quite a big speech too - New Generation speech
First part (rest in similar vein)
First part (rest in similar vein)
Conference, I stand here today ready to lead: a new generation now leading Labour.
Be in no doubt.
The new generation of Labour is different. Different attitudes, different ideas, different ways of doing politics.
Today I want to tell you who I am, what I believe and how we are going to do the most important thing we have to do - win back the trust of the country.
Personal
We all of us share a deep conviction which brought us into this party and into this hall.
But each of us has our own individual story.
And I want to tell you about mine.
In 1940, my grandfather, with my Dad, climbed onto one of the last boats out of Belgium.
They had to make a heart breaking decision – to leave behind my grandmother and my father’s sister. They spent the war in hiding, in a village sheltered by a brave local farmer. Month after month, year upon year, they lived in fear of the knock at the door.
At the same time, on the other side of Europe, my mother, aged five, had seen Hitler’s army march into Poland.
She spent the war on the run sheltering in a convent and then with a Catholic family that took her in. Her sister, her mother and her.
My love for this country comes from this story. Two young people fled the darkness that had engulfed the Jews across Europe and in Britain they found the light of liberty.
They arrived with nothing. This country gave them everything.
It gave them life and the things that make life worth living: hope, friendship, opportunity and family.
And they took hope and opportunity. They worked hard; they got on.
My Dad learnt English, paid his way moving furniture during the day, and studying at night at technical college. He joined the Navy to fight for our country and afterwards he wanted to go to university. He did.
My Mum built a life here after the war, for all of us. I know nobody more generous, nobody more kind, nobody more loving and nobody more relieved that this is contest is over, than my Mum.
The gift my parents gave to me and David are the things I want for every child in this country. A secure and loving home. Encouragement and the aspiration to succeed.
In those ways my family was just like every other. But in some ways it was different.
I suppose not everyone has a dad who wrote a book saying he didn’t believe in the Parliamentary road to socialism.
But you know, it wasn’t a cold house.
It was warm, full of the spirit of argument and conviction, the conviction that leads me to stand before you today, the conviction that people of courage and principle can make a huge difference to their world.
What my parents learnt in fear, they passed on to us in an environment of comfort and security.
And there was one more lesson that I learnt.
We do not have to accept the world as we find it. And we have a responsibility to leave our world a better place and never walk by on the other side of injustice.
Be in no doubt.
The new generation of Labour is different. Different attitudes, different ideas, different ways of doing politics.
Today I want to tell you who I am, what I believe and how we are going to do the most important thing we have to do - win back the trust of the country.
Personal
We all of us share a deep conviction which brought us into this party and into this hall.
But each of us has our own individual story.
And I want to tell you about mine.
In 1940, my grandfather, with my Dad, climbed onto one of the last boats out of Belgium.
They had to make a heart breaking decision – to leave behind my grandmother and my father’s sister. They spent the war in hiding, in a village sheltered by a brave local farmer. Month after month, year upon year, they lived in fear of the knock at the door.
At the same time, on the other side of Europe, my mother, aged five, had seen Hitler’s army march into Poland.
She spent the war on the run sheltering in a convent and then with a Catholic family that took her in. Her sister, her mother and her.
My love for this country comes from this story. Two young people fled the darkness that had engulfed the Jews across Europe and in Britain they found the light of liberty.
They arrived with nothing. This country gave them everything.
It gave them life and the things that make life worth living: hope, friendship, opportunity and family.
And they took hope and opportunity. They worked hard; they got on.
My Dad learnt English, paid his way moving furniture during the day, and studying at night at technical college. He joined the Navy to fight for our country and afterwards he wanted to go to university. He did.
My Mum built a life here after the war, for all of us. I know nobody more generous, nobody more kind, nobody more loving and nobody more relieved that this is contest is over, than my Mum.
The gift my parents gave to me and David are the things I want for every child in this country. A secure and loving home. Encouragement and the aspiration to succeed.
In those ways my family was just like every other. But in some ways it was different.
I suppose not everyone has a dad who wrote a book saying he didn’t believe in the Parliamentary road to socialism.
But you know, it wasn’t a cold house.
It was warm, full of the spirit of argument and conviction, the conviction that leads me to stand before you today, the conviction that people of courage and principle can make a huge difference to their world.
What my parents learnt in fear, they passed on to us in an environment of comfort and security.
And there was one more lesson that I learnt.
We do not have to accept the world as we find it. And we have a responsibility to leave our world a better place and never walk by on the other side of injustice.
Cameron
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