Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

It has been a long day at Westminster.

First we had the announcement in relation to the Strategic Defence and Security Review. The impacts are severe as we expected but what is even more shocking is the mess that we were left by the previous Government.

1. In total Labour left us a £38bn black hole over the next ten years. To repeat, they had committed to spend £38,000,000,000 more than the money in the defence budget over the next ten years.

2. The top fifteen (15) spending programmes are currently £8.8bn over budget with the delivery programme for these commitments facing a delay of 32 years UNDER THE LABOUR PLANS!

3. Last year alone the Labour Government increased their spending commitments on defence equipment by an incredible £3.3bn in one year and yet made no additional funding available.

So the background is horrendous to say the least. However, the announcements at least attempted to make sense of the chaos left to the Coalition by the Labour Party – but there was a heavy price to pay.

The loss of the investment at St. Athan in South Wales was a serious blow to my colleague Alun Cairns, the Conservative MP for the Vale of Glamorgan and there are some unpalatable changes in all three services. However, as a result of this review there are important positives which we need to highlight;

Royal Navy

• There will keep a continuous at sea nuclear deterrent
• Seven attack submarines and 19 Frigates and Destroyers will be maintained
• All three naval bases will be retained

Army

• All 36 Infantry Battalions are to be kept
• There will be a new structure of five deployable Multi-Role Brigades
• There will be no changes to Army Units involved in Afghanistan

RAF

• Move to a fleet of Carrier Variant Joint Strike Fighters and a Typhoon Fleet by 2020
• New state of the art Strategic Airlift aircraft consisting of C17s, A400Ms and A330s
• No impact on operations in Afghanistan

Having attempted to digest all these announcements we then met the Minister for Culture, Jeremy Hunt, to discuss his proposed new funding arrangements for S4C. As I was attempting to get to grip with the details the story appeared on the BBC. I suspect that tomorrow will be exhausting. There will be the fallout from the Strategic Defence and Security Review and the funding announcements of the BBC and S4C coupled with the Comprehensive Spending review being revealed at 12.30.

Interesting times!

Guto

I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend this dinner at the St. George’s Hotel in Llandudno on Friday night to honour those individuals and groups who work quietly but effectively to make life better for us as a society.

The event, sponsored by Trinity Mirror and Scottish Power, was excellent with an attention to detail which would not be found in many far grander televised award events. The St. George and their staff showed why we as a community should be proud of Llandudno as a tourism destination – I was incredibly pleased to see the way that Llandudno could rise to the occasion so effortlessly.

However, the real success of the evening was the quality and breadth of the award winners. These were people who had turned adversity into opportunity, tragedy into a chance to serve others and often, through sheer willpower, had managed to make a real difference to entire communities and the lives of numerous individuals.

It was humbling and gratifying to see the Aberconwy area walk away with no fewer than five awards. These were;

1. Abigail Williams, from Llandudno, in the Young Person of the Year Category
2. Friends of Queens Park, Craig y Don, in the Team Effort Category
3. Ysgol Nant y Coed, Llandudno Junction, in the School of the Year Category
4. James Singleton, Dwygyfylchi, in the Sporting Champion Category
5. Theresa Evans, Llandudno, in the Person of the Year Category

My sincere congratulations to all and to every other nominee in what was an inspiring evening. As the deputy editor of the Daily Post said;

“we often read about the bad things in society on the front pages of our newspapers but occasionally it pays to recognise and acknowledge the immense good work that is undertaken each and every day in our communities”

Guto

The blogging has been sparse due to the excitement of the past week, massive information overload at Westminster and efforts to establish a constituency office.  As I write I feel almost relaxed for the first time in ten days but with London calling again tomorrow I suspect that things will be busy again next week.  Despite my intense schedule I am amazed at the work that David Jones MP will now need to undertake in his much deserved role as Minister of State at the Welsh Office.  Discussing a number of local issues with David on Saturday I was exhausted just listening to his intense workload for the next few weeks.  It’s a good thing that he is so clearly the right man for the job.

Due to the web designer being on holiday this site will only slowly develop into the website of your MP.  It should be sorted by the end of the month but until then blogging will be sporadic.

On a more positive note I went to my first engagement as the Aberconwy MP on Friday attending the re-launch of Llandudno Community Radio at Ty Hapus.  A great initiative which I have been proud to be associated with for months it was a pleasure to be able to accept this particular invitation as my first in the new job.  I will also be undertaking my first constituency surgery next Friday.  Since our new offices are awaiting telephone lines any interested parties wishing to make an appointment are advised to call 01492 583743 for the time being.

Guto

A long day!  Meeting of the 1922 this evening and a warm response to the position taken by the shadow cabinet.  Will it be enough or will the Liberals back Labour?  If they do then we as a country will be in serious trouble.  What we need is a stable administration able to govern for four or five years.  A Lib/Lab/SNP/PC/SDLP/DUP agreement = problems.

We as a party have worked in the interest of the country – will the Liberals do the same?

