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As Facebook takes off, MySpace strikes back
Facebook, Schmacebook. Rupert Murdoch's social-network play may be the template for the media company of the future, writes Fortune's David Kirkpatrick.
By David Kirkpatrick, Fortune senior editor
September 19 2007: 6:36 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- "Everyone believes all the b.s. press that says MySpace is done for and Facebook has passed us," moans Tom Anderson.
You may know Tom. He's president of MySpace. He may even be your "friend" - he's the first one that all of MySpace's 200 million-plus members got when they signed up. Normally he's low-key, but the subject of that other social-networking site has him a little worked up. "It's just ridiculous!"
MySpace co-founders Chris DeWolfe (left) and Tom Anderson
"But you can't say that too much," gently interrupts his business partner, Chris DeWolfe, MySpace's CEO. "You sound defensive."
If there's a consensus in technology, it's that the next big thing after Google (Charts, Fortune 500) is social networking. People of all sorts are joining this new kind of website because you really can have more fun online - and sometimes even get more done - when you're doing it with others.
Now there's starting to be real money in the business, as every major consumer advertiser realizes that if you can engage effectively with these newly networked hordes, they become agents of your brand. Last year MySpace was on the lips of every teenager. Now Facebook is growing faster, is usurping the buzz, and thus has Tom Anderson tied into knots.
Facebook's plan to hook up the world
But defensiveness does not behoove executives who run a division of News Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500), Rupert Murdoch's consummately aggressive company - especially not when that division is the biggest player by far in an explosively expanding business like social networking.
It's easy to dismiss MySpace, with its unruly graphics, clunky navigation, and general sense of chaos. But the masses love it. MySpace is the most trafficked website in the U.S.: It registered 45 billion page views in July, according to comScore Media Metrix. Another research firm, Compete.com, calculates that Americans spend about 12% of all their Internet time there.
And apparently it's not just kids anymore - about half of its members are over 35. Murdoch bought MySpace in 2005 when it had $23 million in revenues; he recently told analysts that in the fiscal year beginning in July, it will take in $800 million, with a profit margin greater than 20%.
Of course, there's no telling whether MySpace's numbers will continue to kick butt. New competitors arise almost every day, and the site continues to be hammered by criticism of its privacy and safety practices. It's impossible to say for sure who's even going to be running the place a year from now: DeWolfe and Anderson are currently renegotiating their News Corp. contracts.
But chances are this operation will be around for a long time. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb here: MySpace, Rupert Murdoch's four-year-old Internet plaything, may be the template for the media company of the future.
Dawn of the web potato
Comparing MySpace and Facebook is inevitable because of their dominance in the business, but their differences are profound.
Facebook is intended to be used only to connect you to the people you already know offline; it's a "utility," to use the preferred label of its founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Its user interface is clean and tidy, and the whole vibe is efficiency and getting things done.
MySpace, on the other hand, is a mishmash of modern media - rich with music and video and comedy. It's like a rock & roll club - chaotic, loud, and packed. Many user profiles are florid and flamboyant, with flashing text and music that starts playing as soon as you arrive.
"We're focused on helping people express themselves and do the connection and discovery game," says Steve Pearman, one of Anderson's top deputies in designing the service. "If you want pink blinking text on a black background, who am I to say it's wrong?"
At MySpace you can befriend not only anybody but anything. A dog can have a profile, and so can AT&T. This looseness has powerful effects, very different from anything on Facebook. MySpace became the de facto home page for the music industry because its members could befriend bands. Any brand, political candidate, nonprofit, even government, can create a profile and start adding friends.
Hillary Clinton has 135,000 friends, and Barack Obama has 175,000. The recent movie Bratz accumulated 42,000. Victoria's Secret PINK brand has 210,000. Comedian Dane Cook has the most friends of all - more than two million.
It doesn't cost anything to create a profile, although companies like Victoria's Secret pay extra for MySpace's promotional help. To say you are a MySpace friend of Dane Cook or Victoria's Secret is a way of expressing an affinity, one that you are implicitly suggesting your friends might like to share. Abercrombie & Fitch enjoys a 167,000-member group created by a fan without any involvement from the retailer.
Facebook dilemma: To friend or not to friend?
Pearman describes the way the MySpace experience typically works: "I know you, and I see one of your friends. Look at them - they're friends with this band. The band is doing a show. They're at this awesome club. Here's a guy who also goes to that club and is a Battlestar Galactica fan - maybe he and I should be friends."
As users happily wend their way through this process, they click through screen after screen, every one of them festooned with ads. (On one day this summer, MySpace showered its users with 7.3 billion of them.)
With all that clicking and friending going on, it's no wonder MySpace is becoming an advertising mecca. Also playing into its advertising appeal is the fact that MySpace effectively runs its own mini-Internet in which users all have their own home pages, replete with data about themselves that can be examined and - to use a cherished Net industry term - "monetized."
Google promised in 2006 to pay roughly $250 million a year to show text-based search and keyword-targeted ads across MySpace through mid-2010. MySpace sells most of its banner ads itself, and the company is rolling out new ad-targeting technologies.
The research firm eMarketer calculates that in 2007, MySpace will sell $525 million worth of advertising, 58% of the social-networking industry's total. (Facebook will sell $125 million - less than a quarter as much.) One huge upcoming opportunity, says DeWolfe, is ad-supported MySpace on mobile phones.
15 startups that will change the world
MySpace's Beverly Hills offices feel much like those of a studio or a record label, where well-dressed, trendy twenty-somethings queue up for bagels in the cafeteria at 10 A.M. and banter about last night's party or concert. Movie posters line the fuchsia walls in the reception area. In the sofa-filled lounge that substitutes for an executive conference room, a table is covered with magazines: Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Daily Variety - nothing else. It's probably the only major technology company with valet parking.
What gets MySpace people excited is finding a new band or locking in exclusive online rights to a hot TV show. "Our core competency," says DeWolfe, "is finding the best content out there - from tier-A professional content down to emerging content - licensing it, and bringing it on MySpace."
There are deals with the NBA, NBC (Charts, Fortune 500), and the creators of Thirtysomething to debut a new series on MySpace before it appears on TV. MySpace can make money both by charging content owners for distribution and by finding and promoting its own material.
In fact it actually has a MySpace record label, which signs musicians who bubble up on the service, and will probably establish a similar operation for film and video. The recently relaunched MySpaceTV is the No. 2 video site on the Internet, behind only YouTube. It offers everything from News Corp.-produced clips of The Simpsons to homemade video of your kid's sixth-birthday party. Ford Models paid to include videos promoting its "supermodel of the world" contest. One has been viewed about 72,000 times.
Facebook, meanwhile, has never licensed rights to a single song or video and probably never will. And for the record, its headquarters are on University Avenue in Palo Alto, ground zero for the technology industry, where the parties mostly happen when the employee Ultimate Frisbee team beats Google.
Otherwise people pretty much just work all night, writing software, tweaking features - and giving hardly a thought to MySpace.
Cashing in on blog bling
Alas, MySpace's Facebook obsession is unrequited. DeWolfe and Anderson insist that Facebook is competition, even as they cite a comScore statistic that 65% of Facebook users also have a MySpace account.
Mark Zuckerberg disagrees. "I've never really considered us competitors," he says. "We've always been trying to do pretty different things, even though we're both in the social-networking space." Anderson is annoyed that Zuckerberg has said the same thing to him on several occasions when they've talked in person or text-messaged on their cellphones. And so it goes.
It's not hard to see why Anderson and DeWolfe see Facebook as a threat. Although Zuckerberg may not be directly attacking MySpace, he's doing a good job of making it easy for other companies to do just that.
In late May, Facebook announced it would open up its site and access to its 41 million members - to software created by anyone, from the largest software companies to dorm-room hackers. That made it, Zuckerberg said, a "platform." There are now more than 4,000 new applications on Facebook - and most of the popular ones replicate features already on MySpace.
Any talk about Facebook and its platform is a great way to spoil the mood around the MySpace offices. It's that defensiveness again. "MySpace has always been a platform," DeWolfe insists. "We have an open platform." What he means is that MySpace allows small software applications, known as "widgets," to appear on the site.
Another way to sour a conversation with the genial DeWolfe is to talk about privacy. Since MySpace places so few limits on who and what can have a presence on it, the service is notoriously hard to police. Users often operate anonymously.
There has also been the infamous problem of sexual predators. The service has implemented a variety of new privacy protections in the past year, and DeWolfe insists the new protections have made MySpace just as safe as Facebook. But on Facebook, protections are built in as the default, and one can achieve little operating under an assumed name. To get comparable privacy on MySpace requires both vigilance and time. Many members simply don't bother.
The Facebook economy
If MySpace is increasingly taking on the complexion of a big multinational media company, that's understandable, considering who owns it. Rupert Murdoch has put his stamp on his acquisition, especially by pushing it to go global, which now gives it a distinct advantage over the competition.
Murdoch visits the hipster-filled headquarters at least once a month, peppering DeWolfe with questions about membership numbers and sign-up rates. In early 2006, DeWolfe enthusiastically told him that MySpace was about to open its first international site, in Britain.
"I was so excited about it," says DeWolfe. "And he's like [mimicking a deep slow Australian voice], 'How many more this year?' and I said, 'Maybe a couple more.' Then he said, 'How about 12?' So we ended up opening 14." (See "Bebo's British Invasion")
Anderson has his own Rupert stories: "He called me once and couldn't log in for some reason. I was trying to help him over the phone, saying, 'Type this. Type that. What do you see on your screen?' And he says, 'It says, 'Welcome John.' And I'm like, 'John? Why does it say John?' and he says [affecting his own version of the deep, slightly cranky voice], 'I don't use my real name on MySpace.'"
So how is it really going, Chris and Tom? "That this has worked out so well and we both hope to be around for a long time is, I think, a really unique story," expounds DeWolfe, as Anderson nods. "We're almost at our two-year anniversary with News Corp. and we're probably going to sign up for another two years, and ..."
Wait a minute. Probably? When pressed, he looks sheepish.
"I don't know," he says, glancing nervously at his PR person. He hesitates. "We may stay with the company." MySpace's top two employees have spent several months negotiating a renewal of their two-year contract, and it's not a sure thing. They didn't own much stock in the parent company that News Corp. acquired, so for all their successes they have not had a big Internet payout.
The two have reportedly pushed for a $50 million, two-year pact and encountered resistance. To be fair, there is every sign they are deeply engaged in their work and are unlikely to leave. DeWolfe's hesitation in our interview could merely be a negotiating tactic.
Murdoch, for his part, is clearly trying to leverage his success with MySpace to gain an even bigger role in the Internet ecosystem. He talked to Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500) earlier this year about getting a big chunk in exchange for a piece of MySpace.
Meanwhile, just about every other company in tech, especially Yahoo and Microsoft (Charts, Fortune 500), desperately wants to get into social networking. And any consumer-facing company in any industry has to figure out if it will partner with a big social-networking firm or try to go it alone. Viacom (Charts), for one, has taken a do-it-yourself approach (see "Viacom's plan to be cool again").
Regardless of how the jockeying plays out, MySpace will probably power on. For one thing, it has some big deals on the horizon, executives say, that could help retrieve some buzz from Facebook.
"It's the first time I feel like we have a real competitor," says Anderson, obviously recovering nicely from his un-Murdochian moment of defensiveness. "It's a good thing overall, because if there was any complacency within the company, now there's someone you can look at and say, 'Hey, we've got to be better.'"
MySpace will get better. Facebook will get better. Players to be named later will get better. The only sure losers in this business will be the consumer Internet companies that pretend it's all just a passing fad.
For Time Warner, a time to break up?
Wowed by China's Net (but not the sushi)
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The first computer systems were simply a way of performing complicated mathematical problems more quickly. This means they were primarily of interest to international businesses or university technical departments, and computers weren't seen as something that would one day become a huge industry in their own right or be relied upon by billions every single day.
This was the case until the first generation of tech whizz kids turned up. We're all familiar with names such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who founded some of the biggest and most profitable companies on the planet, but the early days of these companies weren't smooth sailing. Microsoft had multiple problems in the beginning and Apple was in danger of folding before their first commercial success. While these tech pioneers had fantastic ideas, technical knowledge and vision, they still hit many hurdles before they made a profit.
Fast forward to today and the pattern has been repeated over and over. Visionaries of the DotCom boom and subsequent bust have struggled to make sustainable, profitable companies. Even Twitter, one of the most widespread social media platforms in the world, still struggles in the business world to replicate the profitability seen by many of its rivals.
This is why in order to make technological innovation successful, it's vital to have an understanding of the business environment in which it will function and the leadership skills that will be required to bring the concept to life. When you're designing a new product or service, knowing where it will fit into the wider business landscape, how it will generate revenue and the mechanics of things like taxes and reporting are extremely helpful. In the past, companies have relied on third parties for this expertise, but when it comes to technological innovation, it's not always so simple.
When a new product is truly innovative, it can be tricky to fully explain its purpose during the planning stages. Using third party help may force you to follow existing avenues of business planning, which either mimic somebody else's processes or simply aren't right for the product being developed. This is where an understanding of the business environment and leadership skills are essential – not only does the innovator need an understanding of business environments, but they also need the leadership qualities and communication skills to ensure that the project stays on track.
This is one of the reasons the University of York has created an online MSc in Leadership and Management specifically focussed on innovation, to help aspiring leaders meet these challenges. By concentrating on the core skills of leadership, such as effective communication, objective approaches to problem-solving and strategic thinking, it greatly increases the chance of bringing new ideas and concepts to fruition.
As all learning materials are delivered entirely online, it allows you to study whenever it suits you, offering a prestigious Russell Group university degree with more flexibility. Being able to study in your spare time means you can gain valuable skills and experience without having to take an extended break from your work projects and risk another company or startup beating you to it! It also means that you can apply what you learn as you progress, potentially helping to avoid the problems that have hindered other innovative companies in their early days.
Each course features the option to pay-per-module, removing the burden of large, up-front payments. There are six start dates throughout the year, so you can begin whenever you're ready.
The pace of technological evolution has increased dramatically in the last few decades. Products and services like the smartphone and social media have become popular beyond anyone's wildest dreams. It's difficult to predict where the next technological leap will come from, but with the right skills and qualifications, the tricky transition from concept to launch could become much more simple.


