12/04/2014 Welsh Conservative Party Conference

David Cameron says Offa's Dyke is the border between life and death.

The Welsh NHS is under the spotlight. We'll put the Prime

Minister's assertion under the microscope. Welcome to Conference

Live. Prynhawn da - good afternoon and

welcome to the final programme in our coverage of the Welsh political

spring conferences. Today we are with the Welsh Conservatives at the

Royal Pavilion in Llangollen as you can see delegates are already into

this afternoon's business. They're holding a session on rural affairs.

Grant Shapps is currently on stage. Joining me throughout this

afternoon's programme is our Welsh affairs editor, Vaughan Roderick. We

know there is little love lost between the Welsh government and the

UK Government. Yes, this has been ratcheting up for

months but it has reached a new pitch. The Conservatives' attacks on

the NHS and Carwyn Jones's government's handling of the health

service. Some would say we are now reaching a

new low in the debate. We have had the Royal College of nurses

intervening today and saying using the NHS as a political football does

not do patients any good. I wonder how much traction will be gained by

using this as a constant target for the Welsh government.

They are going out of their way to say they are not attacking doctors

or nurses. If you imagine the position that those professionals

are in when we meet friends and neighbours, they are being asked

what is going on. Inevitably, criticisms of the health service or

the education service or any public service will affect morale. The

Conservatives would say that they can't leave the service as it is

because they think it is in crisis and there are dangers and the other

duty to highlight that. The European elections are coming

up. How much of a threat is there to the one Welsh Conservative seat?

A pretty major threat. The Conservatives topped the poll is a

few years ago but since then two things have happened. Labour has

recovered support and we have had the rise of UKIP. There could be a

very close fight for the last Welsh seat.

Thank you for now. The headline act yesterday was the visit of David

Cameron and this is what the Prime Minister and leader of the

Conservative Party had to say. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's

great to be back here. It is hard to remember ever seeing it looking as

beautiful as it looked in the sunshine today. It is 16 years since

the party was last here in Llangollen. Back then we had no

Welsh MPs and today we have eight. And we also have our brilliant Welsh

MEP. Yes, today, not only did we have 14 Assembly Members, we are the

main opposition. This did not just happen. There are no such things as

safe Conservative seat in Wales. We have won because of you. Because of

our team. Andrew RT Davies, David Jones, . Our whole team. To everyone

of you I want to see a huge thank you. -- say. It is thanks to your

hard work that we are in government and delivering for Wales. Remember

what we said in those long years of opposition. Two pensioners we said,

you have had a rod Il four years. Your pensions have been raided and

your savings at windowing. We will do right by you. That is what the

budget was all about. An end to force a new these -- annuities. To

all those who have worked and saved and done the right thing, we have

sent the clearest message. We are on your side. We said to the business

people of Wales that we know how desperate you are for decent

broadband, roads and railways, and we are to live in. The largest

investments since the Victorian era in the railways. Superfast broadband

across rural Wales. The huge Hitachi investment in nuclear power. And the

M4 is finally going to get the work it needs. That is because we have a

hard-working Welsh Secretary and a hard-working Welsh office and

Conservatives in government delivering for Wales. We said we

would back those who work hard and do the right thing and today across

Wales there are hundreds of thousands of people who are paying

less for petrol than they would have done under a Labour, who look online

at their mortgage payments and they are paying less, and people who open

their pay packets and are paying less income tax or even none at all.

At the same time, in the Cardiff A, Andrew RT Davies is fighting heart

and soul to cut council taxes and put ?100 back in people's pockets.

While we are talking about taxes, let me say this. I believe in income

tax demolition -- devolution but above all I believe as the

Conservatives campaigning as the one and only low tax party in Wales

today. We know this simple fact. There is no such thing as government

money. It is your money and we want you to keep more of it. Remember

what else we said in those years of opposition when Tony Blair was in

Brussels, giving our veto away. We said we would stand up for Britain

in Europe so we cut to the EU budget for the first time ever, we vetoed

an EU treaty for the first time ever and when it comes to giving the

British people a say it is only the Conservative Party who will deliver

that in/out referendum. Our duty by those who do their duty to others.

In the past 13 years, many sons and daughters of Wales have served in

Afghanistan. For those who serve and for their families, we have done

what we can. We doubled the operational allowance and wrote to

the military covenant into the law of our land and this year we will

bring in the last of our combat troops home. But now let our party

show this. Our pride for those who serve and our respect to those

who've come home and our otter unending gratitude to those who did

not come home. We salute you and we will always honour your memory. I

come here today with one big clear message. The Conservatives are

ambitious for Wales. In five months, the flags will go up and the red

carpets will be ruled out. The skies above this country will be thick

with aircraft. The NATO summit is coming to Wales. London at the

Olympics and Northern Ireland had the G8 in Scotland has the

Commonwealth Games. Now it is Wales's then. It is the biggest

summit Britain has ever held. With the situation in Ukraine, the world

will be watching and asking do we still stand up to aggression and

pledge our collective efforts to defend our allies? Do we believe in

the future of NATO which has kept the peace in Europe for 65 years? I

said yes to those questions. I have seen the schedule for the summit. I

can't promise that Barack Obama will be eating local food or Angela

Merkel watching the Welsh soap opera. But we are going to shine a

spotlight on this country. That is because we are ambitious for Wales.

I look across this country and I have a vision of Wales growing

stronger and richer with more decent, well paying jobs. I go to

those manufacturing plants churning out wings for the biggest aeroplane

in the world and I want to see more apprentices getting on in life. I

see the technology in Cardiff and think of all the companies that

could start there. Silicon valley coming to the valleys. It is not

enough just to see a recovery in one part of the country. We wanted to

reach the parts which were written off and stop the towns where a fifth

of the people left on benefits. Inner cities where young people feel

they are -- there is nowhere to go. But these words are easy. Anyone can

talk up their ambitions. But my argument is that true ambition is

not easy. It is measured not in words or how much you find a

patriotically from. True ambition is measured in actions. Today I want to

argue that being truly ambitious for Wales means doing some things.

Setting out a serious long-term plan, not a series of gimmicks. With

Labour it is always the same. If it grows, regulate. If it moves, tax.

If it's an airport, nationalise. If there is someone who says she

regrets capitalism, may carry your Business Minister. If it is a

superficial headline grabbing gimmick, then do it. From Carwyn

Jones, we get a delivery units to coordinate government but one tiny

problem - they refuse to show you what it actually delivers. From Ed

Miliband we get and energy policy which is a scam. Business after

business tells us their plans would cut jobs. Running a country is not a

marketing campaign. True ambition means a serious long-term plan. We

have that plan. It has five parts. Reduce the deficit, cut income tax,

create more jobs, capped welfare and reducing immigration and delivering

the best schools and skills for young people. Sadly not all of this

can apply in Wales while Labour are in charge but where we can we are

working with that plan and it is working. Our economy is one of the

fastest-growing in the developed world. The deficit is down by one

third. Mortgage rates are at historic lows. Income tax has been

cut for 1.2 million people in Wales. From this week, 144,000 of them will

pay no income tax at all. We have seen unemployment in Wales come down

by 32,000 since the election. On creating new private-sector jobs,

the plan is working. Listen to this. In the past year, we have seen a

faster increase in employment here in Wales than in any other part of

the UK. Yes, you heard me right. Wales, which has lost out on

previous recoveries and so often gets left behind has seen a faster

increase in employment than any other part of the UK. Faster than

London and the south-east. The UK capital for jobs growth is here in

Wales. That is because we have a serious long-term economic plan and

that plan is working. I want everyone here to hold their head

high and be proud to say that the Conservatives are back in government

and we are getting Wales back to work. The second test of true

ambition is this. Are you willing to take the difficult decisions that

are in the national interest or will you stick your head in the sand? The

testing ground as the deficit. We made our choice. In May 2010 we came

into government and so the deficit and began the monumental task of

reducing it. This has involved some extremely difficult decisions. Let's

be clear to the people of Wales about why we have had to make them.