Guto

The following is a speech delivered by Sir John Major in Stoke on Trent to a fundraising dinner for Conservative Target seats in that part of the world.  It is a demolition of the Labour spin machine and an excellent analysis of the reckless lack of judgement shown by Gordon Blair (well they were always a two man team were they not?) since 1997.

I challenge anyone who wants a better future for our country to read this speech and not feel an immediate need to get out there and knock on doors to ensure that this failed Labour administration is soundly beaten on the 6th of May or even the 3rd of June if Gordon Brown bottles the election once more.

Guto

Invited to come – delighted to accept. 

Within weeks there will be a General Election.  Bias in the system means we need a big lead in votes to get a lead in seats.  Nothing can be taken for granted:  it will be hard pounding to get a clear majority.   

When we lost – in 1997 – we had been in Government for 18 years:  it was too long, and many electors thought a fifth successive win would be bad for democracy. 

But it is ironic that in May 1997 the electorate turfed out the only Government in the last 50 years to leave Office with every single economic indicator improving, and elected a Party that has ended up bankrupting the Nation. 

I don’t believe most people yet realise how seriously we are in debt.  The man who promised to end “Boom and Bust” has led us into the biggest Bust for 70 years.  Under Gordon Brown, debt is a runaway train.  During the three hours we are here for dinner this evening, the Government will have borrowed another £60 million and it is we – the taxpayers – who will have to pay it back.  We will – literally – be repaying Labour’s debts for the rest of our lives.    

The shocking reality is that – if we win the next election – David Cameron will face a far worse problem in 2010 than Margaret Thatcher faced in 1979.  Let me be blunt:  whatever the result of the election, nearly everybody in the country is going to see the quality of their life reduced.

Nor – as he does – can Gordon Brown blame anyone but himself.  For him to do so – with no acknowledgement of his failure – beggers belief.

This is, of course, very New Labour.  Self-preservation first.  And the truth nowhere in sight.

Of course there has been an international dimension.  But most of our problems are home grown.  Even without the financial crisis:

-        We would still be in recession. 

-        Debt would still be at record levels. 

-        Unemployment would still be blighting too many lives.

-        Our banking system would still have been poorly regulated.

-        Our pension system would still have been wrecked. 

-        Our education system would still need reform. 

-        Our health system would still be unable to cope. 

-        Our civil liberties would still have been compromised.

-        And our prison system would still be overflowing with prisoners who need not be there, whilst others who should be there are given early release.    

All that is pure New Labour Britain:  this is their legacy.  Not the Americans.  Not the speculators.  Not even the Bankers.  None of it can be blamed on anyone else.  Only on Labour:  they have damaged the lifestyle of millions for years to come.

For nearly everyone, their security in life is:  job;  home;  pension.  After twelve years of Labour, none of them is secure.  Jobs lost.  Homes fallen in value.  And Gordon Brown killed final salary-related pensions with a tax, and damaged personal pensions with economic mis-management.  He is responsible for a generation of poor pensioners.  Labour cannot be trusted to put this right:  no-one trusts the mugger to set the broken bones.

At the moment, there is a dangerous gap between politicians and public.  There is a lack of trust:  only the unvarnished truth at all times will correct this.  And politicians seem to talk a different language to the public.  We need to put that right.  Because we are a serious political Party we talk a great deal about the economy, or reducing debt, or becoming competitive – all of which are important – but we should recognise also that to millions of people that is simply abstract economics. 

It is why politics often seems so remote.  We should focus more on the hopes and fears people have in their daily lives.  Most of these are family orientated:

• Can I get back into work?
• Can I get the right school for my child?
• How quickly can / will I get treatment for an illness?
• Can I pay the mortgage – or get on the housing ladder?
• How can I get help with care for an elderly or sick relative; or care for a child that is damaged and has special needs?
• Can I get away from this sink estate?

These are the worries that keep people awake at night, and dominate their lives.  We need to think on this personal level.

I recommend a note on the desk of every MP.  It should read:  how does what I am about to do affect the people of this country?  That should be their first thought:  not “Is this popular?”  Or “Will it win votes?”.

We must end the culture of promises that can’t be kept.  The British people aren’t stupid.  They know we can’t go on living in a financial never-never land.  So – tell them the truth.  Tell them what Labour has done.  And what we must now do. 

Two years from now –when the legacy of New Labour will be at its worst ­– people must understand that the blame rests with the policies of Blair and Brown – not the remedies of Cameron and Osborne.    

As ever, Labour will try and shift the blame.  We mustn’t let them get away with that.  The blame must rest squarely where it belongs.  So, let us tell the truth about them with the same vehemence with which they lie about us.

After great crises often come great changes.  Gordon Brown is right about one thing – the world has changed.  Necessity compels us to cut our cloth according to our means.  With wise policy, we can turn this crisis into worthwhile policy. 

What can be done?

We could simply top-slice budgets, with everyone bearing an equal share of the pain.  That is easy to do – but a mistake.

Or we could prioritise. 

We could re-shape Government, reduce it in size, be selective about what Government does, cut out whole functions, abolish unnecessary bodies, cut quangos, end the billions wasted on consultancies, on rebranding, and on fake schemes that serve only as political window-dressing. 

