As it happened: David Cameron's speech at the Conservative Party Conference

Published on Wednesday 6 October 2010 15:36

DAVID Cameron makes his first speech to the Conservative conference as Prime Minister today, where he is expected to defend a raft of upcoming spending cuts.

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3.38pm: So what did you think of Cameron's speech? Discuss it live right now with Scotland on Sunday political correspondent Tom Peterkin.

3.37pm: The finale: "Come on, let's pull together, let's work together in the national interest."

3.35pm: "It takes two to build that big society. You step forward and seize that opportunity. Don't let the cynics say this is some dream that won't work in the 21st century."

3.31pm: On law and order: "Offenders who should go to prison will go to prison. But we also have to recognise where the state is failing on crime. We have police officers who spend more time on paperwork than they do on patrol."

3.30pm: On education: "Ed Balls, the man who used to be in charge of education, said that one of the dangers of our education policy was that it would create winners. What an unbelievable attitude and we're going to fight it all the way."

3.28pm: On reform: "No more top down, bureaucratic driven public services, we are putting those in your hands. The big giant state monopolies, we are breaking them open to get new ideas in."

3.25pm: On local government: "Eric Pickles is leading the most radical shift in power that this country has seen in decades... We are bringing real transparancy to government. It is a revolution. Let's leave Labour defending the status quo. We are the radicals now."

3.24pm: On the banks: "Taxpayers bailed you out. It is now time to return the favour by lending to Britain's small businesses."

3.22pm: On enterpise: "When you think of a wealth creator, don't think of the tycoon in the glass tower, think of the man who gets up before dawn and goes out to clean windows... We need to get behind these small businesses and wealth creators... We'll cut business rates, but the job doesn't end there. I don't believe in laissez-faire, and we must act to build a better economy."

3.20pm: Cameron refers to benefit problems: "To that single mother, we can now say, we're on your side, we will help you, we will end that injustice in the system. If you can work and you refuse to work, we will not let you live off the hard work of others."

3.17pm: On fairness: "Those with broader shoulders should bear a greater load. Yes, fairness means giving money to help the poorest in our society... But you cannot measure fairness just by how much money we spend on welfare. It means supporting people out of poverty. We say, let us measure our success by the chance we give. Recognise marriage in the tax system and make sure that work really pays for every single person in the country."

3.16pm: On the Labour conference: "Neil Kinnock was everywhere. He even said he'd got his party back. Well Neil, you can keep it."

3.15pm: Attack on previous government: "Labour, you want us to spend more money on ourselves today, and to leave it to our children to pay our debts tomorrow. That is selfish and responsible. These politicians must never ever be allowed anywhere near our economy ever again."

3.14pm: "If we pull together, to deal with these debts today, just a few years down the line the rewards will be felt by everybody... a sense that our country will be moving forward once more."

3.12pm: "This year we're going to spend 43 billion on debt interests alone, not to pay off the debt, just to stand still. That's why we've acted decisively to stop pouring your hard earned money down the drain. It's stopped us slipping into the nightmare we've seen in Greece. Our emergency budget showed the world that Britain is back on the path to fiscal responsibility. And the man we have to thank for that is George Osborne."

3.11pm: On spending cuts, the big issue: "I wish there was another way. But I have to tell you, there is no other responsible way. Back in May, we inherited public finances that can be described no other way as 'catastrophic'."

3.10pm: "The cynics were wrong in the 1970s and we can prove them wrong again. We can build a society where we say 'I am not alone, I will play my part, I will work with others to give Britain a brand new start'."

3.08pm: Cameron plays the cute card by telling a story about a girl who sent in her tooth fairy money to Number 10 to help with the budget deficit. Now it's time for the 'big society' spiel - "from state power to people power".

3.07pm: From The Scotsman's David Maddox, via Twitter: "Cameron condemns Lockerbie bomber release just defending the union now for good measure. Nat bashing without mentioning the SNP."

3.05pm: On the state: "Citizenship is not a transaction in which you put your taxes in and get your services out, it's a relationship. Changing the government is not enough, we need to think about changing ourselves and the role we play within our country."

3.03pm: Cameron launches into a tonge-twisting attack on Labour, reeling off a litany of digs at their time in government, including 'Mandelson resurrected', which gets a laugh.

3.02pm: A joke about England's World Cup defeat to Germany: "Whatever you do, just don't mention the score."

3.01pm: On the union: "We are weaker apart, we are stronger together, and together is how we must remain."

3pm: On the release of the Lockerbie bomber: "It was wrong. It undermined our standing in the world. Nothing like that must ever happen again."

2.59pm: On defence: "Since becoming Prime Minister, nothing has shocked me more than the catastrophic state of the defence budget. This will result in some big changes, but I promise you this, I will not take a single risk with the British armed forces."

2.57pm: On Afghanistan: "If we left tomorrow, the training camps could easily come back. The Afghans are not ready to take over their security. But we will not stay a day longer than is needed... This country has gratitude beyond words for (the armed forces') service and sacrifice." He commits that British combat troops will be out of Afghanistan by 2015.

2.55pm: "This is the party of the national interest, and with this coalition this is exactly what we're showing today." Cameron now lists the Tory election pledges that he says have been delivered. "Look what we've done in five months, just imagine what we can do in five years." Huge applause.

2.54pm: From The Scotsman's David Maddox, via Twitter: "The contrast with Clegg and the Lib Dems is huge - Cameron got a bigger ovation before his speech than Clegg did after his."

2.52pm: On the coalition: "I can tell you, Nick and I didn't agree about everything... But we recognised that we could work together. Not just lots of shared values, but a shared way of doing business. Reasonable debate, not tribal dividing lines."

2.50pm: On the election: "There was that growing sense that we weren't quite going to make it past the finish line... The country wanted leadership, not partisanship... A minority government would have limped through parliament. I set out to form a strong and stable coalition government."

2.48pm: A tribute to another ex-PM: "Next week Margaret Thatcher celebrates her 85th birthday, and she will do so in Number 10 Downing Street, and I'm sure everyone in this hall will send her many happy returns."

2.47pm: Cameron: "They called us a dead parrot, but it turns out we were only resting." He then pays tribute to his immediate predecessors - Hague, IDS et al.

2.46pm: Cameron: "It is an honour and a privilege to stand here, in front of the party I lead, as the Conservative Prime Minister." Cue applause from the delegates.

2.45pm: Cameron takes to the stage at Birmingham's Symphony Hall.

2.41pm: Also in the speech today, Mr Cameron is expected to distance himself from economic right-wingers in the party by arguing that government has a role to play in restoring Britain to financial health.

2.40pm: In case you missed it, Tory candidate Ivor Tiefenbrun, who told The Scotsman that Scots who disliked Margaret Thatcher were "thick", announced his resignation this morning.

2.36pm: In The Scotsman today, it was predicted that Mr Cameron will use his speech to insist that marriage will be recognised in the tax system, as he attempts to overcome the row over cuts to child benefits for the middle classes.