This year should be election year. Not just for local councils and the European Parliament but for the whole country.
The whole country should have the opportunity to vote for change, because we need change now and waiting another year, another year and a half - well, it just makes this country's problems worse.
The longer Labour are in, the worse it gets. The worse it gets for the economy - with Labour's Debt Crisis and extra borrowing making the recession longer and deeper. The worse it gets for our society - with crime, educational failure, welfare dependency and family breakdown all on the rise in Labour's Broken Britain. The worse it gets for our environment - with creaking transport and energy infrastructure pushing our carbon emissions up and our quality of life down. And the worse it gets for our NHS - with Labour's top-down targets and bureaucracy sucking the lifeblood from Britain's most treasured public institution.
The longer they're in, the worse it gets. Labour are part of the problem, not part of the solution. But there is some good news. Labour can't hang on forever. Change is going to come - I hope it's sooner rather than later - but change is going to come.
Our argument for change is broad. Britain needs social change, environmental change, cultural change; change in the way the country is governed, change in the way responsibilities are shared. But today I want to focus on just one part of the change we will bring: economic change.
WINNING THE ECONOMIC ARGUMENT
I believe we are steadily winning the economic argument. We're winning the argument about the past - about why this country is in such an economic mess. And we're winning the argument about the present - about how we help people right now.
We're in this mess because of too much debt - too much government debt; too much corporate debt; too much personal debt. This is Labour's Debt Crisis, and it becomes clearer all the time that the scale of Britain's debts puts us in a much weaker position than other countries. That's why Labour can't do much to help people right now - they've run out of money. Labour had better realise that 'do-nothing' is what people are starting to think about them - because Labour don't seem to be doing much to help the economy at all.
Just what is this great economic mobilisation the Prime Minister keeps talking about? As far as I can see, unemployment's going up, repossessions are going up and the economy's going down with nothing Labour are doing making much difference. We've had a bank renationalisation that failed to get credit flowing and the economy moving, we've had more of the borrowing that got us into the mess in the first place - with the promise of tax rises down the line and of course that pointless, temporary cut in VAT that undermined confidence and actually made things worse with the promise of painful tax rises needed to pay it back. That VAT cut was an absolutely criminal waste of public money, and it's not working.
Gordon Brown's policies for the recession are not working. The recession is getting worse not better. Instead of Labour doing nothing effective they should take up our idea of a self-financing National Loan Guarantee Scheme to help businesses get through these tough times and help keep people in work.
It's now been over five weeks since we proposed this. Five weeks in which more businesses have gone to the wall - and more jobs have been lost. Five weeks in which Labour have done nothing. The Government could and should take that action now, today.
In the coming days and weeks we will have more to say about the economic past and the present about Labour's responsibility for this Debt Crisis and about the practical things we can do to help people right now. But today I want to open a new front in the economic argument with Labour. I want to talk about the future - this country's long-term economic future.
BACK TO THE 70S WITH BROWN
We already know what the future holds with Labour. The Prime Minister has been clear about it. He believes that the era of open markets and free enterprise is over. He thinks that our economic circumstances demand a return to big-government-knows-best and 1970s-style subsidy and state control. And he says that the right response to Labour's Debt Crisis is to borrow still more.
So the future of the economy under Labour is written in the past. They want to go back to the debt bubble they inflated in the first place, and they want to go back to the 1970s.
Well. If people think life is grim now, just imagine what another five years of Gordon Brown would bring. The country wants to move on. It wants to move on from the decade of debt; move on from an economy dominated by housing, finance, state spending and speculation move on from a grim future under Labour and move forward to a new economy and a good future.
A GOOD FUTURE FOR OUR ECONOMY
So let me tell you my vision of a good future for our economy. It's an economy where government and its citizens live within their means, save for a rainy day, waste not and want not. It's an economy where everyone has the chance to own their own home with space to live and breathe - and where we work to live, not live to work. It's an economy that's more productive, where people can work shorter hours and spend more time with the things that matter - family and friends. It's a better balanced economy where we spread ownership and opportunity throughout Britain, so it's not just concentrated in the hands of the few in one corner of the country. And it's a more modern economy, where we create rewarding, good-paying jobs in the green and technological industries of the future.