Entrepreneurs and business owners understand the importance of having a website. However, many ask themselves where they should begin. How do they compete while providing the best return on investment? Regardless, there are advantages and disadvantages to both custom website design vs. using templates.
The debate over using a custom website design or a template is very common. Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all right answer. You must evaluate the advantages and disadvantages for each, and choose what is best for you. Here are some elements to consider.
Budget - We have all seen the commercials offering to get your business website designed for $1 or even free with a hosting plan. You can then build your website using a predefined layout and options. Initially, this looks much cheaper than custom website design. However, if you need changes, the cost to add functionality and usability can end up costing more in the long run.
Branding - When you choose a free or low-cost template design, it is common to expect restrictions, co-branding, or advertising conditions. Your website's main purposes are building your image and growing awareness. Custom website design gives you full control to highlight your company, products, and services.
User Experience - Website usability is extremely important. Visitors, leads, and customers must be able to easily navigate your site and find the information and products they need. Templates, while sometimes visually appealing, often miss the mark on usability. The user of your website must be able to easily learn their way around and achieve their goals.
Scalability - Templated website design is intended as a one-size-fits-all solution. While elements and plug-ins are often available, they can cause slower website reaction times. On a low traffic website, there is rarely a problem. However, a better option is forecasting future visitor growth and needed functionality.
What haven't we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of custom website design vs. templates, or need more information, please contact us.


Bellow is the top 5 VPN connection with cheap price and high performance that you can chose as your security options during online streaming directly on the web or streaming on Kodi player. Kodi is open-source home entertainment software that is completely free for anyone to download. Originally developed for the Xbox and called Xbox Media Center (XBMC), Kodi is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways to stream movies and TV shows for free.
At its core, Kodi essentially turns any compatible device into a streaming platform. It even allows you to stream live TV when you combine certain third-party add-ons with the Kodi interface. One great thing about Kodi is that you can install these add-ons yourself. You can also purchase a pre-installed Kodi device to make things even easier!
Do I Need a VPN for Kodi And Streaming?
Direct streaming or streaming on Kodi player doesn't need a VPN to work on any system. That being said, certain apps and streaming services have geographic restrictions on content, making it impossible to watch if you aren't located in a specific country. Using a VPN can unblock these shows and movies, while also protecting your identity and encrypting data. Simply put, using a VPN will greatly enhance your Kodi experience.
If you are looking for the best VPN to use with Kodi, check out the providers below to see how our experts rated each provider.


The American Mathematical Society is pleased to announce that MathSciNet Tutorials are now available! Learn how to take full advantage of the rich structure of the MathSciNet database. Tutorials include – Publications, Authors, Journals, and Citations searches – as well as tutorials on the Free Tools and Preferences options. Every user will find new features and search options that will enhance their use of the database.
Go to http://www.mathscinet.info/index.html to start using the MSN Tutorials!
Just a quick note to let you know I will be on campus to give two Mathematica technical talks on Thursday, October 13. If you haven't seen Mathematica lately, you will be surprised to see how suitable Mathematica is for projects and course examples in any STEM, business and economics, or liberal arts field.
Attendees with no prior experience report that these talks help with getting started using Mathematica language and workflow.
All attendees will receive an electronic copy of the examples, which can be adapted to individual projects.
Please feel free to pass this invitation on to colleagues and students–please let me know if you plan to attend, so I can make sure we have enough space. I look forward to meeting you!
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) was founded in 1888 in order to further mathematical research and scholarship. Since that time, they have embarked on a number of outreach programs designed to educate the public about the importance of various mathematical endeavors. In the past several years, they have been developing the AMS Books Online website, and it's quite a resource. The works were all originally published by the AMS, and they can be browsed by author or subject. The subject headings include analysis, general interest, logic and foundations, and number theory. Users can download individual chapters from each book, and there are currently over thirty books available on the site. Visitors should make sure and check back, as there are plans to add books to the site periodically.


