Round 2

Two years ago I stood on this stage and I gave a speech, a short speech, about why I wanted to lead our Party. Today I want to make a speech about why I want to lead our country...

Off you go, then!

And I remember that day in Bournemouth standing at the back of the hall; hairs standing up on the back of my neck as a succession of democratically elected leaders, some of them just out of prison, walked onto that stage and praised Margaret Thatcher and our party for the inspiration she gave on our long march to freedom.

Lots, like Vladimir Bukovsky, are now members of UKIP, such is their fear of the EU...

But you know the triumphs of the past are not enough. Every generation of Conservatives has to make the argument all over again for free enterprise, for freedom, for responsibility, for limited government and that's why I stood here two years ago and said to our party, after three election defeats, that we needed to make changes and we have made those changes.

Granted, you have made changes. But I'm yet to see where this 'limited government' comes into it, or 'free enterprise'. You don't want to cut taxes - failing, it seems, to understand that tax cuts stimulate the economy, and you don't want to slash regulation, embrace free trade or limit the size of government because like your fellow Christian Democrats across the water, you love the EU.

Today just one in 10 of our members of Parliament are women but almost a third of our candidates are women. I didn't do that, you did that and you should be proud of what you've done.

Awe, yes. How nice of you to let the poor dears have a go at democracy....

Over these last two years we've campaigned on the environment, not just on climate change, but on cleaning streets and cleaning public places and we have won elections on the back of that. I didn't do that, you did that and you should be proud of what you've done.

Again, I'll give you that. I can imagine a Tory council would be much better at cleaning up streets than a load of trots.

But there is something else that our party is doing and has to go on doing. If we are really the One Nation Party, the Party for opportunity for everybody, it's not enough to just open the door and say 'please come in' we have to get out amongst Britain's ethnic minority communities and find the brightest, the best and the most talented and get them in.

discrimination is discrimination is discrimination. It's also incredibly patronising. Why not go for the best, rather than the best colour?

...But it wasn't just that, it was the cynicism of it. He told us things that he knows he can't do: 'British jobs for British workers' is illegal under EU law. 'Deporting people for gun and knife crime', you can't do that because of the 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'.

It's not just the Human Rights Act, it's EU Directive 2004/58/EC which means you can only deny entry to / deport EU criminals for terrorism. But keep this in your mind - this mock outrage at Gordon Brown telling people he's going to do something he can't do...

But you know it is more cynical than that. Boy has this guy got a plan. It's to appeal to that 4% of people in marginal seats. With a dog whistle on immigration there and a word about crime here, wrap yourself up in the flag and talk about Britishness enough times and maybe, just maybe, you can convince enough people that you are on their side. Well I say, God we've got to be better than that.

Especially since you can do pretty much fuck all about the issues people are now concerned about, because you want to gang bang the EU model rather than embrace democracy.

What do I believe?

Dunno. Tell me.

I am by nature an optimist.

you'd have to be

I think if we give people more power and control over their lives, I think they'll take the right decisions, they will grow stronger and society will grow stronger too.

Like taking less of their money away and letting them spend it themselves? That sounds like a jolly good idea.

I don't believe in an ever larger state doing more and more, I believe in trying to make people do more themselves for their families and with society as well.

And yet you believe in an EU which wants to control ever more aspects of our daily lives, and you don't want to cut taxes which feed the large state, and you think that charging people for something as simple as how they travel somewhere is a jolly good idea?

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. I think over these last 10 years we have seen responsibility sucked away from people, sucked away from our public servants and taken away from our public services.

I agree with you.

And it ended with that extraordinary farce of two community support officers standing by a lake after a boy had drowned, feeling that because the rule book said they couldn't intervene, they shouldn't. Well, we've got to start tearing up the rule books and allowing people common sense, initiative, and responsibility in the jobs that they do.

Yes. Let's start with some of this ridiculous Health and Safety legislation.

And to me nothing sums this up more than the European Constitution. It's not just that it's an issue of trust, we put it in our manifesto that there should be a referendum, Labour put it in their manifesto that there should be a referendum and it is one of the most blatant breaches of trust in modern politics they won't give us that referendum.

But it actually goes further than that. In a world where we have this freedom and control are we really saying to people that when it come to how you are governed, how your country is run you can't have a say, it's nothing to do with you? That's wrong and that is why we will keep pushing for that referendum, campaign for a No Vote and veto that constitution.

