Good government costs less with Conservatives

Comment by Richard Tebboth on March 6, 2010 at 1:36 pm

Public sector pensions are a huge problem as is amply illustrated in the report from the Taxpayers’ Alliance this week.
Reform must start from the top.
How about a manifesto commitment on this topic?
You should start with the MPs’ scheme.

Comment by alex on March 6, 2010 at 1:52 pm

There are 100 people across the UK who can tell you where £ 100 billion of public expenditure is being wasted.

How about you get out and find them ?

Comment by Doug Elliot on March 6, 2010 at 1:54 pm

One immediate saving to make is to abandon the Labour government’s plan to abolish FM radio. This is an unnecessary change and will render millions of domestic radios, car radios, and phone and MP3 player FM tuners obsolete creating a mountain of electronic waste. The DAB system will itself be obsolete by the time the policy is due to be implemented. The green thing to do is abandon the program.

Comment by Campbell MacNab on March 6, 2010 at 1:57 pm

About time it was recognised that public money is not the governments: I want to see real savings, a cut in Council Taxes, and a real increase for OAPs
1. Scrap Inheritance tax for all.
2. Increase State pensions by £30.00 per week for all over 65, and increase by £20.00 each year thereafter.
3. Scrap income tax for all at 60.

These are the real fair objectives that will reward and help the elderly, most of whom have worked hard for the country and did not get it into the current mess.

Comment by Yvonne green on March 6, 2010 at 1:58 pm

The Labour Party always seem to have somebody around prepared to SHOUT OUT their beliefs and putting down the Conservatives, is there anyone with a loud voice who can tell the country, who it was when the decision was made to get rid of the Gold Reserves, who it was in charge of the Banks when he was Chancillor, who it was who always craved the power of number ten behind the back of his leader, and most importantly, who it was who led us into the recession, destroying millions of peoples hopes?
There is no doubt that every idea the conservatives have come up with, have been adopted by Labour, and that should be told as well.
We Need a SHOUTER…..who is not prepared to listen to any presenter.
I must admit, the best ways to get rid of their growing power is to bring down the brains of their alliance, that being mandelson and Campbell, god knows what they have been offered, as I dont beleive that either would ever in a normal world support Labour, it just aint them.

Comment by roy on March 6, 2010 at 2:05 pm

I like what you say-it rings true. Mussolini knew a thing or to about fascism. Thats when the state interferes with the market place to the degree that G Brown did and still does.
In your coming TV debates,keep your vision intact and be your usual open-faced self. Don’t worry or be disingenuous as Brown is.Dont call him a dinosaur unless he calls you a novice. Back up your claims with serious sources and make it PLAIN that it is the POOR and WORKING CLASS that will suffer the most when the markets turn against us, as they are doing now and they the markets will not WAIT til 2011 for serious cuts.
Good luck to you and the team and watch out for oily Mandelson. oozing charm from every pore- he doe not walk, he glides. Ukk! what a persona preaching on morality-
look at his record? Brown lies too-I believe Claire short who said in front of chilcott that he thought Blair was only interested in himself. They are cunning David and slippery-
just be your self and use your wit-remember that most people are not cerebral but go on gut feeling.

Comment by Mr B J Simmons on March 6, 2010 at 2:07 pm

I am very concerned by the poll figures. It seems that Brown is bullying his way towards another 5 years. He takes EVERY chance to slag off the Tories, but Dave never seems to punch back. Perhaps Mr Brown should be called Mr Punch due to his bullying, but I don’t want to call Dave a ‘Judy’!

There needs to be a lot of rabbits pulled out of hats to get the Conservatives back on course, but it MUST BE DONE.

I cannot believe what brown has got away with. He is not popular so why are the polls so much in his favour?

There’s not much time David. We want you to WIN this election and not Brown to LOSE it, neither is a hung parliament any good. look what the prospect has done to Sterling.

Haig made mincemeat of Harman at PMQs last week, so go to it!

Comment by garnet morgan on March 6, 2010 at 2:10 pm

Perfectly correct, but not only Central Government. I recently asked my Local County Council for their percentage rates of absenteeism under the Freedom of Information Act. They replied qiute quickly with an answer of 5.1% sickness rate. This was not what I had asked so I wrote back saying that absenteeism is measured not only on sickness but also on authorised, and unauthorised absence. They did reply and stated that they could not give me a figure as it would be to time consuming and expensive. However for a fee of £450, they would investigate, but it would be pointless as they did not have a system of recording absence in this way. I was astounded. Prior to my retirement, I’d worked in Private companies all my working life, from shop floor through to Manager of my own department. The one item of management that my senior managers and Directors were adamant on was absenteeism. We, as managers, had to keep our absence levels below 5% and that included all absence. If we did not, we our selves were disciplined. Why can’t Local Government do the same? Purely because Local Government have Managers who can’t manage and CEO’s that don’t really care.

Comment by Pauline Anne Badger MSc on March 6, 2010 at 2:16 pm

As a veteran the statement that Brown made on the so called war in Iraq is from a left wing winger who has no military background at all. The supporting of the Armed Forces after peace in Northern Ireland destroyed the economy. We could not afford the Commonwealth and colonies after WWIII and yet here this man asserts that any cost born by not him, but the families who provided sons and daughters and the British working tax payer.

