want to know that if they’ve lived responsibly, they’ll be looked after in their old age.

Parties have been talking about raising the pension in line with earnings for years. But it never happens.

Well let’s be the party that finally makes it happen. Because of the difficult choice we’ve made on the pension age we’ll be able not just to deal with our debt but to raise the basic state pension in line with earnings. Not just for one year, but for every year.

GROWTH

Cutting back on big government is not just about spending less. Getting our debt down means getting our economic growth up.

Let’s be clear where growth will come from. Not big government, with its Regional Development Agencies and National Investment Corporations but entrepreneurs. New businesses, new industries, new technologies.

I get enterprise. I worked in business for seven years. And let me tell you what I learned during that time.

Complicated taxes, excessive regulations they make life impossible for entrepreneurs.

So I will always put the same questions to Ken Clarke and his business team.

What are you doing to make it easier to start a business? Easier to take people on? What are you doing to make regulation less complicated? To make locating a business here more attractive?

Ken Clarke and David Willetts this week helped launch our plan to Get Britain Working.

It is a plan to boost science, skills, self-employment a plan to improve training, technology, tax incentives for entrepreneurs.

This is what it means.

It means the man who’s lost his job and his confidence saying yes, I can set up on my own, I can take responsibility, there’s nothing to stop me.

It means the people he takes on, who thought they were written off, thinking yes I’ve got another chance and I can provide for my family again.

Self-belief is infectious and I want it to spread again throughout our country especially through the poorest places where Labour let hope fade away.

In Britain today, there are entrepreneurs everywhere – they just don’t know it yet. Success stories everywhere – they just haven’t been written yet. We must be the people who release that potential.

FINANCIAL REFORM

And just a quick word to the man who says he abolished boom and bust and then saved the world.

It was you Gordon Brown who designed the system of financial regulation that helped cause the financial crisis. You want to keep it the same. We say it needs to change.

That’s why we will give back to the Bank of England its power to regulate the City powers that should never have been taken away.

BROKEN SOCIETY

But once we’re generating economic growth – what are we going to do with it? What kind of society do we hope to build?

Look at Britain in 2009. It is, in so many ways, a great place to live. Great culture and arts, great diversity, great sport.

And think of the great sport coming up next year England in the World Cup, then the Olympics, then rugby and cricket too. And yes, let’s get the Football World Cup here in 2018 as well.

But in Britain today there is a dark side as well. After twelve years of big government, we still have those stubborn social problems.

Poverty, crime, addiction. Failing schools. Sink estates. Broken homes.

The truth is, it’s not just that big government has failed to solve these problems. Big government has all too often helped cause them by undermining the personal and social responsibility that should be the lifeblood of a strong society.

Just think of the signals we send out. To the family struggling to raise children, pay a mortgage, hold down a job.

“Stay together and we’ll give you less; split up and we give you more.”

To the young mum working part time, trying to earn something extra for her family “from every extra pound you earn we’ll take back 96 pence.”

Yes, 96 pence.

Let me say that again, slowly.

In Gordon Brown’s Britain if you’re a single mother with two kids earning £150 a week the withdrawal of benefits and the additional taxes mean that for every extra pound you earn, you keep just 4 pence.

What kind of incentive is that? Thirty years ago this party won an election fighting against 98 per cent tax rates on the richest. Today I want us to show even more anger about 96 per cent tax rates on the poorest.

And in that fight, there’s one person this party can rely on. He’s the man who has dedicated himself to the cause of social justice…and shown great courage in standing up for those least able to stand up for themselves. Iain Duncan Smith

And I am proud to announce today that if we win the election he will be responsible in government for bringing together all our work to help mend the broken society.

LABOUR AND POVERTY

Labour still have the arrogance to think that they are the ones who will fight poverty and deprivation.

On Monday, when we announced our plan to Get Britain Working you know what Labour called it? “Callous.”

Excuse me? Who made the poorest poorer? Who left youth unemployment higher? Who made inequality greater?

No, not the wicked Tories… you, Labour: you’re the ones that did this to our society.

So don’t you dare lecture us about poverty. You have failed and it falls to us, the modern Conservative Party to fight for the poorest who you have let down.

FAMILY

We’ll start with what is most important to me – and what I believe is most important for the country – families.

I believe that a stable, loving home is the most precious thing a child can have. Society begins at home. Responsibility starts at home. That’s why we cannot be neutral on this.

Now I don’t live in some fantasy land where every family is happily married with 2.4 kids. Nor am I going to stand here and pretend that family life is always easy.

But by recognising marriage and civil partnerships in the tax system and abolishing the couple penalty in the benefits system, we’ll help make it that little bit easier.

But it’s not just about money. It’s also about emotional support, particularly in those fraught early years before children go to school. Labour understood this and we should acknowledge that.

That’s why Sure Start will stay, and we’ll improve it. We will keep flexible working, and extend it. And we will not just keep but transform something that was there long before Sure Start began – health visitors.

But making the country more family-friendly is not just about what government does. Responsibility goes much wider. It’s about what we all do. It’s about the way we live.

Why aren’t we building homes with enough room for a family to sit round a table and actually eat a meal together?

It’s about our culture. Why do so many magazines and websites and music videos make children insecure about the way they look or the experiences they haven’t even had?

And it’s about our society. We give our children more and more rights, and we trust our teachers less and less. We’ve got to stop treating children like adults and adults like children.

It is about everyone taking responsibility. The more that we as a society do, the less we will need government to do.

WELFARE

But you can’t expect families to behave responsibly when the welfare system works in the opposite direction.

In welfare, big government has failed people in a big way. There are two million children in Britain growing up in homes where no-one works. Two million.

That is the highest in Europe. It is one in six children in our country.

We have to break this cycle of welfare dependency.

I got an email from a guy called Viv Williams. He lost his job last year and was desperate to get back into work. But he had a mortgage to pay so he went to register for Job Seeker’s Allowance.

He’d twisted his ankle and walked in with a limp, so you know what they said? They told him he couldn’t register for Job Seeker’s Allowance because he wasn’t fit to work so he’d have to go on incapacity benefit.

He told them there was nothing wrong with him, that he wanted to work. But no – he wasn’t allowed to.

This is a man who wanted to take responsibility for himself and his family and the system said no, you’ve got to depend on the state.