Which means, presumably, that you are okay with the status quo? You are okay with barriers to trade, unaccountable commissioners making decisions over 75% of our lives, higher taxes, more regulation, death to people in the developing world through hyopcrisy? Our fish stocks being wiped out? Lovely. I'm not, that's why I'd sooner poo on my ballot paper than vote for you.

And the revolution of freedom and control, of passing power to people shouldn't stop at Europe it should go much, much further.

It hasn't started there, either. Don't tell me you honestly think the EU to give two shits about anyone?

In government we will take this revolution and freedom and control much, much further. I believe it's time in our big cities for elected mayors, so people have one person to blame if it goes wrong and to praise if it goes right; great civic leadership that we heard from Mike Bloomberg in his great speech on Sunday.

I think it's time with local government to tear up rules and all the ring fencing and the auditing and actually say to our local councils: 'It's your money, spend it as you choose and get judged in the ballot box by people that you serve'. And while we are at it, it is time to abolish those regional assemblies and pass those powers back to the local councils where the power belongs.

I quite agree. That's why I voted UKIP in 2005, because it was in their manifesto and not yours.

There are huge changes taking place in Europe, the Spanish are cutting corporation tax by 5%, Angela Merkel the Chancellor of Germany who I met recently she is cutting it by 9%. President Sarkozy in France is cutting the top rate income tax to make his economy more competitive.

None of the three leading parties wanting to cut taxes....all of them voting for a harmonised EU tax based for corporation tax...

And look under the bonnet of the British economy and too many things are going in the wrong direction. 20% of the jobs created are created in the public sector; the private sector is becoming smaller as a percentage of our economy.

I'm sure that has something to do with excessive regulation; again, another reason why I vote UKIP...

The decline in manufacturing and manufacturing jobs meaning that we are losing important skills. And I know that business wants to hear from the Conservative Party how we will reduce regulation and reduce taxation to give them more freedom in this new world.

I know that Redwood says he's going to alter the 1972 Act so we don't have to have all of these regulations and directives, but it's bullshit. He can't. It would see us in court in Luxembourg. You can do these things by leaving the EU, of course..although if you grew a backbone you could start planning tax cuts..ooh, about now.

And we heard from Alan Duncan how we will introduce regulatory budgets to cut that regulation and I can tell you that we will get out of the European Social Chapter so we can make those rules in Britain rather than in Brussels.

YOU FUCKING LYING ARSEHOLE!
How dare you slag off Gordon Brown for making promises he knows he can't keep and then do so yourself? We must have told you a million times that it's not possible. The President of the European Commission has told you that it is not possible. So why do you stand up and say it is? We can't even keep governing our own police force without paying fines to the EU and you think they're going to alter the treaty just for you? Are you mad, or just mendacious?
I'm going for a lie down.

And as we share the proceeds of growth between public spending on the one hand and lower taxes on the other hand, we can give business the lower tax regimes that they need. But here's the deal. For business and for us, to make sure we have sustainably lower taxes, we need business to help us to cut the bills of social failure.

Sack the politicians. That should get rid of a bit of the social failure. Is it me, or has the House of Commons turned into a rest home for the mentally disabled?

In this new world of freedom nothing matters more in terms of opportunity and our economy and our future than education. But too many things are not right in education in Britain. Almost 50% of 11 year olds leaving school are not able to read, write or add up properly.

They'd better get a job in politics, then.

Falling down the European leagues in terms of educational performance. 23,000 young people leaving school without any qualifications whatsoever, we are not doing enough to prepare young people for this world of freedom.

How about some level of selection in all schools, so children can learn at the pace which suits them? How about freeing up schools from bureaucracy and paperwork? Stopping them having to meet government targets instead of teaching the children?

The government has got its academy programme. It's a good programme. But I feel that Gordon Brown is putting his foot on the brake when he should be putting his foot on the accelerator and we should be making it easier for these new schools.

No, it's not. It's a vanity programme for rich men.

Ed Balls gave a speech the other day - not the one at the conference that was dreadful - he gave a speech the other day that I could have given myself about standards, about rigour, about discipline - so why isn't it happening?

He's a politician, and hence full of shit?

