"We need to finish the job we've started": Cameron makes case for a Tory majority

Prime Minister David Cameron delivered his speech to the Conservative Party conference on Wednesday (2 October) mixing passion with a degree of caution.

Speaking to the party faithful he said:

"When we came to office, we faced a clear and daunting task: to turn our country around.

"In May 2010, the needle on the gauge was at crisis point. People were talking about this country in a way they had not done for decades. But three and a half years later, we are beginning to turn the corner.

"The deficit is falling. Our economy is growing. The numbers of our fellow countrymen and women in work are rising. We are not there yet, not by a long way. But, my friends, we are on our way."

The speech was short on policy detail and aimed much of its fire at Labour, while making a determined play for the public's support for his party's three headline strategies; on tough economic deficit reduction, welfare reform and changes to education.

Mr Cameron rounded on Labour, saying they "have learned nothing – literally nothing – from the crisis they created," and criticising what he described as their "Casino Economy":

"It wasn’t just the debt and deficit Labour left… …it was who got hurt. Millions coming here from overseas while millions of British people were left on welfare. The richest paying lower tax rates than their cleaners. Unsustainable, debt-fuelled banks booming – while manufacturing withered away. The North falling further behind. Towns where a quarter of people lived on benefits. Schools where eight out of ten children didn’t get five decent GCSEs.

"Yes, they were famously “intensely relaxed” about people getting filthy rich… ...but tragically, they were also “intensely relaxed” about people staying stuck on welfare year after year... …“intensely relaxed” about children leaving school without proper qualifications so they couldn’t hope to get a job at the end of it."

The Prime Minister paid tribute to Margaret Thatcher who died earlier this year, comparing his task on coming to power to her own: "Margaret Thatcher had an almighty mess to clear up when she came to office… …and so did we."

He argued his case for asking people to do more for themselves, saying:

"If you expect nothing of people, that does nothing for them. Yes, you must help people – but you help people by putting up ladders that they can climb through their own efforts. You don’t help children succeed by dumbing down education… ...you help them by pushing them hard. Good education is not about equality of outcomes but bringing the best out of every single child.

"You don’t help people by leaving them stuck on welfare… ...but by helping them stand on their own two feet. Why? Because the best way out of poverty is work – and the dignity that brings."

He rejected Labour's plans to raise corporation tax for top businesses and accused them of "bashing business":

"We know that profit, wealth creation, tax cuts, enterprise... ...these are not dirty, elitist words – they’re not the problem... ...they really are the solution because it’s not government that creates jobs, it’s businesses… …it’s businesses that get wages in people’s pockets, food on their tables, hope for their families and success for our country."

The Tory leader praised free schools and what he argued was Education Secretary, Michael Gove's commitment to drive up excellence in education; telling the audience he wanted to "eliminate illiteracy".

He spoke on immigration, energy, reasserted support for the HS2 rail plans, praised the armed forces (to a standing ovation) and also turned to Syria, the Scottish referendum and the EU - pledging once again to give the country a referendum on membership: "It will be your choice: in or out."

With a poke at Labour's popular policy to freeze customer fuel prices if they are elected and Ed Miliband's tongue-in-cheek promise never to take his shirt off, the Prime Minister joked that "you keep your shirt on; I'll keep the lights on."

2015 Election strategy

Mr Cameron's speech put a marker down for the Tories' intention to fight to govern with a majority after the next election. Attempting to distance himself from Coalition partners, he warned the Liberal Democrats not to take sole credit for cutting taxes for the low paid. He did not mention Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg or UKIP at all during a nearly hour long speech.

"When the election comes, we won’t be campaigning for a coalition... ...we will be fighting heart and soul for a majority Conservative Government – because that is what our country needs," said the Prime Minister.

While it hinged on a theme of creating a "land of opportunity" tied to the conference's key slogan "for hard-working people"; commentators may view the speech as an attempt to set the parameters for the next election - just 18 months away - as a choice between a return to the past (what Mr Cameron described as a "1970s-style socialism") and a continuation into the future ("a new economy").

As the party conference season ends, few would doubt that both Labour and the Conservatives have set out some clear blue water between them, while UKIP and the Liberal Democrats have asserted their alternative cases. The long-campaign to the next general election has begun.