We must wean the nation off the belief that good Government means high public spending on everything.  We must spend on priorities, but compassionate policies do not necessarily mean big Government.  Smaller Government is necessary for financial reasons:  but it is also desirable.  We are over-governed.  Tories should not be defensive about dismantling the intrusive power of the State. 

We should never accept that big is better.  Big Government inhibits and confines;  it weakens ambition;  it cuts back on opportunity;  it undermines enterprise.  Often, it is anti-libertarian.  For many people – unfamiliar with Government and perhaps unsophisticated about it – it induces wariness, even fear, of The Man in Whitehall.  Yet – in a free society – The Man in Whitehall – civil servant and politician – is the servant of the nation, not its master.  So it must be again. 

And we must lift our eyes beyond domestic concerns, to see clearly our role in the wider world.  Wealth is moving to the East:  unless we re-create a competitive economy, that will continue.  The choice is simple:  we either reform, or we become less relevant, less well-off and a political and economic backwater.

David Cameron has referred often to the “broken society”, and we all know what he means by that.  We have to sustain the family unit.  Cut crime.  End the culture of dependency.  Improve social mobility.  Last year, fewer homes were built than at any time since the 1940s.  That is truly shocking:  it leaves people trapped – and often without work – in poor communities. 

We need to move from a celebrity-drenched culture to an opportunity society.  And, for everyone’s sake, we need to give talent and genius free rein and promote excellence in education by levelling up, not levelling down.  And we should dismantle the Nanny society in which adults are treated like children and children are treated like adults.

We need to move away from a Government obsessed by presentation and short-term popularity, to one obsessed by serious policies and long-term results.  It’s time to say goodbye to this sound-bite society.  We should say to the electorate – these are our objectives and this is how we will achieve them.  The Agenda is huge and, in our complex world, none of it will be easy to deliver.  But we Conservatives have done it before, and now need to do it again. 

At the next election, New Labour will have yet another Big Lie.  They always do.  It’s in their electioneering DNA. 

In 1997, they told electors we would abolish the State Pension.  They knew this was a lie. 

In 2001, they claimed to have “saved the British economy”.  Another lie:  we Tories created the most competitive economy in Europe.  Labour wrecked it. 

In 2005, they said we would slash public services.  Yet another lie.  And now – as we know from leaked documents – they are themselves planning cuts of nearly 10%.

When I hear such barefaced deceit by Labour, I sometimes wonder if they have any self-recognition at all?  Have they lost all touch with reality?  Or is the truth a constant stranger to their political soul? 

In 2010, when the failures of their own record in Government have been so woefully exposed, we can be sure they will resort to attacking our personalities and policies – indeed they are already doing so.  Because they cannot defend what they have done, they will attack what they say we will do.  It’s an old tactic. 

So be ready for - at least – three Big Lies.

First, the old chestnut that “ruthless, heartless Tories don’t care”:  they say we will cut schools and hospitals first.  Why on earth would we do that?  Our children go to those schools.  We use these hospitals.  It is we – not Labour – who will cut the size of the State – precisely to protect the most vital services. 

As for Tories not caring – look at Charities and Community Services up and down the UK:  who are they supported by in every town and village?  Conservative volunteers.

Second, that “all Tories are toffs – they don’t know anything about ordinary people”.  What inverted snobbery – and what a grotesque travesty of the truth.  How many of you here this evening live a carefree and leisurely life?  How many of you have not – at one time or another – faced problems with bills, mortgages and family crises?  Of course you have – we all have.  As a boy, I look back with such affection on my own privileged upbringing – full of all the luxuries life offered in a multi-occupied, multi-racial house in Brixton.  This class-based politics, setting citizen against citizen, is just beneath contempt. 

Third, Judgement.  Gordon Brown has already set this kite flying, in his Party Conference speech.

Let me quote:

“I say the test for a Government is the quality of its judgement”.

Quite so Gordon.  So let’s take a look at the quality of some of Labour’s judgements over the last 12 years:

-         Was it good judgement – or even legal – to go to war in Iraq?

-         Was it good judgement to move into Afghanistan with no clear military objective?

-         Was it good judgement to under-equip our troops – both in Iraq and Afghanistan?

-         Was it good judgement to go on such a reckless public spending spree that we have become one of the most indebted nations in the world?

-         Was it good judgement to sell our Gold reserves at the very bottom of the market?

-         Was it good judgement to force through 24 hour drinking, which has led to an increase in drunkenness and inner city crime?

-         Was it good judgement to pile so much paperwork on the police that they spend more time form-filling and less time protecting our neighbourhoods?

If judgement is the test – Labour have failed spectacularly.

Over twelve years, New Labour have debased Parliament;  undermined an independent Civil Service;  taken us to war on a false premise;  embellished that error by linking Iraq to the 9/11 attack on New York for which there is not a shred of evidence;  affronted civil liberties in an over-reaction to the terrorist threat;  and made a mockery of the criminal justice system.

So I’m glad that Gordon Brown wishes to make judgement an issue at the next election.  Indeed, further on in his Party Conference speech, he entreats us all to do the same:

Again, I quote:

“A Party that makes the wrong choices on the most critical decisions …. should not be given the chance to be in Government”. 

