Conservative party conference 2011: live coverage

• Liam Fox’s speech – summary • William Hague’s speech – summary • Lunchtime summary 3.21pm: Cameron explains his growth plan. Dealing with our debts is line one, clause one of our plan for growth. But it is just the start. We need jobs – and we won’t get jobs by growing government, we need to grow our businesses. So here’s our growth plan: doing everything we can to help businesses start, grow, thrive, succeed. Where that means backing off, cutting regulation – back off, cut regulation. Where that means intervention, investment – intervene, invest. Whatever it takes to help our businesses take on the world – we’ll do it. The global economy has transformed in recent years. It used to take companies decades to become global giants: now it can take a couple of years. When you step off the plane in Delhi or Shanghai or Lagos, you can feel the energy, the hunger, the drive to succeed. We need that here. He complains about negative thinking – or “can’t do sogginess”, as he calls it. Frankly, there’s too much ‘can’t do’ sogginess around. We need to be a sharp, focused, can-do country. But as we go for growth, the last thing I want is to pump the old economy back up, with a banking sector out of control, manufacturing squeezed, and prosperity confined to a few parts of the country and a select few industries. Our plan is to build something new and to build something better. We can do it. 3.19pm: Cameron turns to the NHS. The NHS is the most precious institution in our country – to my family, to your family. At the last election, it was Labour policy to cut the NHS. It was Liberal Democrat policy to cut the NHS. It was our policy – Conservative policy – to protect the NHS and spend more on it this year, next year and the year after that because we are the party of the NHS, and as long as I’m here we always will be. And he has a message for the unions planning to go on strike over public sector pensions. You have every right to protest. But our population is ageing. Our public sector pensions system is unaffordable. The only way to give public sector workers a decent, sustainable pensions system, and do right by the taxpayer, is to ask public servants to work a little longer and contribute a little more. That is fair. What is not fair, what is not right, is going on strikes that will hurt the very people who help pay for your pensions. 3.17pm: Cameron says that he has insisted on cutting the deficit in a way that is fair. You can’t cut a deficit the size of ours without everyone making a sacrifice. But those with the most money are bearing the biggest burden. We’ve imposed a permanent levy on the banks, getting them to pay more every year than Labour did in one year. We’ve raised taxes on people who make their money overseas but live here. At the same time we’ve given real help to the poorest and most vulnerable. We’re taking over a million of the lowest-paid people out of tax altogether. And after the scandal of the 75p pension rise under Labour, we’re linking pensions to earnings so elderly people will be £10,000 better off in their retirement. Yes, this is a one-nation deficit reduction plan – from a one-nation party. That’s interesting – a very explicit commitment to one nation Conservatism. 3.16pm: Cameron turns to Labour. Of course, our deficit reduction programme is just one big bail-out of the last Labour government. This past year we’ve been subjected to a sort of national apology tour by Labour. Sorry for sucking up to Qadhafi. For not regulating the banks properly. For crushing civil liberties. For failing to go green. For not building enough homes. For the infighting that made them the most dysfunctional government ever. But you know what? Nothing – not a peep – on the thing they really need to say sorry for. Wasting billions and billions of your money. No apology for that. And now he turns to the man he dubbed the most annoying politician in Britain. You know what the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls claimed last week? That Labour didn’t spend more money than they had “available”. Hello? Ed – you spent £428 billion more than you had “available”. There is only one conclusion you can rationally draw. We must never let these Labour politicians anywhere near our economy again. 3.15pm: Cameron says that while he is prime minister, Britain will never join the euro. And he sets out his approach to EU bail outs. But when it comes to any Euro bail-out mechanism, my approach is simple: Labour got us into it and I’ve made sure we’re getting out of it. 3.12pm: Cameron is now talking about the economy. He lists some measures the government is taking to help. But he says this recovery will not be like a normal economic recovery. The answer is straightforward, but uncomfortable. This was no normal recession; we’re in a debt crisis. It was caused by too much borrowing, by individuals, businesses, banks, and most of all, governments. When you’re in a debt crisis, some of the normal things that government can do, to deal with a normal recession, like borrowing to cut taxes or increase spending – these things won’t work because they lead to