Tony Blair's Bornemouth Speech

Open it up to competition so we can stop the consumer being ripped off.

And private capital alongside public investment. In transport, to read some of the papers you would think John Prescott had created Britain’s transport problems. Thanks to him, and the new Strategic Rail Authority, the next 10 years will see the largest investment in the railways for 100 years. Let’s be honest. When it comes to transport we are all the forces of conservatism. But the real anti-car policy is staying as we are.

Let us take on the forces of conservatism in education, too, the greatest liberator of human potential there is.

• No more nursery vouchers.
• No return to 11+.
• No freeze on student numbers in our universities.
• No more Assisted Places Scheme.
• Not the right. But not the old Left either: no tolerance of failing LEAs.
• No truce on failing schools.
• No pupils condemned to failure.

We owe it to every child to unleash their potential. They are of equal worth. They deserve an equal chance.

A failed education is a life sentence on a child.

If we are to succeed in the knowledge economy, we need – as parents, as teachers, as a country – to get a whole new attitude to learning.

What other country in the world sees being "too clever by half" as a fault?

In today’s world, there is no such thing as too clever. The more you know, the further you’ll go.

The forces of conservatism, the elite, have held us back for too long.

Why is it only now that we are getting nursery places for all three and four year olds?

Why has it taken this government to realise that 5, 6 and 7-year-olds need that extra attention that smaller classes give them?