David Cameron's Commons response to Gordon Brown's statement on draft Queen's Speech

Text pasted below, in full, as distributed by CCHQ.

“There are lots of things in this statement we welcome – not least because we proposed them.

“We welcome the constitution for the NHS – an idea we set out last June.

We welcome the extension of the right to request flexible working.   

We announced that in September 2006. We welcome the independent exam regulator.

I raised and proposed that in 2005.

The list is enormous.

Simple saving scheme:  the 2005 Tory Manifesto.

Regulatory budgets:  in 2006.

“The list is almost as long as the draft Queen’s Speech.  I hope when he gets up we’ll get a bit of gratitude from the Prime Minister. He can’t really say we haven’t got any substance when he’s taken it all and put it in his Queen’s Speech.

“We particularly welcome what he had to say about shared equity.  These proposals are being pioneered in record numbers by the record numbers of Conservative councils up and down the country. And most of all we welcome the welfare reforms.

“The Prime Minister has stuffed Number 10 full of spin doctors and pollsters.  Why not just get a shorthand typist and send them to the Tory Conference to take it down? It would save a lot of money.

“And now we hear that the Prime Minister is going to accept our proposals for elected officials to make the police accountable. This is the proposal his Government called “completely daft”. I think they meant completely draft. This is a great idea – that officials who hold office and wield power should be elected.
Who knows, it might catch on.  One day we might just have an elected Prime Minister.

“Look at the Bills that are to clear up the mess of the last decade.

“Haven’t we got a Banking Bill because the regulatory system he created ten years ago failed its first test on Northern Rock?

“Haven’t we got an NHS Bill because a decade after they promised to end mixed sex wards, they’re still there, the promise has been broken and people aren’t getting the care they need?

“Aren’t we getting an Immigration Bill because the Government completely failed to prepare for or even anticipate the scale of immigration that is taking place?

“Aren’t we having a Welfare Bill because after fifteen years of global growth, Britain has got five million people on out of work benefits?

“Let’s be frank about what today’s statement adds up to.  It’s another relaunch. And he’s had to bring it forward.  They’re still struggling to implement last year’s Queen’s Speech. No solution to 42 days.  Still rewriting last year’s Budget. Whole Bills, badly drafted, still stuck in the House of Lords. No wonder he wants to talk about next year’s Queen’s Speech.

“But this Queen’s Speech has nothing to do with the long-term needs of the country – and everything to do with the short-term political survival of the Prime Minister.

“I believe the truth of this Queen’s Speech is that it reveals the Prime Minister’s deeper problem. When it comes to the progressive goals we really need to achieve in this country – unblocking social mobility, beating poverty, taking people out of persistent deprivation - his ideas have run out of steam.

“He doesn’t have the solutions anymore.

Instead of more redistribution, more tax credits, more top-down state control, we need a government that tackles the underlying causes of poverty.

We need a government that fights family breakdown.

We need a government that breaks open the monopoly of state education.

We need a government that can work with the voluntary sector.

Isn’t it the case he can’t do that? And we can.

“The one positive part of what the Prime Minister had to say is the claim he wants personalised public services.  If that’s true, why doesn’t he accept our plan to bust open the state monopoly in education and allow new schools to open?

“On housing, why doesn’t he scrap the restrictions on right to buy, and accept our plans to extend it to all council and housing association tenants?

“The fact is this Prime Minister doesn’t believe in giving people real choice and control over their lives.
If he did, he would have given us a referendum on the EU constitution.

“Watching this Prime Minister talking about personal choice, giving people more freedom and letting them have more control over their lives is completely unconvincing.

“The Supreme Leader just doesn’t do freedom.

Won’t people rightly conclude that if you want a Government that gives you more freedom, choice and competition, you might as well vote for the real thing?  But then isn’t there the negative side to what the Prime Minister had to say?

“It’s his usual trick of political positioning, and setting these false dividing lines he’s completely obsessed with. When will he learn that it is this political positioning and it is these fake dividing lines that landed him in the mess he is in today?   

