The Conservative Party is a broad church, where beliefs span the political spectrum of centre right opinion. Conservatives, whether Margaret Thatcher, John Major or William Hague all believe that the best way of improving welfare is to create wealth. The best way to create wealth is to allow individuals the opportunity to develop, to create an economy where enterprise is encouraged and rewarded and allow people to experiment, to fail or to succeed. The state is not and cannot be the best judge of what is good for people and their families.

 The 1997 election taught us a hard lesson. We failed because we appeared to have stopped listening to people like you. People felt that there was a need for a change. They wanted a Government, which had our policies, but cared about people. That was us, but we did not realise it. The Labour Party adopted our policies, they looked and sounded united, they offered the change of government without the risk of a change in economic policies. After 18 years in Government the argument for change is very hard to overcome.

 We won the battle of ideas, but the battle for power was lost. We as the local Conservative Association are reshaping ourselves, looking to the future and working to ensure that this Labour Government listens to the people, acts in the national interest and builds on the successes of eighteen years of Conservative Government. The Labour Government has already shown examples of how arrogant and incompetent it is going to become. It is already showing that it lied to the people in order to win power.

 Ask the voters who voted Labour to stop Edgware General Hospital closing what they think of their MP now. Ask the mortgage payer. Ask those who contribute to a Private Pension fund. Ask the students going to University next year. Labour has betrayed us all.

 We face the prospect of broken promises on taxation. We all remember the Labour Party promises. No increase in taxes. They will stick to Conservative spending plans. After only two months in office they hit the taxpayer with a massive seventeen increases in tax.

To stop the Labour Government becoming too greedy and too all powerful, we as Party are rebuilding ourselves at the grass roots. We need people like you. We need people like you to help deliver leaflets, to help meet other people like you, to become Councillors and we need more people like you to become Members of Parliament.

We look forward to the Local Council Elections in May, 1998. Brent is a Borough, of which people can feel justifiably proud to live in. The diverse ethnic mix, the increasing level of prosperity and the regeneration programmes initiated under the Conservatives have created a new sense of civic pride. All of that is jeopardised by Labour incompetence at the Town Hall.

The Council Tax is up by nearly a quarter this year; the corruption and the destruction of basic services show just how bad Labour can be in Local Government. We will again embark on a programme of improving services, reducing the level of local taxation and recreating the feeling of civic pride.

 You can help play a major part in this.