There are practical economic reasons. No one will invest in a

country which is crippled by debt. No one will take a business loan

with spiralling interest rates. Everyone found we spend on debt

interest could be better spent elsewhere. -- pound. Conservatives

believe in leaving something better for the next generations. I have

three children. I hope to have grandchildren. When I have them I

want to be able to look them in the eye and now that when we had our

time we take difficult decisions, clear up the mess and fixed the roof

when the sun was shining. Compare that to Labour. There are is or ever

from all of their offices. It is called denial. If there is one man

who stuck his head deeper in the sand than any other then it is Ed

Balls. Earlier this year, he was talking about labour's record in

government and he said this. Do I think the level of public spending

going into the crisis was a problem for Britain? No, I don't. Nor is our

deficit our national debt. These people who sat in the Treasury when

the economy crashed, the banks bust, the deaths and -- deficit

ballooned, they have learned nothing. The ones who crashed the

car are asking for the same keys to the same car so they can smash it

into the wall again. Now, the third test of true ambition is this: Do

you have the coverage to really reform our public services? Or are

you suffering from that complacency of sitting back, sitting with the

status quo and perpetuating the same old thing? Tragedy, that is what we

see from the Welsh Assembly Government in Wales today,

appalling, inexcusable complacency. We see it in education, in reading,

maths and science. Wales is falling behind. Not just the rest of the UK,

but the rest of Western Europe. What is Carwyn Jones' response? He said

this: We took our eye off the ball. I'm sorry? This is like the guy in

the crows nest of the Titanic saying we took our eye off the Horizon!

This man's government is thinking the hopes of a generation. That

complacency reaches new heights when it comes to the Welsh National

health said is. Let me be clear, the doctors, the nurses, the hard

workers in our NHS in Wales, they are dedicated people, they do a

brilliant job, but they are being woefully let down by Labour.

Patients are waiting weeks and weeks for vital heart scans, one in seven

people in Wales is on an NHS waiting list. We have a cancer drug fund in

England but not here. When the's bike becomes the line between life

and death, we are witnessing a national scandal. We have seen

people waiting far too long for treatment, sometimes dying. These

grieving people are in pain, they want investigations, but Labour just

do not get it. Faced with grief, they demand evidence. Faced with

evidence, they demand silence. It is the same old socialist mantra, the

system knows best. Well, it doesn't and it is time for change in the NHS

in Wales. And I... I tell you something else. After this but a

shambles, Labour should never dare call themselves the party of the NHS

ever again. Now, Welsh Conservatives are giving heart and soul but it

doesn't have to be this way. With real coverage, real reform, things

can be different. On the NHS we are arguing for more funding, or

transparency, more power to doctors and nurses. In education we are

saying, in a competitive world it is not softer subjects and experimental

teaching that children need, it is proper spelling, basic arithmetic,

proper maths, the best of our history, respected exams. It is not

more of the failed ideological left-wing claptrap. It is more

rigour, more choice, more standards, more hope. Let us argue that if you

want those things, if you are ambitious for the children of Wales,

then you have got to support the Conservatives. True ambition for

Wales means setting out a long-term plan, taking difficult decisions in

the national interest, and having the courage to reform our public

services. Fourth, and finally, perhaps most importantly, it means

believing in the people of Wales, and not writing them off. I mean all

the people of Wales, not just the entrepreneurs and the workers, those

who have never worked a day in their lives, those who sat at home day

after day feeling they are not worth anything to anybody. Labour left

more than a quarter of a million people in Wales on out of work

benefits. More than 200 and thousand people. What were they told? Apply

for benefits, go home, get forgotten about, languished for years out of

work. Labour might call that compassion. I call it an appalling

lack of ambition. So we are going to break that stranglehold of welfare

dependency. You've seen it, major reform by major reform. Benefit cap,

so no family can take home more than the average household earns. Housing

benefit capped, sanctions for those who refuse work when they could

work. Most importantly, universal credit so it always pays to go out

to work. Let's be clear again. The reason why we are doing this, not to

save money, but to change lives. Every person who gets off the dole,

with everyone who feels the pride of having a job, with every young boy

or girl who looks at their parents going out to work in the morning and

think, I can do the same, with all these things we are building

ambitious and hoped-for features for this country. So this is the

message. The Conservatives are ambitious for Wales. We see a

country with more decent jobs, where families feel more secure, where

there is more hope for the gun and more security for the old, where

children from every background have a chance to get on and make

something of their lives, where there is a sense in the air and in

all our communities that Wales is strong and proud and striding

forward. And we have the tools to make those ambitions and reality.

The long-term plan, the willingness to take the difficult decisions, the

coverage for public sector reform, and above all the belief in the

Welsh people. Because we see for ourselves every day the people --

what the people of Wales can be. Like Hayley Thomas from

Pembrokeshire. She came to Downing Street, she had been made redundant

but did not lose heart. She got out one of our new enterprise allowances

and started a play centre, and today she has not just got a job, she

employs 15 other people. All the staff at Westbridge furniture,

upholstery is, carpenters, gutters. I met them this morning and they are

proud of the craft that they do. 250 people in the factory four years

ago, over 400 today. Or the people at the data company in Wrexham who

announced this morning that in the next two years they are doubling

their workforce from 220 jobs to 440 jobs. 220 more people in Wales would

be peace and security that comes with work and a regular pay packet.

Or Sean Taylor, the former Royal Marine. You know what he has done?

He set up the world 's fastest on the longest zip wire in Snowdonia.

Just please don't let wrist anywhere near it! At least until after the

election -- don't let Boris near it. These are the people of Wales,

enterprising and ambitious. To all of the people tired of the lack of

ambition from Labour, we have to show them there is an alternative.

If you want a decent indication for your child, come with us. If you

want lower taxes, come with us. If you want to see new jobs from the

mountains to the balance, north to south, east to west, if you want to

build something better for our children, come with us. If you are

truly ambitious for Wales, cover with us. Work with us, and together

we will build the future that Wales deserves. Thank you.

That was the Prime Minister, David Cameron, addressing Conference

yesterday, public service delivery the focus of his attention. There

was a lot of strong stuff, a lot of emotive language as well. Yes, it

was clearly an election speech, not about the European elections but the

general election in just over a year from now. Every election in a sense,

every general election, is a choice between two things, stay the course

or time for a change, and this was David Cameron saying, keep on going,

stay the course. That is why we had the references to the long-term

plan, we are be people would be plan, Labour are spinning, don't

give them back the keys to the car that they crashed. This was an

election speech, naked into and claw. Stay the course in terms of

the UK picture but change course in relation to Wales? Heavily

criticising the Welsh NHS and Welsh education system as well. This is a

rift that -- in risk that David Cameron has been using for a long

time now, but to come to Wales and do it as bluntly as this I think

will annoy people in the Welsh government. They don't know how to

respond. Someone described the Welsh government attempting to respond to

attacks from David Cameron at throwing a saucepan at a 10th.

Rather than the claim about Wales that we were hearing at the Labour

Conference a few weeks ago, I suspect the Welsh government. To

ignore the attacks. Is this criticism of the Welsh NHS that we

hear is that enough for them when it comes to the Welsh elections in

2016, or are they going to be seen as a one trick pony? Do they need

something else or have they sensed enough of a weakness in the armour

of the Welsh Labour government that this is their course of action? When

it comes to the assembly elections, what will happen will largely

influence -- be influenced by what happened at the general election. Do

we have a Labour government, a Conservative Government, a coalition

government in Westminster? That'll be the background on which the

assembly elections are played out. The Conservatives will tell you, we

have got lots of policies, a high-street initiative, policies

about cutting taxes, to do with education. But they do at the moment

Centre opportunity to establish this narrative that the health service,

the strong point in electronic terms, that they can get a narrative

going here that the health service is not safe in Labour's hands. He

ended the speech by saying Wales was shoving the way in terms of creating

new jobs. The question is, can he take the credit for that, or can be

Welsh government take the credit? It is an interesting question and maybe

the anther if they can both take the credit for it. The economy in UK

terms is going well, but in so far as Wales is doing better than the

rest of the UK, you would have to say that that is more likely to be

either the actions of the Welsh government or just the differences

in the economic make-up of Wales. Wales has a lot of manufacturing,

manufacturing is doing well at the moment, so that might be the

explanation. Time now for two of yesterday's

health speeches. The Labour MP and fluid was praised for the work she

has been doing for stop the UK Government's Health Secretary Jeremy

Hunt, responsible for the NHS in England, also praised her and

criticised record of help. Waiting times for people who need

urgent assessment for suspected cancer, missed for the last several

years. A patient in Bridgend waiting over four hours in an ambulance

before the patient was allowed through the door. Every single A

target missed since 2009 with one patient spending not four hours but

three full days in a Welsh emergency department. According to the Royal

College of Surgeons, 152 people died on waiting lists at just two

people. This morning the Nuffield Trust think tank published its

comparison of the health systems across England, Wales, Northern

Ireland and Scotland and found striking rises in waits for patients

in Wales who now have to wait more than three months longer to get a

hip or knee replacement. It revealed the appalling truth that you are

twice as likely to die from a hospital infection in a Welsh

hospital ban an English one. In a system as big and complex as the

NHS, things do go wrong. But if you ignore the evidence when individual

problems pile up, if you stick your head in the sand and pretend all

will be fine, well that is exactly what happened in Mid-Staffs under

the last Labour government in England. And that is what the Labour

government in Cardiff is risking right now in Wales. They are

sleepwalking into a Welsh Mid-Staffs tragedy, and unless we shout loud

enough alongside brave campaigners like those who have lost their loved

ones, these appalling lapses in care will repeat themselves time after

time. Labour in Wales, says Ed Miliband, is a shining example and

provides an example of what the UK Labour government would do. I tell

you there is no greater reason to vote Welsh Conservative than that.