Alas – for our country – New Labour have been given three chances too many.   They came in when the coffers were full, and – true to form – like every Labour Government we’ve ever known – they will leave the coffers empty.

The poet Philip Larkin once wrote:  "Most things are not meant."  Labour did not mean to damage our national wellbeing, but they have.  They did not mean to damage our personal liberty, but they have.  They did not mean to undermine Parliament:  but they have.  Larkin was right:  "Most things are not meant", but his poem is even more prescient than you may think.  It is entitled:  "Going, Going".  Let us hope it is not long before this Labour Government is finally gone gone – and for good good.

Following the John Bright hustings (which I thoroughly enjoyed) on Friday the results have been announced today.

Congratulations to Mike and the Liberals on drawing first blood.  It was a close run thing for second place apparently but I did not even manage that!  So it was;

1. Liberals

2. Labour

3. Conservatives

4. Plaid (with an incredibly small amount of votes which can be summarised as less than 2 but more than 0)

My thanks to the School for a great event, well organised with excellent questions from all participants.

Guto

One of his best. Our next Prime Minister in my view;
It’s great to be back in Wales.

It’s four years since I first addressed this conference.

Back then we were just a footnote in Welsh politics.

And just look at what we’ve done since then.

We’ve won council seats in Denbighshire, in Powys, in Pembrokeshire.

We’re running councils in Monmouthshire and the Vale of Glamorgan.

We’ve got over sixty more councillors...

…in cities, towns and villages ... and even in Labour’s heartland, and yes, even deep in the valleys, even in the Rhonda ... let’s not forget Joel James – he may be the only Conservative in the village but were proud of the progress we’ve made.

And four years ago, who would have thought that the Conservative Party could top the poll in Wales…

…beating Labour for the first time since the First World War, like we did in last year’s European elections?

Forget ‘how green was my valley’…

…it should be ‘how blue is my valley’...

…because the great dragon of Welsh Conservatism has awoken once more.

So I want to thank you for everything you’ve done.

And I especially want to thank Cheryl and Nick.

You have dedicated yourselves to our revival in Wales.

You have led our campaigns from the front.

And you should both feel incredibly proud of what you have achieved.

FIVE MORE YEARS

Yes, you’ve all been working hard.

But today I’m here to ask you to double your efforts.

That general election is just over sixty days away.

This isn’t an election that it would be quite nice to win.

It is an election it is absolutely essential we win because our country is in a complete mess and we have to turn it around.

Everyone knows five more years of Gordon Brown would be a disaster for this country.

Another five years of his spending, bloat, waste, debt and taxes.

Another five years of failing to get to grips with our big social problems.

Another five years in our politics of that big, top-down, bossy "I know best" sort of approach.

That’s why the choice at the next election is as simple as this:

Five more years of Gordon Brown’s tired government making things worse...

...or change with the Conservatives, who have the energy, leadership and values to get the country moving again.

Change in our economy, backing aspiration and opportunity and aspiration for all.

Change in our society, encouraging responsibility and backing those who do the right thing.

And change in our politics, giving people more power and control over their lives.

THE CHOICE IN WALES

And Wales needs that change as much as anywhere else in Britain.

In fact, I’d argue it needs it even more.

Do you know what Peter Hain said last month?

He said “compared with Rwanda...Wales is indeed still a wealthy country”.

Now, I’ve been to Rwanda and it’s a beautiful place.

And I’m proud that Conservative Party volunteers have been there to help out in social action projects.

But what does it say about this Government – and these Ministers – when they compare Wales to the 17th poorest country on the planet?

What does it say about this Government – and these Ministers – when the scale of their ambitions for Wales do not seem to go beyond a country that in the last twenty years has been ravaged by war and genocide?

What does it say about this Government – and these Ministers – when they think the Welsh should put up with this and just be thankful for what they get?

I tell you what it says.

It says this Government is arrogant, out-of-touch and has completely lost any right to govern.

So at this election, I want you to show your real passion and anger at how Labour have let down Wales.

Because there is a simple fact about what’s happened here in the past decade.

There’s not just a border separating Wales and the rest of the UK – there’s a prosperity gap.

And under Labour it’s got deeper and wider.

This is the poorest nation on these islands.

It has the highest rates of unemployment and the highest rates of child poverty.

There is only one word for what Labour have done in Wales this last decade: failure…

…and I don’t want you to let anyone forget it.

But more than that, I want you to tell the people of this great country that it doesn’t have to be like this.

Explain to them the real difference between Labour’s approach and the Conservative way.

Take the economy.

Labour think you get the economy moving by opening up the big government toolbox, pulling out the old tools like regional development agencies and new initiatives and trying to crank it to life from on high.

We understand that in the end it’s not government that will get the Welsh economy growing…

…it’s enterprise, it’s entrepreneurs, people with a great idea and the courage to start their own business.

That’s why we’ll cut corporation tax rates, abolish taxes on the first ten jobs created by new businesses and get people off welfare and into work.