more debt, which would make the crisis worse. Why? Because it risks higher interest rates, less confidence and the threat of even higher taxes in future. The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That’s why households are paying down their credit card and store card bills. It means banks getting their books in order. And it means governments – all over the world – cutting spending and living within their means. That’s the rewritten passage. Cameron says he and Nick Clegg have led the way towards recovery. Our plan is right. And our plan will work. I know you can’t see it or feel it yet. But think of it like this. The new economy we’re building: it’s like building a house. The most important part is the part you can’t see – the foundations that make it stable. Slowly, but surely, we’re laying the foundations for a better future. But this is the crucial point: it will only work if we stick with it. 3.09pm: Cameron is in a patriotic vein. Some say that to succeed in this world, we need to become more like India, or China, or Brazil. I say: we need to become more like us. The real us. Hard-working, pioneering, independent, creative, adaptable, optimistic, can-do. That’s the spirit that has made this United Kingdom what it is: a small country that does great things; one of the most incredible success stories in the history of the world. He mentions communities heroes, like Dan Thompson, who lead a clean up operation after the riots. Leadership works, Cameron says. I know how tough things are. I don’t for one minute underestimate how worried people feel, whether about making ends meet, or the state of the world economy. But the truth is, right now we need to be energised, not paralysed by gloom and fear. Half the world is booming – let’s go and sell to them. So many of our communities are thriving – let’s make the rest like them. There’s so much that’s great about our country. We don’t have to accept that success in this century automatically belongs to someone else. We just have to remember the origin of our achievements: the people of Britain, taking a lead. That’s why so much of my leadership is about unleashing your leadership. Giving everyone who wants to seize it the opportunity, the support and above all the freedom to get things done. Giving everyone who wants to believe it the confidence that working hard and taking responsibility will be rewarded not punished. 3.06pm: Cameron is now on leadership, which is one of the big themes of the speech. Leadership in fighting poverty. Leadership in fighting tyranny. But when it came to that decision to help the Libyan people, there was something dispiriting about the debate here at home. It wasn’t that some people thought we shouldn’t do what we did – of course it’s everyone’s right to disagree. It was that too many thought Britain actually couldn’t do something like that any more. And you hear that kind of pessimism about our economic future, our social problems, our political system. That our best days are behind us. That we’re on a path of certain decline. Well I’m here to tell you that it isn’t true. Of course, if we sit around and hope for the best, the rest will leave us behind. If we fool ourselves that we can grow our economy, mend our society, give our children the future we want them to have. If we fool ourselves that we can do these things without effort, without correcting past mistakes, without confronting vested interests and failed ideas, then no, we’re not going to get anywhere. But if we put in the effort, correct those mistakes, confront those vested interests and take on the failed ideas of the past, then I know we can turn this ship around. Nobody wants false optimism. And I will never pretend there are short cuts to success. But success will come: with the right ideas, the right approach, the right leadership. Leadership from government: to set out the direction we must take, and the choices we must make. But leadership also from you. Because the things that will really deliver success are not politicians or government. It’s the people of Britain, and the spirit of Britain. 3.05pm: Cameron turns to Libya. This is a party – ours is a country – that never walks on by. Earlier this year some people said to me: “Libya’s not our concern”, “don’t start what you can’t finish”, and even – “Arabs don’t do democracy.” But if we had stood aside this spring, people in Benghazi would have been massacred. And don’t let anyone say this wasn’t in our national interest. Remember what Qadhafi did. He’s the man who gave Semtex to the IRA, who was behind the shooting of a police officer in a London square, who was responsible for the bombing of a plane in the skies over Lockerbie. Let’s be proud of the part we played in giving the Libyan people the chance to take back their country. In Afghanistan today, there are men and women fighting for Britain as bravely as any in our history. They come from across our country: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland. They now have the equipment they need. And we’re on target to bring them home by the end of 2014. Theirs has been a campaign of incredible courage and sacrifice, and I know