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You are here:Your Nursing Career
'They've got information they didn't previously have'
Community midwives can find it challenging to keep track of paper notes, says Janet Calland.
A key issue challenge for community midwives is when notes go missing
Ask Janet Calland to name the biggest challenge that community midwives at her trust encountered before ditching paper notes and she doesn't hesitate.
"The key issue we had is when notes went missing," remembers Ms Calland, matron for maternity services at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital Trust. "The women had hand-held notes and then we had the hospital notes that were stored in the hospital. If the women lost their notes then details of all the antenatal care that we'd done out in the community was missing because we didn't have that anywhere else."
It was an issue which, she says, ranked highly on the trust's incident register. And it is one she says has been solved by moving over to an entirely electronic system.
It was back in 2016 that the trust went live with System C's Medway Maternity system. The software makes it possible for midwives to create electronic rather than paper records. In so doing, it instantly removes the problem of women misplacing their notes, and of notes only being able to be in one place at one time.
Rather than recording information in a handheld paper record, community midwives now have a laptop, smartphone and wifi dongle in their arsenal. "They plug in their dongles into their laptop, and then they will see what they would see if they were here – they're straight through into the trust systems then," explains Ms Calland. "They can see everything out in the community that they could see if they were here in the hospital."
And any data inputted is synced live. "So if they see a woman out in the community, they're typing straight into her record. If they then refer the woman to the hospital, it's already there in her records when she arrives at the hospital, because they've been doing it live."
Ms Calland reports the major benefit for midwives working in the community is "they've got information they didn't previously have, at the point of care". She says this is "great for them, and also for women, because it means that they can give them immediate feedback on things and they don't have to then say: 'I'll call you when I get back to the hospital.' So it's much more fluid what they're doing."
Simpler too, she says, is audit work. Previously, all data had to be hand collected and reviewing it was a case of sifting through handwritten notes. "When we were reviewing incidents, when there were serious incident reviews, we were trying to interpret people's handwriting – which was often challenging."
Now it is completely different. "For ad hoc audits that someone might do in response to, say, an incident or a complaint, the midwives just go into the records and can pull that information off the records quite easily. And then there's the bigger audits that are just pulled off at the back end of the system by the data analysts."
The trust now submits data to the national Maternity Services Data Set, published by NHS Digital on a monthly basis to build a national picture of maternity activity. "Before we weren't actually achieving that," says Ms Calland. "But with the system, it's made that much, much simpler to do."
Which is not to say implementing a major new electronic system was entirely effortless and pain-free. There was recognition this would be a big change for staff – not least since the system went entirely live across all trust maternity processes at the same time – and needed to be treated accordingly. Two dedicated IT midwives were identified to ensure a good connection between clinical practice and electronic practice. Training was also vital, says Ms Calland.
"I think it's key that staff fully understand what's happening and what that's going to mean, so they go with you on it and are not resistant to the change. So we did do a lot of training for our staff."
She adds: "It was quite a big learning curve. For the staff particularly, because I think it's quick to write things in pencil and then the system maybe takes them a little bit longer."
Almost two years down the line, though, the system has simply become part of daily practice. More developments are planned – electronic versions of individualised growth charts for babies, important for monitoring their development, and records of fetal heartbeat among them. All will further help midwives in the community provide the best possible care, and consign the frustrations of paper notes to ever-more distant history.
Nurses report benefits from new e-record system at Royal Free
1 April 2019Nursing Times News Desk
Nursing staff at a hospital trust in North London are reporting benefits from the introduction a new electronic patient record (EPR) system, which they said was both freeing up their time and improving patient care.
Claim nurses dealt with more harshly than docs in FtP cases
18 April 2019Jo Stephenson
Nurses may find it harder to get justice than doctors, according to a review exploring why a nurse convicted over the death of a child was struck off while a doctor involved in the same case can continue to practise.
Working long hours 'increases the risk of having a stroke'
21 June 2019Nursing Times News Desk
People who work long hours have been found to have a higher risk of stroke, especially if they work those hours for a decade or more, according to French researchers.
Midwives in Yorkshire trained to run hypnobirthing sessions
18 April 2019Megan Ford
A team of midwives in Hull have undergone hypnobirthing training as part of an initiative to increase choice around giving birth.
Midwives required
Earn up to £46ph
In Careers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 Photos from HABS/HAER no. 385-10 1984.
One of my favorite diners around, with great food (pesto grits! steak and cheese omelette!), authentic atmosphere and a true RI history. The lines are long on the weekends but move fast. Plenty of time to stand and ponder over the extensive wall of specials, and then sit and get some quick and courteous diner service. Wait to eat in the dining car at least once – the other room is nice, but has none of the atmopsphere of the curvy diner car.
Built by the J.B. Judkins Company of Merrimack Mass, the Modern Diner is one of the two remaining Sterling Streamliners, a line of customized, factory-built, "modernistic" diners manufactured in the 1930s and early 1940s. The exterior is made from vitreous enamel, pin striping and stainless steel trim. The interior has eleven counter stools, seven 4-customer booths and two 2-customer booths. The back bar is sheated in stainless steel. The above-bar hood is faced in mahogany-grained formica. Segmental arch ceilings covered with beige formica panels.
The Modern Diner was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It was moved from 13 Dexter Street (photos 1 and 2) in 1985. The MOdern Diner has appeared on numerous TV shows and books about diner culture.
Richard C Parker My Granddad owner of EB Parker trucking of Amesbury MA delivered frieght to JB Judkins in the 1930s and 40s and as a boy and teenager I was there with him many times. Fond memories.


5 time US Open Champion Welcome.
Thanks for stopping by. 2006 marks my 18th year playing disc golf on a professional level. If each year represented one golf hole, I'm playing the last hole of my first round.
What a round it's been! I feel truely blessed to be able to visit so many beautiful places and meet such wonderful people all over the world.
With many birdies, aces and even a few bogies along the fairways of life I hope that you have as many treasured experiences as I've had in this sport we call Disc Golf.
Special thanks goes out to Dave, Tim, Sam and Harold at Innova Champion Discs with an extra special thanks to Jonathan Poole of Innova & Zone Driven.


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text:
Q: Ruby detect redirections without downloading the page Is there a way to detect a redirection in Ruby ?
I just want to know if the link gets redirected, without downloading a page and checking for exceptions.
The faster it is, the better.

A: http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib-1.9.3/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/Net/HTTP.html#method-i-head
response = nil
Net::HTTP.start('some.www.server', 80) {|http|
  response = http.head('/index.html')
}

head call gets just only the header and you can check the response code to detect the redirection.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Gouda is a city of the Netherlands that is placed in Southern Holland. She is very well-known by a typical cheese whose name is the one of the city, the Gouda cheese, which is sold all the Wednesdays in the market (of course, the typical and homemade Gouda cheese). Also manufacturer of pipes and candles knows itself the city for being (in fact the second Tuesday of December the night of the candles is celebrated, an event where everything is in the dark and candles ignite that are those that illuminates the way) as well as the ceramics, very well-known and valued.
When we visited Gouda, we do not have to let escape to throw a look to them to its monuments that, although cannot be eaten like the cheese, also they are tuna and can help us to know something more on the culture and history of Gouda.
- The City council of Gouda, denominated in Dutch, Stadhuis. The City council is constructed in old gothic style (it was constructed between 1448 and 1450) undergoing modifications throughout the years.
- The Public Weight: Or Waag, as it is called to him there. It is a building where usually they weigh cheeses, located in the place of the Market (where the Market is put and the cheeses are sold that take).
- The Church of San Juan Baptist. It is the church with more length of all the Netherlands. This church has had a little bad luck because it has burned 3 times so that it has undergone multiple adjustments although the main base is continued conserving nowadays (perhaps it can have changed in some concrete aspect).
Of the Church we can emphasize the show windows that it has, one of them, the Show window of the King who most famous is donated by Felipe II and his wife Maria Tudor; or those that donated Guillermo de Orange and Ana de Saxony.
Really, Gouda is a tourist place where not only we will be able to prove the true Gouda cheese but also that we will enjoy visiting the Market and seeing how they work weighing cheeses at the same time as we enjoyed the old buildings.


Most foreign tourists only know Bali as a part of the famous and popular destinations in Indonesia. However, do you know that there is way more beautiful place in Indonesia? It is Wakatobi, an island that serves you authentic natural beauty of Indonesia's nature. The name of Wakatobi is derived from the islands of Wangi-Wangi (local people called it Wanci), Kaledupa, Tomia, and Binongko that exist there. To reach Wakatobi, you may choose between air or water transportation (it's just 2 hours from Bali island), but the best option should be using a boat, where you can enjoy or relax yourself while sightseeing, while the boat is passing through the sea.
Wakatobi begins to gain its status as a premium vacation spot now, since it offers various holiday options, including diving, sightseeing, canoeing, exploring the exotica of the island, and many more. Wakatobi is also the name of national park, which becomes the home of coral reef, marine biodiversities along 600 km of the island's territory. From the 850 known coral species in the world, 750 of them are in the Wakatobi.
Can you imagine how beautiful this island, then? These diversities become one of the major attractions for both domestic and foreign tourists to spend their quality time in this island. Frankly speaking, Wakatobi is actually located in s remote area with lack of infrastructure; but that is the interesting part. With fewer people and building operations around you, you will get the most private and exclusive time during your vacation in this area.
If you love outdoor activities, you can rent a boat that offers you sailing comfort and enables you to dive into the beautiful sea, snorkel or swim. This way, you can enjoy Indonesia's paradise under water.
This island also provides cultural tourism spots that become special attractions for the tourists. There is old Dirkaton Lia mosque located in Wangsel sub district, Kraton Bente mosque in Kaledupa sub district as the Islam missionary historical heritage sites. Enjoying yourself under the sun deck; seeing the sunset is relaxing, while talking about your days with the loved one.
Another interesting place to spend your above-the-water vacation in Wakatobi is visiting a genuine sea gypsy village. Here, you can spend your hours exploring the lifestyle of the local forger, producing fine local weapon such as 'Keris', or learning how the traditional industry produces Sarong. Although it is not an extremely adventurous experience, you can check out the culture and customs of the local people, and interact with them. Of course, this is rather entertaining.
Visiting Wakatobi would be the best thing to do around March until December. During the summer months is the best time to dive or spot pilot whales. The weather is not very cold, yet you will still be able to feel a refreshing shower during the first and last months of the season. What is vacation without tasting fine local cuisine? In Wakatobi, you can enjoy traditional foods such as Kasoami, Kambalu, Kauolo, and many more.