And look at our different approach to our biggest social problems.

Labour say we’re wrong to talk about mending our broken society.

But when there are towns in Wales where one in five of the working age population live on benefits…

.... when one in ten are on some type of incapacity benefit ...

…when there are 140 violent crimes a day in this country…

…when about 500 people in Wales die each year from alcohol…

...when so many children are deprived the structure of stable family life...

…how can you pretend our society doesn’t need mending?

We need a government that’s going to face up to the facts, roll up their sleeves and get on with the job.

That’s exactly what we’ll do.

It’s our ambition to make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe, by recognising marriage in the tax system, supporting couples in the benefits system and fighting back against crime.

And there is a massive difference in the way Labour and the Conservatives see our politics.

Labour see a system that is fundamentally sound but just needs a bit of tinkering to sort out the expenses scandal.

We see a top-down, bossy, power-hoarding, unaccountable relic that needs to be re-built from the bottom up.

Yes, we’ll sort out expenses – and we’ve been leading the way on that – but we need to go much further.

We will give everyone in Wales a sense that they are in control of their own destiny.

That’s why we’ll reduce the number of MPs, cut Whitehall bureaucracy by a third and make our politics more local, more transparent and more accountable.

That’s the difference between Labour and the Conservatives.

Inaction vs action.

Defeat vs optimism.

Despair for Wales vs hope for Wales.

There’s no iron law that says Labour must win in Wales.

So at this election, I want you to get out there and fight...

...fight for our party and fight for the change we want bring...

...above all, fight for Wales and fight for the future of Britain.

DEVOLUTION

But let me say this, whatever the outcome in Wales at the next election, we want a relationship of co-operation, not confrontation, between Westminster and Cardiff.

I will be a Prime Minister who acts on the voice of the Welsh people and will maintain strong relationships with the Assembly Government.

That’s why I’m happy to come to the Assembly each year and make myself available to answer questions on any subject.

It’s why I want Westminster Ministers appearing in front of Assembly committees – and Assembly Ministers appearing in front of Westminster committees.

And it’s why I will always support devolution and make sure it works for the benefit of everyone.

And if people in Wales want a referendum on full law-making powers that is a matter for them – so a Conservative Government will not block it.

But let’s resolve right here and right now that we will be the ones who stop the endless round of arguments that too often block progress in Wales – and start working together to build this country’s future.

THE BIG QUESTION IN POLITICS

But today I don’t just want to talk to you about how we can secure the future of Wales...

...I want to set out how we can secure the future of the United Kingdom itself.

The greatest task of all will be getting to grips with the monster budget deficit that Labour have created.

I think people know by now that the Conservatives are the ones with the grit and the guts to cut public spending to cut the deficit.

We’ve been upfront that there will have to be cuts, upfront about where they will come and upfront that they will have to start straightaway.

And people say ‘yes, we agree with the Conservatives when they say they want to cut the deficit.’

But when we also talk about our big ambitions to reform schools, shake-up welfare, help the poorest in society...

…they can sometimes think: “hang on a minute, how are you going to make this country better at the same time as dealing with these massive debts?”

They’re right to ask – because their question goes to the heart of the big argument in British politics today.

At the last few elections, according to Labour the big question in politics was: “who do you trust to spend some more of your money?"

That was Gordon Brown’s question. Well I’ve a message for you, Gordon: it's over. There isn't any money left. You've spent it all.

No, the question today is this: "how do we make things better without just spending money?"

This is the question that will define British politics for the years to come ...

... and today, I want to show you how it’s only the modern Conservative Party that has the answers.

BIG SPENDING FAILS

We’ve always known that you don’t improve things by just spending more money on them.

For years now at Prime Minister’s Questions I’ve faced Gordon Brown – and Tony Blair before him – droning on about resources going up, spending going up, investment going up....

...all to cheers from the Labour benches.

They were always less forthcoming about what that money had actually bought.

Social mobility. Stagnant.

Inequality. rising

Hundreds of thousands more living in severe poverty.

They thought it was all about money. It wasn’t. And no there is no money left there is nothing left to say.

Labour never understand that it’s not the numbers on the government cheque that count ...

...but the number of people who are lifted out of poverty; who get a chance in life; who get helped or cured or taught or given the opportunity to live their dream .... that’s what it’s about.

MORE FOR LESS

So after all this waste, all this failure and now all this debt, it falls to us, the modern Conservative Party, to restore hope in all those Labour have let down.

Showing government can be smarter, better, more imaginative and more competent.

Explaining how we can make things better without just spending money, how we can deliver more for less.

More for less is not some pie-in-the-sky political promise.

It’s something that businesses up and down the country do day-in, day-out.

They think: how can I deliver more for my customers while reducing my costs?

Imagine if they took the Labour approach, believing that every reduction in spending and costs was automatically a calamity for their customers.

Think of the advertising.

Good food costs more at Sainsburys.

Not “Every little helps” from Tesco, but “Every little Hurts”.

Businesses are constantly looking for creative ways to get more bang for their buck.

Reforming work practices. Buying wholesale when they can. Eradicating duplication. Innovating new delivery systems. Cutting out waste.