But, you know, not all of his MPs agree with him. One in particular

has been brave enough to speak out about the need for action - Ann

Clwyd. Following her own tragic experience, she undertook a review

of the NHS complaints system in England on behalf of the Prime

Minister. She put political colours aside and listened to thousands of

patients and their families about their experiences of the NHS. But

she didn't just received e-mails from people in England. She also

received hundreds from across Wales. The evidence she saw worried her so

much that she spoke out about her concerns and called for an

independent inquiry. So, how did Welsh Labour respond to their loyal

colleague? What action today take in the wake of her work? Instead of

welcoming the findings, they dismissed them. One said that she

should stop it and publicly attacked her for denigrating the Welsh NHS.

Labour Assembly Members voted to prevent her from giving evidence on

her findings to the Assembly's Health Committee. And Carwyn Jones

even took the time to criticise her during First Minister's Question

Time. It is a disgrace and he should apologise.

Carwyn Jones and Welsh Labour may have no respect for Ann Clwyd but we

do and I want you to stand and join me in paying tribute to her, a true

champion of our National Health Service.

Vaughan, it's not very often that a Labour MP gets a standing ovation at

a Conservative Party conference. Yes, and I'm not really sure how Ann

Clwyd will feel about that. But the point is that her interventions have

enabled the Conservatives to say that it is a Labour MP bringing up

these issues so it doesn't look likely to -- like a political

tactic. Labour say they can't investigate the things she is

complaining about because she won't give them evidence. There is a deep

and abiding frustration in the Welsh government about the situation. But

there is now showing -- no sign she will stop speaking out. Just before

Jeremy Hunt was speaking, there was a publication of a report by the

Nuffield Trust which said that the NHS was not lagging behind the rest

of the UK. Will that give the government 's cover? Well, it is

charting the successes and failures of their NHS in all parts of the UK

and the conclusion it comes to is that while the health policies of

the various parts of the UK have diverged, the actual out comes have

not been too different. Jeremy Hunt mentioned some findings of things

that have altered in Wales, waiting times, hospital infections and so

on. There are things in there that the Conservatives can pick an but if

you look at the overall conclusion of the report then the Welsh

government can say that the thrust of it is that our health service is

as good as the ones in the rest of the UK and that the Westminster

government and Conservatives are cherry picking.

One of the candidates for the European elections is with me now,

Kay Swinburne. Last year you had a great result, topping the poll.

Could you do that this year? We are at the stage where every vote counts

for Wales. Typically, there is a low turnout so there are all sorts of

results possible. This weekend has been a great chance for me to get my

activists motivated and they are ready to go to work. Does a low

turnout work in your favour? I would like to think that my voters want to

come out and do their democratic duty so I would like to get them all

motivated to do that. It is really important and I think we have tried

this weekend to explain to people that we are giving them a real

choice in the European election that if you want to have a say on Europe

and reforms then the only party that can deliver it is the Conservatives.

Well, people know there could be a referendum with Labour as well. Ed

Miliband announced a policy recently that there could be a referendum if

more powers were taken to Brussels. We are looking for reform of EU

institutions and giving people a choice of whether they want to be

part of that new deal. If you want a change in Europe, only party

promising that before the end of 2017 is the Conservatives. It is

about the UK taking control, not Brussels, over when we decide. It is

a difficult topic for the Conservatives traditionally and we

saw a real struggle trying to get to this policy on a referendum. Do

people know where they stand? The message at the moment is very

simple. We will deliver real change in Europe and give people they say.

For the first time in 40 years. Labour and the Liberals will not

give you say. The only party that can give you that chance is the

Conservatives. UKIP want Britain out of the EU. Do you sense there is a

strong euro scepticism in Wales? There is a lot of confusion as to

what the role of the Brussels elite are and I think that is something we

can help clear up. But ultimately this is about having the UK... The

UK population having a say. But whether they are Eurosceptic or not

many people feel strongly about keeping a relationship with Europe.

I think it is the people that know best and we should trust them to

make a decision on whether or not we stay or go and that should be up to

the individuals on the street. The main theme of the conference seems

to be attacking the Welsh government's delivery on public

services. That is quite negative. How does that affect your campaign?

We have been trying to highlight who is responsible for what at each

level of Welsh government. There are two Mac governments who have major

influence. The government in Westminster has certain

responsibilities and overall responsibility for policy in major

things like taxation and development and status in the rest of the world.

The two governments are squabbling over time. Does that put people

off? We are highlighting who is responsible for which part. The NHS

and education in Wales are not performing right now. They are

always at the top of the list of people's concerns. Everyone was

confused as to who is delivering that service in Wales. Ultimately,

we have drawn attention to where responsibility lies for the

different parts of the policy in devolved government and it is up to

Carwyn Jones to say how we use going to improve health and education.

Ultimately, it is their failures and not anything to do with criticism.

The criticism is positive for the people in Wales. You are not worried

that this relentless criticism isn't going too far? Carwyn Jones is

trying to say you are attacking Wales. We are not. We are standing

up for future generations in education and standing up for the

health service. That is not attacking. Labour have a loss -- a

lot to answer for. They need to say how they are going to improve

things. Until they start to put those measures on the table and

debate them, we will continue. The Welsh people expect us to continue

to critique them. Thank you very much.

The Wales Office minister Stephen Crabb spoke yesterday. He said the

UK coalition government had launched the most ambitious and effective

welfare reform programme the country had ever seen.

We won't sit back while there are still 91,000 children in Wales

growing up in homes where no-one works. Where entire communities are

locked into cycles of dependency, and while unemployment is handed

down from generation to generation. And so to the long-term unemployed,

we say this: We want this to be your economic recovery, too. And when

Labour MPs set out to trash our work experience programme, which gives

young lads and girls in their very own constituencies their first foot

on the jobs ladder... When they try to undermine our work programme,

which gives new hope to those who have been unemployed the longest...

When they sit in the House of Commons with their arms folded,

looking glum when the latest drop in unemployment is announced, and can't

bring themselves to welcome the record numbers of people now in work

across our country, you have to ask yourself: What on earth did these

people come into politics for? What is it about this so-called Labour

Party that they don't get excited about men and women in their own

constituencies benefiting from more work opportunities? Conference, we

are getting Wales back to work, because we are ambitious for Wales.

And we know, ladies and gentlemen, that the 21st Century belongs to

those economies with the greatest productivity, the best educated and

the most skilled workforce, with the most efficient and competitive

businesses. Economies which are outward-looking, not insular,

supported by world-class infrastructure that links them to a

fast-moving global marketplace. And I really believe that Wales has the

potential to be such an economy. Yes, as part of a successful and

growing United Kingdom, but also within the United Kingdom we can be

a beacon of economic success. Yes, we have a long way to go. For too

long, Wales has been held back by underinvestment, by lack of

ambition, and by the politics of the begging bowl that Carwyn Jones uses

to hide behind time and time again. But Wales deserves better. Wales

deserve so much better. And, Conference, I believe the choice has

never been clearer. There is one party, and only one party, that has

the value, the vision, and the ambition to move Wales forward, to

build a stronger economy, and give the people of Wales the opportunity

for success that they deserve. This morning, the party's leader in

the Assembly Andrew RT Davies took centre stage. Here is his conference

speech. Thank you very much. It is a real

pleasure to be here this morning. And in particular to see so many

friends and colleagues who have joined us here to celebrate what the

Welsh Conservative party is doing and to show the strength of what we

can do here in Wales. I lead a very dedicated and passionate team in the

National Assembly for Wales and I'm extremely proud of each and every

one of them for the way they tackle Labour week in, week out. But not

just tackling their failure, always offering an alternative. Because a

grown-up party has to be able to offer an alternative, a sight of

what we would do if we were in government. That is what we have

been doing over the last 12 months since we last met in Swansea. I also

want to thank you, the activists, for what you do for our great party.