Kit and moral are cited as the result of what the Yanks have and we do not. I have asked the US personnel and veterans and they feel sorry for the s””’ deal we have given our armed forces. The ordinary military person knows what is needed, yet Gordon Brown has a paddy we are told. Strong tempers like that and he should done a uniform and the defective kit and get on the front line in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Be a soldier for a day and see what it feels like with the wrong kit, and defective equipment. Then try being an amputee at Headly Court for a week, and on benefit.

Comment by John R-V on March 6, 2010 at 2:17 pm

It is a major shift away from large government that is essential if we are to break free from this socialist-style bureaucracy.

I believe the country could be better served by a lean government which is proactive about all the public services that matter but does not employ a vast army of civil servants to enable them to work.

A great amount of – absolutely right – TAXPAYERS’ money – could be saved at a stroke by abolishing departments, agencies and sections devoted to left-wing PC dogma (ie ‘diversity’).

I hope you are successful at the General Election. DO beef up the Opposition – especially at PMQs – it all looks a bit flabby at the moment but there is PLENTY you can assail this administration with without having to invent it.

Good luck & good wishes

Comment by izzy berwick on March 6, 2010 at 2:25 pm

if i could vote a million times for david i would.. lets get mr brown out…………

Comment by John Edson on March 6, 2010 at 2:43 pm

Micromanagement through quantative controls instead of quantative and this has created distrust the little pride left in our society for innovation.

Comment by John Crouch on March 6, 2010 at 2:46 pm

There is a great deal of talk about the amount of money being spent by the present Government, so why don’t the Conservatives say they will immediately carry out Value for Money investigations, into all the big spending departments. From personal
experience I am sure the results would identify a great deal of waste, and therefore savings.

Comment by John Edson on March 6, 2010 at 2:49 pm

Labour has created a society which is micromanaged through quantative controls instead of qualitative and this has created distrust and little motivation for innovation

Comment by Di Tolan on March 6, 2010 at 2:49 pm

Too general again. The message must be read by individuals as relevant to them if they are to vote for us. The bit that is missing is the rest of the story…..’and this will mean that your local services will be better -less paperwork in back offices and more people out in the community helping elderly people’ etc.Its a people story not a policy story that we need now.

Comment by Laurence on March 6, 2010 at 2:50 pm

Good. We definitely need to be tough on the waste in the public sector. Smaller government not spending governemtn. We cannot afford another 5 years on Labour waste, and the financial markets will not let Great Britain proceed down that route. Spending is out of control across the board not only by the government but also by local government. Under Labour, absolutely huge rises in council tax have occurred without any apparent improvements in services only massive benefits to pay e.g. the leader of Suffolk County Council apparently now earns more than our ineffective P.M. You are right, this has to stop.

Comment by Cinton Wingrove on March 6, 2010 at 2:59 pm

We need a change. We need to focus on (a) eliminating waste, not services, in all branches government – it CAN be done, (b) securing our borders including strict, compassionate, but tightly capped entry/residency conditions – WE need you and YOU want to be here as it is now, (c) excellence in education especially with free access to the relatively less well off, (d) excellence in the NHS with dramatically reduced bureacracy, more control back with the clinicians and carers, and greater support for the disabled and sick/wounded veterans, (e) enhanced domestic security and policing and dramatically LESS overseas aid, military action, and involvement in Europe and the UN, and (f) encouragement for people to invest here, manufacture here, set-up business here, and to spend here, (g) substantially inhibiting UK companies from outsourcing jobs beyond the UK borders unless they provide some form of direct recompense for the lost jobs, damage to communities and reduction in tax revenues (h) rebuilding national self respect, including respect for those we elect to lead us.

Comment by Keith Drury on March 6, 2010 at 3:02 pm

Hi David,
Please, please ,please, do something that will ensure this unelected PM by the people is seeing his last days, and the rest of his days, hopefully in the wilderness, his promises are meaningless, his only thoughts are , What a great man I am, to other world leaders, if it means it, he would sell this country for his own ego, what surprises me with your goodself is on several reasons, first is that you shelved the referendum, just because Brown had signed us in, give the people the opportuinity for that vote, and I think the door will start to open at No10, next, Brown and Blair brought in the Human Rights Act, this act he completely ignored to over sixty million people, again with the referendum, secondly, probably more important, secretly opening the borders to mass influx of asylam seekers, whether they wanted to work or live on benefits, not forgetting terrorists and criminals, not once have I heard you mention the human rights of the sixty million people that has been violated, no mention of anything about it, even in many letters I have personally written to you, the government states crime is down, maybe in their books, but in truth, its up. up, up, murders of women, children, and teenagers, you name it, its there, under BBB,Browns Broken Britain. But he still seems to have many, many voters behind him.

Comment by vic westmids on March 6, 2010 at 3:33 pm

David its time for a clean sweep let the person in the street see you as a leader remove all the rubbish members ,only accept the truth connect with the normal family ,restore our children s education ,and university places ,Sort out the antisocial behavior.
Cut all the jobs in local government above £60.000 for super Clerks externalize the direct services to private companies ,cut the directors to one C E O AND ONE LEAD DIRECTOR .
and connect to the guy in the street and you will walk the election ,but you have to deliver or you will just be a tony blair in blue clothes .

