It’s great to be here in Swansea today, and to be in front of the people who have campaigned, canvassed, supported and slogged their guts out and stuck up for this party through thick and thin.
And today I want to talk about what we’ve done together…
…and what together we’ve got to do in these coming weeks with these vital elections.
LABOUR FAILURE
First of all, I think we should remember how far we’ve come.
Just think of what we inherited last May.
An economy built on the worst deficit…
…the biggest housing boom…
…the most leveraged banks…
…the most indebted households…
…the most out-of-control public spending…
…the most unsustainable immigration…
…and an education system dumbed down and a welfare system messed up.
Once again Labour didn’t so much run our country as run our country into the ground…
…and once again it has fallen to this party to come in, to clear up the mess and to give our country the leadership she needs.
ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR
Now, we have wasted no time in bringing some good, Conservative, common-sense values to government.
Instead of Ed Balls and Gordon Brown ruining our economy and burning your money…
…we’ve got George Osborne, a first class chancellor of the exchequer, bringing fiscal responsibility back to the Treasury.
We saved £6 billion last year and we’re on course to balance the books within four years.
In under eleven months we have showed the world that Britain is heading back into the black – and back in business.
Confidence is growing. Our credit rating has been assured. Market interest rates have fallen.
The plan on our economy is right – and we are sticking to it.
And instead of a welfare system riddled by ridiculous incentives like people being paid not to work and being rewarded for refusing good jobs…
…we’ve got Iain Duncan Smith laying down some very simple rules:
If you choose to work, the work will always pay.
And if you choose not to work, you cannot live a life on benefits.
Because this was our promise at that election to the British people: we would bring responsibility back to our public finances, back to our public services and back to our society.
And we have been working to fulfill all those promises we made before the election.
We promised pensioners respect and dignity in their old age – and we have increased the basic state pension in line with earnings. That means someone retiring today will be getting fifteen thousand pounds more over the period ahead than they would if we had kept Labour’s system
We promised our entrepreneurs and businesspeople that we would back them – and we have cut corporation tax and we have stopped Labour’s jobs tax.
We promised our brave servicemen and women we would look after them – and we have doubled their operational allowance for those serving in Afghanistan and elsewhere as we promised. And I think today, we should particularly think of those serving in the skies over Libya. I know that the operations they are involved in are difficult and dangerous.
I know that what we are undertaking is difficult but I think that we should be clear that by acting rapidly with our allies, with France, with America, we prevented a massacre in Benghazi of innocent people and we stopped a deadly dictator in his tracks and we should be proud that we, in Britain, helped lead that action.
We promised people we’d help with the cost of living – and we have not just postponed Labour’s rise in fuel duty, we’ve made a 1p cut in fuel duty and abolished their escalator.
We promised nurses, doctors, police officers we’d get off their backs – and we have scrapped so many of those top-down targets.
We promised the people of this country we would listen to the things they were concerned about and we would act on them – and that is why we have capped immigration…
…and with a new referendum lock we have made sure that never, ever again can sovereign powers be passed from Britain to Brussels without asking the British people in a referendum. We have legislated for that within a year.
This is what Conservatives do in government:
We listen to what people want.
We roll up our sleeves.
And we get the job done.
And that is exactly what we’ve got to tell the Welsh people every day until those elections in May.
WALES
And if anyone asks you: what have the Conservatives ever done for me and for Wales?
Let them know:
Now there would have been cuts in public spending, whoever had won the election, because of the scale of the deficit.
But we need to let people know that reductions in public spending in Wales are lower than the average in the rest of the UK and a lot lower than England.
We’ve got to let them know that we’ve directed an extra £65 million of funding to the Welsh Assembly Government.
We’ve got to let them know that we’re funding the electrification of the Great Western Main Line – and that we’re looking at extending that to Swansea…
In 13 years, Labour did not electrify one single piece of track. We’ve got the money and we’re going ahead with it, and it’s going to help people in South Wales.
… we’re investing £10 million to connect North West Wales to super-fast broadband...
…tell them that we’re backing the defence industry that already creates so many jobs in Wales – there will be new contracts: that will mean new jobs.
Look at what Conservatives in Westminster have delivered for Wales in these last eleven months and then tell people what we could deliver if in power in Cardiff over the next four years…
Look at that great manifesto that Nick and his team have put together: A guarantee to protect NHS spending in Wales. Make sure that people know Labour want to cut a billion pounds off the NHS in Wales.
A new funding system for Welsh schools so you get more of your money out of the hands of bureaucrats and directly to the classroom.
I want to make sure that everyone in Wales knows that today 1/3 of the money spent on education is spent on bureaucracy and administration, not into the classroom.
New enterprise zones to drive private sector growth – and business rates abolished for thousands of small businesses. Everybody knows in Wales, we need a private-sector led recovery. Even Peter Hain knows we need a private-sector led recovery and if he knows it, something’s got through. But what a great idea in your manifesto exempting small businesses from those rates so they can grow and provide the jobs and the investment in Wales that we need.
So, In the coming weeks, please take this message out to the Welsh people.
Tell them they don’t have to put up with a Labour party that treats Wales like its own personal fiefdom and takes the Welsh people for granted.
There is an alternative, its governing well in Westminster, it would govern well in Cardiff, it would do a great job, it’s got a great leader, it’s got a strong team and get out there and campaign with everything you’ve got.
NO TO AV
Now of course there is another election coming up – in May as well and that is the referendum on the Alternative Vote system.
Now some people might think this is all a bit of a side-show from the big issues.
But make no mistake – this is hugely important to our country and yes to our party too.
The campaigners for the Alternative Vote will say it’s fair, they’ll say it’s new politics and they’ll say it’s right for our times.
But let us remind people what those same campaigners said about AV in the past.
They admitted it would do nothing to re-build trust in politics.
They called it a “miserable little compromise”.
They even said it is and I quote “a pure politicians’ fix”.
I couldn’t agree more.
Because the truth is this.
It is a system so undemocratic that your vote for a mainstream party counts once, while someone can support a fringe party like the BNP and get their vote counted several times.
It’s a system so obscure that it is only used by three countries in the whole world - Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
I’m not making it up, three countries in the whole world.
Our system is used by half of the world.
And it’s a system so unfair that the candidates who come second or third can end up winning.
Just think forward to the Olympics...
...Usain Bolt powers home in the hundred metres but when it comes to handing out the gold medals they give it to the person who comes third.
You wouldn’t do it in the Olympics we shouldn’t do it in politics we’ve got to vote no to this crazy system.
And anyone in any doubt I thought a good guide in life is well what would Winston Churchill have said?
Well we know what he said because he said this about AV...
... “it’s the most worthless votes go to the most worthless candidates.”
Thank you Winston; I couldn’t have put it better myself.
CONCLUSION
So we have got an incredibly important few weeks coming up and again I need you to play your part.
To get out there and campaign.
So hit those streets.
Knock on those doors.
Mobilise all your forces.
Spread our message.
And while you do that just remember what we’re fighting for.
This is not about winning for its own sake.
It’s about the future of our party...
…the future of our democracy…
…and a stronger, prouder Wales.
You have got a great team, you have got a great manifesto.
I think the Conservative spirit is strong and back in Wales.
So get out there and fight...
...and get out there and win.
Thank you.