“He is facing defeat on banging people up for 42 days without charge, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because he wanted to try to look tough. 

“He had the shambles of yesterday because his Budget wasn’t about helping the poorest people; it was about posing as a tax cutter.  And that’s why he’s had to have such a big u-turn.

“There’s one part of the Queen’s Speech we will fight against tooth and nail.  And that’s his plan to enforce polyclinics and close GP surgeries up and down the country – although of course it will be noted there won’t be any of them in his constituency. 

“And we will continue to fight this Government’s real agenda.

Closing Post Offices – tearing the heart out of rural communities.

Releasing prisoners – making our streets more dangerous.

And taxing businesses so they move abroad.

“After yesterday’s u-turn, today’s Queen’s Speech is just another attempt to save the Prime Minister’s skin.  It won’t wash.

“People can see a Government – not just a Prime Minister – that’s run out of road, run out of money, run out of ideas.     Seven months ago the Prime Minister cancelled the election because he said he needed more time to set out his vision.   Now we can see there isn’t a vision. So when can we get on and have the election?

“This morning we read about a new plan from this great man of substance – and it’s to appear on a new version of The Apprentice.   The Communities Secretary said this is The Apprentice meets Maria, meets Strictly Come Dancing.   I’ve got a better idea for the Prime Minister.  Why not take part in a reality show that involves the whole of the country? 

It’s called a General Election.   

“Wouldn’t it give everyone the chance to stand up in front of the Prime Minister and say “You’re fired”?
Isn’t that the only way we’re going to get a Government that really gives people control over their lives; that really strengthens our families and our society; and that really makes our country safer and greener?”

Comments

[Tony Makara]

“Aren’t we having a Welfare Bill because after fifteen years of global growth, Britain has got five million people on out of work benefits?"

Thank you Mr Cameron. So refreshing to hear the truth instead of the same old mantra from Brown about "More people in work"

[Richard]

Brown says he will provide more help to first time buyers. How exactly?

[Deborah]

As Wendy would say.."Bring it on"

[EML]

“And now we hear that the Prime Minister is going to accept our proposals for elected officials to make the police accountable. This is the proposal his Government called “completely daft”. I think they meant completely draft. This is a great idea – that officials who hold office and wield power should be elected.
Who knows, it might catch on. One day we might just have an elected Prime Minister.

I like!

Obviously a few good ideas ... Conservative ideas.

And we see that Brown has picked up on the importance of having a theme by somehow branding all this as a "family finances package", to quote the BBC. Let's see if he tried to follow up on this in the next few months.

Bottom line though: nothing radical or progressive even to save his skin. We'll obviously have to wait until the next Conservative government to get this country moving in the right direction.

[thetruth]

Cameron's response was great. Can someone please tell me where Quentin Davies is? Is he not congratulating Brown

[Bexie]

The Prime Minister has stuffed Number 10 full of spin doctors and pollsters. Why not just get a shorthand typist and send them to the Tory Conference to take it down? It would save a lot of money

Har Har Har Brilliant

[Ex]

Who knows, it might catch on. One day we might just have an elected Prime Minister.

Great! give that man a prize.

[Henry Mayhew - 'kipper]

Final detonation of the Brown bubble.
He's done.

What a great slagging that will really have bitten into backbench Labour MPs self-esteem. Whatever they say in support of the government will just be promoting NuCon's policies. They won't be able to relaunch this. And to think that after all these years an Etonian and his schoolmates have stuck it to Gordo. Agony!

[Chris Blore]

“This morning we read about a new plan from this great man of substance – and it’s to appear on a new version of The Apprentice. The Communities Secretary said this is The Apprentice meets Maria, meets Strictly Come Dancing. I’ve got a better idea for the Prime Minister. Why not take part in a reality show that involves the whole of the country?

It’s called a General Election.

“Wouldn’t it give everyone the chance to stand up in front of the Prime Minister and say “You’re fired”?