everyone in this hall will want to send a message to everyone who serves and who have served. Those in uniform in our armed forces and in our police. And those not in uniform, keeping us safe from terrorism on our streets. He defends Britain’s aid spending, which is unpopular with activists. It is the “right thing to do”, he says. That it’s a mark of our country, and our people, that we never turn our backs on the world’s poorest, and everyone in Britain can be incredibly proud of it. 3.02pm: Cameron is now making jokes about the books that members of the cabinet could record. As their social action project, Conservatives have been recording books for the blind this week. This passage is not in the text released to journalists. Here are Cameron’s suggetions. Geoge Osborne – The Man who Would be King. Boris Johnson – The Joy of …. Cycling. Kenneth Clarke – Crime and Punishment. 2.59pm: Cameron says the people have “very clear instructions” for this government. “Lead us out of this economic mess.” “Do it in a way that’s fair and right.” “And as you do it, make sure you build something worthwhile for us and our children.” (This reminds me of the rhetorical device he used in his speech announcing changes to the health bill: You told us to do X, we did it.) Cameron goes on: Clear instructions. Clear objectives. And from me: a clear understanding that in these difficult times, it is leadership we need. To get our economy moving. To get our society working, and in a year – the Olympics year – when the world will be watching us, to show everyone what Great Britain really means. And he thanks the activists for their record in elections. But first I want to say something to you in this hall. Thank you. Despite the predictions we won elections all over the country this May, so let’s hear it for those great campaigns you fought and the great results you achieved. And thank you for something else. In the AV referendum, you did Britain a service and kicked that useless voting system off the political agenda for decades to come. And next year let’s make sure we back Boris, beat Ken and keep London Conservative. You’re not just winners – you’re doers. 2.58pm: Cameron starts by commending his party for their discipline. This week, in Manchester, this party has shown the discipline, the unity, and the purpose that is the mark of a party of government. I’m proud of my team, I’m proud of our members, I’m proud to lead this party – but most of all, I’m proud of you. 2.57pm: At last the warm up is over. He’s on. 2.57pm: And now they are showing footage of Cameron visiting Tripoli. 2.56pm: Now they’re showing footage of Cameron visiting Egypt and addressing British troops in Afghanistan. 2.55pm: The video covers the AV campaign, the Conservative project in Rwanda and PMQs. They show Cameron’s “I’d rather be the child of Thatcher than the son of Brown” clip. 2.54pm: Another video presentation. It won’t be long now before Cameron starts. 2.53pm: My colleague Paul Owen is tweeting the events from within the hall. 2.47pm: Shaun Bailey, a Conservative candidate at the last election and one of David Cameron’s Big Society ambassadors, is speaking now. He is introducing two young people who are talking about the National Citizens Service, the volunteering scheme that Cameron wants to roll out nationwide. 2.35pm: Mary Ann Sieghart has just posted this on Twitter. Never seen a conference hall with empty seats for a Tory leader’s speech before. Whole empty rows today #cpc11 2.31pm: The afternoon session is starting. They are showing the party political broadcast that the Conservatives are using to urge people to give money to east African famine relief. 2.25pm: David Cameron is walking into the conference hall now. 2.18pm: The hall in Manchester is filling up. David Cameron is due to speak in about 20 minutes. 1.38pm: Here’s a lunchtime summary. • David Cameron hastily rewritten his conference speech to remove any suggestion that he is either urging or instructing the public to pay off their credit card bills . (See 12.37pm and 1.16pm.) • William Hague, the foreign secretary, has criticised Russia and China for vetoing an anti-Syria resolution at the UN. “The decision of Russia and China to veto this resolution, and to side with the brutal regime rather than with the people of Syria is deeply mistaken and regrettable,” Hague said. (See 12.56pm.) • Hague has said that the Conservatives will try to repatriate powers from the EU to Britain when “the right moment” comes. When we said that no more areas of power should go to the EU we were right. And now thanks to the European Union Act 2011, by law that cannot happen without a referendum. And we are just as right that the EU has more power in our national life than it should, and I believe as strongly as I ever have that when the right moment comes this party should set out to reduce it. • Liam Fox, the defence secretary, has warned that any attempt to further EU defence integration could undermine Nato . (See 11.49am.) • The Office for National Statistics has halved its estimate for growth in the second quarter of 2011 . It is now saying the economy only grew by 0.1% from April to