I don't think they've ever got to grips with the educational establishment, some of whom still think it's wrong to say children have got something wrong, because you'll brand them as failures, who still seem to think that all must win prizes, who still seem to think we have to treat all children the same.

All must have prizes? If you want to get rid of this mentality then it's a step in the right direction.

So we need to be courageous and strong on standards to insist that children are taught using synthetic phonics and they learn to read properly. To be clear that a GNVQ is a great exam but it's not worth four GCSEs.

Generally Not Very Qualified?

One of the aspirations people still have, and rightly so, is the aspiration to own a flat and a home of their own. And all of us, all of the Shadow Cabinet here they can tell the same story of young people who come to our surgeries, they show you their salary, they talk about local house prices and they just say: 'I don't see how I can achieve that dream'. And George showed how we going to cut stamp duty to show that we're on their side and we will help mend the housing ladder and get on their side. This is the party of aspiration and opportunity and George has shown us the way.

Just get rid of stamp duty, stop the HIPS crap and giving houses to lazy buggers. That would be a start.

And just as people want aspiration and opportunity at the beginning of their life so they deserve opportunity and security in retirement. And Gordon Brown's worse legacy will be his destruction of Britain's pension system, and we in this party will never let him forget it.

Good. How can anyone vote for Labour? How? Just how mentally retarded do you have to be to think that these people have done a good job?

POVERTY

Leave the EU, embrace free trade. Cut taxes and regulation and let people work hard and reap the rewards. And stop encouraging lazyitis by letting people sit on the dole and givig young mums council houses. That's enough on that...am not interested in any bleeding heart bullshit about 'euqality' and 'let's all have a cocktail party to raise awareness of the poor folk'.

In states like Wisconsin in America where they've cut benefit roles by 80%, and the changes we will make are these: we will say to people that if you are offered a job and it's a fair job and one that you can do and you refuse it you shouldn't get any welfare.

Well done them. Let's do that here.

You know there is a phenomenon in Britain that's called LATs - that's Living Apart Together and there are 2m people who pretend to live apart because the benefits system pays you more to live apart than live together...Well, as George has set out, we will end the couple's penalty in the benefit system, so we don't penalise couples, we will reward them and yes I believe we should recognise marriage in the tax system as well.

Good.

But I don't just want to give people a tax cut, I want to give people a time increase, time for many families is the most precious commodity of all, time you can spend at home, time to help with the home work, time you can do things in the house and that's why I think it's time not just for these benefit and tax changes I've spoken about but also to say to all employees in all companies with children that you should have the right to ask for flexible working.

Does the employer have the right to refuse? I think they should, if they don't think it's in the best interests of their business. now, they could be wrong, and then they could lose a great employee, but that's up to them, not up to the state.

Ten years on from a government that said "24 hours to save the NHS", billions spent and yet moral is so low, some hospitals still threatened with closure, departments shutting down, productivity so poor in the NHS, what's gone wrong? Again if we don't understand why Labour are failing we won't succeed.

I think it's because the reform has been topped down. Targets imposed from above, endless re-organisation, nine in the last ten years, and an NHS computer costing billions of pounds that many professionals in the NHS can't really tell you what it's for, though they are worried its going to take away patient confidentiality, and I think they've demoralised the staff in the NHS and questioned their professionalism and their vocation.

I think it's because the NHS is the nearest thing to Communism in this country I can possibly think of. And my GP said when he was studying communism at school he couldn't understand it. Now he works in the NHS, he can. Let's have employee based health insurance!

What we've got to do is make the NHS and doctors answerable to the patient and not to the politicians. And the way we'll get a really personalised NHS is make the changes that are necessary. Giving people a real choice of GPs, giving GPs control over their budgets and allowing GPs to choose between whatever hospital they like.

You can do that without being in a national scheme. It's easier, in fact.

I think this country has benefited immeasurably from immigration.

I don't think anyone is saying that some levels of immigration aren't a good thing. What sensible people say is that unlimited immigration is bad. Let's have work permits!

And that's why I think David Davis in that excellent speech yesterday, set out the steps that we need to take. 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 non-European countries.

So, when your MEPs voted to let in the poorer countries from Eastern Europe, and they said there wouldn't be a rush of migrants, and attacked UKIP for saying there would be, what was that? Now you want Turkey to join, and know very well that any transitional measures are bullshit, because freedom of movement is enshrined in the Treaties, what's that? More bullshit? And be a man! Stand up and say that because we're in the EU there isn't anything we can do about EU immigration because we've signed up to it. Stop pretending that not letting black people in will make a huge difference. Imposing a colour bar seems like a bit of a racist policy to me.