As he says: “I told them, you’re having a laugh.” But it’s not funny. The welfare system today sends out completely crazy signals.

We have got to turn it around and with Theresa May and David Freud in charge we will. We’re going to make it clear: If you really cannot work, we’ll look after you. But if you can work, you should work and not live off the hard work of others.

NHS

So we have to reform welfare and strengthen families. But when I think of my family, in the end there’s only one thing that matters and that is that the people I love are healthy and well.

My family owes so much to the National Health Service. No, it is not perfect. But I tell you, when you’re carrying a child in your arms to Accident and Emergency in the middle of the night and don’t have to reach for your wallet it’s a lot better than the alternative.

So we will never change the idea at the heart of our NHS, that healthcare in this country is free at the point of use and available to everyone based on need, not ability to pay.

But that doesn’t mean the NHS shouldn’t change. It has to change because for many people, the service isn’t good enough. Mostly, that’s not the fault of those who work in the NHS.

The fault lies with big government. With their endless targets and reorganisations, Labour have tried to run the NHS like a machine.

But it’s not a machine full of cogs. It is a living, breathing institution made up of people – doctors, nurses, patients.

This lever-pulling from above – it has got to stop. With Andrew Lansley’s reform plans, we’re going to give the NHS back to people. We’ll say to the doctors: those targets you hate, they’re gone.

But in return, we’ll do more for patients. Choice about where you get treated. Information about how good different doctors are, how good different hospitals are.

Information about the things that really matter, cancer survival times……the rate of hospital infections……your chances of surviving if you have a stroke.

We will give doctors back their professional responsibility.

But in exchange they will be subject to patient accountability. That’s why we can look the British people in the eye and say this party is the party of the NHS now, today, tomorrow, always.

CRIME

The instinct to protect the people we love is so strong. Nearly two years ago it was that instinct – that love – that drove Fiona Pilkington to do something desperate.

When I first read her story in the paper I found it difficult to finish the article – it’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever read.

Fiona was so driven to despair by the vile thugs that bullied her and her lovely disabled daughter Francecca and by the police that didn’t answer her cries for help that she could only see one way out. She put her daughter in her car, drove to a lay-by, and set it on fire.

If no one would protect them then by ending their lives, she was keeping them safe.

No one could hurt them anymore. Just think about what we allowed to happen here in our country. This goes deep and it’s been going on for years.

It is about a breakdown of all the things that are meant to keep us safe……a complete breakdown of responsibility.

A breakdown of morality in the minds of those thugs a total absence of feeling or conscience. A breakdown in community where a neighbour is left to reach a pitch of utter misery. And a breakdown of our criminal justice system.

Every part of it, the police, the prosecution services, the prisons……is failing under the weight of big government targets and bureaucracy. The police aren’t on the streets because they’re busy complying with ten different inspection regimes. The police say the CPS isn’t charging people…because they have to hit targets to reduce the number of unsuccessful trials.

And the prisons aren’t rehabilitating offenders…because they’re focused on meeting thirty-three different performance indicators.

This all needs to change. I’m not going to stand here and promise you a country where nothing bad ever happens. I do not underestimate how difficult it will be to deal with this problem of crime and disorder.

We cannot rebuild social responsibility from on high. But the least we can do the least we can do is pledge to all the people who are scared, who live their lives in fear and who can’t protect themselves, that a Conservative Government, with Chris Grayling, with Dominic Grieve, will reform the police, reform the courts, reform prisons. We will be there to protect you.

TERRORISM

We understand too the grave responsibility we will have to protect our people from terrorism. This party knows only too well the pain and grief that terrorism brings.

Twenty-five years ago, almost to the day on the Thursday night of our party conference in Brighton, the IRA exploded a bomb that injured and killed good friends and colleagues.

Today let us honour their memory and send our thoughts and best wishes to all those, including Margaret Tebbit, who still bear the scars of that terrible night.

SCHOOLS

To build a responsible society we need to teach our children properly. I come at education as a parent, not a politician.

When I watch my daughter skip across the playground to start her first term in year one, I want to know that every penny of the education budget is following her and the other children into that school and that classroom.

So when I see Ed Balls blow hundreds of millions on so-called “curriculum development” on consultancies, on quangos like the QCDA and BECTA like every other parent with a child at a state school I want to say:

This is my child, it’s my money, give it to my headteacher instead of wasting it in Whitehall.

But it’s not just about money. It’s about values. We know that discipline is vital but we overrule head teachers when they exclude a disruptive pupil.

We know that every child has different abilities and different needs but too often we put them all in the same class so the brightest aren’t stretched and those who are struggling fall behind.

We know that competitive sport is important but we’ve had minister after minister promising it and nothing ever happens.

Discipline. Setting by ability. Regular sport.

These are all things you find in a private school. Not because the Government tells them to do it, but because it’s what parents want. Why can’t parents in state schools always get what they want?

With us, they will, because our reforms will create more good schools and more school places. Yes, our plans will increase competition – and no, that is not a dirty word. It means that when a good new school opens down the road, the other ones around it will want to improve. Big government has totally failed in state education and with Michael Gove we will get the radical change we need.

COUNTRY

Family, community, country. In recent years we’ve been hearing things about our country we haven’t heard for a long time. People saying they don’t know what it is to be British, what this country stands for.

People in Scotland who want to leave the United Kingdom and people in England who say let them go.

I am passionate about our Union and I will never do anything to put it at risk. And because of the new political force we have created with the Ulster Unionists, I’m proud that at the next election we will be the only party fielding candidates in every part of the United Kingdom.

Britishness is not mechanical, it’s organic. It’s an emotional connection to a way of life, an attitude, a set of institutions.

Make these stronger and our national identity becomes stronger. To be British is to be open-minded.

We don’t care who you are or where you’re from, if you’ve got something to offer then this is a place you can call home.

But if we want our country to carry on with this proud, open tradition, we’ve got to understand the pressures of mass immigration and that’s why we need to put limits on it.

To be British is to be generous. Whenever there’s a disaster on the other side of the world, British people dig deep into their pockets and give their money. Comic Relief didn’t raise less money this year because of the recession – it raised more.

That says big things about our country, and government should reflect that. That’s why I’m proud that we’ve ring-fenced the budget for international development.

