leaders and the scottish parliament and the welsh assembly, my fellow members of the cabinet. [applause] [applause] [applause] and now, before we welcome david cameron to speak for the first time to a conservative conference as prime minister, we are just going to take a short look at the election campaign

and that the negotiations in the five days that followed that lead to reforming a coalition government together in the national interest. >> he is on his way to the palace. the moment we have all been waiting for is here. >> is the most important general election for a generation. it provides the future of our economy. it is about the future of our society. it is about the future of our country. the politicians have forgotten that the public is the master. we are the servants.

>> you are very good at moving. but it does help having a renowned pop star with you. >> here are. it is official. >> this is my friend, here. let him introduce himself. >> the whole aim of my government if we win this election will be to help people like you realize your dreams. i have the faith in you and together, we can make this happen. >> gordon's argument is to let me go on wasting your money so what can put up your taxes. >> your very good. you served the community.

>> we will make things better when we come together and work together and when we all join together and we are all in this together. >> he is coming with me. i will see you in 26 hours. we are in scotland and we will be on the spot all like. -- all night. >> #10 -- the race for no. 10 is going down to the wire. all that we are, all that we can do for the future, that is the government that we should aspire to lead. [applause] [build polls] -- [bell tolls]

>> this is the first hung parliament since 1974. >> david cameron is arriving there. >> yes! [applause] >> [inaudible] >> gordon brown returns this morning. [laughter]

>> i want to make a big, open and comprehensive offer to the liberal democrats. in order to bring the negotiations we are about to start with compromise. that is what working together in the national interest means. >> for the second day running, almost taunting gordon brown, -- >> [inaudible] that are locked in at the moment. >> it is a toss between labor

and the drummer -- liberal democrats. david cameron is set to be our next prime minister. >> her majesty the queen has asked me to form a new government and i have accepted. [applause] >> it is a brave new dawn. >> do you now regret when you were asked what your favorite joke was that you responded nick clegg? >> i do.

>> we need clarity about what you need to to two and a determination about seeing it through. that is what this document and this agreement, and this program is all about. >> this marks the end of recklessness in big government and the beginning of years of responsibility of good government. >> the united states and the united kingdom enjoyed a truly special relationship. >> welcome to afghanistan, prime minister. >> this emergency budget deals decisively dawson deals decisively with our country's debt and it plans for the future. the government is moving quickly. >> we believe this is getting

the balance right between national security. >> this is at the heart of everything that we do. there should be no decision without it. >> what happened on bloody sunday was unjustified and unjustifiable. it was wrong. >> you can call of liberalism. you can call it empowerment. you can call of freedom. you can call a responsibility. there are those things in politics to do because you have to add those things that you do because you really want to.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the prime minister. [applause] [applause] [applause] >> thank you, thank you.

>> it is an honor and a privilege to stand here, before the party i lead, before the country i love, as the [applause] i want to tell you today, in the clearest terms i can, what we must do together. remember all the things they said about us? they call this a dead parrot. d to be. we were an ex party. but it does turn out we were

actually only resting. and here we are. [applause] and here we are. back serving our country. together in the national interest. giving britain the good, strong government it deserves. there are so many we need to thank for that. the british people. you have given us a chance and we will work flat out to prove worthy of that chance. i want to say a big thank you to those who led this party before me. william hague got us back on our feet. iain duncan smith helped us get back our heart. michael howard gave us back our confidence. i know that i am standing here as prime minister because they stood up for this party in good times and bad and i will always remember that.

and it is impossible to pay tribute to previous leaders of this party, without mentioning the greatest peacetime prime minister of the twentieth century. next week, margaret thatcher celebrates her 85th birthday. she'll be doing it in downing street and i know everyone in this hall will want to wish her well. but there are some very special people i'd like to thank, you, the people of this party. i can't thank all of you individually -- but i am going to single one of you out.

