last 500 days. about the responsibilities of government. about the resilience of our party. the integrity of our members. about our determination to do the right thing. in government, every single day brings hard choices. you can quickly lose your way unless you are certain of your cause. of why you are there in the first place. every one of us in this hall has strong political convictions, civil liberties. internationalism. human rights. political reform. responsible capitalism. fighting climate change. but every one of us has a political passion too. the fire inside that drew us to politics in the first place. let me tell you what i care most about. my passion is ensuring a fair start for every child. i have a simple, unquenchable belief, that every child can do good things, great things if only we give them the opportunities they deserve equal opportunity. it sounds so simple doesn't it? everyone agrees with it. but then we allow prejudice, tradition and class to crush a million hopes and dreams, watch young children's lives go off track even before they go off to school, sit idly by while talent goes to waste. i know i have had all the advantages - good school, great parents. i was lucky. but it shouldn't be about luck. on saturday i met a group of young people working with a charity called uprising, here in birmingham. all from really difficult backgrounds. one young woman, chantal, told me that she only started to thrive when she found someone who believed in her. i want every child to believe in themselves. in terms of opportunity, we are a nation divided, children from a poor background a year behind in language skills before the age of five; more young black men in prisons than at russell group universities. and within one city, two nations, in hammersmith and fulham in west london, more than half the children leaving state schools head to a good university. just thirty minutes east - down the district line to tower hamlets - and just 4 percent do. odds stacked against too many of our children. a deep injustice, when birth is destiny. that's why i've been leading the charge for social mobility - for fairer chances, for real freedom. people keep telling me that it's too hard. that it's futile to push for fairness into the headwinds of an economic slow down, or that it will just take too long. and that i should find some politically convenient 'quick wins' instead. i've also encountered fierce resistance from those who do so well out of the status quo. but for liberals the only struggles worth having are the uphill ones. allowing schools to move poorer children up the queue for admissions. making universities open their doors to everyone. making firms work harder to get women on their boards. breaking open internships. all controversial. all difficult. not easy, but right. so i'm not backing down. i'm not slowing down. because this will not be a liberal nation until every citizen can thrive and prosper, until birth is no longer destiny, until every child is free to rise. this summer, we saw the consequences of a society in which some people feel they have no stake at all. nobody could fail to be horrified by what we saw during the riots. these weren't organised campaigns for change. they were outbursts of nihilism and greed. i'll never forget the woman i met in tottenham, who told me the clothes she stood in were all the possessions she had left in the world after her home was torched. but in every city where trouble broke out, most people did the right thing. so many more people went out to clean up the streets than went out to trash them. in manchester i met a café owner who boarded up her broken windows and started serving tea and coffee straight away to the people who were helping clear up. and here in birmingham the community stood together in the face of disorder and tragedy. or emergency services, our police and our courts all rose to the challenge. but we have to ensure that the offenders become ex-offenders for good. hree out of four had previous convictions. so we have to push ahead with the government's rehabilitation revolution, punishment that sticks, that changes behaviour. an end to the corrosive cycle of crime. and i want the criminal to look their victims in the eye to see the consequences of their actions, and to put it right. that's why there will be community payback projects in every city affected. why we are investing in drug recovery wings in our prisons. tackling gang culture. tougher community penalties. effective justice. restorative justice. liberal justice. but let me say something else, the rioters are not the face of britain's young people. the vast majority of our young people are good, decent and doing the best they can. don't condemn all of them because of the actions of a few. you know what really struck me? how so many of those who did join in the riots seemed to have nothing to lose. it was about what they could get, here and now. not what lies in front of them, tomorrow and in the years ahead. as if their own future had little value. too many of these young people had simply fallen through the cracks. not just this summer but many summers ago, when they lost touch with their own future. so often the people who have gone off the rails are the ones who were struggling years earlier, not least in making that critical leap from primary to secondary school. so today i am launching a new scheme to help the children who need it most. in the summer before they start secondary school. a two-week summer school helping them to catch up in maths and english, and getting them ready for the challenges ahead. we know this is a time when too many children lose their way, so this is a £50m investment to help them along the right path. and that is why we have found the money, even now, to invest in education. protecting the schools budget. a two and a half billion pound pupil premium by the end of the parliament. more investment in early years education, 15 hours for all three and four year-olds. new provision for the poorest two-year-olds. all steps towards a society where nobody is 'enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity'. towards a liberal society. these are investments that will take years or even decades to pay off. by the time the two year-olds we help next year come to vote, i'll be 60. so why are we doing it, when it costs so much and takes so long? because investing early makes such a huge difference, especially for the poorest children, not easy, but right. so hold your heads up and look our critics squarely in the eye. this country would be in deep trouble today if we had not