'Hard work, moral good and no more dumbing down... It is time to stop the dithering that's holding Britain back'

In his own words, David Cameron reveals his vision for the future of Britain

This week, politics starts again for the autumn – and I profoundly believe we can face Britain’s challenges with confidence.



Yes, growth has been disappointing – but in the past two years we’ve also seen more than 900,000 jobs created in the private sector. Yes, turning around our schools is tough – but hundreds of new Free Schools and Academies are opening every year. Yes, tackling welfare dependency is difficult – but there are more people in work now than at the last Election. This is a Government with fighting spirit for our future.



Because the Olympics and Paralympics have taught us a valuable lesson: if you have a vision and pursue it with enough rigour and drive, you can achieve it. And my vision for this country is clear.

Clear vision: Prime Minister David Cameron is striving for a more competitive, dynamic and creative Britain

It’s a Britain that is more competitive, dynamic, creative – that is linked up with the fastest-growing parts of the world.



It’s a Britain where we have real social mobility, where people can rise from the bottom to the top and no one knows their place. It’s a society where we build up the doers, the creators, the life-affirmers – whether that’s the person who starts a business or works for a better neighbourhood.

And all of this means a nation where we talk about the values that matter: that families are vital; that we each have responsibilities to fulfil; that doing an honest day’s work is a moral good that should be rewarded.

The truth is we’re too far away from that country today. There is a lot to do – to help our businesses be more successful, our young people more hopeful, our society more aspirational.

Working progress: The Prime Minister admits there is still a lot of work to do

But Britain’s Olympians and Paralympians have taught us another lesson: graft equals success. You don’t get to the podium without making huge sacrifices and really wanting to win. That lesson can be applied to our country. It will be a hard road to success – but that’s the road we must take.



We’re on a hard road to balancing Britain’s books. I know that people look at our growth figures, hit by the eurozone crisis and the fallout from the financial crisis, and ask: is this worth it?



But we have to remember the fundamental truth at the heart of this debate: you cannot borrow your way out of a debt crisis. Countries across Europe have found there’s a tipping point where piling on more debt isn’t just counter-productive, it is lethal – because you slam the brakes on growth.



We are pulling Britain out of that trap. When I became Prime Minister our market interest rates were the same as Spain’s. Ours are now less than two per cent; theirs more than six per cent. Why?



Because we threw a lifeline around the British economy and pulled it back from the cliff edge.



We’ve cut the deficit by a quarter already, and we are sticking to this course: rejecting the easy path; restoring sanity to our finances; keeping Britain safe.



We’re on a hard road, too, to fix the underlying problems in our economy. The crisis in the eurozone has made things more difficult, but it was never going to be easy to rebalance away from unsustainable financial services, public spending and immigration. What we need is a bigger private sector; wealth spread more widely across the country; more emphasis on the industries of the future, such as green technology and advanced manufacturing.



We’re seeing progress – for the first time since the Seventies Britain is a net seller of cars – but there is a long way to go.



Hard graft: Olympians and Paralympians have proved people have to make sacrifices and work hard to achieve success

Proud: David Cameron and his wife Samantha with Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William at the Paralympic Opening Ceremony

A key part of recovery is building the houses our people need, but a familiar cry goes up: ‘Yes, we want more housing; but no to every development – and not in my back yard.’



The nations we’re competing against don’t stand for this kind of paralysis and neither must we.



Frankly, I am frustrated by the hoops you have to jump through to get anything done – and I come back to Parliament more determined than ever to cut through the dither that holds this country back.



That’s why I wasn’t prepared to allow the debate on House of Lords reform to crowd out the parliamentary timetable. Instead, we will return this week with new Government Bills for economic development.



And nowhere will the road ahead be harder than on increasing opportunity. The easy road on education is to cave in to the unions who want to keep inflating the GCSE and A-level grades and pretend that standards are rising each year.



The easy road on welfare is to spend more money, push people a pound or two over the official poverty line and pretend you’ve cracked the problem. But it’s these easy options that have betrayed millions.

Tough times: Countries across Europe are struggling with debt in the current economic crisis

So this Government is being braver. In schools, there will be no more excuses for failure; no more soft exams and soft discipline. We saw that change in the exam results this year. When the grades went down a predictable cry went up: that we were hurting the prospects of these children.



To that we must be very clear: what hurts them is dumbing down their education so that their potential is never reached and no one wants to employ them. ‘All must have prizes’ is not just patronising, it is cruel – and with us it is over.



In welfare, too, we are restoring rigour. We’ve capped benefits. We’ve said to people that if they want Jobseeker’s Allowance, they’ve got to actively seek a job.



Above all, we have brought in dynamic charities and companies to support people back into work. The result? In the past two years the number of homes where no one works has fallen by nearly a quarter of a million.



And all these goals aren’t tick-boxes on some Government spreadsheet. They’re all linked into one vision.

Priority: Mr Cameron wants an end to 'soft exams and soft discipline' in schools (stock image)

Whether it’s giving our children a world-class education; putting work back at the heart of our welfare system; helping to create good, high-skilled jobs across our country; curbing immigration so that we get more British people into those jobs, or building more houses so that those who work long hours can afford a home for their family, the thread running through our plans is this: building a Britain where those who want to work hard and do the right thing can get on in life.



And these ambitions show something else: that this is a historically radical Government. No previous Government has been bold enough to go to Europe and say no to a treaty that wasn’t in Britain’s interests.



No previous Government dared to reform university finance in such a fundamental way.



No previous Government has been brave enough to take on genuine reform of our public sector pension system and cut in half the long-term cost to the taxpayer.



At every turn we are taking the hard road over the easy path – and we are doing so because we have a clear destination in mind: a truly great Britain; equal to the challenges of the 21st Century; a country we are proud to call home not just for this golden month of the Olympics and Paralympics but in every month, all the time.