We are not the Labour Party, thank goodness. We can't rely on Len

McCluskey sending down hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay for our

activities. We rely on you, the small donations that you make and

the tea and coffee mornings that you hold and the way you deliver our

leaflets and help us shape our policies. And ultimately we are a

party that is embedded in our communities because we have members

from across Wales representing everyone in the National Assembly

for Wales. I also want to say, before I go any further, that here

in North Wales it is wholly appropriate that we pay tribute to

the great legacy that Lord Wyn Roberts left from his time in

government. He was an inspirational example of what Conservatives can do

when they get into government. How they have empathy with their

communities and bring their expertise to bear and how they

improve the lives of the people they represent. Right up until his last

breath, he was thinking not what he could do for himself but what he

could do for other people and the improvements he could make for them.

He's an inspiration to us all and it is to see his successor is here

today making sure that the Conservative torch is held high in

Aberconwy. I also want to say a big thank you to my deputy Paul Davies

in the National Assembly. I hope all of great debt of gratitude. I want

to pay.....a big thank you for everything he has done. We are in a

monumental year this year. We have European elections in May, the

Scottish referendum in September. We have the general election next year

in May 2015. On my way to the Conference yesterday, I went through

many towns and villages and each one had its own war memorial. We are

also reflecting on the 100th anniversary of the First World War.

On those memorials were the names of men who put themselves forward to

fight for their country and the beliefs that they held dear to their

heart over 100 years ago. They believed in the union of the United

Kingdom of Great Britain. They believed in the freedoms of this

great country and they were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice over

100 years ago. On those memorials, there are names of successors who

had to go to war to fight for our principles. The Second World War,

the Korean War, the Falklands War and any other conflict that our

great armed services have been fighting across the globe. Wales has

a great tradition of providing service men and women to the Armed

Forces of this great country. What defines our armed services, what

defines our beliefs is the belief that the union of the United Kingdom

is the most successful union the world has ever seen. It is the

greatest trading nation that has come together to trade across the

globe. It is the inspiration for democracy across much of the globe.

Above all, the principles that we hold dear as Conservatives and

Unionists are what we are fighting to project in Scotland so that

Scotland will stay within the union of the United Kingdom. And I want to

make sure that we offer David and Ruth and all our Scottish cousins

the total support that they require to make sure that Scotland knows the

family of the rest of the UK want them with us and want to stay as one

United Kingdom, holding dear the values the people who laid down

their lives to protect in conflicts around the globe. I know you want to

send that message out and I want you to make sure that David knows when

he goes back to Scotland that he has our support about protecting the

union. Wales is a country of great ambition. The people of Wales are

proud of their communities. We are proud of our institutions, our

health service, our education system, the businesses that make up

the communities across this great country of ours. Above all, what we

want to do as Welsh Conservatives is make sure that people know that we

can do so much better with a change of leadership in the National

Assembly. The NHS's best and most precious resource are the staff that

operate the NHS day in, day out, turning up tirelessly to make sure

that when we need them they are there for us. We owe them a great

debt of gratitude. Our teachers, along with our students, are the

greatest asset that our education system has to provide that learning

base for the future economy that we require in the 21st century. Our

teachers are the ones who inspire our students, inspire our pupils to

reach for the skies and ultimately achieve their full potential. But,

sadly, they are shackled by the lack of ambition from a tired, lazy

Labour Government that fails to deliver generation after generation.

This is a Government that has been in power for 14 years. And, on our

educational outcomes, they have a damning record of failure and lack

of achievement. And that is why I am so proud of what Angela Burns is

doing in the field of education to promote the best of grammar schools,

to promote the best of the teaching profession, with the announcement

that she made yesterday. And, above all, making sure that no child is

left behind, and every child is able to reach their full potential.

Because that is what we, as Conservatives, are about, not

holding people back but empowering those people to go forward and

actually build their careers so that we can build a strong Wales in the

United Kingdom of Great Britain. And that is what Conservatism is about,

empowering people and empowering individuals. And that is why Angela,

in the run-up to 2016, will be bringing a host of ideas forward

that will break the Labour yoke, the lazy Labour yoke in education that

has let our children and let our students down. But, when it comes to

it, we must build a coalition of ideas. We must build a coalition

that ultimately will take the best talents in all parts of our society

in Wales so that we can build a strong Wales that it is an example

to the rest of the United Kingdom, whether it is in health, the

economy, or whether it is in any field... Rather than Wales propping

up those league tables because of what lazy Labour have been doing to

Wales for 14 years. We want to inspire people that they have that

potential, they have that belief, and what we've seen when

Conservatives were in power in Wales is an example, as Chris Salmon

showed us yesterday, our Police and Crime Commissioner in the

Dyfed-Powys area, outlining how he has, in a short period of time, in

18 months, transformed the Force's objectives and outcomes. I stand

shoulder to shoulder. When Chris stood on this platform yesterday and

said, "We have the best police force in the world. We have the bravest

officers serving our communities day in, day out, protecting us from some

of the evils of modern society". And again, as Welsh Conservatives, we

owe our men and women in the police force a huge debt of gratitude for

what they do for us, day in, day out, across this country. And that

is why, for the last 18 months, under my leadership in the Assembly,

we have not been frightened to push the boundaries. To challenge Labour,

who have been in Government for so long here in Wales. We have been

prepared to bring forward the ideas that will regenerate our high

streets, that will get money flowing into our small businesses. That will

have the five-point action plan for agriculture, that will bring forward

a housing strategy that will build more homes for people in Wales. The

idea of home ownership, the belief of homeownership, is a founding

principle of our party. It's an empowering principle of our party.

The greatest peacetime Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, laid

that down as one of the key foundations. And this last week has

been the first anniversary of her death, and when I went into politics

I shaped much of my thinking on what Margaret Thatcher's thinking was

when she was a Prime Minister. When I went to school in '79, you didn't

know whether you could turn up to school because we were in the Winter

of Discontent. We didn't know whether the heating lorry was

turning up with the heating fuel, or the food lorry was turning up to

stock the canteen. You went on a day-to-day basis to know whether you

could turn up to be educated. By the time Margaret Thatcher left office,

this country was not the sick man of Europe, it was the beacon of hope

and prosperity that we need to build here in Wales. And whilst the

cameras are rolling, the journalists are standing at the back and Labour

are most probably in Transport House saying, "There is Andrew RT talking

about Margaret Thatcher. We are going to have him for this.". I

don't give a damn. Because I am proud to say that I am a member of

the same party that she led so successfully and led this country to

so much success. That is what we should be out there telling the

people of Wales, telling the people of Great Britain: We have hope, we

have ambition and, above all, we have hope and ambition for the

country we seek to lead, and that is why we are in politics. As the Prime

Minister said yesterday, if you have believe, you can achieve anything in

the world, and ultimately that is what we as Conservatives have to

have here in Wales. We have Kay Swinburne, who is an exemplar of

what should be a good MEP in Brussels. Fighting tirelessly to

improve the economic outcomes of Wales, improve the profile of Wales.

Never sitting back, always taking the challenge. Offering that

challenge and picking up the mantle were required to promote Wales. We

must make sure that she is back after the European elections. As has

been said time and time again, you can't take it for granted. If you

sit on your backside, it's not going to happen. You need to get out of

there, promote the great work that Kay Swinburne has done, promote what

the team are doing. And, as a farmer, I know that what she has

done in Europe for agriculture has benefited every single farm across

Wales and across the UK and we need to make sure that over the next five

years we have that strong voice speaking out for Welsh industry,

speaking out for rural Wales and, as was outlined yesterday, she was

directly responsible for those new jobs in Wrexham that will replace

the jobs lost when First Milk pulled out of there and Sharps had to close

their solar panel. That is positive representation, not the negative

representation some parties would have out in Brussels. We will work

to make sure that you are delivered back in May, because you're simply

the best MEP that Wales could have representing it in Europe.

