Oliver Letwin: A real programme for green growth and energy security

It's a real pleasure to be able to talk with Caroline and Greg - not about what we would do if we were in the government, but about what we are doing now we are in government.

Of course, our government is a coalition - and we are working with Liberal ...

Oliver Letwin: The right kind of regulation

Arguably, the biggest failures of the last eleven years have been failures of regulation. Some of these failures have been failures of under-regulation.

Notoriously, bank lending has been under-regulated. Equitable Life was under-regulated. Haringey children's services department has been under-regulated.

But other failures have been failures of over-regulation.

Doctors ...

Letwin: Cameron Conservatism

Speech to Policy Exchange

Do Cameron Conservatives have a theory?

This is not, of course, the same as asking whether Cameron Conservatism is theory-driven.

Like any distinctively Conservative discourse, Cameron Conservatism is radically pragmatic rather than radically dogmatic. It is a practical response to felt need - a balanced answer to ...

Letwin: A government that opens opportunity not that directs society

Speech at Policy Exchange, London

"I want to speak today about where Conservative policy comes from and about where it is going.

But, before I do that, I want to begin by saying how refreshing it is to find myself here, making this speech.

Policy Exchange was founded by my ...

Letwin: Healthy cities, healthy countryside

Speech to the Environmental Services Association

"Every year, 21 square miles of countryside, an area larger than Slough, disappears under new development.

As if that were not enough, the Government's Barker Review proposes that the equivalent of 26 towns the size of Slough should be built by 2020.

The ...

Letwin: Conducting Politics as if Beauty Matters

Speech to the Centre for Social Justice

"This year will be seen by many environmentalists and by many politicians as the year of big issues for the environment.

It is the year when the Prime Minister has put the environment on the agenda of the G8. It is the year ...

Letwin: Delivering value for money and lower taxes

Speech at election rally in Newquay

"When Michael gave me this job, he told me I had to deliver value for money and lower taxes.

And he means it: because he's determined to reward people who work hard, who help themselves and who do the right thing.

If I ...

Letwin: Idealism without illusions

A Conservative vision for international development

Speech at Conservative Campaign Headquarters

In the last two weeks, images of the Indian Ocean catastrophe have filled our screens and stuck in our minds.

But when the TV crews move on and the scenes of devastation fade from memory, the everyday catastrophe of ...

Letwin: We have paid all the taxes. Where has all the money gone?

Response to the Pre-Budget Report in the House of Commons

"The Prime Minister's friend, Commissioner Mandelson recently warned the Chancellor against 'exaggerated gloating.' The Chancellor doesn't seem to have heeded his advice. He prefers to slide over the inconvenient facts.

He didn't take much time discussing the ...

Letwin: The moral case for lower taxation

Speech to Centre for Policy Studies fringe meeting at Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth

"I want today to make a simple argument.

The directors of a public limited company have a duty to their shareholders to ensure that the shareholders' money is well spent.

The trustees of a charity have ...

Letwin: Action on tax

Speech to Conservative Party Conference 2004

"Do you remember?

Do you remember when Tony Blair offered us a new kind of politics? Do you remember that?

Well, we've had a new kind of politics.

It's a kind of politics where nobody any longer trusts a word that politicians ...

Oliver Letwin: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin argues that our obsession with minimising rsik is turning us into a cowardly society

"Every year the city of Pamplona holds its famous bull run.

Thousands of people sprint through the streets, chased by six angry bulls.

It is, of course, very dangerous - both for the ...

Brown's Big Government is bad for our mortgages and bad for our economy

Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin asks why Gordon Brown is ignoring the Bank of England's warning that his spending spree is causing the economy to overheat.

In the countryside, there is a proverb about the weather: red sky at night, shepherds' delight; red sky in the morning, shepherds' warning.

In ...

Letwin: Mr Brown's big government

Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin sets out how and why Gordon Brown has managed to spend vast sums of taxpayers' money without achieving commensurate improvements in public services.

