Conservative Party annual conference 2009: William Hague speech

Conservative Party annual conference 2009: William Hague speech; I could go on:- Our gold reserves sold for a quarter of their worth- Our armed forces overstretched and under-supplied- Profitable post offices closed against their will- One of the highest rates of family breakdown in Europe- The ‘Golden Rule’ on borrowing abandoned when it didn’t fit- Police inspectors in 10,Downing Street- Dossiers that were dodgy- Mandelson resigning the first time- Mandelson resigning the second time- Mandelson coming back for a third time- Bad news buried- Personal details lost- An election bottled - A referendum deniedThis is the list; this is the legacy; this is the record of a government that after all the hope and hype and hysteria at the beginning has comprehensively failed our country.The arrival of a string of ministers from outside politics – Lord Malloch Brown, Lord Darzi, Lord Digby Jones, was hailed by Gordon Brown as showing it was a Government of All the Talents. It turned out they were so talented that after working with him for a short time they left, and so we have a Government of All the Talents with all the talent taken out of it.It is an empty, dispirited, shoddy, divided, burnt-out wreck of a government. It is a government in which the Prime Minister wanted to sack cabinet ministers he proved too weak to remove, and in which ministers wanted to remove a Prime Minister they were too spineless to sack; it is a government in which it would make their day if they could get rid of each other and it would make the country’s day if we could get rid of them all.We have a Prime Minister who accused David Cameron of seeking 10% cuts in public spending as if it was an outrage while his own Treasury documents showed he was planning those cuts himself, who now gets himself through the Labour Conference by promising more money he knows the country will not possess, who responded to the release of the Lockerbie bomber by say...