APPLAUSE And then we have the general

election. I don't know about you, but I am

sick to death of listening to Nick Clegg and the liberal minnows in the

coalition. I want to make sure that we get a majority Conservative

Government after May of next year. I want to see David and Samantha

Cameron on the steps at Downing Street as a majority leader,

delivering Conservative principles, delivering the Conservative

manifesto, so that we can really unshackle the potential of this

great country of ours. But we won't do that unless we work, unless we

inspire, and above all unless we deliver, and that, over the next 12

months, has to be our goal. Deliver big to read a page, deliver victory

in the Scottish referendum, and automatically deliver a bigotry of

huge proportions in May of next year. How on earth can anyone

contemplate on giving back the keys to the people who wrecked our

economy in the 2010, the lead up to the 2010 general election? It is

utter madness, but that is what Labour are bubbling. They are

offering you the same people and saying, after all the good work the

people in Westminster have put together, delivering the fastest

economic growth that this country has had in many a year, the fastest

economic growth in the Western world, record numbers of

employment, record numbers of people taken out of tax, stability that has

delivered a record low interest rates, and you want to throw all of

that away? We have falling crime, written on the world stage. In

Wales, we will host the NATO summit in south-east Wales. We have

electrification coming to South Wales, we have the positive news in

Anglesey. All these things happening and we need to remind each and every

one of the voters of Wales so that people like Craig Williams in

Cardiff North of Byron Davies in Gower, Chris Davies in Wrexham, our

eight MPs, James Davies here and Mark Isherwood, are returned and

returned to a stronger conservative boys in May 2016. -- Conservative

voice. But you won't do any of that unless you believe we can do it. I

am not a career politician. I never thought I would go into politics.

When I got up this morning the first person I formed was my son to ask

him about the farm. That was the career I had mapped out for myself.

I got into politics because I felt the community that I came from, the

community that I cared about was under threat for its very existence.

I hope in the short time I've been in politics I have made a

difference. I believe I have and I want my keen to keep believing that

we can keep on making a difference. We can build the coalition of ideals

we need to solve the problems of Wales. The activists, members and

people all needs to have that belief that after the taking for granted of

Wales for so many years by a lazy, tired Labour government, we are the

alternative. There is no point in looking at Plaid Cymru because they

are walking around saying -- they're not walking around saying everything

is going to be good but they want to break up the UK. They know it is

unpopular because only 5% of the people in Wales will vote for it. We

must tell people that that is what Plaid Cymru stand for, ripping up

what 95% of the people of Wales hold dear. I could spend some time

telling you what the Liberal Democrats stand for but I don't know

and I don't think they know either. That should shorten the speech

somewhat. My message today and my message for the next 365 days

leading up to the next conference is that we have achieved so much in

Europe, we can achieve so much with a positive outcome in the Scottish

referendum. I think that they told David they wouldn't send them to the

toughest areas in Glasgow but we are Welsh, we don't mind, if we have to

go there, we'll go there. And by the way, there is 19 and a half stone of

Welsh beast prepared to go. I lied to the press when I said I was 19

stone. I weighed myself and I am 19 stone and ten pounds. We can achieve

so much more but we have to have that belief and conviction. I

believe we can have the greatest public services in the UK, if not

the world, with the most dedicated professionals and whether it is the

health service, education or police forces. We can unlock the potential

in every man, woman and child in Wales. We have the solution is to do

that. Rise up, Conservatives, rise up, Welsh Conservatives, and

deliverables solutions. Do you believe you can do it? Yes! If

you're that quiet, no one will hear you. Yes or no? Yes! That's better.

Don't lose your voice. I'll be back next year.

That was Andrew RT Davies addressing the conference and he joins us now.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. A lot has been made of the respect

agenda by David Cameron when it comes to the relations between the

UK and Welsh governments. Is that agenda still being respected? I

think so. We have to governments -- two governments but the Welsh

governments seem to be picking a fight in every corner. All the

correspondence shows that the then Welsh transport ministers agreed in

the monetary commitment to making electrician -- electrification

happen and now they are trying to wriggle out of it. Carwyn Jones is

time to pick a political fight instead of doing what is in Wales'

best interests. They should be delivering the economic agreements

that allow it to be the fastest-growing economy in Europe.

The Prime Minister was taking Ed Miliband that has word when he said

compare and contrast our actions in Wales if we were to form a majority

government after the general election. Carwyn Jones is trying to

project this is a war on Wales. That is not true. All the members of the

Welsh Conservatives are proud Welsh men and women. Carwyn Jones is

trying to turn things into a war and trying to deflect from his

government's appalling record on health, education and the economy.

This week, it was pointed out that there are massive failings in the

education system and even Carwyn Jones was gracious enough to say

they had taken their eye off the ball. And the Nuffield trust at

their report -- had to their report. 14 years of Welsh Labour in control

and Carwyn Jones has been First Minister for the last couple of

years and we are not seeing the improvements the Welsh people

require. Ed Miliband invited us to compare and contrast and we are

holding them to account. The Prime Minister held him to his word and

did so. On this court that Offa's Dyke is the line between life and

death. It is pretty serious to say that. Would you advise people to

steer clear from Wales on the back of that allegation? We have the most

hard-working and dedicated NHS professionals you will find anywhere

in the UK. We need to make sure that we can marry up the policy that the

Welsh government is executing to run the NHS to the dedication and

professionalism of the staff and everyone who is committed to the

well-being of the NHS. The failure of some NHS, cancer waiting times,

diagnostic waiting times, access to cancer drugs, are down to the policy

failings of the Welsh government and the decisions they took over

financing the Welsh government -- NHS. The decision was taken to

protect NHS budget in all the other UK governments. Carwyn Jones and his

Labour colleagues made the wrong choice two years ago and now spin

doctors are trying to deflect criticism. In the Nuffield trust

report it was said that the performance gap that in England of

the UK and there is little sign that one country is moving ahead of the

others. It is not as grim a picture as you are painting, is it? There

are real challenges in the Welsh NHS. Response times, and the ability

to hit those times. We have a failure of policy and a failure of

successive health ministers and in particular Carwyn Jones delivering

his mantra of delivery steering wheels. When he took over --

delivery in Wales. Carwyn Jones had not delivered for the NHS and people

are experiencing that every day and staff are experiencing pressure is

on them. The Welsh Conservatives would offer a clear alternative that

Wales could pursue. We would protect health spending, making sure the NHS

is accountable and delivering for the people of Wales whether it be an

education, health or the economy. The people of Wales have had enough

excuses. They now want solutions so they can be at the top of the tree

and not propping up the bottom of it. By ring fencing the health

budget, there would be cuts to the education budget. Well, ultimately,

some difficult decisions must be taken but we mapped out how we would

make our choices will stop if you -- our choices. If you directly fund

schools you can free up ?100 million in education budget. You would

empower communities, teachers, pupils and governors to drive up

standards by offering choice in the education system. Carwyn Jones's

leadership manifesto would protect education budget by 1%. But we are

seeing cuts. It was announced many secondary schools would face cuts in

my area. There are are falling standards. It is the whole economy

of Wales which will suffer because we won't turn out the graduates we

require to drive the economy. Carwyn Jones is spinning the message. We

are offering a clear alternative to drive standards up, delivery forward

and give Wales a better deal. You mentioned having a coalition of

ideals. Does that mean a closer working relationship with the other

parties in the Assembly? One of the problems with delivery in Wales is

that Labour believe they have a divine right to rule. Every now and

then, we will reach out to another party to strike a deal but they will

not tolerate any other thinking and that is what has driven us at this

cul-de-sac. I believe Welsh Conservatives are mature enough to

look at that coalition of ideas and look at where the best ideas come

from. Does that mean working with other parties? Let me finish. It

means reaching out to anyone who has the best interest of the people of

Wales at heart and wants to get us off the bottom of the league table

whether it be in health, education or the economy, rather than this

overlord mentality that Labour has two extinguish any sort of

freethinking or alternative because they believe they have a divine

right to rule Wales. That is not what the Welsh people want to stop

-- want. They want politicians to work together to develop answers

which will provide the solutions to problems they face every day. We

will not be thanked if we do not reach out. You said you had no idea

what the Lib Dems stand for and you ridiculed Plaid Cymru for their

pro-independence stance. It seems it would be difficult for you to form a

coalition of ideals with fame. -- then. You won't get a Unionist party

to agree independence would be good for Wales. 95% of the population do

not want to consider independence. In my speech I was saying that

people need to know these things rather than having them blacked out.

Where we can find new ideas to solve the problems in Wales and we have

done that, finance, investment, regeneration, housing, agriculture,

schools, I could go on, I don't believe another political party has

set out such a radical policy. I believe I am a radical, progressive

politician. I went into politics to make a difference. This conference

has done that. Can I finish on one point of housekeeping? Recently used

that some members of your shadow cabinet because they voted against

your wishes. Was that a sign of weak leadership on your part, that you

could not take them with you? Weak leadership? Ultimately what we have

here today is a united party that has galvanised its help biting a

strong, robust European election campaign, that has a slate of

candidates that are second to none for the general election, and, above

all, has a united assembly team delivering cancers that are required

to some of the deep-seated problems after 14 years of Labour neglect in

Wales. What the people of Wales want to see in their politicians are

politicians with answers and politicians that are prepared to

work together in the interests of this country, this great country of

ours, and what I hope people will see in me is that politician putting

forward the ideas and above all reaching out to make sure that we

can break the yoke of Labour dependency and labour's backward

looking ideology. Andrew RT Davies, thank you for your time.