Comment by David Dundas on March 6, 2010 at 4:19 pm

I think the title of this theme should be “Good government will cost less with the Conservatives” rather than “does cost less..”

Comment by Brian on March 6, 2010 at 4:31 pm

David, I wish I could believe that you could roll back government spending but I fear that the welfare state has become so entrenched in our way of life that any attempt to roll it back, even by a small amount, will be met with extreme howls of anguish from pressure groups not to mention the thousands who owe their livelihood to being paid for jobs that are not necessary. And here is the key – look at government at all levels and ask – is the function NECESSARY. Not is it useful, beneficial or a `good’ idea, but is it NECESSARY. If it is not, get rid of it.

But are you going to win? Against you is the vast machinery of state control and all the associated vested interests; an electoral system that is skewed against you and a press that still in many quarters is still brainwashed with the idea that Brown, maybe not a good PM, was a good chancellor. He most emphtically was not. You also have against you a section of the press that would normally support your cause but does not do so because you appear afraid to embrace the idea that Britain is a country that CAN survive and do well.

So what cane we expect? At worst Brown gets back and we continue downhill until we have to run to the IMF to sort things out as Healey experienced. At best a hung parliament with either the same result or a short breathing space for you to make a mark before another election is called. The situation will be worse then.

In the long run does it matter? All parties seem determined to see us move further and further into Europe, don’t turn away now and say just another euro-nutter, but in Europe we will be governed by a system that treats democracy as a joke, is unaccountable, cannot balance its books and where representatives’ fiddles make our own MPs look like little boys nicking sweets.

After a lifetime of taking an interest in politics and supporting the Conservatives, despite their various betrayals from Heath onwards I despair. I simply cannot see the country ever having an honest and fair system with politicians it can respect, leaders one can believe in. We have travelled much too far in the other direction.

If you have read this far, or any of this at all, I will be surprised.

So surpise me – win and turn the country round.

Comment by Shailesh Mistry on March 6, 2010 at 5:24 pm

It is about time that somebody should look at this fat cats who seems to have a power more than government itself. they come up with a weird ideas to spend peoples monies at their wisdom. we are behind you David, full steam ahead to the government.

Comment by Peter Hagger on March 6, 2010 at 5:37 pm

Waste alone wont fix the problem but lets concentrate on the big waste items. Sure 12,000 on golf balls is waste but its scratching the surface letsget some of the big IT issues in front of the public. Lets expose the cost of consultants.
lets focus on defence procurement waste.
Start telling the public what the quangos spend money on.
Big £’s are needed and the public need the transparancy( as you have it) now. 80 days is a short time to get the message across that Brown just throws money at things. Everything that is except our troops going into Iraq.

Comment by Gordon File on March 6, 2010 at 5:38 pm

Excellent, but keep up the attack and keep it about policies and not about personalities. We all know what Gordon Brown stands for and for his economy with the truth( which is the only economy he excells at)

Comment by S Oliver on March 6, 2010 at 5:40 pm

I completely agree with Mr B J Simmons. Given what Mr Brown has perpetrated in the last while, let alone the last years, it is a complete puzzle to me how he manages to bounce back and achieve higher ratings. Mr Cameron, yes, you all and we all must do something about this – and very quickly.

Comment by David Knight on March 6, 2010 at 5:41 pm

Hi David..yes a good message but I agree we as conservatives need to get a bit more specific and personal. I also think this needs to be done on both sides of the argument. On the one side, what this dreadful labour government has done to people and how more of them threatens YOUR future. And on the other hand, how a Conservative government will help YOUR future. Come on DC, the election is there for us to win but the party has really got to show what it it will do for the PEOPLE.

Comment by hklovejoy on March 6, 2010 at 5:46 pm

Agree with Yvonne Green who says we need a shouter – sadly so many people, particularly in this country, mistake good manners for weakness. It’s not helped by interviewers constantly interrupting their subjects. Mr Cameron, I think you have to work out a way round this, keeping your innate courtesy while continually, sharply and strongly pointing out all of Labour’s thousands of failures.

Comment by Shaun on March 6, 2010 at 5:58 pm

Saving money would be by

Cutting MPs to 400
Cutting Peers to 50-100
Stopping the gravy train and the payoff when you lose their job. Most ordinary get 1 weeks wage for each year of service so that works out at about £5000 for 5 years service

Comment by jean annette on March 6, 2010 at 6:14 pm

Great encouraging message, thank you.
I think you are handling the Lord Ashcroft allegations very well, William was brilliant at PMQ’s – flattened the harpoon woman.
Brown is spinning himself into oblivion -
Keep the faith

Comment by Peter Gordon on March 6, 2010 at 6:44 pm

David, From me it is the same old, same old… remind the country of this governments disastrous policies from day one and how it has ruined the country. And deal with the West Lothian Question because even if you do win the Scots will be there to make as much trouble as possible. Their presence is not fair to the rest of us and is another reason why our so-called democracy is a joke

Comment by Patricia Appleton on March 6, 2010 at 7:23 pm

Please have the courage to make a stand on immigration, otherwise you are in imminent danger of losing the election and landing this country with another 5 years of this unbelievably destructive Labour government.