his name is harry beckough. harry joined our party in 1929 to fight stafford cripps. since then, across 81 years and 21 elections, harry has been with us. when churchill warned of an iron curtain, harry was with us. when this country had never had it so good, harry was with us. when a lady refused to turn, harry was with us. this year, when we fought the general election, harry -- aged 96 -- was there, manning the loud hailer on the battle bus in marlborough. and i'm delighted to say, harry is with us here today. i tell you something -- this is

[applause] a party for all generations. harry, without people like you we wouldn't be here -- and our party wouldn't be in government. so thank you for everything you've done -- and all you represent. i'll never forget the night of may 6th. watching the results coming in. the tories back in the north. winning in wales. sweeping across west yorkshire. taking seats we hadn't won in decades, carlisle, cannock, thurrock. the end of a labor government

that had done so much damage. but, also, as i drove to london, there was that growing sense that we just weren't going to make it across the winning line. i went to bed at about 7am in a hotel, wishing like anything i was at home with sam and the little ones, not knowing where it was all heading. i woke up two hours later and felt sure of the answer. the country wants leadership, not partisanship. try the big thing. do the right thing. succeed and you can really achieve something. fail and, well, at least you tried. i know there are a few who say that we should have sat tight, waited for our opponents to fall out and brought in a minority government. but a minority government would have limped through parliament, unable to do anything useful

for our country. the voters left us with a hung parliament and they wanted us to respond responsibly, to do the right thing, not play political games. so i set out to form a strong, stable, coalition government. and i want to thank nick clegg for what he did. there were loads of phone calls and meetings in those five hectic days in may. my daughter nancy asked at breakfast one morning, "daddy, why are you spending so much time with this man nick leg?" nick and i didn't agree about everything. he wanted clearer pledges on pr. i wanted them on the family. when i told him what i really thought of the european parliament he said "my god it's worse than i thought."

but we recognized we could work together. not just lots of shared values, like wanting a country that is more free, more fair, more green, more decentralized. but a shared way of trying to do business. reasonable debate, not tribal dividing lines. give and take. respect when you disagree. trust. a sense that politics shouldn't be so different from the rest of life, where rational people do somehow find a way of overcoming their disagreements. nick clegg is not just sitting in government trying to win a few concessions here and there. the liberal democrats are proper partners, getting stuck in, making big decisions, shaping what we do and taking responsibility.

that's why we can form a proper government and you can be proud of what we've done together. [applause] now i know there will be compromise and i know we'll have to do things we might not like. next may, there'll be a referendum on electoral reform. i don't want to change our voting system any more than you do. but let's not waste time trying to wreck the bill -- let's just get out there and win the vote.

because you know what? at its best this party always puts country first. we'll leave the vested interests to others. and no, we're not about self- interest either. this is the party of the national interest and with this coalition that's what we're showing today. people wondered what a coalition could achieve. but just look at what we are achieving already -- together, in the national interest. conservative policies, policies you campaigned on, policies we are delivering. 200 new academies. 10,000 university places. 50,000 apprenticeships. corporation tax -- cut. the jobs tax -- axed. police targets -- smashed. immigration -- capped. the third runway -- stopped. home information packs -- dropped. fat cat salaries -- revealed. id cards -- abolished. the nhs -- protected. our aid promise -- kept. quangos -- closing down. ministers' pay -- coming down.

a bank levy -- coming up. a cancer drugs fund -- up and running. £6 billion of spending saved this year. an emergency budget to balance the books in five years. an eu referendum lock to protect our sovereign powers every year. for our pensioners -- the earnings link restored. for our new entrepreneurs -- employees' tax reduced. and for our brave armed forces -- the operational allowance doubled. look what we've done in five months. just imagine what we can do in five years. in five years' time, our combat troops will have left afghanistan. this party has steadfastly supported our mission there, and so will this government.