June. • Primal Scream have attacked Theresa May for playing one of their songs at the end of her speech yesterday. As the Press Association, May chose the Glasgow outfit’s 1994 hit Rocks – featuring explicit lyrics about drug taking and prostitution – to play at the end of her speech. The band said it was not only an inappropriate theme but an insult to their own politics to have been associated with the party, branding it a “sick association”. It said: “Primal Scream are totally disgusted that the Home Secretary Theresa May ended her speech at the Tory party conference with our song Rocks. How inappropriate. Didn’t they research the political history of our band? Hasn’t she listened to the words? Does she even know what getting your rocks off means? No. She is a Tory; how could she?” 1.16pm: The Conservatives are now in full damage limitation mode. Ministers are taking to the airwaves to play down the consequences of the credit card gaffe. Yesterday aides said that Cameron would include this passage in his speech. The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That means households – all of us – paying off the credit card and store card bills. That was interpreted as Cameron telling people they should pay off their debts There are three reason why this was damaging. 1. People don’t like politicians lecturing them about their household finances. They don’t mind politicians moralising on subjects like bankers, but telling ordinary people what to do with their money is almost always a mistake. 2. It reminded voters that someone like Cameron – a well-paid professional with family wealth – finds it much easier to pay off his credit card debt than most ordinary people. 3. It doesn’t make economic sense. As Polly Curtis explains on her Reality Check blog, if want the economy to grow, you need people to spend money. Now the speech has been rewritten to make it clear that Cameron is not telling people what to do about their debt (see 12.37pm) and ministers are giving interviews saying this was never his intention. Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, told the BBC that people should “manage their own budgets in their own way”. And David Willetts, the universities minister, told the World at One that it was not unusual for speeches to change. I’ve been involved in this process in the party and the fact is drafts circulate, drafts get altered. I used to do some speech writing for Margaret Thatcher and I tell you, you went through draft after draft. 12.56pm: Here are the main points from William Hague ‘s speech to the conference. • Hague attacked Russia and China for vetoing a UN security council resolution on Syria. We and our European allies tabled a resolution in the UN Security Council calling on the Assad regime to stop the violence in Syria, after months of utterly unacceptable killings, torture and abuses. The decision of Russia and China to veto this resolution, and to side with the brutal regime rather than with the people of Syria is deeply mistaken and regrettable. • He said that the coalition had abandoned the “sofa government” adopted by Labour. We have created a National Security Council which brings together the key ministers, the Chief of the Defence Staff, the heads of the intelligence agencies and on Libya alone has already met almost sixty times. We work together every day, we consult the experts, our decisions are formally and properly made. Sofa government is out and cabinet government is back. • He claimed he was reviving British foreign policy. We are opening six embassies and closing none. We are expanding our diplomatic presence in 22 countries. And we are breathing new life into old neglected alliances such as with Australia, New Zealand and Japan and working to reinvigorate that great institution the Commonwealth … It is the job of our diplomats to be immersed in the culture and history of other nations, not ensnared in management-speak. If we have these skills as a nation when we want to negotiate a Treaty it will be done correctly; when we want a Trade deal it will be won; when we intervene overseas we will do so successfully; and so we will ensure that in twenty years time Britain’s Foreign office will remain the best diplomatic service in the world. We have brought new energy to British diplomacy, with Foreign Office ministers visiting 97 countries since the general election, and I have visited nearly 40 countries myself. I have been the first Foreign Secretary to visit Australia since Douglas Hurd, the first ever to visit a united Yemen, the first to make bilateral visits to Tunisia and New Zealand in thirty years. • He described his approach to foreign policy as “liberal conservatism”. Our party’s view of foreign policy is guided by our liberal conservatism: our sense of optimism and unquenchable faith in human nature, coupled with respect for the history and culture of other nations. • He said time was “running out” for a two-state solution in the Middle East. “We urge the Israelis and Palestinians to return to negotiations,” he said. 12.37pm: David Cameron has rewritten his speech to make it clear that he is not telling the public how to arrange their