DAVID Cameron will today say it is not experience but character and judgment that will see Britain through the current economic crisis and repair its broken society as he tries to pitch himself as a credible prime minister-in-waiting.
In his keynote address to the Conservative Party conference, he will throw back Gordon Brown's criticism of him as a novice, and argue the country needs change to deal with the difficult challenges ahead.
The Conservative conference was threatene
d with being overshadowed by Washington's failure to agree a rescue package for ailing banks, but today Mr Cameron will attempt to wrest back the spotlight and play up his credentials as the UK's future leader.
He will admit that if the Tories win the next election they will inherit a huge deficit and "an economy in a mess" and that the party would need to do unpopular things for the long-term good of the country.
"To do difficult things for the long term, or even to get us through the financial crisis in the short term, it's not experience we need, it's character and judgment," he will say.
"To rebuild our economy, it's not more of the same we need, but change. To repair our broken society, it's not more of the same we need, but change.
"Experience is the argument of the incumbent over the ages. Experience is what they always say when they try to stop change."
The Tory leader promised yesterday the Conservatives will "not play politics" with the global economic crisis and pledged to back Mr Brown's bid to ride out the economic crisis.
In an emergency statement to conference, Mr Cameron said he would drop his objections to Labour's banking legislation and support the government as opposition politicians headed to the Treasury for crisis talks.
He said: "Today is a time for us to send a clear message to our political opponents and to our country: let us not allow the political wrangling that took place in America happen here in our own country."
He said the Conservatives would back emergency legislation on Monday when Parliament returns from its three-month recess.
The Tories had previously opposed the government's desire to have the Financial Services Authority pull the trigger to rescue a bank, arguing that it should be the Bank of England instead.
But Mr Cameron said that he would now drop his objection to this to ensure rapid passage of the bill.
The full article contains 418 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