If we achieve this vision, our country will be both richer and happier - with our standard of living and our quality of life rising together. And let us be clear, the quality of life matters. It matters a lot. It is not just something for the good times; not just something for the richest. The richest in our society can already buy themselves a decent quality of life: it's not the rich we need to worry about. So our economic vision is not driven by money alone, but by our view of what is right.
From the first days of my leadership I made clear that the modern Conservative Party believes in responsible business and ethical capitalism - an economy with rules. The rules completely broke down under Gordon Brown and it is part of our economic vision to recreate them without chucking free markets and all their benefits overboard. And our vision of a good future is of a less materialistic country, more concerned with people and our relationships; a contributor society not a consumer society.
Our economy will be more green, more local, more family-friendly, less arrogant about what central government can do for us and more optimistic about what we can all do for ourselves if we all work together individuals, communities, businesses - in a spirit of social responsibility.
That is my vision for our economy. It will bring together with the best of these islands the best of some of the places in the world that I most admire combining the progressive, family-friendly culture of Scandinavia with the creativity and dynamism of Silicon Valley, the savings culture of Japan, Germany's apprenticeships and manufacturing strength, France's high-speed rail system and America's strong mayors giving their cities real economic leadership.
I want Britain to have these things; that's what I call a good future. Of course we're not going to transform our economy overnight, or even over the course of one Parliament. If we win the next election, we will inherit a catastrophic legacy of debt and disrepair from Labour. But you don't get anywhere unless you know where you're headed. And as I said last year, I'm a man with a plan, not a miracle cure. So over the next few months, we will be publishing our plan for bringing this good future to Britain - our plan for a new economy.
A NEW SAVINGS CULTURE
One of the most important aspects of our plan for a new economy is understanding that any action that must be taken in the short-term must be consistent with the long-term economic change that Britain needs. That means doing everything we can to help the victims of Gordon Brown's recession today, but in a way that builds our economy for the decades to come. It means being future-focused when helping people right now.
Compare this to Labour. It's not just that their short-term recession policies are failing people today. They are also storing up exactly the same problems for our economy in the future. There is no better example of this than their approach to the Debt Crisis.
We need to make a really big change: from an economy built on debt to an economy built on savings, from a country and government that has lived beyond its means to one that lives within its means. But Labour's recession policy actually increases debt and undermines savings. That is both economically stupid and morally indefensible. It is economically stupid because it keeps the Debt Crisis going, so everyone from individual families to the government to the whole economy continues to be dependent on foreign-financed debt. And it is morally indefensible because it punishes future generations - and responsible savers in this generation - for the irresponsibility of others.
It is time for change. And let me set out two vital changes that need to be made right now. The Government should include them in this year's budget.
In order to help deal with Labour's Debt Crisis and help turn Britain from a spend, spend, spend society into a save, save, save society it is time to abolish income tax on savings for everyone on the basic rate of tax, with top rate taxpayers continuing to pay the same and it is time to raise the tax allowance for pensioners by £2,000.
We would pay for this change by restricting the growth of public spending in the coming year 2009/10. While the government has cut back its spending plans from 2010 onwards, so far it has left its 2009 spending plans untouched.
I believe this is wrong. The time to start being prudent is now. Why? Because by doing so we can help the victims of Labour's recession and help build the long term strength of the economy. These two proposals would be more than paid for by maintaining the government's spending plans for the NHS, schools, defence and International development, but restricting other departments to a 1 per cent increase in real terms. A culture of thrift at the heart of government, and a culture of saving at the heart of our economy: these changes will provide strong foundations for the new economy we plan to build. And there are two further policy announcements we're making today that illustrate the new direction in which we want to lead our economy.
GREEN TECH
The first is in green technology. Today, British firms have less than a five per cent share of the global market for green goods and services - less than France, Germany, Japan and the United States. And when you take into account the size of the German and French economies, those countries' share of the global green market is around fifty per cent higher than ours.
This market is expected to be worth trillions of pounds, and produce millions of new jobs, in the years to come, so we've got to do better - a lot better. As part of our plan for a green economy, we are today publishing reports - for consultation - on green tech incubators and the green environmental market. The report on green tech incubators provides a detailed plan for unleashing environmental entrepreneurship across Britain, by giving companies advice and services, including expert guidance on intellectual property protection, legal issues and drawing in venture capital with the aim of creating a new generation of world-beating start-ups to rival anything going on right now in Silicon Valley.
