. -- that in george osborne, there is someone that has the courage to deal with our deficit and debt. people can see and ken clark someone with the experience to get the economy growing again. and there is something else. when you think of the incredible changing that there has been with cabinet ministers -- think about it. since the war in afghanistan, which had five different defense secretaries. i think we've had about eight energy ministers. i believe in trusting good people and letting them get on with the job. we just had one defense secretary. [applause] we have had just one home secretary, and he would make a halt -- he would make a great home secretary. and i've only had one shadow foreign secretary, and william hayes i think would be the finest foreign secretary this country has had in generations. and there is something else i want to say which is about people engaged in a real fight on the other side of the world in afghanistan. one of the great privileges that i have had as leader of our party is each year i have been able to go to afghanistan and see for myself what our

now, the big argument as you heard from george osborn yesterday is going to be about our deficit andand present danger it holds over our whole economy. and there's going to be a big argument about this deficit. labor will say that if you do anything, literally anything to cult any piece of government spending immediately you will somehow tip the country back into recession. we say that is nonsense. we say that if you don't do anything, you will see interest rates go up, you will see mortgage rates go up, you will see confidence drained away from our economy and the country will go back into a deeper and darker recession. and on our side we have a growing number of not just economists but also business people like richard branson and frankly half the country's retailers who never stop telling me that think want the government to get to grips with its own finances. the government will produce its own economists and there will be a great argument but i think we should be kfed -- confident about this. i think the british people know that we're right. that when you've maxed out on one cre