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Brown and Cameron join beauty pageant to woo business leaders
Joe Murphy, Political Editor23 Nov 2009
Britain's three main party leaders today staged a beauty pageant to woo business support ahead of the General Election.
Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg were each given half an hour to convince executives at the Confederation of British Industry annual conference that they had the policies to drive economic prosperity in the years ahead.
The events saw Mr Cameron attempting to redefine the Conservative image away from the austerity policies of cuts set out a month ago at the Tory conference, moving to a more optimistic focus on growth and recovery.
He announced that the first Tory budget in 13 years if they win power next year would be called “an emergency growth budget” that would both cut debt and speed up the economy.
“Contained within it will not only be a plan to bring down the deficit, but the most comprehensive plan to unleash investment and enterprise in our country,” he claimed.
Labour celebrated Mr Cameron's move on to their chosen battleground as a U-turn forced on the Conservatives by a fall in the opinion polls. However, the Tory leader argued that reigning in the burgeoning budget deficit went hand-in-hand with growth.
The Prime Minister attacked Mr Cameron's claims and said spending cuts now would risk choking off recovery. Contrasting Tory rhetoric with Labour policies to boost transport, nuclear power and trade, he charged: “It cannot be a soundbite without substance. You cannot say you are going for growth and then in the next breath demand the withdrawal of the very measures essential to lock in the recovery and enable the growth to take place.”
Both Mr Brown and Mr Cameron pledged new high-speed rail lines — but only the Prime Minister gave a public commitment to London's Crossrail project. Mr Clegg said Britain needed “a credible plan to reduce the deficit” but he went on: “It's economic madness to put infrastructure spending first on the list for cuts.” He said the Lib-Dems would scrap Mr Brown's baby bond worth £250 for each child.
Reader views (15)
Vote for either, and the U.K. will never regain its country status. A vote for U.K.I.P. is a vote to return the U.K. as a self-governing territory, i.e. a country. The U.K. hasn't been a country in the full sense of the word for some time, with 70%+ of its laws being laws that are externally passed and rubber-stamped at Westminster. When the E.U. Constitution (Lisbon 'Treaty') comes into force (next month?), it will be simply wrong to continue to call the U.K. a country. You can't have countries existing within a bigger country. The proper name for the arrangement created is a federal state, of which the U.S.A., Canada and Australia are examples. In the E.U. federal state, the U.K. becomes the equivalent of a state like California or a province like Ontario.
- Phil Jones, London UK, 23/11/2009 19:04
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I think Labour want to lose the election, except Brown of course. They are doing everything they can to spoil their chances, with Harman taking the lead.
What a load of deadwood.
- Michael, London, UK, 23/11/2009 17:43
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Eer Anon Pc I think you'll find that England are in the World Cup having qualified without defeat.
- Derek Porter, United Kingdom, 23/11/2009 17:03
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Gordon the Moron trying to win over a business community that he sent into recession that is now lasting longer than any other advanced nation.
Gordon the Moron said last year that we were the placed nation to ride out and weather the recession. Is the man a blatant liar, a hopeless optimist or a complete moron? You decide!
- Richard, Hastings, 23/11/2009 16:22
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beauty or beast they're both beyond the pale and neither
will achieve that required to solve their problems,let
alone this countries.
- M.O'Brien, london.uk, 23/11/2009 15:49
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"The curse of Gordon Brown strikes again! Only last week he switched his support to Jedward. This week they are history"
-Brian G, Norfolk Gorleston
Spot on Brian - I've noticed that aswell.
McRuin seems to destroy anything he touches - be it popstars,politicians,whole countries even!
Just look at list of Coward Brown's casualties
-Tony Bliar (Brown backed him for EU Presidency)
-Jedward Twins (Brown backed them to win X Factor)
-Jade Goody
-England football team (knocked out of World Cup)
-Susan Boyle (knocked out of Britain's Got Talent)
This man Brown is a one-man walking wrecking ball that destroys everything it touches.
Never mind the "Mafioso kiss of death" more like "Brown's touch of death".
- Anon Pc, London, UK, 23/11/2009 15:35
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- Dave, Billericay Essex,
"The ipsos mori poll wasnt yesterday it was on the 15th but the observer only decided to release it yesterday and the guardian poll for the same day had the tories on a 13 point lead, so why arnt the media reporting that poll !!!"
Dave, I agree, isn't the answer pretty obvious. Its much more favourable for the left leaning media to have a left wing government, they love it !
- Wayne, Herts, Uk, 23/11/2009 15:35
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I am afraid that when it comes to getting Britain out of dire financial straights, the Cons hold the record. They did it after the last time Labour broke the country.
Broon walked into the treasury with his wheel barrow and spade and started shovelling like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately for this country and after an unlucky 13 years of those idiots, we are now in tomorrow and trillions in debt.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 23/11/2009 14:14
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Brown announced new high speed rail lines. Again. That's three times this year - once by him and twice by his transport minister.
But not one centimetre of track has been laid. That's a wonderful legacy after 13 years of fleecing motorists to the tune of £50bn a year to pay for "improved public transport to make motorists jealous of train passengers" - words taken from Prescott's 1997 Green paper on transport.
And in case you've forgotten Gordo, the banks have £200bn that would have funded a country-wide network of high speed rail lines. Maybe you should stop throwing money at Trident 2, ID cards and The Olympics and invest in something useful, for a change.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, 23/11/2009 13:43
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Don't think it's very clever of the Tories to put the word 'Conservatives' under a dig aimed at New Labour. It's rather confusing, isn't it?
- W. Vieux, Hampshire, 23/11/2009 11:43
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The ipsos mori poll wasnt yesterday it was on the 15th but the observer only decided to release it yesterday and the guardian poll for the same day had the tories on a 13 point lead, so why arnt the media reporting that poll !!!
- Dave, Billericay Essex, 23/11/2009 11:42
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If this wasn't considered newsworthy when Labour did the same thing to the Tories a couple of weeks ago...how come it is when its the other way around?
- Richard, London UK, 23/11/2009 09:24
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Jedward could claim copyright on their image.
- Dhan Raj, Basildon, 23/11/2009 08:29
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The curse of Gordon Brown strikes again! Only last week he switched his support to Jedward. This week they are history. I think I would lock the factory gates to stop Gordon getting in. Too many businesses have gone bust after he has been to have a look. Why is it everything this man touches goes belly up?
- Brian G, Norfolk Gorleston, 23/11/2009 08:27
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Who's the biggest morons , them or the British public who put them in power!!!
- Alan Wilby, Perth, 23/11/2009 07:50
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