Britannia Radio

Both Cameron and Osborne made major speeches today and here are 
reports of both.  Considered comment should wait until one has time 
to digest them. (What goes down well with a live audience does not 
necessarily bear deep analysis! )
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CONSERVATIVE HOME Blog 26.4.09
Cameron: It was right to raise taxes when Britain last faced a debt 
crisis

Speaking to the Tory Spring Forum in Cheltenham the Tory leader said 
tax increases were the right thing to do when Britain last faced a 
(less serious) debt crisis in the early 1990s.  Echoing George 
Osborne's remarks to Sky News earlier he promised that, in due 
course, he would tell voters about Tory spending plans BEFORE the 
election.  Tory strategists believe that voters are not yet 
clamouring for details from the Tories and that they don't expect 
them until nearer the election time when the scale of the budgetary 
challenge facing the incoming government is clearer.  In the meantime 
the Tories intend to show they are working hard on plans to deliver 
better value for taxpayers' money and that ministers will be promoted 
(or sacked) in proportion to their success at cutting their budgets 
and using decentralisation and technology to deliver better 
services.  "More for less," is David Cameron's promise.

Highlights from David Cameron's Spring Forum address:

We've created a balanced and true Conservatism: "Yes we're the party 
of strong borders, law and order and low taxes - and we always will 
be. But today we're also the party of the NHS, the environment and of 
social justice too."

Britain needs massive change: "Unless we deal with this debt crisis, 
we risk becoming once again the sick man of Europe.  Our recovery 
will be held back, and our children will be weighed down, by a 
millstone of debt. So this is no time for business as usual. This is 
no time for more of the same. There is only one way out of this mess, 
and that is through massive change. I'm frustrated it's not 
happening. I'm impatient to get on with it. And today I want to 
explain what the change needs to be."

We will tell people how we'll balance the books BEFORE the General 
Election: "In the weeks and months ahead, the Shadow Cabinet will 
redouble its efforts to identify wasteful and unnecessary public 
spending. Make no mistake: I am very clear about how much more work 
there is still to be done in order to identify significant future 
savings. We will carry out this work. We will do so responsibly. And 
in time, we will set out the hard choices that lie ahead."

Ministers will be promoted if they deliver more on smaller budgets: 
"With a Conservative government, if ministers want to impress the 
boss, they'll have to make their budgets smaller, not bigger. On my 
watch it will be simple: if you do more for less you get promoted if 
you do less for more, you get sacked. If we'd had this approach over 
the last twelve years, I don't suppose there'd be a single Labour 
Minister left. But this culture of thrift must apply to the civil 
service too. So we'll impose a new fiduciary responsibility on senior 
civil servants - a contractual obligation to save the taxpayer money. 
And every government department needs a proper finance director. Some 
of them today aren't proper accountants - flint-faced or not. With 
such huge sums of public money at stake a Conservative government 
will make sure we have the professional financial controls the 
taxpayer has a right to expect."

It was right to raise taxes when Britain last faced a debt crisis: 
"For me, this is very personal. Fifteen years ago, I was in the 
Treasury as we had to deal with public finances that had got out of 
control; debt that had got too high. We had to put up taxes, and I 
hated it. But it was the right thing to do and that lesson has stayed 
with me. That's why I'm a fiscal conservative."

Closing flourish: "Labour's leaders say only they stand for fairness. 
Fairness? These Labour ministers, saddling future generations with 
debt? These Labour ministers, making our children pay the price of 
their incompetence? Their "fairness" is utterly phoney. So let's turn 
our anger into passion and our passion into action to give Britain 
the leadership she needs. Yes if we win the election, we may not see 
the full fruits of our labours in the lifetime of our government. But 
if we stick together and tackle this crisis our children and 
grandchildren will thank us for what we did for them and for our 
country."
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Highlights of George Osborne's speech to the Cheltenham Spring Forum

Labour has run out of ideas: "They have run out of ideas. The economy 
is on its knees, enterprise is suffocated, we're falling behind in 
the race to the future. And what is there proposal? A return to the 
1970s with a 50% top rate of tax. With the dishonesty of trying to 
present a £2 billion tax rise on the wealthy as the answer to a £200 
billion borrowing requirement. So out goes all that New Labour talk 
of 'aspiration' and 'opportunity' and owning the centre ground. In 
comes all that Old Labour language of 'soak the rich' and 'make the 
pips squeak'. We will look back at this time and realise that we were 
hearing the last, sour notes of a requiem mass. New Labour. Born 
1994. Died April 22nd 2009. Private funeral. Don't send flowers."

Labour have taxed dishonestly: "Our priority must be to stop the tax 
rises on the many not just the few. Perhaps we should not be 
surprised that the great New Labour experiment ended like this. It 
was always built on an economic lie. The lie that you could go on 
increasing spending faster than your economy was growing, and never 
have to pay for it. At first, they promised there would be 'no tax 
increases at all'. Then they turned to stealth taxes, like the tax 
raid that did so much damage to pensions. After that they tried 
stealth spending through PFI. And still it was not enough. So they 
sold our gold at a record low, and then they started to borrow when 
our economy was on a high. They borrowed and they borrowed, and they 
never stopped. They should have fixed the roof while the sun was 
shining. Instead they stored up debts that will take a generation to 
pay off."

Conservatives were right on the fiscal stimulus: "Last autumn, I 
stood before you at our Party Conference and I told you that the 
cupboard was bare. It's worse than I thought. The cupboard itself is 
about to taken away by the bailiffs. The public finances are out of 
control and that presents a clear and present danger to the 
prosperity of an entire generation. We must act and act fast. We need 
a government of thrift in this age of austerity. David Cameron and I 
have earned the right to be heard on this. It wasn't easy standing up 
and telling the public that the country could not afford Labour's 
temporary VAT cut, but we did it and we did it almost alone. And it 
wasn't easy standing up and telling some people in this party that 
sound money is the only route to real tax cuts - but we did that too."

Philip Hammond will be one of the most powerful members of a Cameron 
government: "Gordon Brown downgraded the job of Chief Secretary and 
removed from his Cabinet colleagues their right to be involved in the 
overall spending decisions of government. I want our Chief Secretary, 
Philip Hammond, the star of this week's Question Time, to be one of 
the most powerful members of the government. I want my colleagues in 
Cabinet to be collectively responsible for the spending decisions we 
take. They won't be the representatives of their departments in the 
Cabinet, they will be the representatives of the Cabinet in their 
departments."  (Yesterday's ConHome survey of members found Philip 
Hammond rising steadily up the shadow cabinet league table).

Conservatives will be more specific about how we'll fix things but 
only when the time is right: "given how dramatically the borrowing 
forecasts have deteriorated and how fast this last Budget has 
unraveled, I ask how sensible would it be to write that 2010 Budget 
now? Yes, we will give specifics. Yes, we will seek a mandate. But we 
will take our time and get it right - because we can see today with 
this government what happens when you get it wrong."