The answer is yes! Now what is the question?

Your all-purpose conference speech (part 2)


Conference, this party has had some great leaders. Great leaders who did great things.

Before they stopped doing great things.

And were obliged, sadly, to resign.

But I am not them.

Nor would I ever pretend to you that I am.

I am someone different!

I am my own man!

And I am not only my own man!

I am your own man!

And their own man too!

How do I know I am my own man? Because you keep telling me I am!

(Applause)

Conference, this party has had some great leaders. Great leaders who did great things.

Conference, this party has had some great leaders. Great leaders who did great things.

First, we must win back the trust of the British people.

But how do we win back that trust?

We win back that trust by telling the British people, loud and clear, that we never lost their trust.

Trust. Our trust. Their trust. The trust we share.

Let’s be clear about one thing. That’s what I want to talk to you about today.

Because the clearer we are about one thing, the clearer we can be about all the other things.

That’s simple economics.

Because if you’re not clear about one thing, how can you be clear about all the other things?

Let’s not put the cart before the horse.

Successive governments have tried to put the cart before the horse. And look where it’s got them.

The cart out in front. The horse behind.

Fine — if you want the cart to go backwards. But this cart needs to go forwards.

And that’s the reason I stood to be leader of this Party.

Ever since I was a child, I have wanted that cart to be hitched to the back of the horse.

So that when the horse starts to move forward, the cart moves forward too.

It’s simple economics.

And I have this message for all those who try to tell you that the cart should go before the horse. I say to them this.

If you put the cart before the horse, the horse will end up behind the cart. And let me tell you this. That’s not the British way!

(Applause)

Young people. Old people. Kids. One-parent families. Theirs are the true values of Britain.

Great people in a great country.

Great carts, great horses.

Olympic Britain 2012. Ready to light up the world not only with our horses.

But with our carts.

Values. A short word. A word that begins with a V.

And ends with an S.

We all know what our values are. We believe that where you come from shouldn’t depend on who you are.

And that where you go to shouldn’t depend on where you’ve come from.

And that where you’re thinking of going once you’ve got to where you meant to get shouldn’t be determined by where you’ve just been.

And that if you’ve just been to a place you didn’t mean to go, you mustn’t go back to the place you first came from without first checking that the place you’ve just been to is not on the way to the place you’re meant to be going after you get back from the place you’ve just been.

Great values. British values. Great British values.

We don’t believe in something for nothing. We don’t believe in nothing for something.

And we don’t believe in anything for something. Or something for anything. Or something for something. Or something.

Yes. This is what we believe. This is our big challenge!

We believe in a fairer deal for the people of Britain.

We believe in change. Not change for the sake of change. But change for the sake of the big challenge.

We believe in confronting the big challenge head on. Even if that means making changes.

Decency. Fairness. Justice. These are all good things.

Your kids. Your mum and dad. These are all good people. The old lady next door. No, not that one. The one on the other side. Yes! The promise of Britain lies in its people.

And to all those of you looking for the answer, I say to you this. The answer is yes!

And now let us join together in looking for the question!


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