Comment by Dominic Holmes on March 6, 2010 at 7:49 pm

At last, a good speech. I am sending this onto friends so they can pass it on. This will allow us to listen to what is actually being said without having to rely on a warped report from the National Press.

Comment by S. Roberts on March 6, 2010 at 10:03 pm

I agree with Mr. Simmons, it is a ;ittle worrying that all these Labour lies are given such credence. Messrs M and C are prepared to sell their souls and they both have dodgy backgrounds and have the nerve to preach to us about others. They are still full of spin and no substance we need the Conservatives to counterpunch now.

Comment by Leslie Dale on March 6, 2010 at 10:04 pm

My Dept Head at work would always insist on investment in equipment etc to be “sharpening the tools” with which the co. did its business. In the harsh world of capitalism I’d expect the same priority of our Government, but sadly Labour still don’t seem to have learned that having overhead costs higher than those of our international competitors, makes one’s product less attractive in buyers eyes. Sales reduce, jobs are lost, employers close. Additionally the consequent affects of Globalisation also reduce UK tax revenues, used to pay for public services.

Finance for keeping Britain’s people healthy, educated, defended is clearly getting very stretched and we must not forget those who cannot genuinely help themselves, who must be supported financially.

In these circumstances, who but the Labour Party would go around squandering money on unproductive causes? [Clearly the L-Ds]

In Norfolk Labour must have just wasted several £100K of aggregated public monies in trying to get some sort of Unitary status for part or all of Norfolk and have now fallen back to just unitary Norwich, something which a previous secretary of state had already vetoed.

The highways agency decided to make safe a country A47 road junction with a roundabout, when traffic lights would have sufficed. A rural village is now hounded, mornings, by traffic trying to get “priority from the right” onto the roundabout and the Highways Agency is now saying that the roundabout needs traffic lights.

Another feature of Labour seems to be the buying off of interest groups with “grants for this and grants for that”. I wonder how many of these grants would be regarded as “tool sharpening”? Wouldn’t a fraction of this money be much better supplied in the form of an annual revenue budget for local Councils so that their elected representatives could spend it wisely and also avoid the “1 off” problem and how to maintain the project started by grant, into years 2 onward?

Comment by zalim bekir on March 6, 2010 at 11:12 pm

Hi
Why do not you scream about the Government’s increased use of tax payer’s money in public service ads as the election approach?
Labour party buys media support with tax payer’s money. That is not fair. You shouldn’t allow such things to happen.

Comment by peter on March 6, 2010 at 11:24 pm

We need to try something different as no matter what they say, the scandalous level of waste in government continues unabated despite the record levels of government debt. It’s like there is some sort of parallel universe in Whitehall where it is completely reasonable to squander vast amount of our money for no tangible benefit.

A small museum in Buckinghamshire that was approached by civil servants at the Department for Culture Media and Sport last week out of the blue and asked to “help out” because they had a bit problem with a bit of a budget underspend that they needed to get rid of by the year end. A quarter of a million pounds was offered to the institution and the only criteria seems to have been that any spend was Invoiced by the end of March. This caused a bit of a headache because it is of course impossible to spend that kind of money on anything genuinely useful in that kind of timescale so they are apparently using it to re-tarmac the car-park.

Totally senseless waste!

Comment by Jeremy Stanford on March 7, 2010 at 4:11 am

I’ve noticed a wealth of public service advertisements flooding radio and tv stations over recent months – mainly offering pointless government messages. I’m sure the subliminal message is that it’s free advertising for the Labour party paid for by the taxpayer rather than party funds. The upside is that Labour are broke, which almost certainly fixes election day as the same as the local elections.

Comment by michael wearing on March 7, 2010 at 8:43 am

The problem that you and both the other mainstream parties have is that because of the expenses scandal where in the eyes of the law you may not have broken the law in the eyes of many you stole from us. Voting for any of the mainstream parties would be like employing a convicted burglar to be my security guard. Might work but I’d rather not risk it. I honestly don’t know how you lot are going to restore my faith in democracy, my grandfather lies in a field somewhere near Loos, his scarifice means nothing to any of you or none of you would be standing for reelction.

so here you are telling me you will get us back on track financially when your politicians have been taking from the public purse relentlessly

Am I a fdit person to hold this view well I work for local government and in all, that time i have not made a claim for mileage, despite being entilted to do so, and I have not claimed for much of the overtime I have worked especially when the economy started to run into trouble.

I need a political party that will rebuild my beief in democracy.

Comment by Tez on March 7, 2010 at 9:01 am

A good and neccessary reminder of how Labour waste our Tax money.
I also think that David Cameron should point out the large number of Labour ‘errors’ and ‘about-turns’ etc, that they have been guilty of – show people their incompetence. We are all tired of Brown constantly (not) replying to questions during ‘PM’s Questions’. Cameron should simply remind him that ‘Novice’, ‘inexperienced’, ‘no substance’ – ad nauseum, are simply a cop-out and incompetent, childish tantrums. Ask Bercow to demand an adequate answer…

Comment by Mary Young on March 7, 2010 at 10:36 am

How about getting rid of all these preachy government tv adverts telling me I can’t drink a glass of wine in the evening or I have to drive 5 miles less a week (utter nonsense as I HAVE to drive to get to work). These ads must cost a bomb for goodness sake.

