“Ladies and Gentlemen it is always a real pleasure to address the forum and particularly in my home city of Cardiff.
Nick was absolutely right when he said the Welsh Conservative Party has had another good year.
Each year is getting better and better for us as a party in Wales.
Each year we set ourselves new targets and each year we achieve them.
We are not just meeting those benchmarks; we are surpassing them, with growing confidence and greater purpose.
I would like, just for a moment, to indulge in some boastful triumphalism and say how pleased I am to have removed a Labour AM from Cardiff North and the last few Labour councillors.
And now my good friend Jonathan Evans will remove the Labour MP as well!
But we cannot do these things without your support.
I echo everything Nick has said about your commitment and effort.
We make these gains, these breakthroughs not through rhetoric but through determination and sheer hard work.
From Cheryl in Westminster, right the way through the party machine, to you, the activists on the streets.
We make these gains because we are a strong, united party – and that’s what wins elections.
We must not forget that now government is within our reach.
I don’t say this with arrogance or complacency.
I say this as a public representative who is in touch with communities and individual voters every single day.
They are telling me Wales and Britain needs change…and needs it now.
Our Shadow Secretary of State was absolutely right in what she said in the Welsh media this week…Labour isn’t working.
This week’s published unemployment figures which show Wales experiencing the highest rise in unemployment in the UK, is testament to that.
A stark reminder of how Labour has lost control and lost its way.
It is fitting then, as we near the thirtieth anniversary of the ‘Winter of Discontent’, to remind people in Wales and across the UK of that unforgettable Saachti and Saachti message.
It is also fitting because Gordon Brown is facing his own Winter of Discontent.
As the economic ramifications begin to bite in homes across Britain, the relentless call for change will be too loud to ignore.
We must ensure we are in the best position we can be to fight a general election…and win.
David Cameron is ensuring we are the front-runners in that race.
He is waiting to provide the UK with the necessary changes that it longs for.
He has led from the front and is shaping an alternative government of choice, vision, innovation, of clear, strong leadership….a government fit for a Britain of the 21st century, not the 19th, one that sticks up for communities, not sticks the knife in.
You know what the key difference is?
He is going to deliver a government for the people; not of the people.
Since David has been at the helm of the party, we have been developing important ideas and policies that will reach to the heart of people throughout Britain today.
Tackling the challenges of social breakdown.
Our environmental responsibilities in mitigating climate change.
The future of our health and social care system.
The protection of our valuable public services.
The education of our children.
And the strengthening of our economy.
In taking our ideas, our vision and our message to the people of Britain, we have proved we are leading the political agenda.
We are winning the battle of ideas; we are a conviction party, showing that we are ready to govern.
I am a huge supporter of David Cameron.
He has recognised the need for the Conservative Party to change and his leadership is taking the party in exactly the right direction.
In two short years his changes have made people sit up and look again at the Conservatives.
We are now more relevant to people’s lives, bringing issues that people care about into the public eye – the environment, global poverty, quality of life issues and public service reform.
Now, as the economic crisis becomes ever more entrenched, we must continue to show we are aware of people’s pain and we have the right solutions to Labour’s fiscal mismanagement.
However, when we look at the development of the Welsh Conservative Party and how it has gone forward since the advent of devolution in 1997, then due praise must be given to Nick Bourne.
Nick has been pivotal in shaping the party’s fortunes in Wales.
We have adapted well to post-devolution politics in Wales; indeed, the party has reacted and adjusted to the new political life in Wales better and more effectively than any of the other parties in the Assembly and Nick must take a significant amount of credit for that.
Now the Welsh Conservative group is the Official Opposition in the National Assembly, Nick has ensured we have capitalised on the new opportunities that have emerged for us. In doing so, we have had many successes
We have raised many concerns...championed many causes…and challenged many Government policies.
We have ensured our opposition is constructive and robust, saying when we agree but clearly stating when we do not and holding the government to account by providing effective scrutiny.
The other element to an effective opposition is to offer an alternative; to offer positive solutions to peoples problems and concerns.
That’s what we are doing now and must continue to build on our preparation not just to the general election but to the 2011 Assembly election.
We must use forums like this to focus our minds on mid and long-term challenges that are going to emerge in the next 10-20 years.
Moreover, we should be doing this with an eye on being at least the second largest party at the next Assembly election and in a position to lead a coalition government.
Welsh Conservatives hold strong to the six key priority challenges we see Wales must confront if we are to ditch our wooden spoon position as the most deprived nation in the UK:
Our environment.
Our public services – good schools and local hospitals.
Affordable housing.
Enterprise.
Our Welsh language and culture.
Strong communities.
These are the issues people care about and our focus remains clear.
We must apply the core values of our party to the challenges of the twenty first century.
Whilst our opposition is based around the government’s response to these challenges, we must also be focused on what we will do when we have the chance to bring about change.
No where is this more important than the present and future state of our economy.
Everyone is talking about it…everyone is thinking about it.
Business failing.
Homes falling into negative equity.