text:
import os
import sys
import threading
import binascii
import shutil
from classes import *
sys.stdout = flushfile.Flushfile(sys.stdout)

class DiffCollector(object):
	def __init__(self, cMake_binary_dir, src_dir):
		self.cMake_binary_dir = cMake_binary_dir
		self.src_dir = src_dir

		self.dirs		= dirs.Dirs(self.src_dir, [ ".svn", "bin", "build", "util", "misc", "docs", "docs2", "extras", "core" ], [ "*.o", "Thumbs.db", ".DS_Store", "CMakeCache.txt" ])
		self.bin_dir		= self.dirs.get_abs_dir_path("misc/seqan_instrumentation/bin")
		try:
			os.mkdir(self.dirs.get_abs_dir_path("misc/seqan_instrumentation/last_revision_copy"))
		except Exception:
			pass
		self.last_revision_dir	= self.dirs.get_abs_dir_path("misc/seqan_instrumentation/last_revision_copy")
		try:
			os.mkdir(self.dirs.get_abs_dir_path("misc/seqan_instrumentation/userdata"))
		except Exception:
			pass
		self.userdata_dir	= self.dirs.get_abs_dir_path("misc/seqan_instrumentation/userdata")

		# if possible save user ID in the user's home directory
		# otherwise use sub folder of SeqAn installation
		old_id_file = self.dirs.get_abs_file_path("misc/seqan_instrumentation/userdata/id.txt")
		self.id_file = os.getenv("HOME", os.getenv("USERPROFILE"))
		if(self.id_file is None):
			self.id_file = old_id_file
		else:
			self.id_file += "/.SUA.ID"
			# migrate old ID if no new one exists
			if(os.path.isfile(old_id_file) and not os.path.isfile(self.id_file)):
				shutil.move(old_id_file, self.id_file)

		self.id	= id.ID(self.id_file)

		self.stats_file		= self.dirs.get_abs_file_path("misc/seqan_instrumentation/userdata/" + self.id.get() + "_stats.txt")
		self.stats		= stats.Stats(cMake_binary_dir, src_dir, self.stats_file)
		self.stats.save("id", self.id.get())

	def getID(self):
		return self.id

	def getStatsFile(self):
		return self.stats_file

	def getStats(self):
		return self.stats

	def create_diff(self, differ):
		print("[1] Creating revision...");
		next_diff_filename = differ.get_next_diff_filename()
		if os.path.isdir(self.last_revision_dir) and len(os.listdir(self.last_revision_dir)) > 0:
			differ.save_diff(next_diff_filename)
			print("[1] Revision created in " + next_diff_filename[len(self.src_dir):] + ".")
		else:
			differ.save_diff_reset(next_diff_filename)
			print("[1] Revision reset in " + next_diff_filename[len(self.src_dir):] + " due to non existing workspace comparison copy.")

	def upload_diff(self, differ):
		print("[2] Uploading diff files...");
		differ.sync("http://dalak.imp.fu-berlin.de/SUAsrv/diff")
		print("[2] Diff files uploaded.")

	def update_comparision_copy(self, syncer):
		print("[3] Syncing comparison copy...");
		syncer.make_comparison_copy(self.src_dir, self.last_revision_dir, self.dirs)
		print("[3] Comparison copy synced.")

	def prepare(self):
		if(not os.path.exists(self.last_revision_dir)):
			os.makedirs(self.last_revision_dir)
		if(not os.path.exists(self.userdata_dir)):
			os.makedirs(self.userdata_dir)

	def build(self):
		differ = diff.Diff(bin_dir=self.bin_dir, results_dir=self.userdata_dir, root_dir=self.src_dir, from_dir_local=self.last_revision_dir[len(self.src_dir):], to_dir_local=".", id=self.id, excluded_resources=self.dirs)
		syncer = sync.Sync(bin_dir=self.bin_dir)

		t1 = threading.Thread(target=self.create_diff, args=(differ,))
		t1.start()
		t1.join()

		t2 = threading.Thread(target=self.upload_diff, args=(differ,))
		t2.start()

		t3 = threading.Thread(target=self.update_comparision_copy, args=(syncer,))
		t3.start()

		t2.join()
		t3.join()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


WIKILEAKS & JULIAN ASSANGE Donated Bitcoin By SCAMMERS?! JULIAN ASSANGE IS INNOCENT!
I DISCOVERED SCAMMERS DONATING BITCOIN TO WIKILEAKS! the wallets i found can bee seen in this video and it all can be verified by anyone, as we all know bitcoin is open and transparent you cannot hide anything. In todays video i also look at important questions like is Julian Assange innocent? In my opinion yes, i believe telling the truth should not be a crime.
yesterday i made a video regarding the Bitcoin dip caused by Wikileaks dumping Bitcoin. This video is Very similar to parts 1&2 of that video.
Its very clear with the timeline of events, the wallets, and the application of a little logic that Wikileaks is responsible for the dip. They had a MASSIVE amount of Bitcoin that was at the very least worth $20 million USD. With Julian Assange getting arrested it makes a lot of sense they needed to sell there BTC in order to pay for the massive legal fight ahead. Julian is someone who is an interesting character i am not commenting on whether julian assange is guilty and deserves to be arrested but i do thing that the police are handling it poorly and it is very political. Julian has held a lot of bitcoin since the early days in his bitcoin wallets.
Fake Forex Insufferable Instagram Fake Forex Instagram Insufferable this video is not about Fake Forex traders, its not about being a bitcoin millionaire but it could well make you a bitcoin millionaire. all you need is one bitcoin!


I've got a couple bottles of Source Naturals Ultra Colloidal Silver 10 PPM. I don't know anything about the CS Protocol. I think it's easier if I just buy the stuff in the store.
So what exactly should I do with the CS?
How long did it take for your hole to heal up?


text:
TZ-1, TZ1, or variant, may refer to:

 Phoenix Industries TZ-1 ParaFlyer, a powered parachute
 Alfa Romeo TZ1, a sportscar
 Tianzhou 1, a Chinese spaceflight mission involving the first flight of a Tianzhou space capsule
 UTC+01:00 time zone
 UTC−01:00 time zone

See also
 TZ (disambiguation)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Fans of Michael B. Jordan felt the actor should have received an Oscar nod for "Creed.". Disney-ABC Television Group's Flickr photostream.
The Academy Awards is one of the biggest nights of the year in Hollywood, but something is often lacking: diversity. The nominees are often dominated by white actors and directors and this did not go unnoticed in minority communities.
In 2016, many African Americans chose to boycott the ceremony and, because of that, the Academy has made vowed to make changes. What spurred this movement and what did black actors have to say about it? More importantly, have there been any modifications to the voting process since then?
Actress Jada Pinkett Smith called for a boycott of the 2016 Oscars on January 16 because each of the 20 nominations in the acting categories went to white actors. It marked the second year in a row that no people of color received Oscar acting nods, and the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite trended on Twitter.
Supporters of actors like Idris Elba and Michael B. Jordan felt particularly slighted that these men weren't honored for their performances in "Beasts of No Nation" and "Creed," respectively. Film fans also argued that directors of both films—men of color—deserved nods. The former film's director, Cary Fukunaga, is half-Japanese, while the latter film's director, Ryan Coogler, is African American.
She wasn't the only African American actor to feel this way. Other entertainers, including her husband, Will Smith, joined her in the boycott. Some also pointed out that the film industry generally needs a diversity overhaul. Here's what black Hollywood had to say about the Oscars' race problem.
Viola Davis has never been one to hold back when discussing social issues such as race, class, and gender. She spoke about the lack of opportunities for actors of color when she made history in 2015 by becoming the first African American to win an Emmy for best actress in a drama.
Asked about the lack of diversity among the 2016 Oscar nominees, Davis said the issue went beyond the Academy Awards.
Much like Davis, Whoopi Goldberg blamed the all-white 2016 Oscar nominees in acting on the film industry rather than the Academy.
Goldberg, who won an Oscar in 1991, said that for actors of color to land more prominent roles in films, directors and producers must be diversity-minded. They must recognize that films with no cast members of color miss the mark.
Will Smith acknowledged that the fact he didn't earn a nomination for his role in "Concussion" might have contributed to his wife's decision to boycott the Oscars. But the twice-nominated actor insisted that this was far from the only reason Pinkett Smith chose to boycott.
Smith said that it feels like the Oscars are heading in "the wrong direction," as the Academy is overwhelmingly white and male and, thus, doesn't reflect the country.
It's also interesting to note that Smith has received two Oscar nominations in his career. One was for "Ali" (2001) and the other for "The Pursuit of Happyness" (2006). Will Smith has never won an Oscar.
Following the backlash in 2016, the Academy did make changes and the 2017 Oscar nominees did include people of color. They have taken steps to add diversity to their Board of Governors and vowed to include more women and minorities among its voting members 2020.
"Moonlight," with it's African American cast took home the honor of best picture in 2017 and actor Mahershala Ali won best supporting actor. He was also the first Muslim actor to ever win an Oscar. Viola Davis took best supporting actress for her role in "Fences" and Troy Maxson was nominated in the lead role for the same movie.
For the 2018 Oscars, the biggest news was that Jordan Peele received a best director nomination for "Get Out." He is only the fifth African-American in Academy history to receive this honor.
Overall, it seems that the Academy heard the passionate voices and has made steps toward progress. Whether or not we will see another #OscarsSoWhite trend, only time will tell. There is also a conversation about expanding the diversity beyond African Americans and hopes that more Latinos, Muslims, and actors of other minorities can be well-represented as well.
As the stars have noted, Hollywood needs to change as well. The 2018 release of "Black Panther" and its predominantly African American cast, was quite the buzz. Many people have said that it's more than a movie, it's a movement.


text:
package com.sun.jini.qa.harness;

import java.util.StringTokenizer;

/**
 * A configuration verifier used by tests which should only be run
 * when the harness is configured for shared VM execution.
 */
public class ListExclusionVerifier implements ConfigurationVerifier {