We need to bring that business sense and imagination to government.

Let me make clear: we are not offering a simple efficiency drive.

We’re not promising that the path to less spending and better public services is paved with just a few well-chosen cuts.

What we propose is something entirely different – something so bold and radical I would call it a whole new type of government.

Where it spends money, how it spends money, the way it spends money – that’s all got to change.

We’re going to shape government in a way it has never existed before so we use our instincts as Conservatives, our understanding of how people and communities really work and the latest technology to deliver more for less.

And this means doing three things in particular:

First, tackling the root causes of our social problems so that we can make millions of lives better while at the same time reducing the costs on the state.

Second, reforming our public services so we deliver both choice and efficiency.

And third, making government more local and more transparent so we cut waste as well as improve outcomes.

Let me take each in turn.

REDUCING THE DEMANDS ON THE STATE

First, reducing the long-term demands on the state.

In plain English that means asking the obvious question: why is public spending so high in the first place?

We spend so much on prisons because there is too much crime.

We spend so much on welfare because there are too many people not properly equipped for work.

We spend so much on health because our lifestyles are so unhealthy.

We need to rewind and ask: what are the causes of these things?

Do you know how much social breakdown costs our country each year?

Over £100 billion.

That’s one and a half thousand pounds for every person in our country.

That money gets spent on the family that’s broken, the man who’s never known what it is to work, the child who’s growing up in desperate circumstances, the communities who live in fear of violence and crime…

…and it passes through our education system, our healthcare system, our criminal justice system, our care system, our welfare system.

Now just imagine if we got to grips with our social problems – gave everyone the hope that comes with work; every child the chance that comes with love; every community the purpose that comes with security.

We would make life so much better for so many people.

And we’d also massively reduce the bills for government.

In other words, delivering more for less.

The question is: how do we do that?

And here, there’s a real difference between our approach and Labour’s approach.

Labour’s approach is just to treat the symptoms of our big social problems by spending more money.

For example, when it comes to poverty they think a tax credit here or a benefit change there will make all the difference.

But all this does is keep people stuck in poverty while at the same time leaving the state with an ongoing role.

Our approach is to tackle the root causes of poverty...

...like welfare dependency, addiction, debt, poor schooling and above all, family breakdown...

...so the state is no longer so dominant.

That’s why we have put such focus on school reform, welfare reform and strengthening families…

…giving people the chance to lift themselves up and out of poverty…

…breaking the cycles that have existed for generations…

…and being the ones who will make British poverty history.

PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM

The second way we can deliver more for less is through reform of our public services.

In 2001 Gordon Brown said "there is not going to be one penny more until we get the changes" we need to reform our public services.

But there’s been trillions of pennies since then – and where’s the reform?

It was blocked.

By guess who?

Gordon Brown.

He now poses as the champion of public service reform.

The truth is that he is to reforming public services what Nero was to fire safety ...

....or Tiger Woods to marital fidelity.

Speak to doctors, nurses, teachers, police officers and they’ll tell you what a nightmare it is working in Labour’s bureaucratic state machine.

They start out idealistic, they go into their training because they have a vocation, they have a love for what they do but that passion is being killed.

It’s death by a thousand tick boxes, targets, performance indicators, inspection regimes.

They’re left feeling demoralised, disrespected, disillusioned.

Most of all they’re pulling their hair out because they see all that money being wasted and they know that it could be spent so much better.

That’s why our reforms will all led by this common, clear Conservative principle:

Public services work better when they’re driven from the bottom-up, by people on the frontline.

So we’re going to take apart the centralised apparatus of command and control…

…and we’re going to give that power to people who work in our public services – even going as far as giving them the chance to take complete ownership of the organisation they work for in.

We’ll also smash open the state monopoly and open the door to charities and private companies who can play a part in the public sector.

And we’ll pay them all by the results they achieve.

To those who say ‘you can’t do that’, I say ‘of course we can – and of course we must.’

Our reforms will unleash a new culture of public sector innovation, giving higher morale, better results, lower costs and – you’ve got it – more for less.

CUTTING WASTE

All these changes will have a profound impact on how much government spends.

But the truth is it may take years to feel many of the benefits – and we can’t afford to wait that long.

We need to start getting more for less from day one.

So there is a third component to our plans – cutting out waste.

Labour’s spendaholic culture needs no introduction.

This is the Government that has elevated money-burning to an art form.

We’ve all got our own ridiculous Labour waste story.

Since 2003, this Government have paid out £10 million in tax credits – to people who are actually dead.

Then there’s an agency of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills – they spent, and I promise this is true, £12,000 on branded golf balls.

Or how about the Department for International Development?

They spent £240,000 on Brazilian dancing in London.

Here in Wales you had the huge upheaval of 22 health boards, launched to a great fanfare....

...and scrapped just six years later.

And of course, no list of Labour waste can be complete without Ed Balls.

You don’t suffer his rule in Wales, but your taxes pay for it...so let me share this with you.

His Department for Children, Schools and Families reportedly spent £3 million on lavish new offices – which included a massage room and ‘contemplation suite’.

