BRIGHTON, England, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Britain"s oppositionConservative leader David Cameron addressed his party"s springforum on Sunday, hours after an opinion poll suggested Labourcould unexpectedly hold on to power at this year"s election.
Below are highlights from Cameron"s speech:
ON CUTTING DEFICIT SOONER THAN LABOUR
"Our deficit is a dark cloud hanging over us. We cannot putoff what has got to be done. I want people to know from day onethat is exactly what we are going to do."
"The big argument is going to be about our deficit and theclear and present danger it holds over our whole economy."
"Labour will say that if you do anything, literally anythingto cut any piece of government spending immediately you willsomehow tip the country back into recession, we say that isnonsense, we say that if you don"t do anything you will seeinterest rates go up, you will see mortgage rates go up and youwill see confidence drained away from our economy and thecountry will go back in to a deeper and darker recession."
"I think the British people know that we are right ... theyknow with their own debts, the longer you leave it the worse itgets. As we make this argument, this bold, brave argument thatwe have got to roll up our sleeves and deal with our deficit anddeal with our debt we should have the confidence that we areright and we are going to win that argument with the Britishpeople."
ON ECONOMIC RECOVERY
"We"re not going to get a recovery from government, we needto get a recovery from the private sector."
ON MODERNISING THE CONSERVATIVES
"We can now look the British people in the eye and say thiscountry, our country, this tolerant, compassionate, brilliantmulti-racial country, we are like you, we are for you and we areready to serve you. This modern Conservative party has made itschoice and it is never going back."
ON NARROWING POLL LEAD
"They don"t give general election victories and governmentson a plate to people in this country and quite right too. I knowhow important it is that we recognise ... that this election wasalways going to be close."
ON ELECTION
"It is an election we have to win because our country is acomplete mess and it is our patriotic duty to turn it around andgive it a better future.
"Another five years of (Labour Prime Minister) Gordon Brownwould be a disaster for our country."
ON HIS ABILITY
"Every day that goes by I feel more confident that I havewhat it takes, with this team behind me, to turn this countryaround and get it moving again and that is what we badly need todo."
ON NHS
"I love the National Health Service and I will always standup and protect it."
ON SELLING BRITAIN
"I want to get out there and sell our country to the world.I want a really clear message to go out that Britain is undernew economic management and we are open for business again"
ON FAMILY-FRIENDLY POLICIES
"We are going to start with the most family-friendlymanifesto any party has ever produced in British history."
(Reporting by Keith Weir, Adrian Croft, Matt Falloon andKylie Maclellan)
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