    /**
     * Return true if the harness is running in shared VM mode.
     *
     * @param td the test description for the test
     * @param config the configuration object
     *
     * @return true if the harness is running in shared mode
     */
    public boolean canRun(TestDescription td, QAConfig config) {
        String exclusionList = config.getStringConfigVal("com.sun.jini.qa.harness.exclusionList", null);
        if (exclusionList == null) {
	    return true;
	}
	StringTokenizer tok = new StringTokenizer(exclusionList, ", \t");
	String testName = td.getName();
	if (!testName.endsWith(".td")) {
	    testName += ".td";
	}
	while (tok.hasMoreTokens()) {
	    String excludeTest = tok.nextToken();
	    if (!excludeTest.endsWith(".td")) {
		excludeTest += ".td";
	    }
	    if (testName.equals(excludeTest)) {
		return false;
	    }
	}
	return true;
    }
}


text:
Home/Free Expert Sports Picks/2020-2021 NBA Preview – Charlotte Hornets
Free Expert Sports PicksNBA PicksNBA Previews
2020-2021 NBA Preview – Charlotte Hornets
On Their Way Up?
pmroczkaLast Updated: December 23, 2020
Our Charlotte Hornets preview 2020 – 2021 observes that at one point last year this team went 2-14, losing six in a row, winning two, and losing eight more. In their final 10 games, they went 4-6. The Charlotte Hornets (23-42) finished fifth in the Southeast Division and 17 games out of first place. In the Eastern Conference, they were 29 games behind the Milwaukee Bucks and finished 21.5 games out of the postseason. The Hornets were 2-7 in the Southeast and 16-24 in the East. There is no way for a team to make the playoffs with records like that in their division or conference. The Hornets had the honor of possessing the worst record in the Eastern Conference and the second-worst in the NBA. You have to think that there's only one way for this team to go in 2020-2021, and that is up.
Charlotte Hornets Preview 2020 – 2021 – Stats
The Hornets averaged merely 102.9 PPG. That was the worst point production in the league. Charlotte ranked 12th in points allowed, as they gave up 109.6 PPG. That defensive stat is not bad. However, due to their low point output, the Hornets were -6.7 in PF/PA differential. They were also last in field-goal percentage at 43.4%, 19th in three-pointers at 35.2%, and 24th in frees at 74.8%. This team had major issues in the paint, grabbing just 42.8 RPG (26th). Other stats, all of which were middling to exceptionally weak, include 4.1 BPG (25th), 13.9 TO (13th), 6.6 SPG (26th,), and 23.8 APG (19th).
On defense, opponents hit field goals at a rate of 47.6% (23rd) and threes at 35.2% (11th). Opponents brought down 46.0 RPG (23rd), leaving the Hornets with a differential of -3.2. Defense was lacking for this team, as they allowed 26.6 APG, ranking 30th. Also, opponents recorded 8.0 SPG (23rd) and 5.0 BPG (20th). On both ends of the court, Charlotte struggled.
Charlotte Roster
The Hornets have a top-notch duo in the backcourt with Devonte' Graham at point and Terry Rozier in the two-spot. In front, Gordon Hayward provides fine point production from anywhere on the court. In the power position, PJ Washington offers excellent inside/out shooting, while center Cody Zeller has double-double potential. Those coming off the bench have potential, but there are question marks concerning many of the backups.
Charlotte Hornets Preview – Backcourt
Charlotte has two workhorses in point guard Devonte' Graham and shooting guard Terry Rozier. After a breakout 2019-2020 season, Graham comes to his third year having averaged 18.2 PPG and 7.5 APG while completing 38.2% of his field goals and 37.3% of his threes. He averaged 35.1 MPG. Counterpart Rozier, who came to the Hornets last year after playing four seasons with Boston, shot 42.3% from the floor and 40.7% from downtown. Averaging 34.2 MPG, Rozier averaged 18.0 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 1.0 SPG.
Hornets Preview – Frontcourt
Former Utah Jazz and Boston Celtic small forward Gordon Hayward recorded 17.5 PPG and 6.7 RPG. He was tough in the paint, averaging 50.0% on his field-goal attempts and 38.3% on his threes. He also sank 85.5% of his free throws. Last season, his first in the NBA, power forward PJ Washington was good for 30.2 MPG, 12.2 PPG, and 5.4 RPG. Like Hayward, he could hit from just about anywhere on the court as he recorded a 45.5 FG% and 37.4 3PT%. However, he could not connect from the free-throw line, as Hayward sank just 37.4% of his attempts. Center Cody Zeller, a 52.4% shooter, averaged 11.1 PPG and 7.1 RPG while averaging 23.1 MPG.
Hornets Bench
LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier sub in the point guard spot, while Caleb Martin and Malik Monk (Day to Day) fill in at the shooting spot. Ball, who was a five-star recruit and originally committed to UCLA, decided to forego college. Instead, in 2019, he played in Australia for the Illawarra Hawks of the National Basketball League (NBL). That season, he proved that he could pretty much do it all and won the NBL Rookie of the Year. He was the third overall pick in this year's draft. As already noted in our Charlotte Hornets preview 2020 – 2021, Rozier starts at the shooting spot, but he's also a fine point man.
At SG, Martin played 18 games with the Hornets last season, averaging 6.2 PPG while shooting 44.0%. Monk is back for his fourth season with Charlotte. Last year, he averaged 21.3 MPG and 10.3 PPG. Monk has had some issues, including a suspension last season for violating the NBA drug policy and a positive result on his COVID-19 test a few weeks ago.
In the frontcourt Miles Bridges plays both small and power forward, while Cody Martin backs up at small forward and Jalen McDaniels at power forward. In his second NBA season last year, Bridges averaged 13.0 PPG and 5.6 RPG. PF McDaniels, now in his second season, averaged 5.6 PPG and 4.1 RPG. Last year, center Bismack Biyombo was good for 7.4 PPG and 5.8 RPG. He shot 54.3% from the floor. He's the first sub, while PJ Washington swings from the power spot to center when needed.
Charlotte Hornets Preview 2020 – 2021 – Coaching
Our Charlotte Hornets preview 2020 – 2021 observes that head coach James Borrego has served as an interim for Orlando from 2014-2015. Then in 2018 he became the top man at Charlotte. In his NBA head coaching career, he is 72-105. Each season, his team has missed the playoffs.
Borrego emphasizes playing a fast-paced, up-temp game that focuses on being efficient in transition and getting the ball to half-court quickly. He likes to toss up a lot of three-pointers. At the same time, Borrego considers defense as key to winning. In two seasons, his team has not yet been able to completely implement his vision.
Charlotte – Pluses and Minuses
Fine backcourt
Solid players in the frontcourt
Overall, good bench
They need more from D and O
Malik Monk is a concern
Assists are an issue on both sides of the court
Charlotte Hornets Preview 2020 – 2021 – Final Word
Our Charlotte Hornets preview 2020 – 2021 acknowledges that this team certainly has talent. But it is talent that has not reached its full potential. Additionally, the Hornets have underperformed on offense and defense. Basically, this team needs to score more points and ensure that opponents score fewer points. It's a simple idea. But in order to get to the postseason, the Hornets must implement it.
Charlotte Hornets Projection – 35-37 Third-Place, Southeast Division
2020-2021 NBA Preview 2020-2021 Southeast Division Preview Charlotte Hornets
pmroczka
Paul has been writing about sports betting and sports for more than a decade, offering picks on the NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA, as well as on college sports and European football. He's written thousands of season and post-season previews, innumerable articles on sports betting strategies, and various books on sports and sports betting.
College Basketball Pick: #25 Michigan Wolverines at #3 Purdue Boilermakers
NFL Divisional Pick: Tennessee Titans at New England Patriots
College Football Pick: Nebraska Cornhuskers vs South Alabama Jaguars
NCAAF Pick – Akron Zips vs Ohio Bobcats
MLB Pick: New York Mets at St Louis Cardinals


G24.2 is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes.
The 2019 edition of ICD-10-CM G24.2 became effective on October 1, 2018.
This is the American ICD-10-CM version of G24.2 - other international versions of ICD-10 G24.2 may differ.