To be British is to be sceptical of authority and the powers-that-be.

That’s why ID cards, 42 days and Labour’s surveillance state are so utterly unacceptable and why we will sweep the whole rotten edifice away.

And to be British is to have an instinctive love of the countryside and the natural world. The dangers of climate change are stark and very real. If we don’t act now, and act quickly, we could face disaster.

Yes, we need to change the way we live. But is that such a bad thing? The insatiable consumption and materialism of the past decade, has it made us happier or more fulfilled?

Yes, we have to put our faith in technologies. But that is not a giant leap. Just around the corner are new green technologies, unimaginable a decade ago, that can change the way we live, travel, work.

And yes, we need global co-operation. But that shouldn’t be difficult. It just takes leadership, and that’s what we need at the Copenhagen summit this December.

POLITICS

But if you care about our country, you’ve got to care about the health of our institutions. And today one of them, more than any other, is in a serious state of decline.

Our parliament used to be a beacon to the world. But the expenses scandal made it a laughing stock.

We apologised to the public, paid back the money that shouldn’t have been claimed……and published all our expenses online to help stop this happening again.

We’ve led the way in other areas too……MPs’ pay and pensions, cutting the cost of politics. But let me make something clear – this is not over.

We are just starting the job of building the new politics we need. Because the anger over expenses reflected something deeper. The sense that people have been left powerless by big government.

So it is time to shake things up. We need to redistribute power and responsibility. It’s your community and you should have control over it……so we need decentralisation. It’s your money and you should know what is being done with it……so we need transparency. It’s your life that’s affected by political decisions and the people who make those decisions should answer to you, so we need accountability.

EU

But if there is one political institution that needs decentralisation, transparency, and accountability, it is the EU.

For the past few decades, something strange has been happening on the left of British politics. People who think of themselves as progressives have fallen in love with an institution that no one elects, no one can remove, and that hasn’t signed off its accounts for over a decade.

Indeed even to question these things is, apparently, completely beyond the pale. Well, here is a progressive reform plan for Europe.

Let’s work together on the things where the EU can really help, like combating climate change, fighting global poverty and spreading free and fair trade.

But let’s return to democratic and accountable politics the powers the EU shouldn’t have.

And if we win the election, we will have as the strongest voice for our country’s interests, the man who is leading our campaign for a referendum, the man who will be our new British Foreign Secretary: William Hague.

WHAT WE CAN PROMISE

Family, community, country.

Recognising that what holds society together is responsibility……and that the good society is a responsible society. That’s what I’m about – that’s what any government I lead will be about.

The problems we face are big and urgent. Rebuilding our broken economy……because unless we do, our children will be saddled with debt for decades to come.

Mending our broken society……because unless we do, we will never solve those stubborn social problems that cause the size of government to rise.

Fixing our broken politics……because unless we do, we will never reform public services……never see the strong, powerful citizens…who will build the responsible society that we all want to see.

This week you’ve heard about our plans, our policies, the changes we want to make and the team to put them in place.

But I know that whatever plans you make in Opposition, it’s the unpredictable events that come to dominate a government.

And it’s your character, your temperament and your judgment, not your policies and your manifesto – that really make the difference.

You can never prove you’re ready for everything that will come your way as Prime Minister. But you can point to the judgments you’ve made. And you can learn from the mistakes that others have made.

I’ve seen what happens when you win and you waste your mandate obsessing about the 24 hour news cycle and fighting each day as if it’s a new general election, ducking the difficult things that would have really made a difference.

That was Blair. And I’ve seen what happens when you turn every decision into a political calculation. That was – that is – Brown.

So I won’t promise things I cannot deliver. But I can look you in the eye and tell you that in a Conservative Britain:

If you put in the effort to bring in a wage, you will be better off. If you save money your whole life, you’ll be rewarded. If you start your own business, we’ll be right behind you. If you want to raise a family, we’ll support you. If you’re frightened, we’ll protect you.If you risk your safety to stop a crime, we’ll stand by you. If you risk your life to fight for your country, we will honour you.

Ask me what a Conservative government stands for and the answer is this, we will reward those who take responsibility, and care for those who can’t.

CONCLUSION

So if we cut big government back. If we move society forward.

And if we rebuild responsibility, then we can put Britain back on her feet.I know that today there aren’t many reasons to be cheerful.

But there are reasons to believe. Yes it will be a steep climb. But the view from the summit will be worth it. Let me tell you what I can see.

I see a country where more children grow up with security and love because family life comes first. I see a country where you choose the most important things in life – the school your child goes to and the healthcare you get. I see a country where communities govern themselves – organising local services, independent of Whitehall, a great handing back of power to people.

I see a country with entrepreneurs everywhere, bringing their ideas to life – and life to our great towns and cities. I see a country where it’s not just about the quantity of money, but the quality of life – where we lead the world in saving our planet. I see a country where you’re not so afraid to walk home alone, where you’re safe in the knowledge that right and wrong is restored to law and order.

I see a country where the poorest children go to the best schools not the worst, where birth is never a barrier.

No, we will not make it if we pull in different directions, follow our own interests, take care of only ourselves.

But if we pull together, come together, work together – we will get through this together.

And when we look back we will say not that the government made it happen…

…not that the minister made it happen…

…but the businesswoman made it happen…

…the police officer made it happen…

…the father made it happen…

…the teacher made it happen.

You made it happen.

Dominic is the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice.

Ladies and gentlemen 12 years ago this autumn, Labour’s newly-elected Prime Minister got up before his party’s conference and pledged ‘zero tolerance on crime.’

Then just two years ago, his successor stood up before the same party conference.

He said his answer to the crime and chaos he inherited would be ‘to both punish and prevent.’

What we got instead of ‘zero tolerance’ was zero

12 years of a government undermining the authority of police, probation and prison officers.

12 years of a government selling off our freedoms for a cheap headline.

12 years of a government content to watch seventy-thousand criminals including the man guilty of the worst terrorist crime in our history let out of jail early.

The only ones truly punished in those 12 long years were the voters of this country.

And the term of their sentence, their collective punishment has been 12 years of Labour!

Consider:

A Conservative government will inherit

Record violent crime,

Record prison overcrowding,

And record public debt.