personal finances. An aide is in the press room now saying that the words released yesterday have been “misinterpreted” and that Cameron wanted to make the point that people are already paying off their debts. This is what Cameron was going to say. (See 9.36am for the passage in full.) The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That means households – all of us – paying off the credit card and store card bills. It means banks getting their books in order. And this is what he is going to say now. That’s why households are paying down their credit card and store card bills. It was a cock-up, they admit. “Hands up,” one aide said. According to the OBR figures flagged up by Labour (see 11.36am), household debt is going up. But the Tories say those figures include mortgage debt. In other respects, people are paying off their debts, they say. They are going to dig out some figures for us to prove it. 12.29pm: My colleague Damian Carrington, the Guardian’s head of environment, has read my “10 things I’ve learnt from the Conservative party conference” post (see 11.12am) and told me that I’ve missed something out. The Conservatives now see the environment as a vote loser, not vote winner. How else to interpret George Osborne’s “carbon clanger”, when he appeared to reverse five years of Tory commitment to the UK being a leader in the global low carbon economy. Perhaps Cameron’s speech will enlighten us? 12.26pm: William Hague, the foreign secretary, is speaking in the conference hall now. He has just told members that “sofa government” is out. But, a colleague points out, “back of the sofa government” appears to be in – because, metaphorically, that is where George Osborne has found the money for all this week’s announcements. 12.24pm: According to the BBC’s Nick Robinson, David Cameron has rewritten the passage in his speech about credit card debt. “Sloppy drafting” is being blamed for the fact that he gave the impression that he appeared to be lecturing us on clearing our credit card debt. 12.16pm: After Liam Fox delivered his speech, the Tories showed a video message from Aung San Suu Kyi , the Burmese opposition leader. She recorded a message for the Labour conference saying that the Burmese appreciated the value of events like party conferences because they did not have any democracy of their own. It seemed like a tacit endorsement of Labour. But she said almost exactly the same thing in her message to the Tories. 11.49am: Liam Fox , the defence secretary, has finished his speech now. Here are the main points. • Fox dismissed the notion that the European Union should play a greater role in defence. There are those in Europe who are calling for the EU to take a greater role in Europe’s security. Let me tell you, Europe already has a guarantor of its defence—it’s called NATO. It is nonsense to duplicate and divert from NATO at a time when resources are scarce across Europe. And the last thing we need is more EU bureaucracy. • He attacked EU countries that do not fulfill their commitments to NATO. He did not name them, but that seemed to be a reference to Germany. You know, many of those calling for deeper EU defence integration are already failing to fulfil their commitments to NATO. My message to them is clear, you cannot expect to have the insurance policy but ask others to pay the premiums. NATO must maintain its primacy in European defence because NATO is the alliance that keeps the United States in Europe. This not a luxury, it is a necessity. • He said the Ministry of Defence cuts could not stop Britain being an important military power. “Even after the MoD’s contribution to deficit reduction we still have the fourth largest defence budget in the world and we will continue to be one of only five countries (out of 28) in NATO meeting our 2% GDP obligation,” he said. • He said that he had taken a grip on MoD procurement. For years there was no real-time control on major equipment programmes to stop spiralling costs and constant delays. There is now. The Major Projects Review Board monitors the progress of the top 20 equipment programmes. And let me tell you, those programmes and those companies that are not delivering are being named and shamed. • He said Britain was on course to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan by 2015. The Afghan National Security Forces are growing in both size and, more importantly, capability—and are in many cases leading operations against the insurgency. And it’s because of the progress made by the Afghan security forces, and the improvement in the security situation, that 500 British troops will be brought home by the end of 2012. And no British troops will be in a combat role, or in the numbers they currently are, by 2015. • He said he wanted to increase the size of the Territorial Army by 50%. • He said the the government had set up a £30m community covenant scheme to fund local project connecting communities to the armed forces. Some 31 applications have already been made, he said. 11.36am: More on the credit card debt row. Labour have pointed out that the Office for Budget Responsibility expects household debt to go up, not down, between now and 2015. Here’s an extract from a report the OBR issued in April. Our March forecast shows household debt rising from £1.6 trillion in 2011 to £2.1 trillion in 2015, or from 160 per cent of disposable income to 175 per cent. Essentially, this reflects our expectation that household consumption and investment will rise more quickly than household disposable income over this period. We forecast that income growth will be constrained by a relatively weak wage response to higher-than-expected inflation. But we expect household to seek to protect their standard of living, relative to their earlier expectations, so that growth in household spending is not as weak as growth in household income. This requires households to borrow throughout the forecast period. 