Conservative Party conference: George Osborne speech

Conservative Party conference: George Osborne speech; Osborne speech SOT - Vince Cable and I will do this together. I know that might surprise some of you. People said we wouldn't get on, that we'd trade cruel nicknames, that we would knife each other in the back, that we'd try to end each others' careers. Who do they think we are? Brothers? Together, Vince and I have started to open Britain for business. Labour's jobs tax abolished. Regulations scrapped. Common sense brought to health and safety. National Insurance cut for any new business in our regions. Corporation tax cut next year, and the year after that, and the year after that - and the year after that. Council tax frozen. Income tax thresholds raised for millions. And 800,000 people lifted out of tax altogether with more to come. These are achievements this coalition government can be proud of. But it's only the start. For here in Birmingham, let us reaffirm our commitment to business and enterprise and aspiration; Here in Birmingham, the City of a thousand trades. where Matthew Boulton and James Watt built the first industrial steam engine; where the greatest glass manufacturer of the age provided the four faces of Big Ben. Where Alexander Parkes invented plastic. Where the first public trial of a motor car took place in Cannon Hill Park. Here in this City of innovation let us find the inspiration to turn today's Britain into an ideas factory for the world. Innovative, ingenious and open for business. For the hard economic choices we make are but a means to an end. And that end is prosperity for all. Not from the quick fix of another debt bubble; Or by hitching the country's entire fortunes again to the City of London. Not growth confined to one corner of our country or one sector of our economy. But lasting, sustainable growth that will only come from releasing the aspirations of the whole British people. The foundations of a strong economy don't rest alone on the decisions of Chancellors or the spe...