The first thing to say is that when it comes to these issues, we must never put party before country. I have always believed in the Atlantic Alliance and I have always believed in Britain's independent nuclear deterrent.

Good, but the problem is, I don't trust you. And quite wisely.

And when Labour came forward with plans to replace Trident, I am proud of the fact that we marched our members of Parliament through those division lobbies to make sure that vote was won.

Well Done.

There are things we could do, quite small things, that would make a difference. If you sit in the back of a Hercules at Kandahar air base or Bastion as I have done, you will hear soldiers telling you about some of the smaller things. Why don't we get more contact time with home via telephone and e-mail?

Why can't we have free parcels all year round, not just at Christmas time? Why can't we have the same system as the Americans where your leave starts the moment you step foot on American soil rather than when you actually leave Camp Bastion in the middle of Afghanistan.

Not being sent to an illegal war would be a start. Not signing up to EU military schemes that it seems only the UK contribute to. Not letting the EU break up historical regiments? Paying them properly? Not charging them tax when they are on tour?

...when you are wounded on a battlefield in Helmand one day and you wake up next day in a hospital you want to recuperate with your comrades in arms and that must mean a separate military ward.

So why did the Tories close down military hospitals?

We will give Britain a proper Border Police Force, and we will scrap the pointless ID cards. We will defend important civil liberties like jury trial but we will replace the Human Rights act.

Good! Can you make sure that we don't get any of the fuckers from Guantanamo Bay, though?

Those are all modern Conservative changes for this new world of insecurity. And when it comes to the new threats, we have to face them directly. New threats like terrorism, and new threats like climate change.

See, this is why I don't trust you. Climate Change is not new. If the climate didn't change, we wouldn't be here. Moreover, whatever you say about polar ice caps, I don't see it as a reason for you lot to tax us to buggery. I don't see how me flying somewhere is going to kill a polar bear. I don't see how arbitrary targest from the EU which we can't meet are going to do anything. I don't see why we all don't get nuclear power and in the mean time use cleaner coal fired energy. And let's invest in new technologies, but properly invest.

This is a clear and present danger to our country. Some people say it is not popular to talk about green issues. I don't care. It's right and it falls to this generation to deal with this issue.

I don't agree. I think you're just doing it to appear modern and you want another reason not to have to cut taxes.

And how will we be able to encourage China to act unless we act here at home?

I shouldn't have thought China gave two fucks, really.

And again the old politics is failing. Carbon emissions are up under this government. Green taxes as a share of total taxes are down. And we are failing to give people proper incentives.

Green taxes are regressive. That

But undoubtedly the biggest threat that people face in this country is the crime on their streets.

Be nice if we could kick 'em all out, eh? Or if they're foreigners with a criminal record, not let them in?

Our prime minister has said that our society isn't broken but when you think of 20 children shot dead on the streets of London, when you think of gun crime doubled, violent crime doubled, a boy on a bike shooting Rhys Jones.....I wonder what society the prime minister is living in?

The Westminster bubble, I should have thought. Along with the rest of you. Build some more prisons, you twats!

But let us resolve right here, that we will not pursue the old politics. No more Downing Street summits, get together a packet of measures for the 6 o'clock News, brief them out and then while everyone has reported them they never actually happen and everyone moves onto the next thing. That is not what this party is going to do.

I am just thinking about all that shite when Redwood released his policy proposals. They aren't going to happen, but you loved it up with the media, didn't you!

Well, that's it.

Thank god for that.

Giving people more power and control over their lives.

But not really, as I don't want to leave the EU and therefore I want unaccountability and a democratic deficit, and I don't want to cut taxes which gives people real control.

You can have a raspberry too. I don't like you or your politics. You're better than that knob Gordon Brown but I'm not going to vote for you or your pals because I don't trust you and you simply refuse to address the issues that matter to me. And Don't bother with your 'vote UKIP, get Gordon' shite. No, I won't. And to be honest, if Gordon is in power things will get bad enough for the British people to care about it and make a change. And voting Tory is not a change. It's just the same shit in a different coloured box.