Savings disappearing into failing banks.
Hundreds of people every day joining the unemployment lines – remember that Saatchi and Saatchi slogan!
As Christmas draws closer, families across Wales and the UK want some reassurance that things are going to improve and that they are not going to be a forgotten set of figures in yesterday’s newspapers.
If you think back to the sound economic legacy Labour inherited from the last Conservative Government; what Labour has done has been disgraceful.
It was our party that revolutionised the performance of the economy in the 80s and 90s.
The robust monetary and fiscal reforms of Norman Lamont and Ken Clarke, coupled with the "supply side" reforms of the 1980s, ensured that when Labour came to power in 1997, the UK had the lowest corporation tax in the EU, had record low-levels of national debt, and had low levels of personal debt.
Apparently, when Mr Brown became Chancellor in 1997, an official said to him: "These are fantastically good figures – the state of the economy is much better than predicted."
To which his reply was: "What am I supposed to do about this? Write a thank-you letter?"
He did not, of course, write a thank-you letter. Instead as Chancellor, he had the audacity to claim credit for economic stability and growth, while vilifying our record on the lack of public service investment.
However, as we said in 1997, it was only a matter of time before Labour would ruin what we were building.
Some of you may well remember one of the key slogans in our 1997 general election campaign was:
"Britain is Booming. Don't let Labour Blow it".
A following party political broadcast looked ahead at economic life under Labour, with various people talking about a future under Labour, telling us their mortgages had gone up and how they had then slipped into negative equity; how they had lost their jobs while inflation was soaring.
Well ladies and gentlemen, we weren’t wrong!
They have squandered our legacy; they have undermined the economy.
And they have ensured financial pain for every hard working family and every vulnerable household in the UK.
It was predictable because Labour is predictable – tax and spend, boom and bust, with our money, we do not trust!
Labour has undermined the economy and severely dented its ability to withstand the economic storm that we are now in.
Remember his watch word – prudence?
He did nothing but flirt with the concept.
After two to three years of tightly controlled public spending, the taps were well and truly turned on.
His reckless public-spending spree has been wasteful and delivered only a larger increase in the public-sector payroll for little return and poor productivity outcomes.
Now I fully accept that, while some of the aspects of the economic crisis that Wales and the rest of the UK now face are global variables, Gordon Brown cannot escape or negate his role.
It is his irresponsibility at the head of UK Government over the last 11 years which has ensured Britain is one of the worst placed developed nations going into this storm and will inevitable lead to us being the last to recover from it.
Gordon Brown quickly claimed the credit when the going was good, even when not of his own doing, he and his Government cannot now wash its hands of events when the going gets tough.
The problem is he’s borrowed heavily, spent heavily and taxed heavily; so what’s his solution to the current crisis…borrow and spend even more!
This is maths that a primary school child can see does not add up.
The nation's indebtedness should not be growing. The age of irresponsibility must come to an end.
And the age of an irresponsible Labour government must come to an end with it.
The Labour Assembly Government in Wales is equally as guilty and culpable as its Westminster colleagues.
It has mirrored the incompetence and waste of London and ensured it has firmly alienated local government and main in the business sector in Wales.
For the last year we have been warning the Assembly Government that the economy was going into a serious downturn.
What was the First Minister’s response?
“It wasn’t going to go into recession, it was the Conservatives who were talking the economy into recession.”
Can you believe the arrogance?
Yet again he shows his belief that the Labour party in Wales have some unjustified sense of entitlement, that they should be running the country because they’ve had the monopoly of power…they somehow believe they know best.
But what do they really know?
Do they know that Wales has the worst GVA figures in the UK?
Do they know that the wealth gap between Wales and England is widening?
Do they know that pensioners this winter will face the stark choice between heating or eating?
Do they know that families are being squeezed to their limit because they are struggling to cope with higher food, fuel and mortgage costs?
Labour in collaboration with Plaid is the problem to Wales’ future, not its solution.
While I appreciate that they lacking key economic levers, Ministers should be working with their Westminster colleagues, whilst doing everything they can to help businesses and to protect jobs.
Holding summits doesn’t save jobs!
That is why Conservatives have proposed allowing small firms in trouble to delay their VAT payments, why we would cut National Insurance for the smallest businesses, why we would cut small business tax, and why we want the public sector to speed up payments to their suppliers.
Measures such as this could be implemented immediately by the UK and Assembly Governments.
The longer they delay the more firms face the prospect of cutting jobs or going to the wall altogether.
We must show families who are experiencing worry and despair, that we know what they are feeling and that we can make a really difference in their lives by pressing the government into change.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are progressing well and are now looking forward to European election and General Election when it comes.
Nick is already mobilising us for 2011 and what we need to focus on and I am relishing the challenge.
And in a strong position to form a non-Labour Government.
But we must remember that we are not doing this for us.
It’s not about the good of the Conservative Party.
It's about giving people more responsibility and control over their own lives and delivering the high standard services that they expect.
It is about insuring the best for the people of Wales.”