"During the last two weeks, Michael Howard, Andrew Lansley and Tim Collins set out how we will give the people the Right to ...

Letwin: The Scottish economy and public services

Speech to Scottish Conservative Party Conference, Dundee

"I ought to begin by admitting that I got here on the cheap.

I was collected from the airport by Chris Bates, the Agent for Dumfries. It didn't cost the taxpayer a penny.

If I'd been one of the Ministers in ...

Letwin: The problems of household debt cannot be ignored

Last November I gave a speech entitled Towards a Saving Society.

At that time net lending to individuals stood at £916 billion, having broken through the £900 billion barrier the month before.

The figure now stands at £956 billion, and will, on current trends, break through the £1 trillion barrier ...

Letwin: Government regulations are strangling British business

Is Britain the best place in the world to do business? When I discovered that this would be the opening question of this morning's session, the story of Mr Nicholas Hamilton came to mind.

Mr Hamilton runs a business from a small village in my West Dorset constituency. He ...

Letwin: Three Nations

The proliferation of means-tested benefits is fostering the existence of three nations in Gordon Brown's Britain, says Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin

"The Social Chancellor…

The title of Chancellor of the Exchequer has a long history - one peculiar to this nation.

In other nations, the Chancellor's opposite number usually ...

Letwin: Trusting people to get on with their lives

Speech to Conservative Party Spring Conference 2004

"This country is top-heavy.

In a top-heavy country, bureaucracy and regulation weigh down on people, holding people back, and preventing people from controlling their own lives.

In a top-heavy country, bureaucracy tells people which hospital they have to go for treatment, which school ...

Letwin: Productivity and Competitiveness

Speech to Conservative Mainstream

"Do you recall how often the Chancellor used to talk about the crucial importance of the competitiveness and productivity of the UK economy?

He used to talk about it all the time. For reasons I'll come onto in a minute - he doesn't mention it ...

Letwin: Avoiding Labour's Third Term Tax Rises

Speech to the Bow Group outlining the Conservatives' Medium Term Expenditure Strategy

When Britain's sea power was in its prime, Samuel Pepys ran our Navy almost single-handed.

In succeeding centuries, the gradual, and apparently inevitable establishment of a vast bureaucratic machine turned government into something that Pepys would not ...

Letwin: We will simplify Gordon Brown's complex tax system

Speech to Politeia

I have to begin with an apology. This is not the speech you were expecting or hoping to hear.

That speech is about tax and spend - the level of government spending and the level of tax. That speech is in February.

This speech in January is about ...

Letwin: Towards a saving society

Is Britain sinking under a sea of debt?

Speech to the Centre for Policy Studies

Ladies and gentlemen, our green and pleasant land is in the red.

According to the Bank of England, household debt is at record levels.

In September of this year total lending to individuals passed through ...

Letwin: A fair deal on crime means neighbourhood policing

Speech to Conservative Party Conference 2003

"Our debate today has been about something that has a real effect on our lives, and on the lives of our fellow citizens up and down this land.

It has been about millions of people who haven't had a fair deal.

It has ...

Letwin: Government should be focused on strengthening volunteering

Speech to the National Volunteering Convention at the Britannia Hotel, Canary Wharf

In a speech given at Toynbee Hall last year, Iain Duncan Smith described Britain's intractable social problems as "five giants" - an echo of William Beveridge's famous words. Since Beveridge's time the giants have changed, but ...

Letwin: Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

Speech to the British Sikh Federation

The Sikhs and the CRE

Some months ago, I was visited by a senior delegation of British Sikhs, many of whom are here this afternoon.

I was astonished to learn that as far as the Commission for Racial Equality was concerned, the Sikhs almost ...

Letwin: Primary policing - the Conservative vision

Speech to the Police Superintendents' Conference, Newport

This is an age in which the worst insult you can hurl at someone in my profession is "politicians are all the same."