That was a robust defence of his leadership, and the party's ideas as

well? The speech. Micro policy like, perhaps? Some of the key passages

just were not fed. One suspects that Andrew RT Davies does have a

tendency to speak slightly off-the-cuff, to go off piste, but

one suspects there were some key messages that he was meant to

include in that speech that did not get included. It went down well in

the hall, he knows how to feed a Conservative audience, but looking

from outside the hall there was a surprising lack of content in that

speech. At times it was almost a stream of consciousness. Where has

that spat, if you like, between himself and some members of the

shadow cabinet left him in terms of leadership? Is he stronger or weaker

as a consequence? That is an interesting question. In terms of

the assembly group, the ill feeling has died down a bit but it is still

there. It varies amongst which one of the excommunicated four you talk

to, but there are still some bearing grudges. There is still ill feeling

I think between Andrew RT Davies and parts of what the Conservative call

the voluntary party, the grassroots. Some of them are very, very angry,

because baby bees four people were just sacked for following the

party's UK national policy. I think it is hard to say it has left Andrew

RT Davies anything other than weakened as a leader. Having said

that, I don't think he is currently under any threat as a leader, partly

because there are no other alternatives.

Another of this morning's speaketh of the work and pensions secretary

Iain Duncan Smith. He outlined what welfare reform is all about.

It's not about facts and figures. It's really not about individual

items that I list and I've talked about. Welfare reform is more than

that. It's about a cultural shift. It's about getting Britain back to

the idea that work is at the heart of everything we do. That your

aspiration and your hope for your family is that work should play a

significant part. That children should grow up in households where

they see people go to work, in communities where people put

something back, because they are now independent of the state. From

dependence to independence is a journey, we need to be with them on

that journey all the while. This is what the reforms are about. And let

me just say, as I conclude on this, here in Wales... My education

started not far from here, over on the island of Anglesey. I spent

almost all of my secondary education here in Wales. I have a fondness and

a love for this country which goes back right to my childhood. And I

hated seeing this country languish. Its unemployment statistics poor,

its activity rates too low. And as we see this change, these are not

just statistics to me, these are important because they are human

beings, they are people now returning back to that pride and

self-assurance that Wales was so significant in the past for, and the

things that their ancestors have produced now, the next generation

will see themselves doing this. Because I say to all of you, we are

here today for one reason. I know what brings me here, what sustains

me in politics and all that I do is a very simple concept. I am an

absolute believer, I love this country, this United Kingdom. I love

Wales, and England, and Scotland, I love Northern Ireland. This is my

country and I am part of it. Born in Scotland, educated in Wales, living

in England. This is my country, and it's my country and when I look at

it, and I love it, I recognise that all of us here today are here for

the same reason, really. All this stuff is facts and figures. We're

here because we care for this country more than any other party.

We care how it lives, we care how it works.

Iain Duncan Smith talking about welfare reform. Let's go back to

Llangollen where our reporter is joined by two AMs who want to become

MPs. Yes, I'm joined by Byron Davis and

Mark Isherwood, both members of the assembly but both standing to become

MPs. Have you had a lot of things in Cardiff Bay? Not at all. I think it

is time to take the Welsh message upto Westminster to really express

the views that are frustrating most people at the moment. You have been

an AM for a while now, is it a stepping stone to something bigger

and better? 11 years is a long time to wait if it is simply a stepping

stone. You are fed up, then? No, but I think it is vital that we have

people in Westminster who understand how devolution really works, how the

relationship between the government in Wales and the assembly really

provides, and where responsibility lies. I do going for a promotion? It

is a fair point, if you look at the Welsh Conservatives we have a track

record of sending quality people to Westminster to represent the people

of Wales. There has been a bit of disagreement in the Conservative

party over tax devolution recently. Perhaps you two board, I have had

enough, let's go and try our luck in Westminster. Could not be further

from the truth, actually. Andrew RT Davies said that you are an

impassioned group, but are you a united group? We are working

together for the party and to make sure Wales has a good government.

There was a rocky patch in February with Andrew RT Davies having to sack

a couple of AMs. You past that now? We were selected for our seats 14,

15 months ago, it had nothing to do with this. I have been here 11

years, we have had ups and downs as all groups do but what wind is

together is the commitment to the Welsh Conservative group in the

assembly and working to scrutinise what is essentially a failed Welsh

Labour government that is causing a huge amount of pain to the people of

Wales. It is our job to hold the Welsh government to account. We are

doing that. Thankfully now the media is beginning to show a bit more

interest in the facts that are worrying, to say the least, but, no,

I think we would go and have a pint together. Mr Farage is not the only

politician who likes to have a pint. I usually pay! We have had a

flavour of what will surely be a big part of the election campaign,

rubbishing the record of the Welsh government. Is there a danger that

this goes too far and becomes too negative? I am thinking of David

Cameron's Offa's Dyke is the line between life and death. I don't

think so. The government in Wales has been in power for a decade and

they don't like scrutiny, clearly. We are holding them to task on

health and education, finance, and they do not like it, so it is time

to bring them under the spotlight. We are going in the right direction.

You are not worried you are losing a sense of proportion here, talking

about the line between life and death? I heard the word refugees

used this morning in relation to Welsh patients being treated in

English hospitals. 15,000 cancer patients had to travel over the

border into England to be treated, I think it is disgraceful. So, yes, it

has to be highlighted in a very severe way. You not worried it will

backfire? Does this is as much for the benefit of English voters as

Welsh voters. What David Cameron wants to do is tell people in

England, look at what Labour does, look at Wales. Carwyn Jones simply

seems unable to understand that Wales and the Labour Party are

different things. It is our job to hold his government to account,

because we care passionately for Wales. The issues we are

highlighting we have been highlighting the gears in the

assembly. It is simply now that the London media has finally caught up

with what has been going on for far too long. The people running the

Welsh government, many of them have been there in every single cabinet

since the beginning of devolution, and yet they pass the book not only

to Westminster but two predecessor government of which they were apart.

Things ain't good and it is our job to expose that, not for the sake of

causing problems or scoring points but because our constituency

casework, the people who speak to us, bright to us, meet us in our

offices and surgeries, have real problems and so these matters are

now receiving... I am sorry to come back to it but when you hear David

Cameron said that Offa's Dyke is the line between life and death, do you

think, yes, that is the way I see it? I am concerned when people tell

me about personal experiences that should not be happening in

21st-century Wales, regardless of the current budgetary environment. I

have spoken to medical practitioners on both sides of the border, and the

hidden underlying policies to repatriate health services from

across the border which were designed to serve his people in

north-east Wales, is disgraceful. We are running out of time, but I want

to ask, how do you feel about coalition with the Liberal

Democrats? We have to look at what happened after the next election

here in Wales. If that is the case, if we have to move forward in a

coalition, then anything other than the Welsh government has to be

better, because they have been in power for a long time and nothing

has changed. They have wasted an awful lot of money, hundreds of

millions of pounds on infrastructure, roadworks, it is

about time they were brought to account, and that is what we are

doing. That is why I came into this business, to scrutinise. Thanks for

joining us. Assembly Members standing to become

members of Parliament, they would not be the first Conservative

assembly members to trade Cardiff Bay for Westminster, but they? David

Davis and Alun Cairns were both AMs, Glyn babies slightly different in

that he had already lost his seat in the assembly. But if you think back,

in the early days it was two-way traffic. There were MPs who moved

over to the assembly, and they did bring a certain gravitas to the

assembly in those early years. We have not seen anyone coming the

other way for a long time. We may see that with Adam Price, who is

standing for Plaid Cymru, but it does seem to suggest the traffic is

one way, that people after a fair old time in the assembly get bored

with it and feel the need for a new challenge. With the Conservatives in

particular, not that I want to speed on their behalf, is there a sense

they might be thinking they will have a better opportunity to

influence policies in Westminster than in Cardiff a? That is the

point, that the Conservatives are in government in Westminster. The

chances of them being in government in Cardiff Bay are very, very

remote. At least, they appear remote at the moment. You may remember talk

some years ago of a rainbow coalition, involving Plaid Cymru,

the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats. At the moment, the

conditions don't look right for that for at least the next assembly term.