We face a period of austerity.

So I promise you three things money can’t buy:

Honesty in government not self-defeating spin.

Long-term reform not short-sighted gimmicks.

And above all the leadership to see us through the tough times, and the tough choices we all know lie ahead.

Honesty in Government

If there’s one thing that has destroyed public trust in our criminal justice system it’s this government’s lack of honesty.

Like their claim to have cut the number of young people entering the criminal justice system by 10 per cent slammed as ‘smoke and mirrors’ by the former head of the Youth Justice Board.

Or crime statistics. Did you know a Cabinet Office review last year could only find one person who the public trust less than the Home Office to tell the truth about crime ?

Gordon Brown.

Less than 5 per cent of people trust this Prime Minister to be honest about crime.

Where Labour has been obsessed with spin a Conservative government will restore public faith the only way possible by making crime figures completely independent of government.

What I’m talking about is no pre-release access for Ministers or officials let alone special advisers.

And I’ll make this personal commitment to you today:

If I’m appointed Justice Secretary in the next Conservative administration I will end Jack Straw’s serial, selective and cynical trailing of government policy in the media.

The first place that I will announce any new policy will be in the House of Commons.

So it’s not distorted it’s debated.

So the public get the whole truth not selective snippets.

Because the Justice Secretary should be the first person not the last to respect the role of the House of Commons in holding government any government to account.

Delivery not gimmickery

But, we won’t get rid of the spin unless we also reverse Labour’s culture of government by gimmick.

In the last twelve years, we’ve seen it all:

From marching yobs to cash points, to forcing knife offenders to face their victims in A&E wards Jack Straw’s latest wheeze is giving the public a vote on criminal punishments.

Think about it:

Do people up and down this country want our justice system reduced to some cheap imitation of X-factor?

No people want their elected politicians to sort out the mess.

Like prison overcrowding.

When he was Chancellor, Gordon Brown vetoed the money to build enough prisons. Now that he’s Prime Minister he’s got an even better idea:

To release early thirteen thousand violent criminals.

That’s a thousand crimes committed by criminals who should have been in jail.

With one in seven murders now committed by offenders who’ve been released on probation.

The horrific reality I’m talking about was demonstrated all too tragically when two students at Imperial College London were robbed, tortured and murdered by Dano Sonnex and his accomplice.

Why?

All for a total of £360 in cash and a couple of computer games.

That case isn’t complex. It’s simple.

Sonnex breached prison discipline 40 times.

He should never have been released in the first place.

And when he kidnapped a pregnant woman and put a knife to her throat he obviously should have been instantly recalled to prison.

But what did he get under this Labour Government?

A verbal warning.

These weren’t isolated errors, they were systematic failings.

We won’t fix them overnight.

But we will start taking the difficult decisions on day one.

A Conservative government will build the prison places to address chronic overcrowding, and to make sure dangerous criminals like Sonnex remain behind bars,

Given the state of the public finances we will look at every option: Sale of the older estate to build new prisons. Alternative sites that can be adapted. And the extension of existing prisons.

But building more prisons isn’t enough.

Most offenders are released at some point.

So the question is whether they come out in a better or worse condition than they went in.

At the moment our overcrowded prisons just make criminals worse – we need a radical overhaul.

For a start, we will recognise the tough job prison officers do.

We will restore prisoner discipline by making offenders earn their release by behaving properly.

Then we need a zero tolerance approach to drugs in prison.

Last month, Jack Straw said he wants to control addicts by supervising heroin prescriptions.

What kind of defeatist message does that send?

Well, I’m not prepared to give up prosecuting the dealers, or trying to rehabilitate those with a drug problem.

A Conservative government will expand abstinence-based rehabilitation from existing budgets to get addicts off drugs not left hooked in a cycle of addiction.

Prisoners should also be put to productive work in prison.

If we improve the skills of offenders in our prisons then we improve their chances of getting a job.

And that radically reduces the likelihood of ex-convicts returning to a life of crime.

We will cut the prison bureaucracy that shut down programs like ‘Project Barbed’ at Coldingley Prison.

Where offenders worked for a graphic design business learning new skills and earning money so they could compensate their victims.

A Conservative government will get prisoners learning skills, earning their keep and paying for their crimes.

Leadership Requires Tough Choices

As I said a moment ago none of this will be easy.

But we can begin by taking the difficult decisions that define leadership.

A Conservative government will give frontline probation staff the direction they need.

They won’t be welfare officers for offenders they’ll be the guardians of public safety.

When it comes to legal aid, we will look for savings from the costs of prisoner claims that have soared from one million to nineteen million pounds in just six years.

But if Labour has abdicated tough choices they’ve also fabricated false choices.

Like the so-called trade-off between liberty and security.

We have a government that wants to lock up innocent people for 42 days without charge, but then supports the decision to let the Lockerbie bomber, convicted of murdering 243 people walk free.

And can somebody tell me how counter-terrorism will be served by extraditing Gary McKinnon to the United States for hacking into government computers in search of UFOs?

Ministers say they can’t block his extradition.

They can’t override the law.

But we have proposed a change in that law, sitting in the House of Lords right now that would prevent the McKinnon case ever happening again.

Why hasn’t the government accepted it?

When will Gordon Brown wake up then stand-up for the rights of British citizens?

Our extradition laws are a mess.

They’re one sided.

A Conservative government will re-write them.

There’s no ‘inevitable conflict’ between liberty and law enforcement.

It’s this government’s approach to human rights that has created chaos and confusion.

How many times have we seen police or probation officers say they can’t disclose the identity of a criminal because of his privacy under the Human Rights Act?

Police in Derbyshire refused to disclose photos of fugitive murderers.

And the Serious Organised Crime Agency say they can’t name gangsters.

That’s complete nonsense.

And we’ll end it straightaway.

So today I can announce that a Conservative government will change the rules for people charged with protecting the public on the frontline.

Why?

So it’s clear crystal clear that protecting the public takes precedence over the privacy of criminals!!!

Conclusion

So let’s just think for a minute about the future: The first few years of the next government won’t be easy.

But a Conservative government will be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

We’ll be straight with the public.

We’ll focus on long-term delivery.

And above all: We’ll provide leadership.

Driven by a desire to do what’s right for this country not just right for the next news cycle.

