Since we last met, we’ve had a few weeks of frenetic political activity.
During that time, we in the Conservative Party have been dealing with the immediate crisis with MPs’ expenses but we’ve never lost sight of the bigger, long-term changes this country needs.
Mending the battered economy, healing our broken society, fixing our fractured politics by giving people more power and control.
Three weeks ago, George Osborne made a speech on how we can create a new British economic model based on savings rather than debt.
And I have made two major speeches on our political system.
Contained within both is a programme for nothing less than a massive, sweeping and radical redistribution of power from the political elite to the man and woman in the street.
I have argued that by changing what government does – and how it does it, we can decentralise power and bring much-needed accountability and transparency to our political system. There’s more to come this week.
On Wednesday, the Conservatives are holding a Social Action Conference which has a fantastic line-up including Helen Newlove.
This Conference is all about the sort of politics I think our country is crying out for – and people really want.
Up and down the country, Conservatives are involved in over 150 of these projects, ranging from cleaning up parks to jobs clubs.
I want social action to be as important to candidates as campaigning on the doorstep, as important to the life of political parties as policy-making.
And on Thursday, I’ll be at the Local Government Conference to talk about the need for transparency in our politics.
Of course, we’re not the only ones talking about changing our politics.
But for all their talk of a fresh start, of openness, and of transparency, of a genuine dialogue between government and people, Labour just cannot relinquish the comfort blanket of spin and deception.
PUBLIC SPENDING
Again and again we’ve seen the Prime Minister’s stubborn refusal to state the facts about public spending.
Independent experts agree that departmental spending in real terms will have to be cut after the next election – whoever is in power.
The Government’s own figures show that Labour plans to cut capital investment every year up to 2014. And yet the Prime Minister’s still spinning like it’s 1999.
Claiming that capital spending will go up when it’s coming down.
Claiming that spending on public services will rise when his own figures show that it will fall.
We shouldn’t be surprised. There is a thread of dishonesty running through his premiership.
From cancelling the election and then saying it had nothing to do with the polls - to his claim that abolishing the 10p tax rate wouldn’t hit the poor.
We’ve had his insistence that Alistair Darling is his first choice as Chancellor – and now this pattern of deception about public expenditure.
And this morning – on the day of their relaunch – Peter Mandelson has announced that they are cancelling the spending review.
So today we have a relaunch without a price tag.
Regular spending reviews were a central part of Gordon Brown’s approach. They are a very important way of providing information on public spending to the whole country before an election. Cancelling the spending review is nothing to do with economic uncertainty and everything to do with political deceit.
It’s a blatant attempt to cover up the truth about Labour’s cuts. The Prime Minister shows a complete lack of respect for the people of this country. Because the core expression of respect is being frank with people, being straight with them.
If politicians are going to win back the respect of the people, we have to start by being straight.
George Osborne and I have been straight about the need to sort out our public finances. From abandoning Labour’s spending plans - to opposing the VAT cut.
From saying that spending plans need to be reduced, both last year and this – to stating clearly that future reductions will have to be made too.
The cupboard is bare; tough decisions must be made; cuts cannot be avoided – whoever wins the next election.
It might not be easy on the ear, but it’s the truth – and people deserve nothing less.
SCRUTINY PANEL
It’s in that same spirit that we’ve published the results of our scrutiny panel on MPs’ expenses. We set up the panel to look in detail at the claims made and agree with MPs where money should be paid back.
This is something no other party has done. We went beyond the letter of the rules because that is the right thing to do.
Conservative MPs have agreed that we need to go beyond the tired phrases behind which Labour and the Liberal Democrats have taken refuge, and make an effort collectively as a party and individually as MPs to respond to public anger about what has happened.
Dozens have paid money back, giving a total of over £250,000 in repayments.
This doesn’t indicate guilt, but a recognition of public anger.
And it has not been – and cannot be – a perfect process.
The Scrutiny panel was trying to work out what should have been done, rather than just looking at the rules – inadequate as they were – and asking whether they were met. But I think they have done a very good job.
The next stop in the expenses issue is the publication of MPs’ expenses for 2008-09. I have written to the Speaker asking for this to happen more quickly – and above all, with minimum redactions. No sea of black ink – and not blacking out MPs’ addresses.
SECOND JOBS
Today I can make two announcements about MPs outside interests, on behalf of the shadow cabinet.
First of all let me tell you my approach to this.
I think that an MP having an outside interest can be a good thing. The MP who trained as a doctor and keeps his hand in updating his qualifications, the farmer who keeps an interest in the farm, the person with business experience who sits on a board, the entrepreneur who set up his own company from scratch and wants to maintain a link with it, the journalist who still writes and broadcasts. All of these and many more bring extra experience and expertise to the House of Commons.
Yes, there need to be proper rules for disclosure and there are.
Yes, there need to be proper rules to ban advocacy and there are.
But I do not think that a chamber full of professional politicians with no outside experience is a good thing.
And as for the arguments about outside work being incompatible with being a good MP, let me give you two of mine.
First, MPs and members of the shadow cabinet should be judged by what they do for their constituents and holding the Government to account.
There are idle MPs with no outside interests, and fantastic public servants that do have them.
Second, it is possible to be a minister and a good MP.
In fact, I think it is possible to be leader of the Opposition and a good MP.
So of course it is possible to have an outside interest and be a good MP.
As long as the public have all the information – and they should – they can judge in each case.
My shadow cabinet have, however, recognised that we are in a particular period – the end of a five year parliament – where it does become necessary to demonstrate a 100 per cent focus on parliament, politics and setting out our credentials as an alternative government.
So they have decided that from the end of December they will not have any outside interests. This applies to all the Commons Shadows, to Tom Strathclyde in the Lords, who is paid a salary, but not to Sayeeda and Pauline who are not.
I think this is the right step to take and am delighted that we have all agreed it.
Second, I am publishing today on behalf of the shadow cabinet the information that they will be releasing about outside interests that will be disclosed under the new rules that are coming in from July 1. We all want this information to be available now, not to emerge in a more fragmented way, as and when individual declarations are made.
BY-ELECTION
We might have a while to wait until the general election, but we don’t have long to wait for a by-election. Next month the people of Norwich North should have an opportunity to vote for change.
Chloe Smith is standing for the Conservatives and she is an absolutely outstanding candidate.
She understands the traditional, bread and butter work of being a local MP – working for local people and campaigning on local issues, but she’s also committed to a new way of doing politics.
Chloe wants to work in a political system that is more open, transparent and honest with people. She’s felt the anger about expenses on the doorstep. She’s seen how Labour spin and dishonesty has left people completely disillusioned.
Now she wants to come in to Parliament and be part of the change that wins people’s trust back and we’re going to be campaigning hard to see that she makes it.
CONCLUSION
So that’s what we’re focused on – the change this country needs.
I know today that Gordon Brown, nearly two years after the election that never was, is finally setting out his own vision. But I think this National Plan says all you need to know about this Government.
We’ve heard it all before.
Yet another relaunch – this time without a price-tag.
It is bureaucratic, top-down and timid.
It is not the change this country needs.