gone into government last year. and britain will be a fairer nation tomorrow because we are in government today. never apologise for the difficult things we are having to do. we are serving a great country at a time of great need. there are no shortcuts, but we won't flinch. our values are strong. our instincts are good, reason not prejudice. compassion not greed. hope not fear. after the summer riots, message boards sprang up. they became known as 'peace walls'. and on the peace wall in peckham there was a note that simply read, our home. our children. our future. six words that say more than six hundred speeches. our home. our children. our future. britain is our home. we will make it safe and strong. these are our children. we will tear down every barrier they face. and this is our future. we start building it today. [applause] >> tomorrow on "washington journal" a look at the foreign policy views of the candidates with joshua keating, and after that eric ries with lean start up of how entrepreneurs are looking at successful businesses. and after that andrew sherrill on government spending. all live here on c-span. tomorrow on c-span an update on the training of afghanistan security forces with lieutenant from kabul. >> the c-span network, we provide coverage of politics and government affairs and the american history. this month look for congress to continue spending into november, and including national disasters, and keep a plan on the lowering of debt and campaigning across the country. available to you on radio, online and media sites, search at any time with c-span library. and we are on the road with c-span digital bus, and bringing events to the country. it's washington your way, creating by cable and provided as a public service. >> next remarks from presidential candidates, michele bachmann and mitt rom neechlt -- romney. this is about 30 minutes. >> hi, how are you. it's my pleasure to scombrus -- introduce to you our first speaker, aspiring to the highest office in the land. a champion fighting the good fight, and lonier voices. and has always been with us, and ladies and gentlemen there is such a thing as walking the walk. and one thing that inspires me is not just the rhetoric of the process and people that live the walk. and this mother of five children has put endless hours on the line to make america a better place and that's starting in the home. she's an accomplished tax attorney and great legislative leader, and frankly the only presidential candidate that has won a debate in iowa, give a welcome to the great michele bachmann. >> good morning. >> can you feel it? barack obama will a one-term president. and that road through the white house goes through the state of florida. and i know we can count on floridans and take the country back. right. my name is michele bachmann, i am running for republican presidential candidate for 2012, because i know we can turn the economy around. and you have my guarantee, i will not rest until we appeal obama care. we can do better. ronald reagan had a vision of limited government. that's who our founders gave to us. we are a constitutional republic. and we are proud of our constitutional republic. because of his vision, he was able to do the impossible. after jimmy carter did a number on our economy, ronald reagan came in with a completely different vision. you see there are two visions of our constitution. one is the real version of the constitution. which is a limited government with an enumerated powers. the other is an expansive view. the man that served longer than any other was a democrat that was franklin roosevelt. and he said to live under the united states constitution, he said it was the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written s -- written. is that what our constitution is? >> not at all. calvin coolidge had a different view, that it was the greatest privilege of any race to live under the constitution. that's my view too. [applause] >> in fact george washington said in his farewell address, the person who occupies the white house is given a trust. he didn't call it the presidency, executive trust. that's what you get to choose here in florida. you get to choose who you are going to entrust. the highest office in the land to take hold of this treasure, that was given to us 235 years ago. we are a tremendous nation. unlike any nation that has ever been berthed in the history of mankind. no other nation is given the debt -- depth and breadth of this nation. every generation has successfully forged -- ups and downs. every generation has faithfully transferred that torch and forged one more link on the chain till today we have been given this magnificent nation. but did you know for the first time in the history of the united states, parents are not sure if their children will have the same opportunity thas have. almost three out of four americans say that. for the first time in american history, that's a level that is unparreled. no wonder, when you look at what barack obama has done, his signature issue, obama care. it's been the greatest taker of any freedom of legislation. because the obama care covers us from cradle to grave. the government has dictate from cradle to grave. and that's why i was the first member of congress to introduce the full scale repeal of obama care. [applause] >> and that's why i am committed as a nominee of the republican party. i won't rest until i can elect 13 more like-minded united states senators. so we have a filibuster proof in the senate. and i am thinking, i am thinking on the pattern of a senator marco rubio, what do you think? that's what i want to do. i am committed. i am committed to seeing this done. that's what we have to have in our nominee. someone with the fire and and will vision to do this. and someone who sees the problem of our nation and sees the potential beauty. the challenges, what we can be. ronald reagan told us and reminded us of what john winthrop said in 1630. we are on that shining city on the hill. great -- greatness is what we were created to be, and a magnificent nation, and again this is what we can embrace if we have taleadership. -- that leadership. i know we can. and it's just not obama care but also in the issue of immigration. what we have seen with president obama, he's opened up our borders and not closed our borders. as president of the united states, i will build a fence on our southern borders against illegal immigration. and we will not have taxpayers subsubidized benefits for illegal immigrants or their children. with president obama we have seen him subject to crony capitalism. most