With a sense of humility that recognizes we can’t do it all in the ‘blink of an eye’.

And guided by trust in the common sense of law enforcement professionals to get on with the work they are charged to do without political interference.

Because, when our first term comes to an end.

I want us to be able to say something to the people of this country that Ministers cannot say today ‘Judge us not by our words but by what we have accomplished.’

Michael is the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. He believes in helping children maximise their potential.

I have a fantastic job.

Every few days I get to visit places which run on undiluted optimism -

I get to spend time in this country’s best state schools – and it just lifts the soul like nothing else

Seeing young lives being transformed by great teaching makes you appreciate that there are people who can change the world -

And we’ve just been hearing from one of them.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of Mossbourne Academy.

I can’t tell you how much I admire this man.

When he arrived at Mossbourne he inherited what was officially the worst school in England.

Now it’s one of the best.

It’s bang next door to one of Hackney’s most deprived estates.

It has more than its fair share of Hackney’s poorest children – pupils on free school meals, pupils with special educational needs, pupils who come from homes where English just isn’t spoken.

But in just a few short years Sir Michael has ensured that school now has eighty-five per cent of students getting top marks at GCSE – way above the national average – and many are now on course for higher education.

A generation of children born into poverty now destined for the best universities.

It’s been an overused word recently – but Sir Michael is a real hero.

And if you want to know what Conservative education policy is in a nutshell its taking what has made Sir Michael’s school excellent and spreading it to every school.

Because what Sir Michael does is deliver what every sensible parent knows is needed in our schools.

He insists on a proper uniform – with blazer and tie – respect for authority, clear sanctions for troublemakers and no excuses for bad behaviour.

He sets classes by ability – so the brightest can be stretched and the weakest given special support.

He teaches traditional subjects in a rigorous way and when the bureaucrats try to insert the latest fashionable nonsense into the curriculum he tells them where to get off.

There are fantastic extra-curricular activities, proper competitive sports and an amazing team of teachers – who work into the evenings and on Saturdays to give their pupils the best possible chance in life.

Why isn’t every state school like that?

It’s my job to make sure they are.

So where do we start?

Well Sir Michael would tell you – with discipline.

Unless you have good discipline then teachers cannot teach and children cannot learn.

And we know that behaviour in many of our schools at the moment just isn’t good enough.

More than 300,000 children are suspended from school every year for bad behaviour.

Over 300 children are suspended from school every day for assault.

A quarter of teachers have been physically attacked by students.

We have got to change the system – so we protect teachers not troublemakers.

And we’ve got to be on the side of the children who want to learn, by dealing firmly with those who won’t behave.

Which is why a Conservative Government will act.

We’ll give teachers effective power to confiscate banned items and restrain violent pupils.

We will compel the parents of troublemakers to take responsibility for their children.

And we will change the law so that when a head teacher expels a violent pupil– that pupil cannot plead that his human rights have been violated and then stick two fingers up to authority.

We cannot have a system where a student who has pulled a knife on a teacher can swagger back into the school which tried to exclude him because bureaucrats say so.

- under a Conservative Government that will end.

Because we know that no school can succeed unless the head is in control – captain of their ship.

And it’s by solving the problems we have with discipline that we can really start to improve standards.

And they desperately need improving.

Over the last ten years we have been falling behind as a nation.

We have dropped from fourth in the world for science standards to fourteenth.

From seventh in the world for literacy to seventeenth.

And from eighth in the world for mathematics to twenty-fourth.

And what makes this decline worse – at once more tragic and more costly – is the widening gap between the achievement of the richest and the poorest.

This year nearly a quarter of a million children left primary school unable to read, write and add up properly – and they were overwhelmingly children from poorer families.

This year more than half the children leaving comprehensives failed to get the basic requirement of five decent GCSE passes – and they were overwhelmingly children from poorer families.

This year there were hundreds of schools which entered no children for either A level history, or geography, or physics, or chemistry or biology – and the children in those schools were from poorer families.

The fate of these children haunts me for very personal reasons.

I know how the right education can give children – whatever their background – amazing opportunities.

I was adopted as a child – given a second chance – and then – thanks to wonderful parents who believed in the transforming power of education – I was given the opportunity to choose my own destiny.

It’s because I was given a second chance – because I know that where you were born should never determine who you become – that I am so passionate about improving our education system.

And it is why I am a Conservative.

Because it this party which has always been on the side of extending opportunity, advancing social mobility, liberating individuals from poverty – and it is that crusade which will define the next Conservative Government.

Because we will deal with this problem at its heart…

We will tackle head on the defeatism, the political correctness and the entrenched culture of dumbing down that is at the heart of our educational establishment.

For far too long out of touch bureaucrats have imposed faddy ideologies on our schools which ignore the evidence of what really works in education.

Teachers have been deprived of professional freedom, denied the chance to inspire children with a love of learning and dragooned into delivering what the bureaucrats decree.

We know that the countries with the very best education systems are those with the best teachers – and we know that the only way we can deliver real improvements in education is by strengthening the role of great teachers – and diminishing the power of the bureaucrats.

So we will drastically reduce the intrusive regulation which holds back good teachers – and ensure there are many more talented people who choose to become teachers.

We’ll expand Teach First – which has helped recruit the highest performing graduates into teaching.

We’ll develop a Troops to Teachers programme – to get professionals in the army who know how to train young men and women into the classroom where they can provide not just discipline – but inspiration and leadership.

And we’ll ensure that experts in every field – especially mathematicians, scientists, technicians and engineers – can make a swift transition into teaching so our children have access to the very, very best science education –

Nothing matters more to our future economic prosperity than a flourishing science base.

But in no area has the curriculum been more debased by the bureaucrats than in science.

Over the last few years there has been a remorseless retreat from rigour in the exams we set our children.

Let me read you some of the questions we ask our sixteen year olds.

In GCSE science we ask students if nurses leave the room during X-ray sessions in hospital for health reasons

or because their mobile phone might melt

or they might get a tan.

We ask students which is a better argument for nuclear power – creating jobs or creating toxic waste.

We ask students which is healthier – a battered sausage or grilled fish.

These aren’t rigorous tests of scientific knowledge – they’re terrifying evidence of how our educational establishment has presided over a comprehensive decline in examination standards.

