With Parliament’s return last week, we are now in the final stretch before the General Election which must be held within the next 8 months. And after 12 years of Labour Government, the country is desperate for change.
What ever the outcome, the task facing the next Government is immense. A full six months after the recession in France and Germany ended, our economy is still shrinking making it the longest and deepest recession in modern history. This year, our Government will borrow £1 in every £4 it spends. We have the largest budget deficit of any large economy, and the highest debt level since the Second World War.
So the priority for the next Government must be to get the public finances under control. That will require difficult and painful decisions including significant cuts in public spending and postponement of tax reductions. However, it is far better to be open and honest now than try to pretend that we can go on as we are. We also need responsibility when it comes to fixing our broken society, the bleak record of violent crime, long term unemployment and family breakdown.
That is why the Conservative Party is setting out plans to promote responsibility in all these areas. It includes a radical programme of school reform, giving parents more choice over where their children go to school, and more powers to teachers to improve discipline and behaviour in the classroom. We also need radical reform of our welfare system, getting people off a life on benefits and into work. We also recognise that people are not going to take lectures from politicians about responsibility unless they see politicians being responsible themselves. That is why the crisis over expenses has been so damaging and why we must have deep-rooted and lasting political reform. Part of that is about greater transparency and openness. Part of it is about reducing the cost of politics as a whole. But we also need to devolve more power to local people and make Government more accountable to them.
These are profound challenges which will confront whichever party is chosen to form the next Government. However, it is clear that our country desperately needs change and to achieve that we need a general election which cannot come soon enough.