Gordon the Gekko has even infiltrated into the RCN bulletin trying to get nurses on his side.

Gordon has also lied about supplying equipment to the Army saying he never turned down any requests for equipment. Guess what the Army say they were denied helicopters.

The public are not stupid and can see through the fog.

Hopefully we will have the election soon when the Labour dummies decide to name the day. I have decided to emigrate to Australia if Labour get in for another five years so you guys better win the election, lol x youhave my vote.

Comment by Mary Young on March 7, 2010 at 10:44 am

Forget about the polls, the people of this land want change and it will come soon. Twelve grand on branding golf balls, that just about sums up Labour. I really want you to be PM Mr Cameron and I don’t think you will get everything right and you will make mistakes but your heart is in the right place and you will do your best. You will be a million times better than what we have now. Have a great week.

Comment by C HRIS L ING_ on March 7, 2010 at 10:48 am

David,

Congratulations. I think the strength of the messaging about the economy is finally starting to get there. It has to be more powerful and relevant that telling people to save instead of spend (Mais lecture). We’ve got a chancellor who year after year promised the end to boom and bust, yet over-stimulated the economy at the last election and mis-managed banking regulation, leading to the worst slump on record. He can’t be allowed to get away with putting this down to international events when weaker economies recovered earlier.

Stronger messaging is needed, because we are running out of time. The markets are already pricing in Interest Rates hikes (75bps this week) for a hung parliament. Having run out of money, the Government can not fiscally protect itself and is now exposed to the vagaries of International Money Market herd mentality.

So come June, if any Government hasn’t come up with a credible plan to manage its debt without default, then the downgrades will come and the money markets will sense blood and tear into us. Or as a previous blog mentioned, it could be like Denis Healey and the IMF.

Every Labour Government in history has run out of money.

In short, we have no choice about cuts and probably interest rises also. So the debate has to shift towards who do you trust to deliver an acceptable package of cuts to keep UK plc as a credible economy, whilst protecting essential services.

PS
In response to Peter Hagger’s comments about IT projects. The issues are wider than just the IT components; such as changing the related organisation, the whole public sector procurement process and sometimes fundamentally taking the wrong approach to establishing and running them. Yes IT projects have massively over-run, but there have also been successful IT public sector projects

One thing is certain. The Government WILL need GOOD consultants to deliver savings.

Comment by John smith on March 7, 2010 at 11:33 am

I’m all in favour of smaller, leaner, government, but immediately cuts are proposed it always seems to be hitting the vulnerable end of society, e.g closing care homes and shunting 90 year old people about. As an ex local govt employee, I can tell you there are huge savings to be made at the top end where tiers of job protecting managerial structures cause gross inefficiency, and cohorts of people gazing into computer screens occasionaly tapping a key, absorb loads of money for very little output.. Since the ridiculous EEC job evaluation exercise dinner ladies re-heaters of food) have been put on rates of pay equal to skilled engineers

Comment by STPawley on March 7, 2010 at 11:58 am

The words are “loud and clear” on these pages but Mr Cameron yours are not,we hear you, but we are not the ones that you need to reach,we need a voice that is prepared to be heard,a voice of passion and of belief.It will be necessary to commit and to be seen to be doing it.Many think that there are far too many Quangos,Pressure Groups,and Consultancies,organisations who we pay to tell us how to run our lives,Those that are unecessary should be disbanded and the incumbants could use their “talents” in industry and education.
The Political Correctness lobby will stifle much of what is needed to bring the Nation back, we have many sensible reasoned thinkers we don’t need “bleeding hearts” so get on with the job,say why you want to be the next Prime Minister. You can’t make an omelette without cracking eggs so “GO AND CRACK EGGS”

Comment by Nic on March 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm

I agree with a lot of messages but I would like to hear David saying he will LISTEN to the public, our views, our issues, our concerns and our beliefs. He will fix what we think is wrong, not think up new initiatives for us to follow, after all aren’t they hear to represent us? I want you to show us what you want to do, what you can do and not just attack Brown et al, that’s playground stuff, after how many years out of power how can “NEW” labour say what you will or not do, they hide behind attacking you. The world has changed, this Country has changed and you have to show that you’ve changed and will continue to change in line with the voters wishes. The financial crisis is going to affect everybody, not one person will be immune from the effects so you have to show that you can be trusted to deliver and I believe that no-one has really heard you say this. You can’t be too specific until you see the ‘books’ but it comes down to persuading people you are the party to deliver. Not a playground bullying attach but the facts speak for themselves, how can anyone dispute the facts, Brown has ruined this Country and is systematucally bringing everyone to their knoww. I wish you all the luck, you should be the party of vision, prosperity for all not just the elite few. WANT to make this Country and it’s Citizens proud again, we are entrepreunerial, generous and tolerant by nature – build on that, feed it, let the people prosper their way not Gordon Brown’s way. It’s about getting the trust and the belief back. I believe you can deliver this message (AND WITHOUT NOTES ) just be confident and clear so people can see what you’re made of!