What should we do with people who think that this country can become a scientific leader by asking about sausages in batter? They’ve just got to go.

And under a Conservative Government the people who’ve been responsible for dumbing down our examination system will go.

The time is long overdue for us to put rigour at the heart of the curriculum.

And there are few areas of knowledge where that matters more than history.

There is no better way of building a modern, inclusive, patriotism than by teaching all British citizens to take pride in this country’s historic achievements.

Which is why the next Conservative Government will ensure the curriculum teaches the proper narrative of British History – so that every Briton can take pride in this nation.

If the only areas where the education establishment had failed were on science and history then that would be bad enough.

But the failure goes deeper. And starts earlier.

The biggest failure of our education system is the failure to teach children the most important skill of all – the ability to read.

Every year more than 100,000 children – one in five – leave primary school unable to read properly.

Two thirds of working class boys at the age of fourteen have a reading age of seven or below.

One in five – after going through the school system – do not have the language skills to be able to find a plumber under P in the Yellow Pages.

Those children who cannot read are imprisoned in ignorance all their lives.

They are, overwhelmingly, likely to be the difficult and disruptive pupils in class – covering up their inability to follow what’s going on by trying to show how tough and hard they are.

And they are, overwhelmingly, likely to be the truants, the recruits for street gangs, the children who have given up on hope and become trapped in defiance

Nothing is more important than saving these young lives. That is why we will ensure in every primary school there is a renewed and relentless focus on getting every child to read quickly and fluently. We will train a new generation of primary teachers in the skills they need. And we will have a simple reading test for children after two years at primary school to make sure they are reading fluently.

Wanting to teach children to read properly isn’t some sort of antique prejudice – it’s an absolute necessity in a civilized society and I won’t rest until we have eliminated illiteracy in modern Britain.

The failure to teach millions to read is the greatest of betrayals. But I’ll be taking on the education establishment because they’ve done more than just squander talent. They’ve also squandered money.

Your money.

On an epic scale.

The extent of waste in the budgets of educational bureaucracies is a genuine scandal.

The body responsible for writing the curriculum – the QDCA – spends more than one hundred million pounds every year –

and after hiring an army of consultants, squadrons of advisers and regiments of bureaucrats they still wrote a syllabus for the Second World War without any place for Winston Churchill.

Never in the field of public expenditure has so much been spent by so many to distort World War Two.

We need to take education out of the hands of these unaccountable quangocrats and make sure – at a time of austerity – that we use every penny we can to keep teachers in the classroom.

This is your money.

Which should be spent on your children.

And under a Conservative Government it will be.

We will ensure that the quangos are cut down to size, waste is cut out of the system and bureaucracies are cut to the bone…

And when it comes to making money go further our reforms will go deeper.

We will give parents control over the money which is spent on their children’s education. Parents will be able to take the five thousand pounds the state spends on their children to the school of their choice. And we will give the parents of poorer children more money.

Because nobody cares more about a child’s education than their parents. And no parents need our help more than the poorest.

I want to see a radical shift of power in education –

Instead of a system run from the centre which has given us the drift towards bigger and bigger schools, the decline in standards of behaviour, the devaluation of exams and the dumbing-down of the curriculum we will have a shift in power which will ensure the good sense of millions of parents determines our children’s future.

The first thing we will do is apply the policies which have worked so well in Sweden, in America and Canada in bringing great schools to communities which at the moment have none.

We will change the laws – on planning, on funding, on staffing – to make it easier for new schools to be created in your neighbourhood, so you can demand the precise, personalised, education your children need

Just imagine it – within walking distance of your front door.

A small school – where the headteacher knows every child’s name

with smaller class sizes – and personal support for your child.

With higher standards and tougher discipline

The money currently wasted on red tape and management consultants instead invested in books and teachers.

This is step one in a revolution which will see more and more of our schools run by professionals – who are accountable to parents not central or local bureaucracy.

The next step is putting the machinery in place to improve existing schools now.

We know that the fastest improving state schools in our country – like Mossbourne are academies.

Because they’re outside local bureaucratic control they have the freedom to pay good teachers more, to tailor teaching to every child and to ignore government red tape.

So we will dramatically accelerate the number of academies – we have already said that the very best schools in our country should be able to become academies so they can partner under-performing schools and help them improve.

But the scale of the problems we face as a nation mean that we have to go further, faster, sooner…

So a Conservative Government would allow any school that is ready to the chance to become a new academy.

Every state school could have the chance to free itself from bureaucratic control – and get the extra money, freedom and flexibility which schools like Mossbourne have used to dramatically lift standards.

Let me be clear – that means a fundamental change in the role of local authorities – instead of telling parents who’re unhappy with local schools to like it or lump it, local bureaucrats will be on notice to justify their position, their power and their performance. Because we need money where it makes a difference – not on a bureaucrat’s desk but in the classroom.

And because we want to ensure that the benefits of academy status are delivered most quickly where they’re most needed a Conservative Government will act on day one to help those children who’ve been let down most comprehensively.

We will create new technical schools in our major cities to ensure children who need it get the sort of hands-on, practical, vocational education you need in the world of work. These schools will be in the vanguard of providing what our economy desperately needs now – thousands more proper, real-world, apprenticeships.

And we won’t stop there.

We will – in our first hundred days – identify the very worst schools – the sink schools which have desperately failed their children – and put them in rapidly into the hands of heads with a proven track record of success.

We will remove the managements which have failed

and replace them with people who know how to turn round schools

people like Sir Michael Wilshaw

heads who can impose discipline

improve teaching

and rescue the children this system has betrayed.

I will not allow another generation of our poorest children to have their future blighted by failing schools.

Now, I’m going into this with my eyes open.

I understand the scale of this ambition.

I know the changes we need to make will not come smoothly or easily.

There will be problems.

It will be hard, fraught, difficult.

We will be attacked by those who’ve been complicit in decades of failure who see their power, their privileges and their reputations under assault.

But, we face a stark choice in education today

do nothing – and watch as we fall further behind other nations

do nothing – and watch as the gap between those who have and those who have not widens inexorably

- do nothing – and allow the vicious, violent minority to dominate the playground, and the streets.

