Day 1 - Setting an agenda for change

After a late night at the Conference hotel it was an early rise to get to the conference venue. Manchester, like Birmingham last year, offers a very different conference experience to that the Conservative Party has been used to in Bournemouth and Blackpool over decades - some good and some not so good.

The venues themselves are far better, more open and an all round more comfortable experience. The down side is that a number of our best volunteers are deterred from coming to conference at city centre venues by the extortionate cost of hotel rooms - many costing twice as much this week as they did last week or next.

Our conference agenda yesterday was altered so that David Cameron and his team could promote new policies. They did so in a collegiate form with George Osborne, Ken Clarke, Michael Gove, David Willetts and Baroness Warsi all taking to the stage in an extraordinary example of teamwork.

So what did David Cameron say?

He outlined plans for a massive programme to "Get Britain Working".

If you were to summarise this programme you would simply say David Cameron's plan is to simplify Labour’s numerous and piecemeal programmes into one single back-to-work programme for everyone on out of work benefits.

The Work Programme will include support back into work for the 2.6 million people claiming Incapacity Benefits currently excluded by Labour. David confirmed we will abolish the Treasury’s rule that prevents the Government paying work providers using the benefits saved once someone has a job. This will allow us to offer support to the 2.6 million people on Incapacity Benefit.

We will offer greater support to the young unemployed by referring them on to the Work Programme after 6 months of unemployment compared to a year under the Flexible New Deal.
Under this scheme we will pay providers by results with a focus on truly sustainable outcomes and bigger rewards for getting the hardest to help into a job.

And our plans do not stop there:

David Cameron confirmed that 50,000 work pairing places, on average, each year for young people, who will be assigned to sole traders for six months of meaningful work experience and mentoring would be created by Conservative policy.

Then there are the 100,000 additional apprenticeships and training places each year, as well as the 50,000 additional training places at FE colleges each year that are being created for next year.

Finally there is the distressing news of Gary's death. Expansion of the government’s Young Apprenticeship (YA) scheme, from the current 10,000 to over 30,000 each year.

David Cameron said the measures were essential to tackle the problem of two and a half million people unemployed, with one in five young people unable to find a job, and he added: "Labour are now the party of unemployment, I want the new Conservative Party to be the party of jobs and opportunity and at the heart of it is a big, bold and radical scheme to get millions of people back to work."

Britian Deserves Better - Let The People Decide

We are just 24 hours on from European and County Council elections that have reduced the Labour Party to an electoral laughing stock and what is the Prime Ministers response? A Cabinet reshuffle, of the very people who have already failed to provide leadership, followed by holding a press conference in which he told members of the press his late father had taught him never to tell lies before denying he had wanted to sack his Chancellor when everyone knows he did.

Leadership is about many things and one of them is knowing when to give in. With five members of his Cabinet having resigned and Caroline Flint having launched a furious tirade against the Prime Minister in her resignation letter, (accusing him of operating a "two-tier Government" and of using women ministers as "female window dressing"), in standing down as Europe Minister it is plain for all to see that the Labour Party in complete and utter disarray at the very time when the country needs unified leadership.

And it is not only his own Party and members of opposition parties who believe the Labour Party is no longer in control. The people who voted in yesterday's elections passed a damning verdict on Labour having relieved them of control of every single County Council in England for the first time ever and pushing them into third place in terms of their share of the popular vote. On Sunday night a more complete picture of attitudes across the United Kingdom will become apparent following European election results. If predictions are to be believed it may well be that the governing party of the UK fall into third, or potentially even fourth, place - a position which does not afford legitimacy.

So, in light of recent event, because his Party is split at a time when our country needs united leadership most and to restore the public's faith in British democracy it is time for a General Election so that the British people can elect the people they feel are best placed to see us through the deepest recession in living memory. That's why I am backing David Cameron's "Sign For Change" campaign - demanding a General Election so that the public can pass judgement on every politician.

Milliband For Chancellor?

This time of year is commonly known as 'silly season' when it comes to the political news stories national media outlets are prepared to run.

Tonight a contributor to BBC Radio Five Live 'flew a kite' suggesting David Milliband will be promoted, in an imminent Gordon Brown cabinet reshuffle, to the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The principle rationale given is the old adage that in politics you "keep your friends close and your enemies closer".

Asked to give a couple of other reasons for this promotion the contributor responded that with the economy disappearing down a hole the post of Chancellor is possibly the worst job in cabinet, "a thankless task", and that being in the second most important job in British politics makes it difficult to launch any leadership bid without damaging yourself by being portrayed as treacherous and disloyal.

Whether Gordon Brown is Machiavellian enough to promote David Milliband to Chancellor remains to be seen. What is clear is that if he were to do nothing with/to Mr Milliband in the event of a reshuffle he will be portrayed as weak and this would strengthen the hand of those who accuse him of dithering and not being decisive enough.

Who would be an unelected, 3rd term, Labour Prime Minister, eh?