While we’re on that department, I found my own story this week.

Flicking through the Guardian I saw an advert they’d placed taking up a third of a page of prime-time space.

Sadly they weren’t advertising for a new Secretary of State.

They were asking people – and let me quote this accurately – ‘to put questions to the National Strategies about primary children’s writing.’

Leave aside the question of how you put a question to a strategy; just think of the bureaucratic carnival of waste behind an ad like this.

A group of civil servants emerge, presumably from the ‘contemplation suite’ with a novel idea.

They want to set up a taskforce for primary reading.

The taskforce books a weekend away to devise a strategy.

The strategy needs further thought so they hire consultants.

Then there’s the branding. The auditing. The monitoring.

The strategy needs to be legally reviewed, peer reviewed, benchmarked, mentored and mainstreamed…

…but not before there’s an allocation resources impact assessment.

Then they call the communications department to create a website, design an ad and get it placed.

I could have saved them all that bother and all that money.

Writing is about the imagination.

What you need is some great teachers, some good books, some pencils and some paper.

Is that really too difficult?

Now of course, the golf balls, the dancers, the lavish offices, the advertising campaigns – these are just the small examples of waste under Labour.

There have been monumental ones too.

The £4.5 billion spent – each year – on NHS bureaucracy.

That’s more than we spend on maternity and reproductive health.

The £3 billion lost in benefit fraud and error.

That’s more than we spend on winter fuel payments.

Every pound Labour waste is a pound that should be spent on keeping us safe, educating our children, improving our hospitals.

That’s why their spendaholic culture isn’t a diverting amusement or a mild irritation – it is a complete outrage and we will obliterate it.

I know there are those who will hear us talking about cut waste and say “you’ll be no different, you’ll have your pet projects, you’ll go native when you start living in the land of bureaucrats”.

So let me explain why we’ll be different.

We’ll be different because we are different.

First, our attitude is different.

Conservatives loathe waste.

Efficiency is in our DNA.

We never forget that fundamental fact about public money, which is that it’s public ... it’s yours, not ours.

It doesn’t undergo some magical transformation at the Treasury to become government money.

Those are the same pounds that were earned by you on the factory floor, on the hospital ward, in the office…

…and we will never forget that we have a moral duty not to spend your money but to save it where we can.

Second, our philosophy is different.

We don’t believe in top-down control; we believe in local control.

We don’t believe in taking power; we believe in giving it away.

And this will have a massive impact on our quest to cut out waste and deliver more for less.

It’s not just that a pound spent closer is a pound spent wiser – by those who really know the needs of a local community.

It’s also that a pound spent closer is a pound spent more efficiently – by those who have an interest in keeping costs down.

And third, our approach is different.

I don’t think people get quite how radical we propose to be.

The next Conservative government will be the first genuinely post-bureaucratic government in the world.

We will ditch all the wasteful, costly, old-world bureaucratic methods and instead use post-bureaucratic tools.

And when it comes to cutting waste, nothing is more important to this agenda than transparency.

We’re going to publish every item of government spending over £25,000 online.

And we’re going to publish every government contract worth over £25,000 in full – every clause, every performance measure, every penalty trigger – too.

Think what this simple act of throwing things open will mean.

It will mean an army of ‘armchair auditors’ will be crawling all over the books, scrutinising them and acting as a straitjacket on wasteful spending.

It will mean the Minister who lazily signs off a monster contract without checking if he could get it cheaper will be caught out and will have to answer for their actions.

It will mean that businesses and social enterprises can compete to offer better government services for less money.

I defy anyone to call our plans of changing the way government works timid.

They are bold – and they will make a massive difference.

And they are why we can look the British people in the eye and say a Tory pound will go further than a Labour pound…

…that good government costs less with the Conservatives.

CONCLUSION

We know what we’re fighting for.

When you’re out there on the doorstep, when you’re writing a leaflet at 2am, when you’re pounding the streets for hours I want you to keep two pictures of Wales in your mind.

First, an image of Wales under Labour.

Limping on with high unemployment, increasing child poverty and a government who puts this country in the same bracket as a developing nation.

Then alongside that, a vision of Wales with a Conservative government.

It would be a more confident Wales, with public spending under control and the deficit being cut.

A more prosperous Wales, with enterprise unleashed and jobs created.

And a more family-friendly Wales, with marriage recognised in the tax system and parents given more time with their children.

These two visions of Wales are so far apart, but they come together in the polling booth with the real choice that people have at this election.

It’s our job to keep explaining that choice for the next sixty days.

Yes, we have a fight on our hands, but believe me – the Wales that would emerge from our victory – a confident, prosperous, family friendly Wales – will be worth it.

So let’s get out there and win it.”

Great session in Gogarth today. A good team again and a response which was very pleasing.

The most important meeting however was with a resident who works in a senior position within education in the Constituency. Financial pressure from the poor WAG settlement means that we face real pressures to the budgets of local schools in the 2010/11 financial year. Due to accumulated reserves and careful management of resources within individual schools it is anticipated by the resident in question that front line services might be protected this year but it should be remembered that the WAG budget has not been reduced for this financial year. The real cuts will hit in 2011/12.