11.34am: In the conference hall Fox is telling Tories that next year will be the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War. The government will continue to guarantee the security of the Falklands, he says. This gives him the opportunity to praise Margaret Thatcher. 11.29am: Outside the conference hall, Labour have now pounced on David Cameron’s comments about credit card debt. Ian Austin, a shadow minister, has put out this statement. I think most people will look at what David Cameron is saying today and just think he’s completely out of touch. Of course people have got to be careful, but he’s got to understand that lots of ordinary families are really struggling at the moment with prices, VAT and unemployment going up, and they can’t afford to pay off their credit cards all in one go. 11.24am: Liam Fox, the defence secretary, is speaking in the conference hall now. He says he wants to increase the size of the Territorial Army by 50%. 11.12am: On the Today programme this morning the Daily Mail’s Iain Martin said that he thought this had been the most boring party conference since 1834. I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s probably fair to say that this is not one for the history books. Still, you shouldn’t spend four days at a conference without coming away with some conclusions. Here are the “10 things I’ve learnt from the Conservative conference”. 1. The economic crisis is overwhelming all government thinking – and ministers are not entirely in control. After the riots there were predictions that the party conference season would be dominated by debates about social breakdown, and what should be done to counter it. That debate never really materialised. The Tories have been talking about social issues this week (although not, to any great extent, the Big Society), but there is only one subject that really seems to matter. Outwardly there’s no panic, but there is a recognition that, to an extent, the government is at the mercy of outside events. When George Osborne declared on Monday that nothing would boost the British economy as much as a resolution of the eurozone crisis, he was admitting that Britain’s fate partly depends on Angela Merkel. 2. There won’t be a plan B. Senior Labour figures think the government will abandon its deficit reduction programme because growth is so anemic. But after this week it’s harder than ever to imagine that happening. It would be a “Black Wednesday” moment for the government, destroying its economic credibility in an instant. 3. David Cameron has a problem with women voters – but he doesn’t know what do to about it. As Allegra Stratton explains in her column today, polling shows that the government has a particular problem with women. Cameron tried to address this earlier this week with a bout of apologising, but, by focusing on his laddish remarks at PMQs, he missed the point. “It’s the economy, stupid.” Women are being hit by the cuts. Ministers understand the problem, but nothing came out of the conference that suggests they have found a proper way of addressing it. 4. Cameron has contained the Eurosceptics – but Europe is going to be a big election issue. Before the conference it was thought that the Eurosceptics would use it to aggressively demand a much tougher line on Europe. But the traditional Conservative conference Euro-row didn’t happen. That’s partly because the economy has overshadowed everything. (See 1.) But it is partly because Cameron has indicated that he would like to park this issue until the election, when the Conservatives will seek to use robust Euroscepticism as an electoral asset. 5. Cameron remains his party’s biggest asset. The conference slogan is: “Leadership for a Better Future.” The jury is still out on the “better future”, but Cameron is certainly providing leadership. Polling suggests that he is the only main party leader who actually attracts floating voters to his party and here at the conference support for him is very, very strong. 6. The Conservatives are doing their best not to let the Lib Dems depict them as rabid rightwingers. At their conference, the Lib Dems tried hard to differentiate themselves from the Conservatives, with figures like Chris Huhne, Vince Cable and Tim Farron all attacking them as unreconstructed Thatcherites. The Conservatives could have retaliated, but that would have made them look like the “Tea Party” extremists that Huhne referred to in his speech. Instead the Conservatives have presented themselves as model coalition partners, with cabinet ministers often praising their Lib Dem colleagues. 