Brilliant! It's lines such as these that show why we'll never get rid of Punch and Judy politics. People are struggling to make ends meet and what are Gordo and his not so merry men planning? A TV show. I think that says it all!

[Slick salesman]

Brilliant speech by Cameron. I only wish he had been able to deliver some of the points during PMQs but that is now such a redundant exercise in democracy that I can understand why.

This government and Brown in particular, have had 10 years to get it right. What I find particularly offensive now is that every PMQs, Brown comes out with the same vacuous statements and fairytale statistics, combined with references to conservative disasters which he then masquerades as a meaningful response to any question that is put to him.

Gordon has specialised in half truths. It is time he was examined on the full facts.

For instance, we should not accept the proposition that employment issues are to do with temporary workers. This ignores a more glaring loophole in the legal framework - the fact that those in full time employment have no legal recourse if they have not been there for 12 months. There simply is no legislation to protect them. Brown's proposals on the other hand are neither welcomed by the temporary workers nor the people that employ them. In fact, they lay the ground for potential taxation.

Brilliant speech by Cameron, even Sky News showed it and did not break off after PMQs. Yes, let's have the reality show. If you had to asses him on performance, the conclusion would be "Gordon, you're fired!"

[Ben Surtees]

Any Chance of video link?

[Chris Blore]

Ben, I couldn't find a full link but the BBC have about 2 minutes' worth of the end of the response here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7400734.stm

Please let me know if you manage to find a more complete version.

[Ben Surtees]

Thanks Chris!

[Aloicius]

Great reply by Dave!

I hope Simon Heffer is taking his umpteenth bilious article and is eating it with stale bread.

[David Sergeant]

Cameron has destroyed Brown, although it turned out to be not too hard. Now fire needs to be directed at Labour generally. On pensions and 10% tax, to name but two, we know they are no longer interested in helping the poor, both were introduced in a way to avoid debate so Labour voters didn't notice. But they have no problem throwing money at Labour voters - we should now be able to point out that Labour's money to end child poverty not only did no such thing but was really an excuse to hand tax payers money to the children's Labour voting parents. Obviously I could go on but I am just useing a few examples to back up my point that the next target should be Labour generally.

Re Simon Heffer, could Cameron's statement be termed "Wiggery"?

[Oberon Houston]

Good response from the Conservative Party. Labour are using right-leaning think-tank policy research as emergency legislature when their cupboard is bare - which has pretty much been the case for 14 years now.... Unless you count Browns 'big ideas' developed before 1997 - New Deal, pulling down the internal markets in the NHS, ILAs, cranking up public spending budgets with daft 'targets' to 'ensure value' - result trillions wasted.

READ TOM BOWERS BIOGRAPHY - ITS ALL THERE TO READ, HAS BEEN FOR YEARS NOW.

[Afleitch]

We need to sock it to the government. £200 million to buy properties to rent as social housing? With the average UK house price at £211,000 that's about 950 houses! It would be cheaper to build them from scratch and it's a complete waste of money. It's also taking the vulnerable for a ride by promising them a home when the government knows it cannot provide that.

[voreas]

excellent speech, nothing more to say.

[Nizhinsky]

this is perhaps the most charismatic, lucid, bruising pmq's from cameron since he took the job. and i missed it! arf!

[Philip]

Great stuff - not just for pointing out the Government's failings, but also good reminders of the difference a Cameron Government would make: tackling the underlying causes of poverty, strengthening families, breaking open the state monopoly in education, extending right to buy...

[Boyce]

This is inspired stuff by Cameron - he needs to make more of these points so that the public at large see that he has the substance as well as the style.

[Martin Cox]

10% Tax issue.
Brown and Darling should not be allowed to get away with the suggestion that taxpayers 'will all get a £120 cheque'. The truth is that Darling's grab from the citizens' own money will be £120 less than he intended.

[Ken Stevens]

Grumpy old cynic that I am, I nevertheless have to acknowledge that this was quite a speech!