Well, I simply refuse to stand on the sidelines and allow that to happen

Because we cannot afford to fail in our mission to improve state education.

We know the problems we face in education are a microcosm of the problems we face in all of British society

Over-bureaucratic, over-regulated, over-run by political correctness.

Under-performing, under-achieving, under the control of the wrong people.

It has got to change.

The whole point of politics is to fight for change –

This party is at its best when it’s on the side of change.

This country has never been more in need of change.

So let us work, and fight together, and never give in until we have delivered the change this country deserves.

Chris is the Shadow Home Secretary. He has been Member of Parliament for Epsom and Ewell since 2001.

Let me tell you a story about life in Britain today.

About one of our soldiers in Afghanistan

He was home on leave

In his local town centre on Saturday night.

Out of the blue he was attacked and beaten by two drunk youths.

The police were called.

The two attackers were arrested.

And let off with a caution.

Not tried.

Not put behind bars.

Not even given a community sentence.

Just given a legal slap on the wrist.

Time and again the troublemakers just seem to get away with it.

The gangs, the drunks, even those who commit acts of violence.

They just get away with it.

Criminals aren’t caught because the police are stuck at desks doing paperwork.

Or because they aren’t listening to the communities they are supposed to protect.

Violent offenders, sex offenders and heroin dealers get off with cautions because it’s the least hassle option for police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

And even if they go to prison, the Government releases them automatically after a fraction of their sentence to reoffend on the same streets as before.

People think our criminal justice system is broken.

Worrying too much about the criminals and not enough about the justice.

It makes me furious.

It makes you furious.

And law abiding, decent, people are asking – who’s looking after me?

Well, my message to them is that a Conservative Government will start looking after you.

That’s why need radical reform in every part of the system.

The police. The CPS. The courts. Prisons. Probation.

We need to sort it out, so there’s no more excuses, no more buck-passing, no more nonsense.

We need a criminal justice system that is focused on fighting crime and that is exactly what we plan to deliver.

**

But today I want to focus on the antisocial behaviour that blights so many of our communities.

And the drunken disorder that so often causes it.

No one thinks that the Government’s 24 hour drinking regime has led to the creation of a “continental café culture”.

We’re not talking about stopping people enjoying a few drinks in the pub. But things have gone far too far.

Our town centres on a Friday and Saturday night can be battle zones for our police.

Local parks and local estates are blighted by gangs of young troublemakers….fuelled by alcohol given to them by irresponsible adults.

I have talked to people up and down the country whose lives are being ruined by antisocial behaviour.

It’s time we stood up for them.

Last week in Brighton Ministers announced tweaks to the system so they could claim to be doing something about it.

They aren’t.

We will.

So let me tell you how we’re going to tackle binge drinking and antisocial behaviour.

We’ll start with the problem of fourteen year olds hanging around with bottles of super-strength beers or ciders.

It’s much too easy for them to get very drunk quickly and cheaply.

So let me today give you more detail of our plan to introduce big increases in the tax on super strength alcohol.

We will increase the price of a four pack of super strength lager by £1.33

We will more than double tax on super strength cider.

And our planned increase on alcopops will raise the price of a large bottle by £1.50.

These tax changes will not hit responsible drinkers.

The ordinary pint in the pub will not be affected.

and there’ll be exemptions for some local traditional products.

But we’ll call time on the drinks that fuel antisocial behaviour.

Then there are supermarkets which boost the sales of other products by selling alcohol below cost price. That also fuels Britain’s binge drinking culture.

So we will ban them from doing so.

We’ll tear up this Government’s lax licensing regime.

Right now virtually anyone can get a licence to sell alcohol. We even have all night takeaways selling more drink to people as they stagger home from the pub.

We will change that.

Local councils will have the power to stop town centres being taken over by pubs, clubs and off-licences.

We’ll give communities a right of veto over new licences in their area.

There’ll also be tough new rules for existing licensed premises.

Councils will be able to restrict opening hours.

There’ll be strict penalties for pubs and off-licences that break the rules.

Much bigger fines if they sell to under age drinkers.

If they do it again, we’ll close them for a few days as a penalty.

And if it still happens, we’ll strip them of their licence permanently.

There’s also the huge cost of policing areas that are already dominated by pubs and clubs and off-licences.

Under a Conservative Government late night problem premises will pay more for their licence.

So we can pay more for policing in our town centres to tackle the blight of antisocial behaviour after closing time.

I know some of those in the drinks industry will complain about the impact of these changes.

But I think there are times when it’s right to put the interests of communities ahead of the interests of business.

**

We’ve also got to deal with those who commit the acts of antisocial behaviour and disorder as well.

Right now they can offend again and again and just get away with it.

Our criminal justice system is sending all the wrong messages.

We need real punishments for young troublemakers.

Not to send them home with a rap over the knuckles.

That’s why Dominic and I are working on a range of instant punishments for antisocial behaviour.

Like grounding the offenders for up to a month.

Or making them do community punishments, like cleaning up local parks.

Real consequences for the trouble they’ve caused.

But that’s for low level offences.

For the more serious incidents, things must be different.

We were all shocked by the tragic case of Fiona Pilkington.

But let’s be clear. What happened to her wasn’t antisocial behaviour. It was criminal.

The people who did that to her should be behind bars.

There are too many serious offenders getting away with it.

Our police are too inclined to take the easy option.

Giving someone a caution or a fixed penalty notice means box ticked, case closed, another solved crime.

But we know the system is being misused.

Not just for the young men who attacked that soldier.

Or the others who get violent on a Friday or Saturday night.

But when serious offenders, like people carrying knives, also get off with a caution.

When they should be behind bars.

And would you believe this.

Last week I met the commanding officer of a local PCSO who had been assaulted by a gang member, and then thrown down a staircase.

He was given an eighty pound fixed penalty notice.

That is outrageous.

It is the sign of a system that is bust.

I think anyone who assaults a police officer should end up in court facing time behind bars.

Then there was the extraordinary claim by a senior police officer, at the inquest into the death of Fiona Pilkington, that the police are no longer responsible for antisocial behaviour.

What complete nonsense.

So it’s time for real change.

It’s time for a new deal with our police.

We’ll deal with the things that frustrate them.

We’ll get rid of the mountains of bureaucracy that make it easier to cut corners.

