Britain can rise again, Cameron says

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom: Prime Minister David Cameron urged Britain yesterday to work harder to rise above its economic woes, warning that it faced a sink or swim moment to avoid falling behind its global competitors.
The struggling Conservative leader used a crucial speech to his center-right party’s annual conference to warn that Britons face more austerity to get out of recession and cut a huge deficit.
But Cameron, who is behind in the opinion polls midway through his coalition government’s five-year term, sought to reassure rightwingers of his toughness and met criticisms of heartlessness by the Labour opposition head-on.
“Let’s get Britain on the rise,” he said to a standing ovation from activists at the conference in the industrial city of Birmingham.
“Let us here in this hall, together in this country make this pledge — let’s build an aspiration nation.”
Cameron’s speech was billed as a make or break moment for his leadership, with divisions in the party over issues such as Europe and abortion, and his popularity ratings dipping.
He also faces a challenge from resurgent Labour leader Ed Miliband, who in his own conference speech last week tried to usurp the Conservatives’ traditional slogan as the “one nation” party.
The prime minister gave a sober warning of the challenges facing the world’s seventh largest economy.
“Unless we act, unless we take difficult, painful decisions, unless we show determination and imagination, Britain may not be in the future what it has been in the past,” he said.
“Because the truth is this. We’re in a global race today, and that means an hour of reckoning for countries like ours. Sink or swim, do or decline.”
But he said Britain could still “win in the tough world of today” if it followed the example of China and emerging nations such as India and Brazil and makes a less “fat, sclerotic” economy.
Cameron warned of cuts to the welfare system, including housing benefit, saying that recovery would build on “hard work, strong families, taking responsibility and serving others.”
But he rejected claims that the party formerly led by “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher was moving further to the right, and tried to set out a vision of a “compassionate” conservatism.
The Conservative leader struck an unusually personal note, becoming visibly emotional when he spoke of his disabled son Ivan, who died in 2009 at the age of six.
He also said he had been inspired by his father Ian, who died just months after Cameron came to power in 2010, and who overcame being born without heels to become a successful stockbroker and a pillar of the community.
“Not a hard luck story, but a hard work story,” Cameron said.
“Work hard. Family comes first. But put back into the community too.”
The speech was welcomed by many Conservative activists in the audience, who had been counting on a big performance by Cameron to boost the party as it begins turning its attention to the general election in 2015.
“It was inspirational,” said Rod Laight, a local councillor from Bromsgrove, near Birmingham.
“To reach out to the people who are feeling the pinch is a wonderful message.”
Cameron’s speech comes after finance minister George Osborne said on Monday said the government will slash Britain’s welfare bill by a further £10 billion ($16 billion, 12.5 billion euros) by 2016-17.
His speech blamed the eurozone debt crisis for some of the British economy’s problems but made little mention of Europe otherwise, except for mentioning the fact that he vetoed the EU’s fiscal pact last year.
The right of the party is urging him to take a stand against the EU — Cameron on Tuesday hinted at holding a referendum on Britain’s relationship with it.