but that does not mean simply accepting what went before. in our first few weeks in office, we set a clear new direction. focused. hard-headed. time-limited. we are not in afghanistan to build a perfect democracy. no dreamy ideas. just hard- headed national security -- pure and simple. almost every terrorist who took part in 9/11 was trained by al qaeda in afghanistan. if we left tomorrow those training camps could easily come back, because afghans are not yet capable of securing their own country. but we will not stay a day longer than we need to. british combat forces will not remain in afghanistan after 2015. by then they will have been there for 14 years and in helmand province for 9 -- three years longer than world war two. for those who have served, for

those who bear the scars, and for those who will never come home, this country has gratitude beyond words. [applause] this government has set a new direction right across our foreign policy. our principles are simple. don't neglect important relationships. already we are restoring ties with india, with allies in the gulf, with our friends in the commonwealth. don't make commitments without the right resources. today we're geared up to fight old wars. we have armored brigades ready to repel soviet tanks across

the german plain. but we struggled to provide enough helicopters for our soldiers in afghanistan, for the real war we are really fighting. since becoming prime minister nothing has shocked me more than the complete mess of the defense budget we inherited. so our defense review will match our commitments with the resources we've got. this will mean some big changes. but i promise you this, i will take no risks with britain's security. [applause] that's why, when more and more countries have or want nuclear weapons, we will always keep our ultimate insurance policy, we will renew our nuclear deterrent based on the trident missile system.

but britain's reputation is not just about might. it's about doing what is right. when this country has got it wrong, we'll admit it, as i did when i apologized for bloody sunday. when there's a cloud hanging over our reputation, we'll address it, as we have done by setting up an inquiry into whether this country was complicit in the mistreatment of detainees. we will always pursue british interests. but there are some red lines we must never cross. like the sight of the man responsible for the lockerbie bombing, the biggest mass murderer in british history, set free to get a hero's welcome in tripoli. no.

it was wrong, it undermined our standing in the world, and nothing like that must ever happen again. when i walked into downing street as prime minister, i was deeply conscious that i was taking over the heaviest of responsibilities, not least for the future of our united kingdom. tony blair, gordon brown -- and john major before them -- worked hard to bring lasting peace to northern ireland and i will continue their work. and as the threat of dissident republican terrorism increases, i want to make it clear that we will protect the people of our country with every means at our disposal. and i want to make something

else clear. when i say i am prime minister of the united kingdom, i really mean it. england, scotland, wales, northern ireland -- we're weaker apart, stronger together, so together is the way we must always stay. but there is another side to life as prime minister. like being made to watch the england football team lose, 4- 1to germany, in the company of the german chancellor. it's a form of punishment i wouldn't wish on anyone. i have to say, she is one of the politest people i have ever met, every time their players scored another goal, she would turn to me and say, 'i really am terribly sorry.' it's brought a whole new element to

anglo-german diplomatic relations, whatever you do, don't mention the score. but however different life has got as prime minister, there's one thing that for me has stayed the same. my belief about how this country needs to change. let's start by being honest with ourselves. the mess this country is in -- it's not all because of labor. of course, they must take some of the blame. all right -- they need to take a lot of the blame. let me just get this off my chest. they left us with massive debts, the highest deficit, overstretched armed forces, demoralized public services, endless ridiculous rules and

regulations and quangos and bureaucracy and nonsense. they left us a legacy of spinning, smearing, briefing, backbiting, half-truths and cover-ups, patronizing, old- fashioned, top-down, wasteful, centralizing, inefficient, ineffective, unaccountable politics, 10p tax and 90 days detention, an election bottled and a referendum denied, gold sold at half price and council tax doubled, bad news buried and mandelson resurrected, pension funds destroyed and foreign prisoners not deported, gurkhas kept out and extremist preachers allowed in. yes, they deserve some blame and we'll never let them forget it.

but the point i want to make is this. the state of our nation is not just determined by the government and those who run it. it is determined by millions of individual actions -- by what each of us do and what we choose not to do. yes, labor failed to regulate the city properly. but they didn't force those banks to take massive risks with other people's money. yes, labor tried to boss people around and undermined responsibility. but they weren't the ones smashing up our town centers on a friday night or sitting on their sofas waiting for their benefits. yes, labor centralized too much and told people they could fix every problem. but it was the rest of us who swallowed it, hoping that if the government took care of things, perhaps we wouldn't have to. too many people thought 'i've paid my taxes, the state will look after everything'. but citizenship isn't a