“Labour has failed the country, they´re mouth merchants”

“The Labour Party has failed Britain and the Conservative Party, knowing it has plenty of work to do in this parliament, is cautiously optimistic that it has started to turn the corner. “Labour are all mouth merchants.” John Bercow, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and MP for Buckingham yesterday spelt out to the Bulletin how the Conservative Party intends to take on the government during this current parliament. Many readers will remember John Bercow addressing Conservatives Abroad in Palma on October 16, 1999. Bercow said yesterday that: “it's early days” for the Conservative Party “but we've had a long hard think about what went wrong at the last election and we're better advised to spend time making the weather, than predicting it,” he said from his Westminster office. “We realise why we did badly at the last election, but Ian Duncan Smith has taken the initiative and even surprised his critics with a boldness and sense of direction they did not think he had.” “There's a good feeling in the party again,” Bercow said. He said that the party had developed a new “language of conversation,” a “new lexican,” as he put it, which is positive and broad minded. The three key platforms on which the Conservative Party will be focusing during this parliament are health, education and public transport. “We want to ensure that the sickest people are treated first, that the growing elderly population is catered for properly. We want to improve standards of education and provide parents with a choice for their children and deliver a quick and efficient public transport system which will operate on time and at reasonable prices. “We're going to push ahead constantly on these issues and provide credible alternatives to the government. “We're not criticising the National Health staff, but the government for failing to sort it out,” he said. “We were obsessed about the wrong issues at the last election, we banged on too much about asylum and the Euro. Both issues are very important and we will make sure that the debate over the single currency remains very much on the public agenda, but it will not over shadow the three key issues,” he said. The Conservative Party's three issues “which will obsess the party in this parliament” all meet under the political ubmrella of working for the community as a whole. “Society is all about networking, it may well be made up of individuals, but they all network and interact and we need to appeal to all walks of life, sexual minorities, ethnic minorities, working women, they are all part of modern British society and the community and we have to be working for Britain as she is today, not as she was,” he said. “Our message will apply to everybody, the party's shorthand slogan has always been One Nation,” Bercow said. “We're ready to change our attitudes and provide people with reasons to change their attitudes towards us...” And give you their vote?