Up at 6am for a surgery locally and then did a live radio interview with BBC Radio Newcastle in a field, parked up by the side of a country road after a home visit - on my mobile phone - bizarre!
You can listen here, from about 2hrs 18mins in:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00khkmj
Then later fround time to listen to Cameron's speech. Full text here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/8808521/Conservative-Party-conference-2011-David-Camerons-speech-in-full.html
The key section for me was this:
"When a balanced economy needs workers with skills, we need to end the old snobbery about vocational education and training. We’ve provided funding for 250,000 extra apprenticeships – but not enough big companies are delivering.
So here’s a direct appeal: If you want skilled employees, we’ll provide the funding, we’ll cut the red tape. But you’ve got to show more leadership and give us the apprenticeships we need."
and...
"you know, we’ve been told we were finished before.
They said when we lost an Empire that we couldn’t find a role. But we found a role, took on communism and helped bring down the Berlin Wall. They called our economy the sick man of Europe. But we came back and turned this country into a beacon of enterprise.
No, Britain never had the biggest population, the largest land mass, the richest resources, but we had the spirit. Remember: it’s not the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Overcoming challenge, confounding the sceptics, reinventing ourselves, this is what we do. It’s called leadership.
Let’s turn this time of challenge into a time of opportunity. Not sitting around, watching things happen and wondering why. But standing up, making things happen and asking why not."
