This video is worthy of your attention.

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.

Bloggers and the mainstream Media are joining them in their joyful celebrations.

Certainly, on the face of it, today’s announcement that there will be a deciding round of the presidential poll on 7 November, pitting Hamid Karzai against Abdullah Abdullah for one last time is a pretty big thing.

Perhaps something worth celebrating?

Perhaps, some may even see it as justice for the myriad of deaths that were caused (from all sides) during Panther’s claw.

Personally I am not celebrating, I would like to think that the whole situation would better itself and peace and harmony can preside over a nation that has seen more than its fair share of bloodshed.

Alas, we do not live in a Utopian society and last time I looked no other system of Government offered those values either.

The nub of the problem for me is that the August election took many months of planning, many thousands of heavily armed troops on the ground securing areas so that honest people could go and place a tick in a box (that’s why I get passionate about voter apathy in the UK) and as a result many deaths occurred.

Ballot papers were sold cheaply, ballot papers were sold by the handful, by the hundred, thousand. Multiple ballot papers were issued to individuals. Valid papers were withdrawn after the poll closed. The list of corruption is almost endless.

No amount of intervention could secure an honest election let alone an honest result on the day so why are people so willing to believe it will be any different this time around after only 17 days planning? Simple answer: it won’t!

I know that the Media and the bloggers have faith and hopes and that is a good thing to have; even old sceptical me had those once but I have learnt to look closer at the details, read the small print and I certainly don’t sign unless I damn well have to.

Let’s take a look at a remarkably similar situation that took place elsewhere quite recently, Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe has held the office of Head of State in a variety of forms since 1980. In the 2008 election the main Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (it is believed) defeated the incumbent but faced charge upon charge of false accusations as Mugabe clung to power.

In the face of horrific treatment and overwhelming personal tragedy Morgan Tsvangirai stood by and never faltered, his people backed him to win and win he did, but not in the conventional way.

By facing up to the truth and doing the very best he could he accepted the role of Prime Minister in a Unity Government with President Mugabe.

Afghanistan: It is quite clear that something must be done Very soon hence the extremely short time frame. The alternative option is to sit and wait until the spring but President Obama has made it clear his commitment of 40,000 troops is dependent on having a working Government solution in place.

I personally believe by the first week in November there will be draft plans in place with all Party support for a Unity Government which will form the basis of a broad based coalition governing body thereby allowing both Karzai and Abdullah to share power and more importantly to give the Afghan people a better chance than what is on the table at this moment in time without the need for the vote-off.

The British Army has been forced to cut the number of new soldiers it recruits to save money, official MoD document.

In 2008, the Army took in 14,280 new people, while 14,070 personnel left. A 500-place recruitment cut would have meant the Army brought in fewer people than it lost

According to MoD document ref:“ABN 57/09 In Year Savings Measures” Savage cuts in manpower are part of a £97 million package of spending reductions forced on the Army this year. This follows the UK Governments spending of over a TRILLION POUNDS STERLING to prop up the all but bust banking sector, the virtually unlimited printing of banknotes by the Bank of England (other banks are also available!) and to pay for MP’s expenses, Duck Houses, Moats, Food, Cleaners and so on.

Training for Territorial Army soldiers and the renovation of soldiers’ housing – already in a poor condition have also been cut to save the faces of several politicians.

The reductions in training and recruiting are now raising concerns about the impact on the Army’s future capabilities. The squeeze on the Army’s already strapped budget has emerged in the same week that beleaguered Prime Minister Gordon Brown, currently bumping along the bottom of the opinion polls, announced he will send another 500 British troops to Afghanistan. He did however put several conditions on the deployment, none of them medical or relating to his own health.

Ministers have publicly and repeatedly insisted that the Armed Forces are properly funded, but the Army document drawn up this week for the MoD shows that Army recruitment has been cut by 500 from January to relieve “pressure” on the manpower budget. The very same number earmarked for active service in Afghanistan.

The MoD paper, dated October 13 2010, obtained by the Military World website is entitled “ABN 57/09 In Year Savings Measures”. It outlines cuts drawn up by General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the General Staff and rubber stamped by the not very impressive Bob Ainsworth, the current defence secretary.

Sir David has already made cuts of £43 million to help the MoD balance its budget, but at a stormy meeting of the Defence Board last month, he was told to come up with another £54 million of reductions, an amount less than the MoD’s annual spend on spin doctors.

The Daily Telegraph revealed last month that the MoD spent more than pounds 61 million on public relations last year.

