Thursday, 4 October 2007

Conference at Blackpool 2007


I go to Conference to learn - what can I do better as a Councillor and as a resident? Apart from the main hall, which you see on TV, there are literally hundreds of fringe meetings going on in hotels all over the place from subjects like Abortion, Green issues, Architecture, Discipline in schools, War and Obesity. You can sit and have coffee with other Conservatives and journalists from all over the world and learn what they have done to make their community better.


I went to one such meeting and met Lord Sebastian Coe who is in charge of the Olympics here in 2012. We want Colchester to have a training camp here which will bring lots of money and facilities to the town. We already have the Garrison and the University but if we can get a team from another country to use Colchester as its base then we could end up with a new swimming pool or athletics track.
I went to another meeting and met Damilola Taylors father - his son was stabbed and killed in London in 1998 age only 10. He is now campaigning against gun crime and gangs - so brave. The team told us what they have been doing to help kids today by giving them a father figure other than a gang leader to look up to. Inspirational!
The end speech by David Cameron is always the high point and he finished this years conference by speaking for 90 minutes with no notes, auto cue or text about what he wants to do for Britain - and he spoke from the heart. He wants to mend the broken society - enable parents to stay together to look after their children not live apart because they get more social money to do so. He wants to have stronger border controls so we know who is in our country. No one knows apart from Gordon Brown if we will have an election in November but when you look at what Labour have done in the last 10 years, it is time for change. When Labour were elected they had some good ideas but did not know how to make them work - the result being they have never become policy or if they did (like Home Information Packs for example) they have taken ages to introduce and do not work. We have taken our time asking the Country what they want and we are now revealing the Policies that have been well thought out and will therefore work! As David Cameron said about the election
"BRING IT ON!!!"


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