7. Ed Miliband’s attack on the “something for nothing” culture has struck a chord. Miliband was not the first politician to address the issue of a “something for nothing” culture, but he put it at the top of his agenda in his speech last week. But the Conservatives have grabbed it as a theme too, because they think voters believe that they – not Labour – are the party to address this. Miliband’s call for firms that do not offer apprenticeships to be banned from getting government contracts has also been picked up here. Yesterday Tory aides said that when Cameron attacks “vested interests” in his speech, he will be referring partly to firms that don’t offer apprenticeships. 8. But the Conservatives are not afraid of Labour under Ed Miliband. The Conservatives don’t seem to think that Labour can win an election under Miliband. I’ve yet to hear anyone talk about him as a serious threat. 9. Scotland seems to be slipping away from England – and Cameron doesn’t know how to stop that. Cameron talks strongly about his support for the union. But Conservative support in Scotland is very weak and one of the candidates in the leadership election there wants to disband the party and replace it with a new one. The union seems to be getting looser, and Cameron doesn’t seem to know what to do about it. 10. Party conferences aren’t really events for ordinary members any more. This is probably true of all the main parties, but it is particularly true here. These are great events MPs, journalists, lobbyists and people aspiring to be party candidates. But it hard to see their value for ordinary party members and many of the sessions in the main conference hall have been extraordinarily flat. The party conference format is ripe for reinvention. 10.54am: According to the BBC’s Andrew Neil, David Cameron is re-writing his speech to address the credit card problem. (See 9.36am.) Neil has posted this on Twitter. Major last minute rewriting Cameron speech. Concern re line to pay off credit cards. Would = recession He’s raising gov debt by 50% #cpc11 10.49am: Is it a good idea for everyone to pay off their credit card debt? Not particularly, as Polly Curtis explains on her Reality Check blog , with a full reference to the “paradox of thrift”. 10.27am: William Hague , the foreign secretary, is speaking later this morning but he has already given a round of interviews to the broadcasters. PoliticsHome were monitoring them all. Here are the main points. • Hague played down the suggestion that David Cameron was telling everyone to pay off their credit card debt. It is common sense that people should pay off debts when and where they can. [Cameron's] main point is that governments have to lead the way in doing that and that of course is what we are doing. • Hague claimed that Kenneth Clarke and Theresa May were in agreement on the need to change the way human rights legislation is interpreted. I think it would be a mistake for asylum seekers to go out and buy cats – they may not find that every case is the same. They are very much on the same page of course. They are completely agreed about this policy, in changing how we interpret Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights. Hague also claimed that the fact the newspapers had been preoccupied with a story about a cat showed that the conference had been a success. “I think the fact that there have been headlines about this individual cat actually shows what a successful conference we have had here,” he said. “If that is the worst that has happened this week, then things have gone pretty well on the whole.” (Actually, that misses the point. It wasn’t a story about a cat. It was a story about the Human Rights Act.) • He played down the prospect of trying to change Britain’s relationship with the EU in the near future. I believe that the EU has too much power and it is no secret that the Conservative Party wants some of those powers returning to the UK. That is not currently the position of our whole Coalition Government, and that opportunity is not there at the moment because major treaty change is not at the moment on the table. • He said he would advise any teenager not to give a speech at a party conference. This came when he was asked about Rory Weal, the 16-year-old who got a standing ovation when he spoke at Labour’s conference. Hague said people kept reminding him of the speech he gave to the Conservative conference as a teenager. People come up to me, teenagers come up to me, and they say ‘can I have some advice on giving a speech?’, and I say ‘don’t do it’, because they’ll still be playing the clip when you’re foreign secretary 30 years later. It’s probably best just to keep quiet. • He said the days of “automatic” growth were over. “I think the days of automatic growth have gone,” he declared. 