Another day, another mess

By Eric Pickles.

Alan Johnson contradicts the Prime Minister on police numbers; the government can’t run a bus service out of Spain; inflation is more worrying news for hard pressed families and the Prime Minister won’t see real people in Swindon.  Another great example of a Labour government at work.

All that mess aside, it remains my experience that elections tend to come down to one big idea.

And its precisely because of this mess, that the big idea in this election is ‘change’.

Not because we say so, but because people tell me on the doorsteps of every road I’ve canvassed and in every market place of every town I’ve visited this election.

Even the students in the ‘Brentwood School’ Election hustings told me that today.  As a insight into the eventual election result, the Lib Dem came third!

‘Change’ is not a buzz word, people tell me that ‘change’ has to happen.

And if there’s one other thing I’ve learned in politics, ‘trust what people tell you’, especially if they’re  18 years of age and part of the upper sixth at Brentwood School.

All the more reason how a Conservative government will tear up the old ways of dealing with worklessness, the free ride is over.

That why they tell me that our economy must change so that it works for everyone.

They tell me we must change the values at the heart of government so that our broken society mends.  And they tell me to clean up politics for good.

So let’s be clear, only David Cameron can deliver that change.