John Major yesterday promised to lead Britain back to a traditional Conservative morality based on self-reliance, decency, the family and respect for the law.
Adopting a relaxed style and speaking without an autocue in a speech lasting just over an hour, he condemnd the destruction of communities since the fifties, claimed economic recovery was under way and offered reassurances over the Government's review of the welfare state. He also lectured his party to keep its internal disagreements private or face a return to opposition.
His speech was dominated by a very personal credo, in which he claimed many people, particularly older people, were bewildered and profoundly disturbed by 'a world that sometimes seems to be changing too fast for comfort, old certainties crumbling, traditional values falling away. Week after week, month after month, they see attacks on the very pillars of our society - the Church, the law and even the monarchy, as if 41 years of dedicated service was not enough. And they ask where is it going, why has it happened and above all, how can we stop it?
'Let me tell you what I believe. For two generations too many people have been belittling the things that made this country. We have allowed things to happen that we should never have tolerated. We have listened too often and too long to people whose ideas are light years away from common sense.
'In housing in the fifties in Britain and the sixties, we pulled down the terraces - destroyed whole communities and replaced them with tower blocks and we built walkways that became rat-runs for muggers. That was the fashionable opinion. But it was wrong.
'In our schools we did away with traditional subjects - grammar, spelling, tables, and the old ways of teaching them.
'Some said the family was out of date and that it was far better to rely on the council and social workers than family and friends. I passionately believe that was wrong.
'Others told us that every criminal needed treatment, not punishment. Criminal behaviour was society's fault, not the individual's. Fashionable, but wrong, very wrong.'
He said that on all these things 'received opinion, with the wisdom of hindsight, was wrong. We must have the courage to stand up and say so. And millions of people are longing to hear it. For you know, the truth is that, as much as things have changed on the surface, underneath we are still the same people'.
He said it was time to return to 'the old values of neighbourliness, decency and courtesy'. Yet, he complained 'somehow people felt embarrassed by them. They should not be. It is time to return to core values, time to get back to basics , to self-discipline and respect for the law, to consideration for the others, to accepting responsibility for yourself and your family - and not shuffling it off on other people and the state.'
I believe that what this country needs is not less conservatism. It is more Conservatism of the traditional kind that made us join this party. This week we have made a start. Now we must see it through. It is time to return to our roots.'
Mr Major began his speech with a clear assertion of his personal leadership of the Conservative Party, joking that as he walked around the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, he saw 'memoirs to the left of me, memoirs to the right of me, memoirs in front of me. Volley, volley and thunder. Let me say, I am not about to write my memoirs, not for a long time.
'There is a job to be done - a job of service to this nation and I believe in service. There is a job to be done, a job I was elected to do and I propose to go on doing it.'
The Conservative Party, he said, was like a family, and like every family it had its squabbles. 'I know our party. It can bear many things - unpopularity, deep controversy, set-backs, we have seen it all before. But there is one thing that demoralises our workers and breaks apart our support in the country, and that is disunity. We have always known where it leads - opposition, not just opposition at Westminster, but in the European Parliament, town halls, county halls.'
He conceded that the party must allow debate, but he went on: 'We must have our agreements in public and disagreements in private. And if agreement is impossible - and sometimes on great issues it is difficult, if not impossible - then I believe I have the right as Leader of this party to hear of that disagreement in private and not on television interviews outside the House of Commons.'
He then turned to the Gatt trade talks in which he has played a key role in trying to broker a deal. He said: 'We have battled to keep the world trade talks alive. Nothing will do more for growth and jobs than agreement in those talks. But if other governments don't play their part, if they don't face up to their domestic difficulties, the talks could collapse, and the dangers of that are devastating. They could unlock protectionism, poverty and unemployment on a scale we have not seen since the thirties. A great deal is at stake. We ought not be mealy-mouthed about the dangers. It's not a time for holding back.'
In a reference to the French, he said: 'So I must say to some of our European colleagues 'You're playing with fire', or to put it more bluntly: 'Get your tractors off our lawn'.'
He claimed the message from British business was that recovery is under way. 'The economy is growing. You may not see it yet, but it will show, and as the economy grows, the family budget will follow, so people have every reason to start feeling better again.