Comment by Shantanu on March 7, 2010 at 1:33 pm

We need to cut out waste in public spending and devote our efforts in education, health (preventative measures) and defence. A task force should be established by the forthcoming governement whose job would be to identify areas of the economy where there is scope for new businesses and industries. We must focus on financial sector and new industries to lead us out of the recession, not the service industries.

Comment by Mike on March 7, 2010 at 2:36 pm

Gordon Brown raided the private sector pensions when he was Chancellor, he ruined final salary schemes, he has caused people to work longer he has forced companies to go into administration over this. Yet the Public sector penions, (MPs and Civil Service pensions) have remained unscathed because that comes directly from Tax payer Revenues. As the Private sector Final Salary is bust what about the MPs and the Civil Service having pensions linked to the Private Sector Pension schemes.
I totally support your drive to be frugal with the taxpayers (our) money and agree Gordon Brown has been a big waster of “our” money.
I hope you can oust Brown but recently I have grave doubts following the Lord Ashcroft issue which makes the Tories no better than Labour.

Comment by Brian Dawtrey on March 7, 2010 at 5:09 pm

There’s one certain way to salvage the economy
Look at Jersey – no VAT at all ! Booming !
Peoples pockets are empty, can’t spend anything, can’t buy goods or services we’re all broke.
Solve it over night….. get a landslide victory…..

Cut fuel tax down to USA level

Comment by Philip Kinder on March 7, 2010 at 6:45 pm

I would like the Conservative Party to state their objectives to be achieved before the end, if elected, of their first full term in office.
One of these objectives has to be that the level of taxation will be less and that the Government will reduce the dependence of many people on the State.
Please give the electorate some hope to expect that their lot will improve in the first full term.

Comment by Margaret on March 7, 2010 at 7:02 pm

I agree with a previous comment, you need someone to go on TV and radio and put some of these presenters in their place and BE TOUGH and look like you really want to win this election. I couldn’t believe the number of people who went on radio phone-ins who felt the bullying allegations made against Gordon Brown made him look tough. It’s unbelieveable but true.

Comment by Kevin Brady on March 7, 2010 at 7:44 pm

Really want to see the conservatives win. The current government have destroyed democracy, politicised the legal system, turned the BBC into a propaganda machine and in the next few weeks they will cause a collapse in the Pound. The conservatives are the best to sort this mess out. The problem is the electorate are not understanding this through the conservative silence on policy. A risk has to be taken and the manifesto must be released soon even if Labour does try to steal your clothes.

Comment by Clive on March 7, 2010 at 8:26 pm

It would be interesting to know what was the state of Government finance when Labour came to power and what was it just prior to the banking collapse. I suspect it has worsened.

Comment by Simon Vincent on March 7, 2010 at 8:48 pm

Dear David, As a proud Conservative I can say over 2 years I witnessed 1st hand the great levels of wastage in Local Government run by a labour administration. The Labour controlled Council I worked for before taking voluntary redundancy as I could no longer take being scorned for pointing out the wastages that were occurring where one small section was spending more on so called “marketing” than the income that the section generated from this so called marketing. But they were OK with this as this marketing expenditure came out of £500k subsidy so they still classed the income as marketing well spent. On pointing out the error of their ways I was merely told don’t come here with your private sector attitude. I always thought it was common sense and had nothing to do with the sector. I look forward to a Conservative Government where the balance will be corrected and tax payers money will once again be spent smarter rather than just in great quantities. One thing for sure that 13 years of Labour has proved is just spending more and more only causes greater problems and decreases service levels unless the money is spent wisely. Labour has certainly wasted more and more and they should be ashamed. They are no longer the working man’s party and they are certainly not the party of efficient spending. I truly believe that when the Conservatives are voted back in, only then we people truly realise how bad Labour have been. Good luck with the campaign.

Comment by Michael Stokeld on March 7, 2010 at 11:54 pm

David Cameron, you are absolutely right as usual. I am glad I haven’t been wasting my time documenting this government’s failures, as you will see when you read the content at http://www.theukdream.org.uk/.
Of course the dream may go further than you think – but all the same you are most definitely heading in the right direction….

Comment by Alasdair on March 8, 2010 at 3:25 am

Agree with Doug Elliot Mar 6 1;54pm
Eliminating unjustified expenditure & waste can probably give huge savings.

Comment by Alasdair on March 8, 2010 at 3:40 am

My impression has been that there has been a significant rise in the numbers of Public Service rcommercial radio & t.v. advertising recently. Do the advertising agencies Labour use give the party a discount on election related advertising on the basis of their receiving Government work?

Comment by Paul Voce on March 8, 2010 at 8:04 am

LIB-LAB-TORY, it makes no difference. The one thing they could do to save our money, our economy, our country they will not do. That wasteful unelected dictatorship, traitors paradise the EU. The very thing WW11 was fought for these non-entities slavishly support. Lets also not forget it is the ENGLISH tax payer funding the UK economy, as the other “recognised” countries of the UK run their economies on a tax revenue deficient basis.

Comment by Eric Bignell on March 8, 2010 at 10:20 am

Margaret Thatcher had a commitment to ‘rolling back the state’ by reducing the size and cost of the civil service and ended up with a bigger civil service civil service taking a larger slice of the economy than she had started off with. In spite of best intentions, the civil service seems to have a hydra-like life of its own.