recently in the example of salinda. how many of you have heard of this? this is one of the great benefits of the stimulus program. $535 million to go to a political donor of president obama. and you can also count on vice president joe biden to tell you the truth. and vice president joe biden said this about the loan guarantee program for salind aand it is that the stimulus was exactly what of stimulus program was all about. greed, grab and corruption. and now president obama is proposing a son of stimulus. stimulus i was bad enough, we don't need the sequel. and president obama wants to pay for this by taking away the mortgage tax deduction. taking away the charitable deduction and taking away the deduction of taxes we pay on state and local government. i a former tax litigation attorney, i have seen the taxes on job creation. i am a job creator, my husband and i started a company from scratch. job creation is a wonderful thing of this country, and profit is a good thing. you see there say difference in how we view the role of government. and that's why in this particular election, we have understand something extremely important as conservatives. every four years when we look at presidential race, we are repeatedly told as conservatives that we have stand next to the wall. or stand in the back of the room, because in that election we are told, we have to give the nomination to a moderate or to a safe candidate. in other words we are told that we have to settle. well, i am here to say to you, i have no doubt in my mind that president obama is now has one of the lowest job approval ratings of any president in modern times. and he hasn't reached the basement yet. his approval ratings are going lower. i have no doubt that president obama will be a one-term president. no doubt. as a matter of fact i say get ready, florida. you need to recruit candidates from everyone from the dog catcher to the city council to the school board to the state assembly to the senate. every candidate all the way up to the president of the united states. find the candidate that most reflects your values. who you believe will actually go to washington and change washington. and fight for what you believe. if there is any election where we conservatives don't settle, it's this election, this is the election when we can have it all. don't settle. have a candidate who is right on obama care. who is fought against obama care, who gets it that it's a job killer. and who gets that its stolen 500 billion out of medicare. and who gets the job killing aspect. ubs this week said that the number one reason we are not seeing employers hire people is because of obama care. i get that. we can't get rid of obama care with an executive order or waiver. it will never happen, you have to pull it out root and branch. otherwise we will have socialized medicine in this nation forever. you see 2012 is it. this is our only chance to get rid of this bill. or otherwise it will so metacitize into the united states fabric, we will never get rid of it again. . . that is what we need. it is not ashamed of a tea party. who is willing to stand up for the tea party. and believes we tax enough. if there is ever been a time where we do not settle we conservatives have to say no. this is our time. oure going to have nominees. let's take this movement of the way to 1600 pennsylvania ave. we can have it all. send a message. some of the country will send a message. we are going to take the country back. it is a one-term president. god bless you florida. i love you all. god bless you. thank you. >> we are great americans. it i have known him for a long time. he was traveling the country as chair of the republican governors association. they did do a great job. this is to help american be great. he is taking over as governor as the most complex liberal in the country to take on these challenges and offering himself for public service. he has been here a lot. we will be here a lot more. the saw him here last night. he's done a great job in taking this to the president. one of the leading contenders, i'm proud to call a friend, the governor mitt romney. >> good morning. there are few things i wanted to say this morning. thank you. what a terrific leader. florida is likely to have him as a leader. and see the family is here. congratulations. congrats to the leadership of florida. you have men and women who decided that you can balance the budget, not raise taxes, turned down federal money that has a federal strings attached to appear they had this upgraded. it was at the time that the nation was downgraded. florida was of great. i thought this morning i was talking a bit about what it is like going through the business world. ims all the time it is harder being in government than it is being in business. i'm sure you presume it is. it is harder doing what you do. if you make a mistake in job, you might lose your job. then you might end up losing your house. you could lose all their jobs. when some people messed up, the dim blame the opposition party. -- they didn't blame the opposition party. he does and how to lead our balance the balance sheet. in is how to campaign. at found some other differences. -- i have one is the use of data. in private sector, you look at numbers and try to figure out how the in former you're going to do. in government, they have tens of data. they produce mounds of information. they do not look at a. the best thing you can do to improve your schools is reduce the classroom size spirit does anyone -- classroom size. has anyone looked at the data? wii test our kids every year to see how they're doing. we could see the clash in size and how the kids are doing. there's no real/-- relationship at all. recruiting the best teachers in the world, making sure we evaluated our kids were doing. if the tanker graduation exam and pass it in the top quarter of those, you are entitled to four years' tuition freeze. other differences. there's competition that goes on in the row world. a lot of people on government do not understand that. we are in a competitive battle with other nations around the world. productive and imaginations in the world. they have the highest incomes and the world. we are in in competition. they were together to put trade agreement in place. we have to make this agreement work for us and not just the other guy. we a competing with china. you may have noticed. china is not playing by the rules. we have been letting them get away with it for over a decade. they manipulate their currency. what does that mean? they make their currencies seems like it is much less