I'd like to use this speech to argue against that. Politicians are not all the same. If only because ...

Letwin: the Conservative Party has to be the party of the inner cities

Speech in Brixton at the Ritzy Cinema

Some time ago, I made a speech about how we aspire to prevent crime in our inner cities. Instead of asking what were the causes of crime, I asked what are the causes of the neighbourly society?

I argued that a strong neighbourly ...

Letwin: The easy case - rebalancing the weight of authority

Respect for authority is being undermined because criminals are walking free while the law-abiding majority is considered an easy target for police and bureaucrats, says Oliver Letwin

Back in February I gave a speech on the retreat of civilisation in Britain's most vulnerable neighbourhoods. I told the story of ...

Letwin: E pluribus unum - agreeing to differ

Speech on Conservative philosophy on race and religion

We are in the midst of war, alas it is a war that has brought to the nation's attention deep and striking differences of view. A society without differences would be a society without argument, without intellectual vitality, without passion - so ...

Letwin: Policing Britain properly

Speech to Conservative Spring Conference

On our minds today, we have two great matters: the war with Iraq and the threat of terrorism in this country. But we cannot allow these matters to prevent us from considering the abiding problems of our society - in particular, the problems of crime and ...

The Retreat from Civilisation

I've entitled this lecture The Retreat From Civilisation. Some of my critics may look no further than that and write off what I have to say as exaggeration. Yes, there is something grandiloquent about those words - as if they'd been lifted from a Cecil B. De Mille epic ...

Letwin: Helping Young People Off The Conveyor Belt To Crime

Speech to Conservative Party Conference 2002

Our mission

Three weeks ago, Debbie Scott, who just spoke so passionately, introduced me to a remarkable young man.

He came from a troubled family in an inner city. By the age of nine, he had joined a local gang. He graduated through petty ...

Letwin: Asylum crisis - Detente will deter

Today, the Home Secretary is due to meet his French counterpart to discuss the controversial Sangatte refugee camp. My message is clear: it's time to sign a new bilateral agreement with France on asylum.

The British people are decent and tolerant, with a history of welcoming genuine refugees fleeing ...

Letwin: Sustainability and society

Speech to the Adam Smith Institute

Society and the State

Conservatives are sometimes accused of lacking ideas. But like London buses two Conservative ideas are arriving in a pair this evening. Tonight I want to present and unpack two ultimately inseparable ideas. The ideas of sustainability and society.

My essential ...

Letwin: A new approach is needed to youth offending

Speech to the Centre for Policy Studies

1. The neighbourly society versus the destructive society

Earlier this year in a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies I observed that growing up in Britain sweeps up many children on a conveyor belt of crime without offering any exit routes. This ...

Letwin: We will take young criminals off the conveyor belt to crime

Speech to Conservative Spring Forum 2002

Almost every day our newspapers and televisions carry stories of horrific crimes.

Almost every day we hear the anguished voices of these victims of crime asking what is to be done.

The failure to tackle crime has given rise to pessimism and despair.

I ...

Letwin: We must reclaim the streets for the honest citizen

Speech to Conservative Mainstream

The Frontline Against Fear: Taking Neighbourhood Policing Seriously

Introduction

In this speech I intend to set out a vision for the future of policing. But before I describe that vision, I want to say something about our overall philosophy on law and order.

The neighbourly society ...

Letwin: The choice before our young people is between crime and participation in the neighbourly society

Speech by Shadow Home Secretary, Oliver Letwin, to the Centre for Policy Studies (6th Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture)

"Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime"

With these words, Tony Blair moved Labour ahead on the issue of law and order. It was, perhaps, the single most effective sound ...

Letwin: Laws must allow us to remove people who threaten our safety

In a speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool today, Shadow Home Secretary, Oliver Letwin MP said:

"I am grateful to all those who have taken part in our discussion this morning.

I wish we had been able to have a different discussion.

I wish we had been able ...