Comment by Hilary Rost on March 8, 2010 at 10:58 am

Why oh why is it assumed that only the money paid in tax (for the Government to squander) is a patriotic contribution to the state? Lord Ashcroft makes an enormous contribution through his donations to charity giving millions to support schools etc from his non-dom earnings. Why is this ignored? How much are the non-dom Labour peers contributing similarly to charity that benefit this country?

Comment by Graham on March 8, 2010 at 11:24 am

Yes Yes Yes! That’s what we want to hear! We must ram home that Labour have taxed us to death, spent all the money, and left us with crippling debts. Now let us show how the Conservatives will engage with the people to sort it out.

Comment by johnny mcmahon on March 8, 2010 at 11:36 am

I agree entirely and driving home that governments spend our money not their own I think will ring bells.
Another thought. How can you trust a man who when chancellor declared he had abolished boom and bust and yet presided over the biggest bust since the war. A billboard picture of him making that remark would devastate him . I am happy to talk to any of you about this.

Comment by C L Cottam on March 8, 2010 at 12:21 pm

Have you noticed how much Government sponsered advertising has increased oncommercial radio stations recently? Personally I object to having my money used to promote this useless Government.

Comment by Susan Greally on March 8, 2010 at 12:23 pm

…I’m not promising to vote for you or anyone else (too many self-interested politicians who make rules that protect themselves and to hell with the rest of us: expenses;pensions;non-doms etc…the voter is without a platform to complain and the imminent General Election, I suspect, will only bring us more of the same greedy, thieving, nepotistic self-interested ilk that are in power at the moment!! However, I was always brought up to believe that you should treat people as you wish to be treated. Wouldn’t it be great if politicians lived by that maxim?! Will your party? Remember, it’s hard to make a personal sacrifice or a decision that involves a personal sacrifice…where you or your family are worse off…but these are the decisions that politicians are making every day on behalf of people without a platform to complain. Tell us what you really think…be a politician with a conscience. I’ll vote for you!!

Comment by Mucker on March 8, 2010 at 2:36 pm

Very good, that’s more like it.

I could not believe the waste at a Companies House seminar I went on before Christmas re the new CA2006. They were handing out tonnes of merchandise like it was going out of fashion, key fobs, branded stationery, note books etc etc It was like a 1980s marketing blitz. Most attendees were small business owners etc and I do not think the waste was lost on them.

Comment by Jamie on March 8, 2010 at 3:55 pm

I have just read your email and agree with your points. I think that you really need to direct your election campaign about how Labour’s spending as caused such a legacy of debt for others to clear up.

They don’t except that it isn’t their right to keep spending the taxpayers money, they truly think its theirs, its that simple. Gordon, spends money like a very successful CEO, Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a clue how to make money, if he did, he might appreciate it and therefore spend it more wisely!

I look forward to your coming election and gaining the result that this country so desperately needs.

Jamie

Comment by M Russell on March 8, 2010 at 4:59 pm

will the torys fully fund our armed forces as a war budget as we have been at war for 9 years, and also keep future expenditure on aircraft carriers and new planes for the navy and any other armed forces ring fenced. Dont forget the first responsibility of any government is the defence of the nation.

Comment by Philip de LEON on March 8, 2010 at 6:05 pm

No political party can hope to succeed without first dismantling the Civil Service and all the state funded services and rebuilding them in a way that is fit for purpose in the 21st Century. NO government can do more than tinker at the sidelines as they are neither bank, income generator as in manufacturer, or competent. The intellectual skills that politicians believe they have across the board are not some God given gift which they inherit on being elected. A donkey remains a donkey, a failed lawyer remains a failed lawyer, and a liar ….. but that’s enough about New Labour

Comment by C.BROCKLEHURST on March 8, 2010 at 6:17 pm

Good speech, David. I worked for the MOD for 35 years- we were stats gathering for everything – the war can wait as far as the manderins that sit and look at those are concerned! The Civil Service diverts money to pointless projects like the 2 training databases that we had to complete for all staff, go on training courses, teach our staff and then guess what? Both were scrapped. Civil Servant managers spend rediculous amounts of time on staff reports – years ago, if someone was close to retirement or they were good at the job but didnt want promotion, a report wasnt necessary. These are updated constantly and have 2 formal reviews with all staff every year. Then there are the diversity, equality and other touchy feely courses that we were ‘required’ to attend. The majority of CSmanagers are not allowed to manage as they and their area of responsibilities are micromanaged from other non-entities. As an example, where I worked senior managers are putting red-dot stickers on untidy desks! Get rid of the non-job chiefs there are 10 times more that the workers.

Comment by richard bullman on March 9, 2010 at 11:33 pm

A man once made the most wonderful, indeed most fantastic product that would have benefited everyone,………………..and then hid it in a cupboard and told no one about it.

See any simularity, David, with what you could do for this Country??

The opinion polls ain’t wrong mate,

“Shockingly casual”, “completly infuriating”,….. mild understatments, more suited to a vicar’s tea party.

Can you not sense and feel our anger for Brown and his fellow criminals???

Tell this Country, just how we have been tricked, conned and betrayed by the Clown.

