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Tuesday 6th October 2009 | 12:14
George Osborne speech to conference
“We know what the task is. Britain is coming out of the deepest recession since the war. Our country is facing the largest budget deficit in our modern history. And we will have no choice but tackle it decisively if we are to stop high interest rates and the unemployment they bring. Yet at the same time the next Conservative Government is determined to leave public services and society stronger than it finds them. Put bluntly. Labour created this mess. Everything we have done in this Party: - all the changes we have brought about;
- all the judgements we have made;
- all the leadership that you David have shown us; all these things have prepared us for this moment – the moment when we ask to take our country forward at a time of enormous difficulty. Our unwavering commitment to fiscal responsibility as the root of economic stability. Our understanding that millions of Britons depend on public services and cannot opt out. Our conviction that precisely because so many depend on them, those services need radical reform. Our determination as compassionate Conservatives to protect the most vulnerable. Our hard-headed recognition that, without enterprise and aspiration, compassion comes with an empty wallet. It is the combination of these values that define the modern Conservative Party. And there’s something else. After a year in which trust in Parliament has been rocked to its foundations, we know that politics must change forever. We have to be open and transparent with the people we serve. We need to offer a complete change from the double counting, the fiddled figures, the off balance sheet trickery, the stealth taxes and the feckless irresponsibility of the last twelve years. We must rescue a lost generation from the jobs crisis that afflicts our country. We must move this economy from one built on debt to one sustained by saving and investment.
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