HAPPY NEW YEAR STROUD!
Conservative Leader David Cameron calls for change -
David Cameron's Speech in Woodstock on 2 Jan 2010:
"The next general election is no more than 153 days away and I don't think it can come soon enough," he said in a speech at Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
"We can't go on in these difficult times with a weak Prime Minister and a divided government," He said a Tory government would invite main opposition leaders to attend "war cabinet" meetings on a regular basis & said that they would be able to "offer their advice and insights".
"When a nation is at war, it needs to pull together. I am determined that with a Conservative government, it will,"
Mr Cameron used his speech at the Oxford School of Drama to call for economic, social and political change. And he stressed that the next election could not come soon enough. "Let's make this the year for change - the year when the positive defeats the negative." Laying out his priorities, the Tory leader said he aimed "to create a fairer, safer, green country where opportunity is more equal" & he pledged to protect the NHS and strengthen the economy by instigating "responsible economic policies".
Speaking against a backdrop of a picture of the Houses of Parliament with the slogan "Year for Change", he said a new year and decade brought "a sense of hope".
Mr Cameron said the UK would be "under new economic management" if his party won the next general election.
'Bright economic future'
He revealed that he intended to cut public spending through a one-year freeze on public sector pay and bring forward the planned increase in the state pension age.
The Tory leader also said he intended to support businesses through a cut in the main rate of corporation tax, the creation of 100,000 apprenticeships and a new high-speed rail network.
He went on: "We will send out the loudest signal that this country is back open for business and ready for investment.
"Decline is not inevitable. Confidence can return. If we take action now, to get a grip on the public finances and unleash enterprise, Britain can have a bright economic future."