So it may well be, I can achieve more in the place where my partly

has the power, if of course the Conservatives have their hands on

the power in Westminster after the next election. We will have to wait

a little over a year to find out. Conference was opened this morning

by the Secretary of State for Wales, David Jones. This is what the Clwyd

West MP had to say. In little over a month, the country will go to the

polls again, this time to elect members to the European Parliament.

And I'm sure that I speak on behalf of everyone in this hall when I said

that we'll be giving our excellent MEP Kay Swinburne, and her fellow

candidates Aled, Dan and Richard, all our support in that important

contest. Ladies and gentlemen, Wales needs effective Conservative

representation at Brussels, and I have no doubt that Kay and her

colleagues will deliver just that. Yesterday, we heard that tremendous

speech from the Prime Minister, telling us what the Conservative

Party is doing in Government to help the people of Wales and the whole of

Britain. Delivering security through our long-term economic plan.

Reducing the deficit left to us by Labour so that we can safeguard our

economy and keep mortgage rates low. Cutting income tax so that

hard-working people can keep more of what they earn and be more secure.

Creating more jobs by improving infrastructure and reducing taxes on

jobs. Reducing welfare and capping immigration so that our economy

delivers for those who work hard and play by the rules. And working hard

to improve education so that our children can compete in the global

race. And, here in Wales, we can see for ourselves what Conservative

policies mean in practice. Over 80,000 more people in work than when

we came to power in 2010. 30,000 fewer unemployed. 144,000 people

taken out of income tax altogether. And over 1.2 million with more money

in their pay packets this month as a consequence of our tax reforms. And

we're making it easier for businesses to employ more people,

too, with a cut of ?2,000 in employer National Insurance

contributions. We're improving infrastructure, providing the Welsh

Government with the finance they need to improve the M4 at Newport.

Supporting a new nuclear power station, and a new prison which will

be creating up to 1,000 new jobs at Wrexham. Creating new

super-connected cities at Newport and Cardiff. Providing ?69 million

to roll out superfast broadband across Wales. And committing to our

part of the bargain to electrify the South Wales railway line. Please,

Carl Sargeant, heed that: Committing to our part of the bargain.

And all this after so many years of Labour neglect. Of Labour failing to

invest in the modern infrastructure that Wales so badly needs, of

letting things slide. Let's be blunt: For 13 years in Government in

Westminster, Labour took Wales for granted, because they thought that

it was a place that they could safely neglect. Because they took

the view that the Welsh were people they could take or leave. Let's be

equally blunt: It's this Government that has started to turn the tide in

Wales. Investing in the Welsh economy, helping employers to create

the right conditions to deliver more jobs and greater security to

hard-working people and their families. And we intend to continue

to do so. So, we are delivering real change in Wales at Westminster. But,

of course, as we know, Wales has got two governments. And a lot of the

services that are important to us all are run not by Conservatives in

Westminster, but still by the Labour Party in Cardiff. And, do you know,

here I think a little compare and contrast is in order. To focus

attention on what we Conservatives are doing just a few miles to the

east over the border, and what Labour is doing here in Wales. Now,

health is arguably the most important service delivered by any

Government. We know that people value health care above almost every

other public service. And that's why, when we came to power, we made

it clear that we were going to protect the health budget, and we've

done just that. In England, spending on health will have gone up by

around ?12.7 billion in cash terms over the lifetime of this

Parliament. Making sure that the NHS continues to improve and to deliver

the sort of health care that people want and that people deserve. But,

in Wales, Labour have cut the health budget by 8%, despite being given an

extra ?1.6 billion through the block grant. And what, we must wonder, has

that 1.6 billion been spent on? The decline in the Welsh NHS is plain to

see. The Nuffield Trust tells us that, in Wales, if you need a hip or

knee replacement you will wait, on average, for 170 days. In England,

you will wait only 70 days. Almost 1,700 operations had to be postponed

in the five months to January this year because of bed shortages.

Ambulance response targets have been met only once since May 2012. A

targets haven't been met since 2009. And shamefully, in Wales, unlike

England, there is no Cancer Drugs Fund. But, none of this is the fault

of the hard-working doctors, nurses, and the other professionals in

Wales' NHS. They are, of course, every bit as competent, every bit as

dedicated, every bit as hard-working as those in other parts of the

country. Wales's health professionals are

world-class. But what is not world-class is the incompetent

oversight of the Welsh NHS by the Labour Party. Ladies and gentlemen,

the story of the NHS in Wales is the classic tale of lions led by

donkeys. Under the Labour Party, the Welsh NHS is lagging behind. That is

a fact. But heaven help anyone who seeks to complain or criticise. Ann

Clwyd, a long serving and highly respected member of Parliament,

tried to complain about the treatment of her husband at the

Welsh NHS hospital. Her complaints were rubbished by Carwyn Jones. She

was stopped from attending the Assembly Health Committee to give

evidence. That is the way that the Labour Party deal with what they

regard as a member of the awkward squad even if it is one of their

own. Labour's conduct over the NHS in Wales has been nothing short of

shameful. The fact that they will not listen to criticism from people

such as Ann Clwyd makes matters even worse.

Let's be frank. As First Minister, it is Carwyn Jones who is personally

responsible for the lamentable state of the Welsh NHS. He's the top man

and the buck stops with him. But he is, you know, so very

thin-skinned. He really doesn't like criticism. And do you know what he

hates most of all? It's that, all of a sudden, the national news media

have picked up on the Labour Party's failure in Wales and that members of

Parliament have got the effrontery to raise that failure on the floor

in the House of Commons. Especially at Prime Minister's Questions.

Instead of complaining when our Prime Minister happily focuses

attention on this issue, Carwyn Jones should be doing his best to

turn the health service around. -- properly focuses. If he does not

think he is up to it, then that is fine. He can make way for the Welsh

Conservative Party. But it is not just health. It is that other great

public service, education, too. Good education is crucial to the future

of every citizen of this country and to the economic success of the

country as a whole. When we talk about Britain being in a global

race, we are speaking literally. We are talking about something that is

real, that is important, that is a challenge. That is and the challenge

for everyone in this country. -- that is the challenge. The fact is

that we are now living for the first time in a wholly globalised

economy. Our competitors and our respected business partners are not

just in the next street or the next town but in countries on the other

side of the world. And they are ambitious. They are hungry to

succeed. They have young populations that are increasingly well-educated.

To compete against them and to bargain with them, we need excellent

education as well. -- to partner with. That is something we recognise

in Westminster and that is why Michael Gove and David Willetts

place so much emphasis on the need for good free schools and

academies, excellent colleges, world-class universities and

21st-century apprenticeships. The better educated our young people

are, the better equipped they will be to compete in the global race.

But qualifications must be meaningful. They must be a true

measure of capability. So, in England, we are introducing a new

rigour to the school system, making sure that young people leave school

with the right qualifications for success in the modern world. In

Wales, however, we are seeing continuing decline in the education

system. The PISA statistics published recently were frankly

shocking. They showed Wales to be the weakest of the home nations in

maths, science and reading. On some measures, education in Wales is no

better than in some of the Eastern European nations emerging from

decades of communism. That is not just my view. On Thursday, the OECD

published a report on the Welsh education system. It found, and I

quote, that the Welsh government had a lack of long-term clarity in

policy-making with weak and politician approaches. --

implementation. And also, and I quote again, that Wales lacks a

compelling and inclusive long-term education vision to steer the

education system and its reform efforts. Now, that is not political

sniping from the Tories so Carwyn Jones can abandon that criticism

before he starts. That is the Organisation for Economic

Cooperation and Development. Let's see Labour try to brush that aside.

Carwyn Jones's response to the PISA results, which echoed that of his

education minister, was so weak as to be laughable. He said, we took

our eye off the ball. Given that it was the fourth consecutive decline,

one must wonder whether his eye was ever on the ball in the first place.

Frankly, whether he was ever in the game.