text:
David Cameron – 2008 Conservative Party Conference Speech
Posted On : November 20, 2015 Published By : admin
Below is the text of the speech made by David Cameron, the then Leader of the Opposition, at the 2008 Conservative Party Conference.
It's great to be here in the Symphony Hall.
But it's even better to know that in this party, everyone: the Shadow Cabinet, the Members of Parliament, the council leaders and all our candidates and colleagues…
Everyone is playing the same tune.
Today the financial crisis means that all eyes are on the economy and the financial markets and that is absolutely right.
As I said yesterday, on this issue, we must put aside our differences and work together with the government in the short-term to ensure financial stability.
I am pleased that our proposal to increase the protection for depositors to £50,000 has been taken up.
I'm pleased that the European regulators are looking at our proposal to bring stability to the banking system.
I repeat: we will not allow what happened in America to happen here, we will work with the government in the short term in order to protect our economy.
But as I also said yesterday, that must not stop us telling the truth about the mistakes that have been made.
It is our political duty…
…and if we had a written constitution I would say constitutional duty…
…to hold the government to account, to explain where they went wrong, and how we would do things differently to rebuild our economy for the long-term.
So we must not hold back from being critical of the decisions that over ten years have led us to this point.
We need to learn the lessons, and to offer the British people a clear choice
It is our responsibility to make sense of this crisis for them, and to show them the right way out of it.
We started to do that in Birmingham this week.
We've had a good conference this week, an optimistic conference – but a sober one.
We understand the gravity of the situation our country is in.
And our response is measured, proportionate and responsible.
The test of a political party is whether it can rise to the challenge of what the country requires and what the times demand.
I believe we have passed that test this week and I want to thank George Osborne, William Hague, all my team in the Shadow Cabinet and all of you for making this conference a success.
The reality of government is that difficulties come not in neat and predictable order, one by one and at regular intervals.
Difficulties come at you from all sides, one on top of the other, and you've got to be able to handle them all.
So amidst this financial crisis let us not forget that we are also a nation at war.
In Afghanistan today, our armed forces are defending our freedom and our way of life as surely and as bravely as any soldiers in our nation's history.
Let us be clear about why they are there: if we fail in our mission, the Taliban will come back.
And if the Taliban come back, the terrorist training camps come back…
That would mean more terrorists, more bombs and more slaughter on our streets.
That is why we back our troops' mission in Afghanistan one hundred per cent.
I've been to visit them every year since I've been doing this job.
Earlier this month, up the Helmand River in Sangin I met a soldier in the Royal Irish Regiment, Ranger Blaine Miller.
He'd just turned eighteen years old.
He was the youngest soldier there.
He's not much more than a boy and he's there in the forty-five degree heat, fighting a ferocious enemy on the other side of the world.
I told him that what he was doing was exceptional.
He told me he was just doing his job.
Every politician says it's the first duty of government is to protect our country, and of course that's right.
But today we are not protecting the people, like Blaine, who protect us – and that is wrong.
In Afghanistan, the number of our troops has almost doubled but the number of helicopters has hardly increased at all.
American soldiers start their rest and recuperation the day they arrive back home, our troops have to count the days they spend getting home.
We've got troops' families living in sub-standard homes; we've got soldiers going into harm's way without the equipment they need…
…we've got businesses in our country that instead of welcoming people in military uniform and honouring their service choose to turn them away and refuse them service.
That is all wrong and we are going to put it right.
We are going to stop sending young men to war without the equipment they need, we're going to stop treating our soldiers like second class citizens…
…we will do all it takes to keep our country safe and we will do all it takes to protect the heroes who risk everything for us.
And today there are a particular group of heroes that I have in mind.
They fought for us in the slit trenches of Burma…the jungles of Malaya…and the freezing cold of the Falklands.
Yesterday the courts ruled that gurkhas who want to come and live in Britain should be able to.
They risked their lives for us and now we must not turn our backs on them.
I say to the government: I know there are difficult questions about pensions and housing but let's find a way to make it work…
Do not appeal this ruling.
…let's give those brave gurkha soldiers who defended us the right to come and live in our country.
These are times of great anxiety.
The financial crisis.
The economic downturn.
The cost of living.
Big social problems.
I know how worried people are.
They want to know whether our politics, and let's be frank, whether our politicians – are up to it.
In the end, that's not really about your policies and your plans.
Of course your plans are important…
…but it's the unexpected and unpredicted events that can dominate a government.
So people want to know what values you bring to big situations and big decisions that can crop up on your watch.
And people want to know about your character: the way you make decisions; the way that you operate.
My values are Conservative values.
Many people wrongly believe that the Conservative Party is all about freedom.
Of course we care passionately about freedom from oppression and state control.
That's why we stood up for Georgia and wasn't it great to have the Georgian Prime Minister with us here, speaking today?
But freedom can too easily turn into the idea that we all have the right to do whatever we want, regardless of the effect on others.
That is libertarian, not Conservative – and it is certainly not me.
For me, the most important word is responsibility.
Personal responsibility.
Professional responsibility.
Civic responsibility.
Corporate responsibility.
Our responsibility to our family, to our neighbourhood, our country.
Our responsibility to behave in a decent and civilised way.
To help others.
That is what this Party is all about.
Every big decision; every big judgment I make: I ask myself some simple questions.
Does this encourage responsibility and discourage irresponsibility?
Does this make us a more or less responsible society?
Social responsibility, not state control.
Because we know that we will only be a strong society if we are a responsible society.
But when it comes to handling a crisis….
…when it comes to really making a difference on the big issues…
…it's not just about your values.
There's something else people want to know.
When people ask: "will you make a difference?" they're often asking will you – i.e. me – will you make a difference?
You can't prove you're ready to be Prime Minister – and it would be arrogant to pretend you can.
The best you can do is tell people who you are and the way you work; how you make decisions and then live with them.
I'm a forty-one year old father of three who thinks that family is the most important thing there is.
For my country.
I am deeply patriotic about this country and believe we have both a remarkable history and an incredible future.
I believe in the Union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and I will never do anything to put it at risk.
I have a simple view that public service is a good way to channel your energy and try to make a difference.
I am not an ideologue.
I know that my party can get things wrong, and that other parties sometimes get things right.
I hold to some simple principles.
That strong defence, the rule of law and sound money are the foundations of good government.
But I am also a child of my time.
I want a clean environment as well as a safe one.
I believe that quality of life matters as much as quantity of money.
I recognise that we'll never be truly rich while so much of the world is so poor.
I believe in building a strong team – and really trusting them.
Their success is to be celebrated – not seen as some kind of threat.
Thinking before deciding is good.
Not deciding because you don't like the consequences of a decision is bad.
Trust your principles, your judgment and your colleagues.
Go with your conviction, not calculation.
The popular thing may look good for a while.
The right thing will be right all the time.
Tony Blair used to justify endless short-term initiatives by saying "we live in a 24 hour media world."
But this is a country not a television station.
A good government thinks for the long term.
If we win we will inherit a huge deficit and an economy in a mess.
We will need to do difficult and unpopular things for the long term good of the country.
I'm ready for that.
And there is a big argument I want to make – about the financial crisis and the economic downturn, yes…
…but about the other issues facing the country too.
It's an argument about experience.
To do difficult things for the long-term…
…or even to get us through the financial crisis in the short term…
…what matters more than experience is character and judgment, and what you really believe needs to happen to make things right.
I believe that to rebuild our economy, it's not more of the same we need, but change.
To repair our broken society, it's not more of the same we need, but change.
Experience is the excuse of the incumbent over the ages.
Experience is what they always say when they try to stop change.
In 1979, James Callaghan had been Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor before he became Prime Minister.
He had plenty of experience.
But thank god we changed him for Margaret Thatcher.
Just think about it: if we listened to this argument about experience, we'd never change a government, ever.
We'd have Gordon Brown as Prime Minister – for ever.
Gordon Brown talks about his economic experience.
The problem is, we have actually experienced his experience.
We've experienced the massive increase in debt.
We have experienced the huge rise in taxes.
We experienced the folly of pretending that boom and bust could be ended.
This is the argument we will make when the election comes.
The risk is not in making a change.
The risk is sticking with what you've got and expecting a different result.
There is a simple truth for times like this.
When you've taken the wrong road, you don't just keep going.
You change direction – and that is what we need to do.
So let's look at how we got here – and how we're going to get out.
At the heart of the financial crisis is a simple fact.
The tap marked 'borrowing' was turned on – and it was left running for too long.
The debts we built up were too high. Far too high.
The authorities – on both sides of the Atlantic – thought it could go on for ever.
They thought the days of low inflation and low interest rates could go on for ever.
They thought the asset price bubble didn't matter.
But it's not just the authorities who were at fault.
Many bankers in the City were quite simply irresponsible.
They paid themselves vast rewards when it was all going well…
…and the minute it went wrong, they came running to us to bail them out.
There will be a day of reckoning but today is not that day.
Today we have to understand the long-term policy mistakes that were made.
In this country, Gordon Brown made two big mistakes.
His first big mistake – and his worst decision, sowing the seeds of the present financial crisis…
…was actually contained within his best decision: to make the Bank of England independent.
At the same time as giving the Bank of England the power to set interest rates…
…he took away the Bank of England's power to regulate financial markets.
…and he took away the Bank of England's power to blow the whistle on the total amount of debt in the economy.
He changed the rules of the game, but he took the referee off the pitch.
Eddie George, who was the Bank of England Governor at the time, was only given a few hours notice of this massive decision.
He feared it would end in tears – and it has.
Gordon Brown's second big mistake was on government borrowing.
After a prudent start, when he stuck for two years to Conservative spending totals, he turned into a spendaholic.
His spending splurge left the government borrowing money in the good times when it should have been saving money.
So now that the bad times have hit, there's no money to help.
The cupboard is bare.
So the question is, how are we going to get through this crisis?
How are we going to rebuild our economy for the long term?
Now I've studied economics at a great university.
I've worked in business alongside great entrepreneurs.
And as Gordon Brown never stops reminding people, I've been inside the Treasury during a crisis.
But when it comes to handling the situation we're in, none of that matters as much as some simple things I believe to be true.
