David Cameron's conference speech - live stream from 11.15am today

oliver How can you possibly make an informed decision if you don't listen to all the parties?

It was Chapstick. That and creating a benefits system which outweighs lower level earnings and low wages paid by employers bolstered by tax credits etc.

Rather than keeping wages apace with real living costs and also inflating housing costs based on incomes shored up with tax credits etc. so people felt they could afford the inflated prices. Didn't they learn anything from the '80's??

The bubble had to burst. Outgoings cannot forever exceed incoming funds. But socialists will insist on the state borrowing to inflate the standard of living.

Benefits first and foremost should ensure no one is homeless, hungry or cold. Any system which fails at that fails overall. I include in that putting families in crappy accommodation instead of freeing up larger council houses with single older residents. Private owners move later in life all the time!!

I say this as someone lucky enough to pay a lot in tax and who agrees no benefit should be universal.

We have had to trim the fat from our life style due to increased taxes and living costs but we had fat to trim. I am under no illusions others do not have anything left to give.

That said I think Milliband forgot that borrowing money they can't pay back isn't accepted on the global stage anymore. Wake up Millband it's 2012 not 2002. Change your ideas man. Your last lot didn't work out so well.

I'm not sure either chipstick :S I'm pro grammar schools myself although am concerned that while we don't provide proper non-academic skills training to those who do not pass an 11 plus the rest would end up on a great big scrapheap.

I dont profess to know my history on politics but wasnt it labour who got rid of grammar schools?

The Tories do not demonise high earners and neither do Labour. A bit more pressure on them rather than tax CUTS would not go amiss. They can take it; they're rich already.

Class war?! what rubbish. We have it already: a war against the poor.

That doesn't mean we need the tax receipts any less though! The example you give is a flaw in the benefits system, not the tax system, isn't it? And if we want a better benefits system, someone has to pay for it.

I think most people regardless of party wants a good benefits system that incentives people to work. Isn't the whole point of universal credit to avoid things like this?

Don't get me wrong, lots of things about this government I don't like (reducing abortion limit, limiting number of children you can claim for, cutting benefits for under 25s) but I don't think demonisation of high earners is any better than demonisation of the working classes. Both of the main try to engender class war as means of gaining votes - we shouldn't get drawn in. I would just like evidenced based policymaking, couldn't give a stuff which party it is.

Claig - I think the fact Cameron has lived with close family with disability makes his policies even more sickening and simply demonstrates how shielded by wealth he is.

There's another weird stat I found recently - something about only two people are responsible for paying the lion's share of taxes contributed by all the UK billionaires put together. Think one was JK Rowling. Basically all the other billionaires are 'minimising their tax bills'* and leaving far less well paid people to pick up the slack.

• If someone on benefits was doing it, it'd be called cheating, of course. But because it's a rich person paying lawyers and accountants, it's all fine. Apparently.

He has nothing to say that will interest me.

Listening to him will just make me feel ill.

He disgusts me to be honest.

Ladystark - that sounds impressive but actually all it means is 'people who earn the most have the most'. Yet actually the highest marginal rate of taxes are inflicted on the extremely low paid. Very low earners who may have something like 85p in every pound deducted once they start earning over a tiny amount - something like £70 a week.

I agree social mobility is none existent. My parents and myself have benefited hugely from social mobility offered by state education. Grammer Schools. That is the foundation of our social mobility from miners 2 generations ago.

IMO what's really killing aspiration in this country is that it's clear to most that social mobility is non-existent, and we're not doing well with inclusion either.

Just a couple of points, firstly, it's a mid term conference speech. Not many people a) care or b) will remember.

It's also worth noting that the top 1% of earners contribute 30% of income tax revenue. Whilst we should be fair, we shouldn't be whacking higher earners anymore in my opinion.

Hehe chipstick. I am a demon speller but this ghastly device has ruined it all!! It 'corrects' my words to incorrect spellings and capitalises everything! Yet I can't live without it and spend the evening chained to the thing! No good!

domestic I cant spell, sometimes i set out a post and then have to cancel it because the red spellcheck thing on here is all over the place, so my kids wonderful clever brains dont come from me so the illiterate lecturer is wasted on me.

threesocks is right. Appalling but true - Cameron pretended that having a severely disabled son meant he was not a 'nasty' Tory of the kind Teresa May described but someone who understood what it was like to be vulnerable and to rely on public services.

The minute he came to power, he started attacking kids like Ivan and their families. His government's treatment of disabled people would be disgusting whoever was involved - but in his case it's the most hideous betrayal.

Btw before people start exclaiming about the illiterate lecturer, it's the bloody iPhone auto 'correcting' everything!

Ttosca unfortunately claig is right here. They'd all have done the same. Labour originally tripled the fees. Please bear in mind im a university lecturer and about as un Tory as its possible to be: but two party politics is no use here. It just buys into the cheap politics of blame which is finishing the country off. And which the Tories ATM are milking for all they are worth.

offensive terms aside.
I see that DC won the sympathy vote.
strange that he can bring up his disabled relatives.
and still cut all the resources disabled people need.

Some things written on this thread are vile. Its hateful, bitter and cheap.

The Cameron's have experienced the emotional hurt of loosing their child and dealing with his severe disabilities. They relied on the NHS. Why is it ever OK to minimise their suffering because they are rich which is really what some posters are saying.

Why, given everyone knows about Ivan, do people think Cameron has never suffered grief in his life just because he's rich? Talk about inverted snobbery. It's disgusting to read.

Rubbish speech but he's not an evil person just because he believes in a small state sector versus private sector. That's politics not morality.

I am not a fan but all of you posting "rich fuckers" comments take a look to see who's really killing aspiration in the UK.

Well it's better than being a f*er

You're such a sucker, claig.

I agree that DC's experience of having a disabled child is not the same as many people's all over the country - he would have never had to worry about respite care or money or not being able to work because you have to look after your disabled child or any of the things that 'ordinary' people have to worry about.

However the 'wheeling out the dead baby' comment is fucking vile and you should be ashamed of yourself. Ivan was his son and he was talking about him in the context of how the paralympics has changed the way many people see disability.

The lengths that some people will stoop in order to get their hatred of the tories across is astonishing.

domestic, I am against tuition fees and would like free university education like they have in Scotland, as far as I understand.

But let's not kid ourselves that this is just a Tory policy. It was New Labour who introduced tuition fees, and I don't believe that they would have kept them at their figure of £3000 per annum. They "are all in it together", this policy has long been planned and the yah boo antics are just a charade.