To avoid direct cuts from the Afghan operation, Sir David has been forced to reduce the Army’s training and recruitment activities.

The paper states: “The planned recruit intake into the Army Recruiting and Training Division is to be reduced by 500 to help reduce the specific pressure on the Army manpower budget.”

In 2008, the Army took in 14,280 new people, while 14,070 personnel left. A 500-place recruitment cut would have meant the Army brought in fewer people than it lost. The recruitment cut will be felt across the Army. The only units to be spared from the cuts are the so-called “pinch point” trades where there are already deep shortages of specialists, and those infantry regiments with the worst recruiting records.

The recruitment cut will deprive the Army of £2 million in the current financial year, the MoD paper claims.

“The planned recruit intake into the Army Recruiting and Training Division is to be reduced by 500 to help reduce the specific pressure on the Army manpower budget,” the document concludes.

After intense criticism from opposition parties, campaigners and commanders, ministers made repeated promises to improve the standard of accommodation for soldiers, but shamefully the document reveals that housing has also fallen victim to the cuts. Another £14 million of cuts will be made by delay some planned upgrade work on single soldiers’ living accommodation.

The Army had planned to upgrade 790 housing units this year. Now only 205 of those projects will be completed on time this year.

The MoD paper, widely distributed to commanding officers and senior officials this week, says the cuts are needed for the MoD to “remain within budget in this financial year.”

It says: “Financially, these are difficult times and the MOD, like all Government departments, is required to produce major cost savings.”

“Our priority is to support current operations and these measures are necessary to focus remaining resources on the main effort. These measures will not affect current operations.”

The document also confirms that training for Territorial Army soldiers will be cut by £20 million. That follows a £23 million cut earlier in the year. A budget reduction of £43 million in less than a year.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said the “unacceptable” cuts are affecting reservists due to go to Afghanistan next year.

Another £4 million will be cut from funding for school cadet forces. As Chancellor in 2006, Gordon Brown announced the expansion of cadet units, saying he wanted more children to participate in them.

University Officer Training Corps will also lose £3 million.

The cut in Army recruiting and training should raise questions about Government/MoD runaway spending on civilian officials. The MoD currently employs 85,730 civil servants. Britain now has more military bureaucrats for every active serviceman than any of its NATO allies..

Liam Fox, the Conservative shadow defence secretary, accused Labour of being: “disgraceful and penny pinching.”

He said: “Too often, this Government has simply not been up to the task on defence. We need forces that are better supplied with equipment.. In Afghanistan and elsewhere, whether we’re dealing with equipment or other things, we’re willing the ends, but not the means.”

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.

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.

This guest post has been contributed by Julian Bray who writes on his Duckhouse blog. Over to you Julian.

Gordon Brown today marked a new all time televised low in his Premiership as he appeared before House of Commons Select Committees and still refused to answer with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ the questions relating to the number of soldier/ troop recruitment requests by the military [2000] and the numbers they actually got [<700].

But what we got loud and clear was a clear message that money ie the Treasury is regulating the two wars we are hopelessly engaged in and that the squaddie or general in theatre can forget about any practical help or back up in the near future.

Come back in six years lads and we’ll have the aircrew fully trained and plied with booze. The choppers might not be ready though as we chose a cheaper spec. than the Americansd so ours had to be made on a later production batch.

Even simple questions like how many operational Chinooks do we have in Affers [8-10] as the soldiers call it. The answer less than a tenth of the operational Chinooks, the Americans have to service and lift the same number of troops.

So lads when you next walk to your objective in the mind bending searing heat just think of Gordon Brown – on holiday now – trousers rolled up, by the Seaside with his family – simply Gordon does not understand the military, has no idea where the money goes or what it goes on.

But where do we go from here? Gordon has this devine right of sticking his head and genitalia in buckets of sand. Our Boys (as The Sun would have it) also have the devine right of sand, billions of tons of it, only it gets in everywhere.

Imagine the soldiers joy to be given large packs of unlubricated rubbers (Durex etc)but we are a bit short in the body armour locker.. but you have the Durex right? Army Orders 34598765-c might read @Take out an unlubricated rubber roll between thumb and first finger, place over the upright and fully reamed…. then the lights went out. No stop messing around, seriously the durex or rubbers are used to keep sand out of the AK47 barrel and they’ve been using them this way for years now….sigh.

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

Worryingly it helps show the vast amount of money that was poured in to save the banking system from collapse and I urge anyone contemplating what all the parties are saying on expenditure and cuts for the future to spend some time perusing the data on what the realities of our country’s finances currently are.

Download the PDF here