What a pathetic response from a man who is supposed to have the charge

of such an important public service. How limp and lame and entirely

inadequate. How utterly shameful. Ladies and gentlemen, the plain,

simple truth is that Labour have let down an entire generation of Welsh

young people with little sign of doing anything to make things

better. One thing Labour could do on both health and education is to take

a look at what we are doing in Westminster. It is as clear as it

could be that our outcomes on both are significantly better in England

than Wales. The problem, of course, is that Labour are constantly

seeking to do things differently in Wales. The mantra is always Welsh

solutions for Welsh problems, even when those problems are identical to

those found elsewhere. Let's be absolutely clear about that. Decent

health care and decent education are universal issues. They are not

Welsh, English or anything else. Labour have presided over

unacceptable failure in important public services in Wales and it

cannot be allowed to continue. What I suggest is that they take a

look at what we are doing in England to improve standards. And consider,

just consider aligning their policies to ours. If they are too

proud or, frankly, too Labour to do so then they must explain why Labour

expect the people of Wales to put up with substandard public services of

the sort that would not be tolerated anywhere else, and certainly not by

the Conservative Party. Ladies and gentlemen, if Labour is really a

party of government in Wales then it needs to start to behave like one

and that means taking responsibility. That means being

accountable, like all grown-up governments. And that is why, in the

Wales Bill currently passing through Parliament, we intend to make Carwyn

Jones and the Welsh government more answerable for the way that they

spend Welsh taxpayers' money. It is the easiest thing in the world to

spend money when you aren't responsible for raising it, when you

aren't responsible for growing the economy to improve the pace, when

you don't have to explain to hard-working voters how you intend

to spend their money, and when all you have to do is to moan that

you're not getting enough from Westminster. The Wales Bill is going

to introduce the Labour Party in Wales for the first time ever to the

realities of grown-up government. It will give the assembly the power to

call a referendum on whether Wales should be responsible for 10p of all

income tax raised here. If there is a yes vote in the referendum, then

the Welsh government will be able to reduce or increase that rate of tax.

The Conservative Party's position is very clear. We think that there

should be an early referendum, that there should be a campaign for a yes

vote and that campaign should be based on a commitment to put the

Welsh rate of tax. We Conservatives leave in low taxation does it's good

for the economy -- leave in low taxation. And we believe in low

taxation for Wales because it will give Wales a competitive edge,

stimulate enterprise, give Welsh people, all Welsh people, more money

in their pockets to spend in Welsh businesses. In short, it will be

good for Wales. So, I invite Carwyn Jones to commit to that early

referendum and commit the Labour Party in Wales to lower taxes, too.

Let's see if he has the ambition, let's see if he's brave enough to do

that, to accept the accountability that should know with grown-up

government. Or, if he wants to be the Peter Pan of Welsh politics, the

eternal political adolescent, the First Minister who never grew up.

And, of course, as the Prime Minister said yesterday, ambition is

the key word. As Conservatives, we are naturally ambitious and

ambitious for Wales, and we want to do our best for ambitious,

hard-working people, people who aspire to a well-paid job, decent

health care, and better opportunities for their children. In

government in Westminster we're proving that we are making a

positive difference, and that we're delivering more security to more

people across Wales who were so badly let down by Labour. So, my

challenge today, again, to Carwyn Jones, and to the Labour Party in

Wales, is this: At Michal Beladic the youth got it wrong on important

public services, that's an important first step -- admit how badly you've

got it wrong. Look at what we are doing to improve those services and

give serious consideration to doing something similar here in Wales.

Work with us. We are more than happy to give you all the help we can.

But, if you are too proud, or too perverse, or, frankly, to labour to

do what it takes to make life better for the people of Wales, then step

aside. Because we in the Welsh Conservative party will be more than

happy the two access that challenge. Thank you very much. -- to accept

that challenge. The Secretary of State for Wales

David Jones opening proceedings this morning, and the Welsh Conservative

Conference is drawing to a close, as is the Spring Conference season.

Let's get the final. Our political editor. -- let's get the final

thoughts of our political editor. Even in the context of the health

debate, which has been running for a few weeks and months, this was an

attack like no other from the Conservatives. Are they happy they

have set the right tone this weekend?

I think they are. It was fascinating, wasn't it? Before this

weekend, I think many people were wondering, where on earth does the

rhetoric go? You've got the Prime Minister describing the state of the

Welsh NHS as a scandal during Prime Minister 's questions, something

like the 30th or 31st time he has been highly critical of the NHS

during Prime Minister 's questions, and yet they meet for their conduct

rents here in Llangollen and evening, where will they go with

it? But they certainly went further than I think we were expecting on

two main counts. Worst of all, that pretty extraordinary line from David

Cameron during that speech yesterday in which, actually, for most of his

speech he talked about the economy, but then he did talk about the NHS,

and lichen Offa's Dyke as a line between life and death. I think

that's raised eyebrows at the extent of the use of that language. And

also, before that, Jeremy Hunt, the English health secretary, coming to

Wales to talk about the Welsh NHS, in itself is pretty unprecedented

and in century, I think, in the sense that they wanted that to

strike the tone for the entire weekend, and he was the main speaker

on Friday morning. In an interview I did with him just before he took to

the stage, he talked about the Welsh government's attitude to mortality

rates in hospitals in the wake of the Mid-Staffs crisis in England as

morally indefensible. So, those two pretty startling lines and

criticisms of the NHS ramped it up to a level certainly that we haven't

seen before. In Andrew RT Davies' speech earlier today, you was

talking about the coalition of ideas. We spoke to him earlier on

the programme and I'm still not quite sure what he has in mind. Have

you picked up any intelligence as to what he means by that?

Yes, I saw that interview as well. I thought it was interesting in the

extent to which she was talking about listening to the other

parties, and listening to what they come out with in terms of proposals

and ideas they can put together full policies in the future. To some

extent, I think you could say it was the strongest indication he has

given get that he's willing to go into some full of coalition at the

assembly. The way it went in his speech, before the speech we were

told that was certainly where it was going, all about reaching out and

bearing in mind we are talking about reaching out internally as well

because there have been major internal problems in the

Conservative Party at the assembly, the fact that Andrew RT Davies had

to sack four of his front bench spokesmen and women over the row

over the devolution of income tax powers, and also reaching out

externally to the other parties, potentially forming some kind of

collision. Underpinning this is the admission and the acknowledgement

that they can't challenge Labour on their own and they have to get

together with another party. But during his speech I have to say it

didn't really sound like a reaching out speech. He did talk about the

coalition of ideas but he was highly critical of the Liberal Democrats,

saying they did not know what they stood for, he was highly critical of

Plaid Cymru, accusing them of wanting to rip up the United

Kingdom, but afterwards in the interview with you I think he's

clarified some of his thoughts and the principle behind it is that he

does want to reach out. We will have to wait and see over the weeks and

months ahead to what extent that will happen. There are major

personality issues here between him and someone like Leanne Wood of

Plaid Cymru, for example. They are miles apart. But quite a significant

step change and an indication of where he's thinking of taking the

party. It is the end of the Conference

season. You have been to every Conference going. With an election

coming up in a few weeks' time, who is sounding bullish and who is

worried? It was highly political, wasn't it?

All of us were aware the elections are round the corner and that

dictated the tone of things. One observation I would say, Allott,

having been to all four, is the extent to which so much of the

discussions and policies were about the detailed performance of the

Welsh government's record. Nick, thank you very much indeed.

The final word here in the studio with Vaughan, on that question of

the upcoming European elections, we have not heard the speech from Ks

Wynberg, the current Conservative MEP, but she was sounding pretty

worried by the nature of her attack on Plaid Cymru and UKIP.

Is that if their attack on -- that analysis of the situation? Yes, Kay

Swinburne spending a long time criticising not just Plaid Cymru but

also the record of their MEP, Jill Evans. It did seem to suggest that

maybe Kay Swinburne thought that Jill Evans was actually the person

she was fighting against one of the European seeds. If you look at the

polling that has been done, there is not that much, it is not that

recent, but it would suggest that Labour could well get two seats,

UKIP said with one, and that Plaid Cymru and the Tories will be

scrapping over the last one and, judging by Kay Swinburne's speech,

it certainly seemed that is the way she sees it. In terms of the big

picture of the Conference, was it a case of trying to kill two birds

with one stone? David Cameron said you cannot trust

Labour with the NHS in England, with the economy in the UK, and with

Wales' public services? When he talks about the Welsh health service

in prime ministers questions, what he is aiming at is voters in

England, basically. In Wales, it is slightly different. The

Conservatives would like to put the Welsh health service centre stage

for the elections but it is very early to try and discern what the

assembly elections in Wales will be about because, to a large extent, it

depends on the result of the general election. The assembly elections

will be different if Ed Miliband is in Number Ten do if David Cameron is

in Number Ten. Empty for your company over the last

couple of hours. Our time is up on the coverage of the spring

Conference. There will be more coverage on Wales today tonight at

6:40pm and on FOC at 8:45pm, and on the Sunday Politics tomorrow at

2:30pm. From all of us on the programme, thank you for watching

and enjoy the rest of your weekend.