We’ll provide them with proper protection against violence.

We’ll get rid of the target culture that makes it easier to issue a caution than to prosecute.

And we’ll give them back more power to charge criminals themselves.

But in return we want real action against the troublemakers.

And we want them to be more accountable to the communities they serve.

The next Conservative Government will get rid of Britain’s caution culture.

And will demand real moves to tackle antisocial behaviour.

It’s time justice was really done on our streets.

**

Ladies and Gentlemen. There are two other big priorities for a Conservative Home Office.

The first is our immigration system.

For twelve years it has been a complete shambles.

Uncontrolled immigration.

Widespread abuse of our student visa system.

Human traffickers exploiting the vulnerable for profit.

So let me make things clear today.

A Conservative government will be robust in the way it controls immigration.

There will be no open door to Britain.

Instead we will have a system that treats people fairly and decently.

That welcomes those who should be able to come and live here.

Like the Gurkhas who have done so much for our country.

But we’ll close the gaping hole in our student visa system.

We’ll crack down on the traffickers.

Britain will have its own, specialist border police force.

We will set an annual cap on the number of people who can come and live and work here.

I will not tolerate more of the chaos of the past few years.

**

The Home Office has another key responsibility.

The security of our people and of our nation.

To take the lead in the battle against terrorism.

And the fight against an ideology of hate and violence.

An ideology that damages the reputation of decent, law abiding British Muslims as well as threatening life and limb.

And let’s be clear. That ideology wants to destroy the civil liberties that make this country what it is. No Government should allow them to do so, and the way this Government has eroded those liberties is shameful and must be reversed.

Our police and security services have done a magnificent job in protecting us against the terrorist threat.

We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

But we are still not tough enough on those who spread a doctrine of hate in Britain.

So I will immediately ban Hiz b’ut Tahrir, and any other group that actively incites hatred and violence.

We also have extremists using video links to hold meetings with banned preachers of hate from overseas who urge violence against our society.

If I am Home Secretary the people who organise those meetings will be arrested and prosecuted.

Under this Government the extremists have been free to protest on our streets and incite violence and hatred in the most blatant ways.

We cannot and we will not allow this to continue.

**

Ladies and Gentlemen.

What people want from the Home Office is a no-nonsense approach to the crime and disorder problems in their communities.

They understand that those problems are complex.

That we need to get to grips with the social problems that foster crime ….

….as well as with the crime and antisocial behaviour itself.

But right now they are hugely frustrated.

They feel let down by the police.

They feel let down by the courts.

They feel let down by the Government.

Above all they believe that under Labour those who commit crime and antisocial behaviour are just getting away with it.

They’re right.

They are.

And if we win, it will stop.

The list; in full

- £22,500 of debt for every child born in Britain
- 111 tax rises from a government that promised no tax rises at all
- The longest national tax code in the world
- 100,000 million pounds drained from British pension funds
- Gun crime up by 57%
- Violent crime up 70%
- The highest proportion of children living in workless households anywhere in Europe
- The number of pensioners living in poverty up by 100,000
- The lowest level of social mobility in the developed world
- The only G7 country with no growth this year
- One in six young people neither earning nor learning
- 5 million people on out-of –work benefits
- Missing the target of halving child poverty
- Ending up with child poverty rising in each of the last three years instead
- Cancer survival rates among the worst in Europe
- Hospital-acquired infections killing nearly three times as many people as are killed on the roads
- Falling from 4th to 13th in the world competitiveness league
- Falling from 8th to 24th in the world education rankings in maths
- Falling from 7th to 17th in the rankings in literacy
- The police spending more time on paperwork than on the beat
- Fatal stabbings at an all-time high
- Prisoners released without serving their sentences
- Foreign prisoners released and never deported
- 7 million people without an NHS dentist
- Small business taxes going up
- Business taxes raised from among the lowest to among the highest in Europe
- Tax rises for working people set for after the election
- The 10p tax rate abolished
- And the ludicrous promise to have ended boom and bust
- Our gold reserves sold for a quarter of their worth
- Our armed forces overstretched and under-supplied
- Profitable post offices closed against their will
- One of the highest rates of family breakdown in Europe
- The ‘Golden Rule’ on borrowing abandoned when it didn’t fit
- Police inspectors in 10,Downing Street
- Dossiers that were dodgy
- Mandelson resigning the first time
- Mandelson resigning the second time
- Mandelson coming back for a third time
- Bad news buried
- Personal details lost
- An election bottled
- A referendum denied

This is not set to be a make or break conference for the party or for the leadership of the party but it is expected to return some tough decisions. Amongst those tough decisions will be issues affecting those out of work in our country, issues affecting savers, issues affecting homeowners and issues affecting business owners among many others.

This will also be the first conference of the New Media age which includes the tools such as Twitter and other social media platforms. Aligned with the conference the Conservative Party is using the Twitter #hashtags of #Con09 and #cpc09 both are valid, both have separate streams of followers so to gain the most exposure to the discussions of the conference and to interact it is wise to use both thereby limiting your 140 characters even further.

During the Labour Party conference the #hashtag that was in use was #lab09 and it is fair to say that even non-Labour voters used the #hashtag to discuss matters relating to the conference. Such civilized use has not been seen thus far this week.

It would appear in another showing of how #labourlost the idea of fair play the Conservative Party #hashtags are being added to and abused. Already we have seen #bigcon09 #cono9 in what one can only assume is an attempt to play the joker with the former and perhaps sway unsure users with the latter.

I blogged a few days ago about how Labour need to learn their lesson and how they really need to move away from the negativity that has beset them for so long, sadly it appears that even as we move into a New Media age they cannot seem to understand that need.

With that in mind and if unchanged down the line I fear for their existence following the General Election.

Monday’s Agenda in brief

Ready for change:
Policy review chairman Oliver Letwin
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude
Mayor of London Boris Johnson

Reforming Politics – Accountability and Transparency:
Shadow Commons leader Sir George Young
Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague

Reforming Politics – Decentralisation and Social Action:
Shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman
Shadow minister for community cohesion Sayeeda Warsi

The NHS:
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley

ChiefWhip note: Gordon, a UOR (Urgent Operational Requirement) is dramatically different from normal scaling, Adam Boulton is quite right here.