What came across clearly was the huge frustration felt by the resident in question about the disparity between WAG spending on education and what is spent in England. I have previously mentioned this disparity as being in the region of £500 per year per pupil but my respondent (who was clearly on top of his brief) stated that the difference is closer to £600 in relation to special needs schools and as much as £800 for secondary education. Consider those figures. If WAG spending on education was at the English level a primary school with 200 pupils would be £100,000 better off. A secondary school with 1,000 pupils would be £800,000 better off.

Why have Labour and Plaid in their role at WAG allowed such a situation to arise? What will my Labour and Plaid opponents do about this situation? Plaid Cymru this morning distributed another leaflet via the Post Office which claimed that there were 33million reasons to vote for Phil Edwards. I honestly fail to see that such a claim will do him much good but in view of the fact that his close friend and mentor, Gareth Jones AM, is considered to be the Plaid AM with responsibility for education why will Mr Edwards not challenge him on the way in which WAG fritter money away on pet projects but continue to underfund the education of our children?

WAG is seen by Plaid Cymru as being beyond criticism but in truth it is an institution where the priorities of governments, both Labour and Labour / Plaid, has led to the future of our children being shortchanged for a decade and more. When Mr Edwards calls upon you ask him why the proper funding of education is not one of the 33 million reasons to give him your support.

Guto

During the autumn of 2009 Guto Bebb undertook a series of public meetings throughout the constituency. At many of these meetings, and in particular in the Conwy Valley and along the coast the review of primary schools being undertaken by Conwy Council was a major issue. Whilst there was a degree of uncertainty and concern about the accuracy of the facts and figures utilised by Conwy Council there was also a clear welcome to the fact that Conwy were actually undertaking a review and inviting people to express an opinion.

Time and again the concern expressed by parents was that the review in Conwy would end-up being similar to the review undertaken by Plaid Cymru controlled Gwynedd Council where the Council had an agenda, then spent huge amounts of taxpayer cash to undertake a review before announcing closures as originally planned. The fact that Conwy Council, controlled by Plaid and Labour, do not want to confirm the results of the review until after the General Election also creates a degree of suspicion.

However, the biggest disappointment has been the comment by Rhodri Morgan AM who said that we should aim to close 170 rural schools in Wales. Why are Plaid and Labour at the Assembly so unwilling to recognise that these issues should be dealt with at a local level? The real concern that we as a local Conservative Party have is that the review at a local level is a sham, not because Conwy Council are seen as not being genuine but because the Plaid / Labour Assembly continue to insist that any school with less than 90 pupils needs to justify their existence.

The GVA figures for the UK released by the Office for National Statistics are pretty dire if you live and work in Wales.  If you have children and want them to have a future in their own locality then the figures are even more depressing.  Wales is now officially the worst performing country / region of the UK.  We have been overtaken by Northern Ireland and the North East of England.

What is truly awful about these figures is that they have occurred during a period when Wales has enjoyed unprecedented levels of EU funds to develop our economic performance.  I have argued consistently that EU funds have been badly managed in Wales by the Assembly - both under Labour and the current Labour / Plaid Cymru administration.  The facts seem to back my view.  If we have declined to significantly at a time of substantial EU intervention in our economy what will happen during a period of significantly reduced public spending in Wales?  

Wales needs a real change in attitude and behaviour in terms of wealth creation.  With the decline in GVA figures and our drop to the bottom of the pile in terms of new business start-ups since 2007 (we used to be top of this list in the late 1990's) it's clear that our Minister for the Economy, Ieuan Wyn Jones from Plaid Cymru, is not up to the task.  We need change and we need it urgently.

The following is a brief letter about this issue which I have sent to the Daily Post.  You read it here first!

Dear Sir,

Recent Gross Value Added (GVA) figures released by the Office for National Statistics made depressing reading with Wales the worst performing region or country of the UK by some distance.  On average Welsh GVA is less than 70% of the UK average with Wales now being overtaken by the North East of England and Northern Ireland. 

Of even more concern was the domination of the sub-regional worst performing areas by Welsh Local Authorities.  Four of the five worst performing local authority areas are here in Wales.  It’s appalling to see Conwy / Denbighshire join Anglesey on this list of the five worst performing areas with a GVA figure of £11,910 per head.  This figure is less than 60% of the UK average of £19,951.

It should also be noted that the Welsh position has declined significantly since 1996 during a period when huge sums of European funds were spent in West Wales and the Valleys (an area that includes Conwy and Denbighshire).  I have consistently argued that Assembly decisions in relation to EU structural funds have resulted in this EU intervention being squandered by both politicians and bureaucrats at the Welsh Assembly.  The facts seem to support my views.

The current situation should shame the Labour / Plaid Assembly Government.  Despite all the rhetoric from Labour and their Plaid Cymru partners’ real opportunities for people to prosper and develop in Wales are being lost whilst we continue to allow wasteful and ineffective government projects to dominate the Welsh Economy.  It’s time for a change.

Yours sincerely,

Guto Bebb

Aberconwy Conservatives