10.10.12
Cameron warns of ‘hour of reckoning’ for UK
Prime Minister David Cameron is due to address the Conservative party conference this morning, warning that the UK is facing an “hour of reckoning”.
He will set out the scale of challenges to economic recovery, urge delegates to stick with his leadership and contrast the Conservatives’ approach of being upfront about cuts and taxes to Labour’s alternative.
It is expected to be a highly personal speech, including comment on his family and his disabled son, who died in 2009.
Cameron will say: “These are difficult times. We are being tested. Unless we act, unless we take difficult, painful decisions, unless we show determination and imagination, Britain may not be in the future what it has been in the past.
“Because the truth is, we’re in a global race today. And that means an hour of reckoning for countries like ours. Sink or swim. Do or decline.”
He will also stress his commitment to ‘compassionate conservatism’: “My mission since the day I became [Tory] leader was to show the Conservative party is for everyone: north or south, black or white, straight or gay.
“But above all – to show that Conservative methods are not just the way we grow a strong economy, but the way we build a big society. That Conservative methods are not just good for the strong and the successful but the best way to help the poor, and the weak and the vulnerable.
“It’s not enough to know our ideas are right. We've got to explain why they are compassionate too.”
Tell us what you think – have your say below, or email us directly at [email protected]