Comment by Andrew k on March 10, 2010 at 6:56 am

Here are some killer lines for David cameron to use in pmq’s and beyond: the Gordon brown illusion
created a ” boom based on debt”
“boom and super recession”
“not just a recession but a Gordon brown super recession”

Comment by John Poynton on March 10, 2010 at 1:56 pm

The main thing you have to say to recover your lead and win the election is that your top priority is to bring down unemployment. That is all most people are interested in, and for the others you can emphasis that bringing down the deficit requires bringing down unemployment anyway, even though cuts will still be required.

Comment by Bob Darby on March 10, 2010 at 3:18 pm

I don’t know if any policy makers read these blogs but there are a lot of good ideas at grass root level. What channel is there for feeding them to those that make the decisions? My two-penn’orth:

1. Abolish employer contribution NI for small businesses – tax revenue from the additional employment so generated would repay the loss many times over.

2. Simplify public sector tendering – open it to all-comers and accept the lowest bid. Money lost through small-businesses overreaching themselves and taking on contracts they can’t fulfill would be more than made up for by savings in employing parasites to pre-vet contenders. The only effect is to debar small businesses from winning public sector contracts and allowing the big boys to keep the prices up.

Comment by Stephen L on March 10, 2010 at 9:57 pm

nDavid
I look at the emails above and I see many comments of people who clearly feel as I do- determined to see the back of labour and the total nonsense of Brown and Blair. This country is on the edge and we simply cannot allow labour to hang on any longer. I watched PMQ’s today and Browns delusions turned my stomach. Get your team out there and hammer home the big numbers on the financial incompetence of Brown and make sure labour are kicked out for generations.

Comment by glauca on March 11, 2010 at 6:40 pm

You must shout from the roof top about Labour incompetence, spin and lies. Not once, but over and over until it gets through to the apathetic voters’ head.
Look at Brown and co., they keep repeating the same lies and it seem to work with a lot of voters.

Also, bring to the voters attention (over and over) the fact that Labour has decided not to campaign on their 13 records.

Do you want to win? Then show some grit.

Comment by John Towers on March 13, 2010 at 11:18 am

Please tell us which public services are essential and how they will be reformed:- eg, more police officers on the beat to stop the Fiona Pilkington sort of crimes – but an end to politically correct box ticking bureaucracvy. Then tell us which services, albeit nice to have if we could afford them, are to be scrapped as unnecessary:- list the quangos concerned sand say what arrangements will be made foir the publice servants who are to be made redundant.

Then tell us how you will encourage people to work rather than exist on benefits. And, yes, spell out in clear terms why it will be a good thing to stop discrimination against young working class married couples.

But, above all, stop speaking in sound bites a la Tony Blair. Give it straight from the shoulder, with conviction, and people might be persuaded to vote for something:- relying on the electorate’s disenchantment with the Brown brigade may not be enough !

Comment by Annette on March 16, 2010 at 2:50 pm

I would like to know if there is a better system with receving benefits, i think this system is a sham, i do think the government just like to changes things to suit them and not the people. eg; i think income support should be for mothers up until there children is still in college regardless whether they could go out to work or not, as when they stop your benefits you have to re-apply and that takes weeks to get any money and to put food on the table, they dont give you any warning that they going to stop your benefits for you to apply for another, why is is this a long process when they (jobcentre) already has your details, if u need to change benefit they should automaticly put u on the next benefit as this will be a better system in place. I also think that youngster or any body commiting crime should automatically train to go to war, so they could turn their lives around instead of overcrowding the prison system. I think there should be a system in place where it is called a prison but a training camp for these people, so it scares the youth of today into doing crime, please read this out to your constituency as this is real people talking with concerns about BROKEN BRITAIN, I have many issues to raise but I email you when I can. Thank you for listening.

Comment by John Popham on March 16, 2010 at 5:50 pm

Based on my experience in making administrative departments more efficient you need the staff on your side. Whilst the total public sector pay ‘pot’ may be frozen, allowing a shere of efficiency savings to increase public sector pay makes efficiency a ‘win win’ game. Over time it also allows a move to a smaller, more efficient civil service that has pay scales attractive to bright people.

Comment by Mark Breecher on March 21, 2010 at 1:15 pm

Having been a real change manager for the better part of 35 years, I would like to see a simple message as the thrust of a Conservative approach.
When we are attacked for threatening a recovery by cuts, please hard sell the reality that the real trim of the public sector will be those departments that are a considerable overspend on what you actually need to do that job. Also, make it quick and deep because the sympathy will just not be there for their argument.
The British people will ALL understand that you do not need two cars to take one journey, and that is exactly what we need to be saying.
Simple understandable direct.
We should attack this and every other business model that Labour seem unable of understanding.
Poor models and big government are the root cause of the issue and the rest really flows from that, and that is what I will vote against and campaign for.

Comment by Robert Welsh on March 24, 2010 at 1:06 pm

I am very intrigued why the West Lothian question keeps going to the back of the queue. Surely if Scotland wants to have “home” rule and we want better control of the finances in England, it would be better to get the issue on the table and resolved once and for all.
I hope this becomes a high priority of the Conservatives once they are in power.

Comment by Arnold Whittle on April 17, 2010 at 10:55 pm

I am with you I do not want any cuts in defence of this Nation,we must maintain a good sound military and all section of our forces must be kept up to standard at all times.