PM David Cameron: 'We'll get through the cuts together'

Britain‘s Prime Minister David Cameron leaves with his wife Samantha (L) after delivering his keynote speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, central England October 6, 2010. (Getty Images)

 

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October 07, 2010 (KATAKAMI) — DAVID Cameron has issued a call to arms to the country to get behind the cuts and take an active part in the Big Society. Describing his party as “the true radicals”, he used his first conference speech as Prime Minister to appeal to people to get involved.
Invoking the spirit of Lord Kitchener’s famous First World War poster, Mr Cameron said: “Your country needs you.”

And with an eye to the bad news coming with the Comprehensive Spending Review to be published on 20 October, he appealed to “the spirit that will take us through” the hard times of the cuts.

He claimed his vision of a “Big Society” could see Britain through the turmoil of billions of cutbacks, and he told ordinary voters effectively that they needed to stop sitting at home expecting government to deliver, and instead “step up”.

In return, he promised to sweep away bureaucracy to allow a transfer of power from the state to society which, he claimed, would set the country on a fairer and more prosperous course in future.

And he regularly returned to the theme of “working together in the national interest”.

Although the speech was warmly applauded by an audience delighted to see their party back in government, it failed to win over some of the doubters.

Mr Cameron’s references to the Big Society were often met with silence, and afterwards some critics from the party were uncomplimentary on the internet.

Tim Montgomery, editor of the ConservativeHome website, described the speech as “forgettable” in his tweet on Twitter from the conference hall.

Mr Cameron’s speech rounded off a conference in Birmingham which has been dominated by Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement on Monday that child benefit was to be abolished for higher-rate taxpayers.

The PM told delegates that difficult decisions would have to be made on the deficit and he appealed for them to work “together for the national interest”.

In particular he tackled the issue of ending the universality of child benefit, which many party members saw as an attack on the family.

“But it’s fair that those with broader shoulders should bear a greater load.”

He promised that he would fulfil his former commitment of getting marriage recognised in the tax system, while hinting that defence cuts may not be as bad as expected.

He received his loudest cheers for traditional Tory lines of renewing Trident and persuading the Lib Dems to agree to a referendum lock to prevent any further transfer of powers to the European Union without a referendum.

But he also reminded dele-gates of the 4,757 days they were out of office from 1997 and joked about the headline which described the party as “a dead parrot” in its darkest days. “It turns out we really were only resting,” he added.

The Tory leader told activists unhappy with the Lib Dems that their mandate was not one to rule alone.

He said that a minority government “could have only limped along and achieved nothing” and that the election had given the two parties a mandate for change.

Although he failed to mention Scotland, the Prime Minister reaffirmed his commitment to the Union, while taking a moment furiously to attack the SNP for releasing the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.

“There are some red lines we must never cross,” he said. “Like the sight of the man responsible for the Lockerbie bombing, the biggest mass murderer in British history, set free to get a hero’s welcome in Tripoli.

“It was wrong, it undermined our standing in the world, and nothing like that must ever happen again.”

Mr Cameron only mentioned his main opponent, Labour leader Ed Miliband, once, in an unscripted joke.

But he consciously took on the challenge laid down by Mr Miliband in his conference speech in Manchester last week when he said that the Prime Minister had given up on optimism and was only about cuts.

Mr Cameron said that it was his party now that was about change and society.

He went on: “We are the radicals now, breaking apart the old system with a massive transfer for power, from the state to citizens, politicians to people, government to society.

“Let’s leave Labour defending the status quo, the vested interests, the unions, the quangocrats, the elites, the establishment.”

And in a sideswipe at Mr Miliband’s claim to represent a new generation, Mr Cameron introduced the conference to a 96-year-old Tory activist Harry Beckough. “I tell you something, this is a party for all the generations,” he said.

And he won applause with a tribute to party darling Margaret Thatcher as “the greatest peacetime prime minister of the 20th century”, and said he would be her host at a celebration of her 85th birthday next week.

Mr Cameron’s effort to set the painful programme of expenditure reduction in the context of his Big Society big idea failed to rouse the faithful.

( THE SCOTSMAN.COM )

Photostream : British PM David Cameron and wife Samantha with their baby daughter Florence in Birmingham

British Prime Minister David Cameron and wife Samantha with their baby daughter Florence Rose Endellion at Birmingham Moor Station on October 5, 2010 in Birmingham, England. On the third day of the conference speakers are set to debate public services, crime and justice and poverty. (Getty Images)

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron, left, arrives at his hotel with his wife Samantha and their few week old baby daughter Florence at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, England, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. The Conservative party is holding its annual conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham which runs until Wednesday. (Getty Images)

British Prime Minister David Cameron and wife Samantha with their baby daughter Florence Rose Endellion at Birmingham Moor Station on October 5, 2010 in Birmingham, England. On the third day of the conference speakers are set to debate public services, crime and justice and poverty. (Getty Images)

David Cameron: David Miliband greatest threat to Conservatives

August 27, 2010

(KATAKAMI / GUARDIAN.CO.UK) — David Miliband poses the greatest threat to the Conservative party of all the candidates in the Labour leadership contest, David Cameron has said in private remarks that could change the dynamic of the campaign just days before millions of ballot papers are posted.