9.51am: More bad news on the economy front – the economy grew even more slowly in the second quarter of 2011 than previously thought, it has emerged this morning. Here’s the Press Association report. The UK economy grew at a slower rate between April and June than previously thought, official figures revealed today, as the country’s recovery nearly ground to a halt. Gross domestic product (GDP) – a broad measure for the total economy – grew 0.1% in the second quarter, downwardly revised from previous estimates of 0.2%, the Office for National Statistics said. The near-stagnant growth was driven by a 0.8% drop in consumer spending, the biggest drop in more than two years, and a 1.2% decline in the production industries, the ONS said. Elsewhere, the ONS revealed growth in the first quarter of 2011 was revised down to 0.4% from 0.5% and the recession in 2008/09 was much deeper than previously thought but ended a quarter earlier than first estimated. The revisions come following an annual rebalancing of accounts known as the Blue Book exercise, which involves changes to methodology. The troubling data is released amid mounting fears over the health of the world economy, driven by the eurozone debt crisis, sluggish growth in the US and weak industry data in the UK and Europe. 9.36am: Political parties almost always give extracts from the leader’s conference speech to the media in advance, so that the journalists have something to report before the event happens. But the spin doctors don’t always get the headlines they want. This morning the newspapers have focused on what Cameron is going to say about paying off credit card bills. But, after his press team briefed the newspapers yesterday, they appear to have got nervous about that suggestion that he was telling everyone exactly how to manage their household finances and, when the broadcasters were briefed, this passage was left out. For the record, here’s the full extract from the speech about debt released in advance. But we need to tell the truth about the overall economic situation. People understand that when the economy goes into recession times get tough. But normally after a while, things pick up. Strong growth returns, people get back into work. This time, it’s not like that. And people want to know why the good times are so long coming. The answer is straightforward, but uncomfortable. This was no normal recession; we’re in a debt crisis. It was caused by too much borrowing, by individuals, businesses, banks- and most of all governments. When you’re in a debt crisis, some of the normal things that governments can do, to deal with a normal recession like borrowing to cut taxes or increase spending, these things won’t work because they lead to more debt, which would make the crisis worse. Why? Because it risks higher interest rates, less confidence and the threat of even higher taxes in future. The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That means households – all of us – paying off the credit card and store card bills. It means banks getting their books in order. And it means governments – all over the world- cutting spending and living within their means. This coalition government, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg and I – we’ve led the way here in Britain. Our new plan is right. And our plan will work. I know you can’t see it or feel it yet. But think of it like this. The new economy we’re building: it’s like building a house. The most important part is the part you can’t see – the foundations that make it stable. Slowly, but surely, we’re laying the foundations for a better future. But this is the crucial point: it will only work if we stick with it. 9.13am: In 1997, when Tony Blair became prime minister, Labour campaigned under the slogan: “Things can only get better”. Today David Cameron is going to wrap up the 2011 party conference season with his speech to the Conservatives and his message seems to be: “Things might get better, but not for a while, and they could get worse too.” Aides insist that the overall message will be optimistic but, as Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt report in the Guardian today , his mood will be measured and he will say that the economy is not going to be fixed quickly. Cameron will speak this afternoon. But there are also two sessions this morning. Here’s a full agenda. 10am: Session on the Conservative Policy Forum and the voluntary party, with contributions from Lady Warsi , the party co-chairman, Jeremy Middleton, chairman of the National Convention, Fiona Middleton, president of the National Convention and Oliver Letwin , the Cabinet Office minister, 11.15am: Session on foreign affairs, with contributions from Martin Callanan, the leader of the Conservatives in the European parliament, and Jan Zahradil, chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, Liam Fox , the defence secretary, and William Hague , the foreign secretary. 2.30pm: David Cameron’s speech . This morning I’ll put up a post on “10 things I’ve learnt from the Conservative conference. I’ll also be looking at the papers and bringing you the best comment from the web. I’ll post a summary at around 1pm, and another after Cameron finishes. Conservative conference 2011 Conservative conference David Cameron William Hague Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.