The Conservatives' 'breakthrough' year

Ministers have hit the ground running, says David Cameron, and while 2011 will be a difficult year, the government’s policies are putting Britain back on track.

2010 was a breakthrough year for the Conservative Party. After 13 years of opposition, we are in government again – working with our coalition partners in the national interest and implementing many of the key Conservative proposals that we campaigned for so vigorously. I hope you agree that there is much that Conservative supporters can be proud of from the last ten months of government in terms of delivering for our party and our country.

We’ve got George Osborne bringing responsibility to our public finances. William Hague bringing hard-headed realism to our foreign policy. Eric Pickles leading the drive for localism. Michael Gove ending the long slide into educational decline. Andrew Lansley modernising the NHS to give us a world-class Health Service. Right across Whitehall we have hit the ground running – and we must not let up the pace.

Our ambitions for our country are the same as they have always been. We are determined to build a stronger economy based on sound public finances, driven by a dynamic private sector, providing better jobs and opportunities for all our people. And we are committed to building a more responsible society too, with stronger families and communities.

We have made a strong start on these ambitions: setting out a plan to balance the books over the course of this Parliament, cutting corporation tax, promoting trade, investing in skills and education, giving unprecedented power to individuals and communities.

In the next few months, we are going to be working flat out to support Conservative councillors as we prepare for this year’s local election campaign. More than half of England’s 18,250 council seats are being contested on May 5 – and on the same day, we have Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, a number of mayoral elections and the all-important AV referendum as well. So this spring is going to be a very busy season for our party – and we need to pull together to fight strong and successful campaigns.

I believe that we can take real pride in what we’ve achieved so far. Yes, 2011 is going to be a difficult year as we take hard but necessary steps to sort things out. But the actions we are taking are essential, because they are putting our economy and our country on the right path.

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