To the likely delight of the older Miliband, who enters the final stages as the frontrunner, the prime minister has made it clear he believes the shadow foreign secretary stands the best chance of reaching out to middle Britain.

A well-placed source told the Guardian: “David Cameron said the candidate he hoped for was Ed Miliband, and the candidate he most feared was David Miliband.”

Ed Miliband, who is thought to be slightly behind his brother in first preference votes, but who hopes second choice votes will propel him to victory, is likely to be irritated by Cameron’s remarks, which echo those of supporters of Tony Blair: his backers believe that his elder brother is being supported by what they describe as the “Blair machinery”.

Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

Tory high command believes David Miliband is flawed and lacks the easy manner of Tony Blair, who was regarded by Cameron and George Osborne as unbeatable. But Downing Street believes that the senior Miliband, who this week told the Labour party to abandon its “comfort zone”, stands the best chance of reaching the sort of voters wooed by Blair.

Tories believe that Ed Miliband is an intellectual heavyweight, but showed the influence of his mentor, Gordon Brown, this week when he in effect attacked his brother with a warning about remaining in the “New Labour comfort zone”.

One senior Tory said: “Labour needs to rebuild the coalition that gave Tony Blair three successive election victories. David Miliband appears best placed to do that. He at least gives the impression of being able to lead.”

One minister said: “On the whole we would prefer if Ed Miliband won. His analysis that Labour has to go for a traditional Labour vote, rather than the middle classes, is absolutely wrong. The Ed Miliband analysis will lead them into big trouble.”

The Tories are cautioning that they would not regard a victory by David Miliband in the way they were terrified by Blair’s win in 1994. John Maples, a senior Tory, wrote an internal memo saying that Blair posed a grave threat to the Tories.

Senior Tories have also expressed satisfaction that the Labour leadership contest appears not to have enthused the public. “It really does remind us of the Conservative party in the late 1990s,” one senior figure said. “The contest has not energised anyone outside the party and is seen as a bit of a joke.”

The remarks by the Tories show that while the party does not believe Labour presents an immediate threat, they will need to assess a David Miliband victory with care.

Cameron was overheard making his remarks about the Miliband brothers at Rupert Murdoch’s summer party in June.

The prime minister often talks in private about the Labour leadership contest. One of his familiar jokes is to say that he is praying that Ed Balls will win, on the grounds that he would love to face the political successor of Brown across the despatch box every week.

The views of the Tory party came as tensions between the Miliband brothers deepened today when Ed Miliband warned that supporters of New Labour were “out of touch” with voters.

In a speech in London, the shadow climate change secretary said: “Traditional New Labour solutions won’t work, and that is why I am the modernising candidate in this election. New Labour fell into the same trap as old Labour, clinging to old truths that had served their time. We got stuck with old certainties, bad policies and became out of touch. The New Labour modernisers became the New Labour traditionalists – and that’s why we need to modernise again.”

The Miliband brothers have traded blows, though not by name, over where to position the party. David Miliband said that Labour needs to reach out to mainstream voters and abandon its “comfort zone”. Ed Miliband threw this language back at his older brother by saying the party needs to steer clear of the “New Labour comfort zone”.

Samantha Cameron leaves Cornwall hospital with new baby daughter

A people carrier with blacked-out windows takes prime minister David Cameron, wife Samantha and their newborn baby away from the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

August 27, 2010

(KATAKAMI / GUARDIAN.CO.UK) — David Cameron’s wife, Samantha, left the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro this morning with the couple’s new daughter, Florence Rose Endellion.

She was driven from the rear of the hospital’s maternity unit in a black people carrier without waiting photographers, TV cameras and reporters catching a glimpse of the new baby.

A hospital spokesman confirmed that Mrs Cameron had been discharged after a third night at the Royal Cornwall.

The baby was born at the hospital on Tuesday after making an unexpected early appearance during the prime minister’s family holiday in Cornwall.

Florence, whose third name is a tribute to the north Cornish village of St Endellion, near where the Camerons were staying, weighed 2.7kg (6lb 1oz) and was born by caesarean section. Her sister Nancy, six, and brother Arthur, four, visited the new arrival in hospital yesterday.

Congratulations have been received from the Queen, Gordon and Sarah Brown and French president Nicolas Sarkozy among many others.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said Cameron had not yet decided when he would be returning to his desk in Downing Street.

The prime minister had been expected to be back at No 10 next week following his two-week holiday, but Clegg said he would now want to take some paternity leave.

“I spoke to him just after the birth of his baby daughter,” Clegg told the London radio station LBC 97.3. “We haven’t yet spoken about exactly what date he is returning.

“He obviously wants to take some time off, like any young dad does, for paternity leave and I will just carry on holding the fort.”