Read David Cameron's speech notes

The following is an edited version of David Cameron’s conference speech:

Gordon Brown

Last week in Bournemouth we saw the old politics on display. [Gordon Brown] told us things that he knows he cannot do. British jobs for British workers? It’s illegal under EU law. Deporting people for gun and knife crime? You can’t do that because of Labour’s Human Rights Act.

I have to say to our Prime Minister: if you treat people like fools you don’t deserve to run the country, let alone win an election.

But you know it’s more cynical than that. Boy, has this guy got a plan. It’s to appeal to that 4 per cent of people in the marginal seats, with a dog-whis-tle about immigration here, a word about crime there, wrap yourself up in the flag, talk about Britishness enough times, and maybe you convince people you are on their side. But I say, “God, we have got to be better than that”.

People want the politics of belief and that means politics they can really believe in.

Cameron’s beliefs

What do I believe? I, by nature, am an optimist. I think if we give people more power and control over their lives, they will take the right decisions, they will grow stronger and society will go stronger too.

I don’t believe in an ever-larger state doing more and more. I believe in trying to make people do more for themselves, for their families and with society as well. And I believe that if we really want to tackle crime, if we really want to make our society stronger, then you have got to make families stronger and society more responsible.

And to me that word responsibility really means something. But over these last ten years we have seen responsibility sucked away from people, sucked away from our public servants and taken from our public services.

Business

Look under the bonnet of the British economy and too many things are going in the wrong direction. Twenty per cent of the jobs created are in the public sector, the private sector becoming smaller as a percentage of our economy. As we share the proceeds of growth between public spending on the one hand and lower taxes on the other, we can give business the lower tax regimes that they need.

Schools

I am a father of three children, all of them under 5, all of them I want to go through the state sector. I know what schools I want for my children: a school where you turn up and the head teacher knows your name, a school where there’s proper discipline so they don’t keep people that behave badly in school and wreck the education for those who want to learn.

We should be making it easier for new schools. So we will say to the churches, voluntary bodies, private companies and private schools – come into the state sector, find the parents and the children . . . and we can have these new schools and really drive up standards.

Welfare and work

The best welfare system is called the family. I just don’t believe we can walk on by from the evidence in front of us. Children from broken homes have a 70 per cent greater chance of failing at school, a 40 per cent greater chance of getting into debt, a 35 per cent chance of being unemployed. Single mothers do a brilliant job. But I don’t think we can ignore the state of family breakdown in Britain and I think we have to try and do something about it.

The NHS

What’s gone wrong? If we don’t understand why Labour is failing, we won’t succeed. I think it’s because reform has been top down. I think they have demoralised staff in the NHS and questioned their vocation and professionalism. We have got to scrap these top-down targets and trust our professionals in the NHS. That doesn’t mean letting go and just giving up on quality – quite the opposite. We have got to replace these process targets with measures of outcome. That’s what people care about. What we have got to do is make the NHS and doctors answerable to the patients and not the politicians.

Immigration

I think this country has benefited immeasurably from immigration – people who want to come and work hard and contribute to our country. And I think our diverse and multi-racial society is a huge benefit. But we do have to recognise the pressures that can be put on public services, schools, hospitals and housing, if immigration is unlimited.

We do need to say that new EU countries should have transitional controls and, yes, there should be an overall limit on economic migration from nonEuropean countries.

The Armed Forces

We must never put party before country. When it comes to Iraq we all want to see more of our troops come home, and if the Prime Minister makes the right decisions, if we can guarantee more security in southern Iraq, then we will support him when he acts in the national interest.

My top priority overseas would be Afghanistan. We are doing fantastic work in that country. Our troops are incredibly brave. But my worry is we could win the military campaign but start to lose the country.

Cameron on Cameron

People want to know: are you really up for it? Have you got what it takes? And I answer unreservedly, yes. That’s why I stood here two years ago and that’s why I’m standing here today.

I cannot give you some hard luck story. I am the son of a magistrate and a stockbroker. But the great privilege of my upbringing was not the wealth – it was the warmth, it was the family. Yes, I went to a fantastic school and I am not embarrassed about that because I had a great education and I know what a great education means.

General election

People, after ten years of Labour, really despair that they can get the sort of change they want. We’ve got to inspire them and say it doesn’t have to be like this. So, Mr Brown, what’s it going to be? You go ahead and call that election. Let the people pass judgment on ten years of broken promises, let people decide who’s really making the arguments about the future of our country, let people decide who can make the changes that we need in our country. Call that election. We will fight. Britain will win.

Buzzwords

Change 38

School 28

Britain/ British 26

NHS 16

Society 14

Europe/ EU 10

Win 7

Broken 5

Green 5

Immigration 5

Pissed 1

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