And our report on the green environmental market shows how we can create a new index on which environmental companies can be listed and traded, so investors can track and invest in green tech stocks in a simple way. What's more, because companies from all over the world will be able to list on this market, it will bring new investment and new sources of revenues to the UK. For over ten years the market for green goods has expanded, and for over then years this Labour Government has stood idly by.
The proposals we are outlining today provide a roadmap of how Britain can be the world leader in green goods, services and companies. Our green tech incubators will help new green start-ups get off the ground and then the world's first environmental stock market will give companies access to the investment they need to flourish and grow.
FIBRE-OPTIC BROADBAND
The second announcement we're making today concerns our country's technological infrastructure. Fibre optic broadband is changing the way people work and do business, and it has the potential to completely transform our economy. It could open up new markets for our creative industries, promote innovation, create new, family-friendly jobs as people can work from home - and help reduce carbon emissions.
But in Britain we have some of the slowest broadband speeds in the developed world and when it comes to investing in next generation broadband networks, like fibre optics to the home, we're doing very badly compared to countries like Germany, Japan and America.
We need to move much faster towards a Britain where high speed networks right into people's homes is the norm for everyone and a Conservative Government will do everything we can to ensure that the majority of the population should have access to fibre-optic and other forms of high speed broadband within five years and then we achieve, to as near as possible, universal coverage within ten years. So we will do all we can to create the conditions that make investment in a fibre network an attractive possibility for telecoms companies.
Remember, it was the last Conservative Government that enabled the last cable revolution by busting BT's monopoly - a step Labour would never have taken. And I am determined the next Conservative Government will enable the next digital revolution. I am not talking about massive state financed investment - that would be extremely expensive for the taxpayer and it would also risk stifling the innovation that comes from private sector competition. Rather, the role of government is to facilitate, not deliver. It can do this by letting it be known that it will encourage and support the private investment required to develop the network.
It can as far as is possible provide regulatory security to investors, so they get the returns necessary to make the investment required in next generation broadband. And it can, along with local authorities, play its part in minimising the costs of the civil works needed to make the network a reality. To help us address all these issues, I can announce today that the Conservative Party will undertake a full-scale review of the creative industries. This review will be headed by a leading public figure from the creative industries. I know it will make a bold and challenging contribution to our plan to create a new economy fit for the twenty-first century.
CONCLUSION
The vision of a good future I have outlined today will be a central part of our argument for change at the next election - whether it comes this year or next. But our economic vision is not something separate from our other plans. You can't just look at the economy in isolation - that doesn't get you anywhere.
Or rather, it gets you to where we are now: a grim life of debt and despair. We'll never solve our economic problems unless we solve our social problems because it's the cost of our social problems that have led to big government, reckless spending, and Labour's Debt Crisis.
Neither will we solve our economic problems unless we solve our environmental problems because the costs of climate change and the costs of energy insecurity are soon going to outweigh the costs of doing something about it.
So it's not just the economy, stupid. It's everything, stupid. Yes it's the economy - but it's also society and it's also the environment. To achieve a good future, of course we need wealth and prosperity. But what is that worth without the things that make life worth living: a stable, loving family; a safe, friendly neighbourhood, a good local school? A job that's worth doing, a place that's a pleasure to live in, a country where it's not such a constant hassle to get around.
So let us be clear about the economic argument in British politics today. Yes it's about the past - about how we got into this mess and we're winning that argument as the scale and consequences of Labour's Debt Crisis become clear. Yes it's about the present - about how we help people in these difficult times and we're winning that argument too as Labour's recession policies are seen to be failing, and as our practical alternatives - like our National Loan Guarantee Scheme - gain support. But most of all the economic argument is about the future - about whether we move forward, or go back to the debt bubble and go back to the 1970s with all that entails.
We are at the end of the road under Labour. There is no going forward with them. This country needs to strike out in a new direction. So it is a clear choice: a grim future under Gordon Brown, or a good future with the Conservatives.