First of all, I believe that government's main economic duty is to ensure sound money and low taxes.
Sound money means controlling inflation, keeping spending under control and getting debt down.
So we will rein in private borrowing by correcting that big mistake made by Gordon Brown, and restoring the Bank of England's power to limit debt in the economy.
That will help give our economy the financial responsibility it needs.
But we need fiscal responsibility too.
So we will rein in government borrowing.
The country needs to know what that means.
And it has a lot clearer idea now, thanks to that fantastic speech by George Osborne on Monday, one of the finest speeches made by any Shadow Chancellor.
Sound money means saving in the good years so we can borrow in the bad.
It means ending Labour's spendaholic culture…
…it means clamping down on government waste…
…and it means destroying all those useless quangos and initiatives.
So I will be asking all my shadow ministers to review all over again every spending programme to see if it is really necessary, really justifiable in these new economic circumstances.
But even that will not be enough.
The really big savings will come from reforming inefficient public services, and dealing with the long-term social problems that cause government spending to rise.
To help us stick to the right course, we'll have an independent Office of Budget Responsibility.
There will be no hiding place, no fiddling the figures – for all governments, forever.
It's not experience that will bring about these long-term changes.
Experience means you're implicated in the old system that's failed.
You can't admit that change is needed, because that would mean admitting you'd got it wrong.
We propose a major shake-up in the way the public finances are run…
…and we have the character and the judgment to scrap the discredited fiscal rules and make this vital long-term change.
It's a change that will help us get taxes down.
I believe in low taxes – and today, working people are crying out for relief.
Like the young couple I met in York three weeks ago, who both work seven days a week and still struggle to make enough to pay the mortgage.
But I am a fiscal conservative.
So is George Osborne.
We do not believe in tax cuts paid for by reckless borrowing.
So let me say this to the call centre worker whose mortgage has gone up by four hundred quid a month but his salary's gone down.
To the hairdresser who's a single mum doing another job on the side to try and make ends meet and pay for childcare.
To the electrician whose fuel bill, rent bill and food bill have all gone up and he's trying to work out which one to pay when the tax bill's gone up too.
I know it's your money.
I know you want some of it back.
And I want to give it to you.
It's one of the reasons I'm doing this job.
But we will only cut taxes once it's responsible to do so…
…once we've made government live within its means.
The test of whether we're ready for government is not whether we can come up with exciting shadow budgets.
It is whether we have the grit and determination to impose discipline on government spending, keep our nerve and say "no" – even in the teeth of hostility and protest.
That is the responsible party we are and that is the responsible government I will lead.
Sound money; low taxes.
Simple beliefs with profound implications.
And here's something else I believe about the economy.
I believe that people create jobs, not governments.
I understand enterprise.
I admire entrepreneurs.
I should do – I go to bed with one every night.
And today, Labour's taxes and regulations are making life impossible for our entrepreneurs.
Just this week, the exodus of business from Labour's Britain continued as WPP announced it was moving to Ireland.
A man called Steven Ellis Cooper emailed me at the end of last month.
You know him, this conference heard his story on Sunday.
He's from Worcestershire – and with his wife and two daughters he's been running his business for nearly twenty years.
He saw it grow into something he described as "magical", employing five people and contributing to the economy.
And then along came Labour .
Now he's down to his last employee and he says "I am sat at my desk now in tears as I'm so sad that what I have spent such a long time trying to build up is being so systematically smashed into the floor and the Labour Government are to blame."
What an outrageous way for a government to treat someone who's trying to do their best, trying to make a living for their family, trying to create opportunity for others.
So here's what we're going to do.
We'll start by dealing with the nightmare complexity of our business taxes.
We'll get rid of those complex reliefs and allowances and use the savings to cut corporation tax by three pence.
But I don't believe that the government's role in the economy is just about tax and spend and sound money and finance.
I have never believed in just laissez-faire.
I believe the government should play an active part in helping business and industry.
So when our economy is overheating in the south east but still needs more investment in the north…
…the right thing to do is not go ahead with a third runway at Heathrow but instead build a new high speed rail network…
…linking Birmingham, Manchester, London, Leeds…
…let's help rebalance Britain's economy.
But the problems this country faces go far beyond financial crisis and economic downturn.
In the end I want to be judged not just on how well we handle crises, but on two things…
…how we improve the public institution in this country I care about most, the NHS…
…and how we fulfil what will be the long-term mission of the next Conservative government: to repair our broken society.
Now there is a dangerous argument doing the rounds about how we do that.
You may have heard it.
I have to tell you, Labour are clutching at it as some sort of intellectual lifeline.
It goes like this.
In these times of difficulty, we need a bigger state.
Not just in a financial and economic sense, but in a social sense too.
A Labour minister said something really extraordinary last week.
It revealed a huge amount about them.
David Miliband said that "unless government is on your side you end up on your own."
"On your own" – without the government.
I thought it was one of the most arrogant things I've heard a politician say.
For Labour there is only the state and the individual, nothing in between.
No family to rely on, no friend to depend on, no community to call on.
No neighbourhood to grow in, no faith to share in, no charities to work in.
No-one but the Minister, nowhere but Whitehall, no such thing as society – just them, and their laws, and their rules, and their arrogance.
You cannot run our country like this.
It is why, when we look at what's happening to our country, we can see that the problem is not the leader; it's Labour.
They end up treating people like children, with a total lack of trust in people's common sense and decency.
This attitude, this whole health and safety, human rights act culture, has infected every part of our life.
If you're a police officer you now cannot pursue an armed criminal without first filling out a risk assessment form.
Teachers can't put a plaster on a child's grazed knee without calling a first aid officer.
Even foreign exchanges for students…you can't host a school exchange any more without parents going through an Enhanced Criminal Record Bureau Check.
No, when times are tough, it's not a bigger state we need: it's better, more efficient government.
But even more than that we need a stronger society.
That means trusting people.
And sharing responsibility.
But no-one will ever take lectures from politicians about responsibility unless we put our own house in order.
That means sorting out our broken politics.
People are sick of it.
Sick of the sleaze, sick of the cynicism.
Copper-bottomed pensions.
Plasma screen TVs on the taxpayer.
Expenses and allowances that wouldn't stand for one second in the private sector.
This isn't a Conservative problem, a Labour problem or a Liberal Democrat problem.
It is a Westminster problem, and we've all got to sort it out.
In the end, this is about the judgment to see how important this issue is for the credibility of politics and politicians.
And it's about having the character to take on vested interests inside your own party.
That's what I have done.
The first to say: MPs voting on their pay, open-ended final salary pension schemes, the John Lewis list – they have all got to go.
And it's no different in Europe.
We've drawn up a hard-hitting code of conduct for our MEPs.
With European elections next year, the message to them is simple:
If you don't sign, you won't stand.
And while we're on this subject, there's one other thing that destroys trust in politics.
And that's parties putting things in their manifesto and then doing the complete opposite.
Next year in those European elections we will campaign with all our energy for that referendum on the European constitution that Labour promised but never delivered.
Taking responsibility is how we will mend our broken politics.
And sharing responsibility and giving it back to professionals is how we will improve our public services.
Let's be straight about what's happened to our NHS.
Money has been poured in but maternity wards and A&E departments are closing.
Productivity is down.
The nurses and doctors are disillusioned, frustrated, angry and demoralised.
I know from personal experience just how brilliant and dedicated the people who work in the NHS are.
But they have been terribly, terribly let down.
Instead of a serious long-term reform plan for the NHS…
…working out how we can deliver a free national health service in an age of rising expectations and rising healthcare costs…
…never mind the rocketing costs of social care…
…we've had eleven years of superficial, short-term tinkering.
Top-down target after top-down target, with another thirty seven targets added last year.
Endless bureaucratic re-organisations, some of them contradictory, others abandoned after just a few months.
Labour have taken our most treasured national institution, ripped out its soul and replaced it with targets, directives, management consultants and computers.
In August, I got a letter from one of my constituents, John Woods.
His wife was taken to hospital.
She caught MRSA and she died.
Some of the incidents described are so dreadful, and so degrading, that I can't read you most of the letter.
He says the treatment his wife received "was like something out of a 17th century asylum not a 21st century £90 billion health service."
And then, as his wife's life was coming to end, he remembers her "sitting on the edge of her bed in distress and saying 'I never thought it would be like this'."
I sent the letter to Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary.
This was his reply.
"A complaints procedure has been established for the NHS to resolve concerns…
"Each hospital and Primary Care Trust has a Patient Advice and Liaison Service to support people who wish to make a complaint…
"There is also an Independent Complaints Advocacy Service…
"If, when Mr Woods has received a response, he remains dissatisfied, it is open to him to approach the Healthcare Commission and seek an independent review of his complaint and local organisation's response…
"Once the Health Care Commission has investigated the case he can approach the Health Service Ombudsman if he remains dissatisfied…."
A Healthcare Commission.
A Health Service Ombudsman.
A Patient Advice and Liaison Service.
An Independent Complaints Advocacy Service.
Four ways to make a complaint…
…but not one way for my constituent's wife to die with dignity.
We need to change all that.
But here is the plain truth.
We will not bring about long-term change if we think that all we have to do is stick with what Labour leave us and just pump some more money in.
Instead of those targets and directives that interfere with clinical judgments we'll publish the information about what actually happens in the NHS.
We'll give patients an informed choice about where to go for their care…
…so doctors stop answering to Whitehall, and start answering to patients.
This way, the health service can at last become exactly that: a service…
…not a take it or leave it bureaucracy.
I'm afraid Labour have had their chance to show they can be trusted with the NHS, and they have failed.
We are the party of the NHS in Britain today and under my leadership that is how it's going to stay.
But if you want to know what I really hope we will achieve in government.
If you want to know where the change will be greatest from what has gone before.
It is our plan for social reform.
The central task I have set myself and this Party is to be as radical in social reform as Margaret Thatcher was in economic reform.
That's how we plan to repair our broken society.
I know this is a controversial argument.
Some say our society isn't broken.
I wonder what world they live in.
Leave aside that almost two million children are brought up in households where no one works.
Or that there are housing estates in Britain where people have a lower life expectancy than in the Gaza Strip.
Just consider the senseless, barbaric violence on our streets.
Children killing children.
Twenty-seven kids murdered on the streets of London this year.
A gun crime every hour.
A serious knife crime every half hour.