Praising manufacturing as one of Britain's greatest national assets, he claimed that for 'fourteen years Britain ago was going nowhere. Now it is going everywhere, and selling everywhere. Let's turn British inventions into British industries, British factories and British jobs. Let them make pounds for us, not dollars marks or yen for others.'
Turning to tax, the Prime Minister promised that the Conservatives would always be the party of low taxation: 'Come rain or shine, taxes will always be lower under us than any other kind of government.'
But he also pleaded with the party for support as the Government took hard decisions in this autumn's Budget. Mr Major said high income tax was no part of the party's programme but steered clear of making a commitment that it would not go up.
On education, the Prime Minister stressed the need to restore traditional teaching methods and said that the principle of testing was non-negotiable. 'What we do need are those simple paper and pencil tests which this party has always asked for and this is what John Patten is going to deliver'.
Mr Major poured particular scorn on a letter written by 500 university English teachers attacking the curriculum and criticising proposals to teach standard English, great literature and Shakespeare. Flourishing the letter, the Prime Minister said: 'What claptrap.' Then he added in language he said the university teachers might approve: 'Me and my party ain't going to take what them on the left says is OK. Right?'
On crime, he fully endorsed the new tough approach taken by the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, saying: 'We have tried understanding. We have tried persuasion. It hasn't worked.
'Policy has to be dictated by the need not by the number of prison places we happen to have available on any given day. If people deserve to be in prison, that's where they should be. Better the guilty behind bars than the innocent penned in at home.
'We're going to use science to catch the criminal and not let silence protect the criminal. For some, punishment seems to be a dirty word. Well, you'll find it in my dictionary.
'If we let young people think crime is a normal part of growing up, if we let them off with caution after caution, it's no wonder if they turn to bigger crimes later. If we extend leniency that far, we betray our children.'
Mr Major promised a crackdown on pornography, with possession of child pornography becoming a criminal offence, but he added: 'Fighting crime is not just a matter for the police or government. Governments cannot make people good. That is for parents, for churches for schools, for every single citizen. I simply don't accept that crime can be excused and under this Government I give you my word it never will be.'
After a prolonged attack on Labour and the Liberal Democrats the Prime Minister claimed not to be able to recognise much that was written in the media - 'hearing the news day after day is a voyage of discovery for me' - and urged party workers to deny stories of charging for hospital or doctors' visits or the closure of village post offices.
But Mr Major conceded the public concerns about VAT on fuel, saying: 'They think they're going to face massive rises. They aren't. The most vulnerable think they are going to be left without compensation. They aren't'
The Prime Minister promised a robust campaign for next year's European elections and, turning to Bosnia, made clear his distaste for Paddy Ashdown's repeated calls for military intervention. 'I will not ask a British soldier to risk leaving his mother without a son, his wife without a husband unless there is a real settlement. To intervene is to risk an intolerable number of British dead.
'I must think first of the lives of British soldiers and I will not put them at risk for the sake of talking big and striking attitudes. I will not rush into war. Emotion says yes. Logic says no. I say no.'
Mr Major promised support for Boris Yeltsin and democratic reform in Russia and then turning to Northern Ireland renewed the Conservatives' pledge to support the democratic wishes of the people of Ulster.
In a clear reference to the recent peace talks between John Hume and Gerry Adams, the Prime Minister promised not to negotiate with supporters of terrorism: 'No Government which I lead will negotiate with those who perpetrate or those who support the use of violence. There is only one message for them to send: 'We have finished with violence, for good . . . at the heart of our philosophy is an abiding belief in the right of the people of Northern Ireland to determine their own future.'
Returning to the theme of the need to restore old, commonsense British values, he added: 'We stand for self-reliances, decency and respect for others . . . We must go back to basics and the Conservative Party will lead the country back to those basics right across the board sound money, free trade traditional teaching respect for the family and the law.
He concluded with an appeal to party waverers and for activists to persuade floating voters to return to the fold. He ended: 'Thank you for something which has been quite fantastic, your loyalty to this party and your loyalty to me. Thank you.'