Cameron: We’re ready to fight an election
David Cameron has set out his vision for a Conservative government, saying it would be motivated by the urge to help families and restore freedom to the individual.
Speaking to party activists in London today, Mr Cameron said the Conservatives would be ready to fight an election within weeks.
In a week where Mr Cameron has been accused of “trashing” the Conservatives’ Thatcherite past, he promised a manifesto as a bold and ambitious as the one Margaret Thatcher campaigned on in 1979.
On health, Mr Cameron promised to improve local hospitals and give doctors greater freedom to select treatments.
Mr Cameron promised to hand more independence to state schools, including the power to set their own rules. Parents should have real choice between a number of good schools, he said.
He would also reform the welfare system to focus on getting people off benefits and back into work.
Following on from this week’s policy review, he confirmed the Conservatives would extend the right to buy scheme, with rent to mortgage schemes available to everyone.
Playing to Gordon Brown’s political weak spot, he said a Conservative government would hold a referendum on the EU Treaty, as well as devolving real power to local councils.
And after his reforms were labelled “vacuous”, the Tory leader went to some lengths to set out his values and belief system.
A belief in family comes “first and foremost” in his values, Mr Cameron said, arguing people are “completely, 100 per cent wrong” to say family has become an irrelevance.
He argued politics should always begin and end with a simple test: “Does this help families and the work they do?”
Secondly, Mr Cameron said he was motivated by a belief in responsibility, arguing you cannot make a strong society unless people accept they have a responsibility to make it happen.
He said: “That’s why I go on and on about social responsibility and will not stop going on and on about social responsibility until the day I die because social responsibility is what I believe in.”
Finally, the Tory leader said he was motivated by opportunity, saying the role of government must be to remove the barriers to opportunity, which he identified as poor education, bad housing and no assets.
He continued: “That’s the real difference between left and right: they believe in equality of outcome, we believe in equality of opportunity.”
Mr Cameron concluded: “So that will be the central test for the decisions I make: will it give
people more freedom and control over their lives?
“That is the overriding aim of the government I will lead.”