A million victims from alcohol related-attacks.
But it's not just the crime; not even the anti-social behaviour.
It's the angry, harsh culture of incivility that seems to be all around us.
When in one generation we seem to have abandoned the habits of all human history…
…that in a civilised society, adults have a proper role – a responsibility – to uphold rules and order in the public realm…
… not just for their own children but for other people's too.
Helen Newlove spoke to us yesterday.
I can't tell you how much I've been moved by working with Helen over the past year.
This woman, whose husband Gary was brutally kicked to death on her own doorstep…
This woman, who had to explain to her beautiful children that their father was not coming home from the hospital, not ever, because he had dared to be a good, responsible citizen.
Helen Newlove knows our society is broken.
But she believes we can repair it – and so do I.
The big question is how.
And here is where we need some very plain speaking.
There are those who say – and there are many in this hall – that what is required is tough punishment, longer sentences and more prison places.
And to a degree, they're right.
We'll never mend the broken society without a clear barrier between right and wrong, and harsh penalties when you cross the line.
But let's recognise, once and for all, that such an approach only deals with the symptoms, picking up the pieces of failure that has gone before.
Come with me to Wandsworth prison and meet the inmates.
Yes you meet the mugger, the robber and the burglar.
But you also meet the boy who can't read and never could.
The teenager hooked on heroin.
The young man who never knew the love of a father.
The middle aged failure where no-one in the family has known what it's like to go out and work for two generations or maybe more.
Miss the context, miss the cause, miss the background…
…and you'll never get the true picture of why crime is so high in our country.
There are those who say that all of this – mending the broken society – will require state action, state programmes and state money.
And to a degree, they are right too.
We are not an anti-state party.
In the twentieth century, state-run social programmes had real success in fighting poverty and making our society stronger.
Pensions, sickness benefits, state education: I honour those men and women of all parties and none who created these safety nets and springboards.
But today, the returns from endless big state intervention are not just diminishing, they are disappearing.
That's because too often, state intervention deals with the symptoms of the problem.
I want us to be different: to deal with the long-term causes.
That will be the test of our character and judgment.
First, families.
If we sincerely care about children's futures, then all families, however organised, need our help and support.
So I don't have some idealised, rose-tinted view of the family.
I know families can be imperfect.
I get the modern world.
But I think that in our modern world, in these times of stress and anxiety…
…the family is the best welfare system there is.
That's why I want to scrap Labour's plans for a new army of untrained outreach workers…
…so we can have over 4,000 extra health visitors and guarantees of family visits before and after your child is born.
To those who say this is some sort of nanny state I say: nonsense.
Remember what it was like the first few nights after your first child is born, the worry, the uncertainly, the questions.
Health visitors are a lifeline – and I want more of them.
It's because I want to strengthen families that I support flexible working.
To those who say this is some intolerable burden on business, I say "wrong".
Business pays the costs of family breakdown in taxes – and isn't it right that everyone, including business, should play their part in making Britain a more family-friendly country?
Do you know what, if we don't change these antiquated business practices then women…
…half the talent of the country…
…are just put off from joining the workforce.
We will also back marriage in the tax system.
To those who say…why pick out marriage …
…why do you persist in aggravating people who for whatever reason choose not to get married…
….I say I don't want to aggravate anyone, but I believe in commitment and many of us, me included, will always remember that moment when you say, up there in front of others, it's not just me anymore, it's us, together, and that helps to take you through the tough times…
…and that's something we should cherish as a society.
When families fail, school is the way we can give children a second chance.
My passion about this is both political and personal.
After the 2005 election, shadow education secretary was the job I asked for in the Shadow Cabinet and Michael Howard kindly let me have it.
I'm not sure my reshuffles work quite like that, but there we are.
He's a very kind man and was a great leader of our party.
But it's personal because I'm the father of three young children – and I worry about finding good schools for them more than anything else.
There's nothing quite like that feeling when you watch your children wandering across the playground, school bag in one hand, packed lunch in the other, knowing they're safe, they're happy, they've got a great teacher in a good school.
But the straightforward truth is that there aren't enough good schools, particularly secondary schools, particularly in some of our bigger towns and cities.
Any government I lead will not go on excusing this failure.
That's why Michael Gove has such radical plans to establish 1,000 New Academies, with real freedoms, like grant maintained schools used to have.
And that's why, together, we will break open the state monopoly and allow new schools to be set up.
And to those who say we cannot wait for structural reform and competition to raise standards I say – yes, you're right, and we will not wait.
The election of a Conservative government will bring – and I mean this almost literally – a declaration of war against those parts of the educational establishment who still cling to the cruelty of the "all must win prizes" philosophy…
…and the dangerous practice of dumbing down.
Listen to this.
It's the President of the Spelling Society.
He said, and I quote, "people should be able to use whichever spelling they prefer."
He's the President of the Spelling Society.
Well, he's wrong. And by the way, that's spelt with a 'W.'
And then there's the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
These are the people who are officially supposed to maintain standards in our school system.
You pay their wages.
And do you know what you get in return?
They let a child get marks for writing "F off" as an answer in an exam.
As Prime Minister I'd have my own two words for people like that, and yes, one of them does begin with an 'F'.
You're fired.
If strengthening families is the first line of defence against social breakdown, and school reform is the second – then welfare reform is the full, pitched battle.
This problem goes very deep – and dealing with it will be very tough.
There are almost five million people in Britain of working age who are out of work and on benefits.
That's bad for them. It's bad for our society. And it's bad for our economy.
Decades ago, when we had a universal collective culture of respect for work, a system of unconditional benefits was good and right and effective.
But if we're going to talk straight we've got to admit something.
That culture doesn't exist any more.
In fact, worse than that, the benefit system itself encourages a benefit culture, and sends some pretty perverse messages.
It's not even that it's picking up the pieces and treating the symptoms, rather than providing a cure.
Today, it is actively making the problem worse.
So we will end the something for nothing culture.
If you don't take a reasonable offer of a job, you lose benefits.
Go on doing it, you'll keep losing benefits.
Stay on benefits and you'll have to work for them.
I spent some time recently sitting with a benefit officer in a Job Centre plus.
In came a young couple. She was pregnant. He was the dad.
They were out of work and trying to get somewhere to live.
The benefit officer didn't really have much choice but to explain that they would be better off if she lived on her own.
What on earth are we doing with a system like that?
With the money we save by ending the something for nothing welfare culture we will say to that couple in that benefit office:
Stay together, bring up your kid, build your family, we're on your side and we will end that couple penalty.
In all these ways, and with the inspiring help of Iain Duncan Smith, we have made the modern Conservative Party the party of social justice.
The party that says yes: we can build a society where anyone can rise from the bottom to the top with nothing in their way…
…but only if we put in place radical Conservative school reform to do it.
Yes: we can build a society where we end the scandal of child poverty and give every child the decent start they deserve…
…but only if we have radical Conservative welfare reform to achieve it.
This is the big argument in British politics today, an argument through which we show that in this century…
…as we have shown in the centuries that went before…
…with Peel, with Shaftesbury, with Disraeli…
…when the call comes for a politics of dignity and aspiration for the poor and the marginalised, for the people whom David Davis so vividly described as the victims of state failure…
…when the call comes to expand hope and broaden horizons…
…it is this Party, the Conservative Party…
…it is our means, Conservative means…
…that will achieve those great and noble progressive ends of fighting poverty, extending opportunity, and repairing our broken society.
Progressive ends; Conservative means.
That is a big argument about the future.
That is a big change.
And it is because we had the courage to change that we are able to make it.
We changed because knew we had to make ourselves relevant to the twenty-first century.
You didn't pick more women candidates to try and look good…
…you did it so we wouldn't lock out talent and fail to come up with the policies that modern families need.
You didn't champion green politics as greenwash…
…but because climate change is devastating our environment…
…because the energy gap is a real and growing threat to our security…
…and because $100-a-barrel oil is hitting families every time they fill up their car and pay their heating bills.
You didn't take international development seriously because it was fashionable…
…but because it is a true reflection of the country we live in, a Britain that is outward-looking, internationalist and generous…
…and because this Party …
… that has always believed in one nation …
…must in this century be a Party of one world.
This is who we are today and those who say the Tories haven't changed totally underestimate the capacity this Party has always had to pick itself up, turn itself around and make itself relevant to the challenges of the hour.
Those who say we haven't changed just show how little they have changed.
We are a changed party and we are a united party.
We are making progress in the north in the south in the east and in the west.
The first Conservative by-election gain from Labour in thirty years.
The first Conservative metropolitan council in the North East in thirty four years.
And the first Conservative Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
We are a united party, united in spirit and united in purpose.
And we know that our task is to take people with us.
Rebuilding our battered economy.
Renewing our bureaucratised NHS.
Repairing our broken society.
That is our plan for change.
But in these difficult times we promise no new dawns, no overnight transformations.
I'm a man with a plan, not a miracle cure.
These difficult times need leadership, yes.
They need character and judgment.
The leadership to unite your party and build a strong team.
The character to stick to your guns and not bottle it when times get tough.
The judgment to understand the mistakes that have been made and to offer the country change.
Leadership, character, judgment.
That's what Britain needs at a time like this and that's what this party now offers.
I know we are living in difficult times but I am still optimistic because I have faith in human nature…
…in our remarkable capacity to innovate, to experiment, to overcome obstacles and to find a way through difficulties…
…whether those problems are created by man or nature.
We can and will come through.
We always do.
Not because of our government.
But because of the people of Britain.
Because of what you do – because of the work you do, the families you raise, the jobs you create…
…because of your attitude, your confidence and your determination.
So because we are united…
Because we have had the courage to change…
Because we have the fresh answers to the challenges of our age.
I believe we now have the opportunity, and more than that the responsibility, to bring our country together.
Together in the face of this financial crisis.
Together in determination that we will come through it.
Together in the hope, the belief that better times will lie ahead.
Posted in: SpeechesTagged : 2008,2008 Conservative Party Conference,David Cameron,Speeches
David Cameron – 2008 Living Within Our Means Speech
David Cameron – 2010 Speech on the Big Society