The speech made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 6 October 2021.
Isn’t it amazing to be here in person
the first time we have met since you defied the sceptics by winning councils and communities that Conservatives have never won in before – such as Hartlepool
in fact it’s the first time since the general election of 2019 when we finally sent the corduroyed communist cosmonaut into orbit where he belongs
and why are we back today
for a traditional Tory cheek by jowler?
It is because for months we have had one of the most open economies and societies
and on July 19 we decided to open every single
theatre and every concert hall and night club in England
and
we knew that some people would still be anxious
so we sent top government representatives to our sweatiest boites de nuit to show that anyone could dance
perfectly safely
and wasn’t he brilliant my friends?
let’s hear it for Jon Bon Govi
living proof that we, you all
represent the most jiving hip happening and generally funkapolitan party in the world
and how have we managed to open up
ahead of so many of our friends?
You know the answer, its
because of the roll-out of that
vaccine
a UK phenomenon
the magic potion invented in oxford university
and bottled in wales
distributed at incredible speed to vaccination centres everywhere
I saw the army in action in Glasgow
firing staple guns like carbines as they set up a huge vaccination centre
and in Fermanagh I saw the needles go in like a collective sewing machine
and they vaccinated so rapidly that we were able to
do those crucial groups one to four
the oldest and most vulnerable faster than any other major economy in the world
and though the disease has sadly not gone away the impact on death rates has been astonishing
and I urge you all to get your jabs because every day our vaccine defences are getting stronger and stronger
and you, all of you, and everybody watching made this roll-out possible
you each made each other safe
so perhaps we should all thank each other
go on – try a cautious fist bump
because it’s ok now
and we in turn thank the
volunteers, the public health workers, the council workers
the pharmacists
but above all our untiring unbeatable unbelievable NHS
and as a responsible conservative government we must recognise the sheer scale of their achievement
but recognise also the scale of the challenge ahead
The NHS
When I was lying in St Thomas’s hospital last year l looked blearily out of my window at a hole in the ground
between my ICU and another much older Victorian section
and amid the rubble of brick they seemed to be digging a hole for something or indeed someone – possibly me
but the NHS saved me
and our wonderful nurses pulled my chestnuts out of Tartarean pit
and the other day I went back on a visit
and I saw that the hole had been filled in
with three or four gleaming storeys
of a new paediatrics unit
and there you have the metaphor my friends for how to build back better now
we have a huge hole
in the public finances
We spent £407 bn on covid support
and our debt now stands at over two trillion pounds
and waiting lists will almost certainly go up before they come down
covid pushed out a great bow wave of cases
people did not or could not seek help
and that wave is now coming back
a tide of anxiety washing into every A and E and every GP
your hip replacement
your mother’s surgery
and this is the priority of the British people
does anyone seriously imagine that we should not now be raising the funding to sort this out
is that really the view of responsible conservatives?
I can tell you something
Margaret Thatcher would not have ignored this meteorite that has just crashed through the public finances
she would have wagged her finger and said more borrowing now is just higher interest rates and even higher taxes later
when this country was sick our NHS was the nurse
frontline health care workers
battled against a new disease
selflessly
risking their lives sacrificing their lives
and it is right that this Party that has looked after the NHS for most of its history
should be the one to rise to the challenge
48 new hospitals
50,000 more nurses
50m more GP appointments
40 new diagnostic centres
and fixing those backlogs with real change
because the pandemic not only put colossal pressure on the NHS
it was a lightning flash illumination of a problem we have failed to address for decades
Fixing Social Care
In 1948 this country created the National Health Service but kept social care local
and though that made sense in many ways generations of older people have found themselves
lost in the gap
when covid broke there were 100,000 beds in the NHS
– and 30,000 occupied by people who could have been cared for elsewhere
whether at home or in residential care
and we all know that this problem of delayed discharge is one of the major reasons why
it takes too long to get the hospital treatment that your family desperately need
and people worry that they will be the one in ten
to suffer from the potentially catastrophic cost of dementia
wiping out everything they have
and preventing them from passing on anything to their families
and we Conservatives stand by those who have shared our values
thrift and hard work
and who face total destitution in this brutal lottery
of old age
in which treatment for cancer is funded by the state
and care for alzheimers is not – or only partly
and to fix these twin problems of the NHS and social care
we aren’t just going to siphon billions of new taxes into crucial services
without improving performance
we will
use new technology so that there is a single set of electronic records as patients pass between health and social care
improving care
and ensuring that cash goes to the frontline
and not on needless bureaucracy
When I stood on the steps of Downing Street I promised to fix this crisis
and after decades of drift and dither
this reforming government
this can do government
this government that got brexit done
that is getting the vaccine rollout done
is going to get social care done
and we are dealing with the biggest underlying issues of our economy and society
the problems that no government has had the guts to tackle before
and I mean the long term structural weaknesses
in the UK economy
It is thanks to that vaccine roll-out that we now have the most open economy and the fastest growth in the G7
we have unemployment two million lower than forecast
We have demand surging
and I am pleased to say that after years of stagnation – more than a decade – wages are going up
faster than before the pandemic began
and that matters deeply
because we are embarking now on a change of direction that has been long overdue
in the UK economy
we are not going back to the same old broken model
with low wages
low growth
low skills
and low productivity
all of it enabled and assisted by uncontrolled immigration
and the answer to the present stresses and strains
which are mainly a function of growth and economic revival
is not to reach for that same old lever of uncontrolled immigration
to keep wages low
the answer is to control immigration
to allow people of talent to come to this country
but not to use immigration as an excuse for failure to invest
in people, in skills
and in the equipment the facilities the machinery they need to do their jobs
the truckstops – to pick an example entirely at random – with basic facilities where you don’t have to urinate in the bushes
and that is the direction in which this country is going now
towards a high wage
high skill
high productivity
and yes, thereby low tax economy
that is what the people of this country need and deserve
in which everyone can take pride in their work and in the quality of their work
and yes it will take time
and yes it will sometimes be difficult
but that was the change that people voted for in 2016
and that was the change they voted for again powerfully in 2019
and to deliver that change we will get on with our job
of uniting and levelling up across the UK
the greatest project that any government can embark on
We have one of the most imbalanced societies and lop-sided economies
of all the richer countries
it is not just that there is a gap between London and the South east and the rest of the country
there are aching gaps within the regions themselves
what monkey glands are they applying in Ribble Valley
what royal jelly are they eating
that they live seven years longer than the people of Blackpool
only 33 miles away
Why does half of York’s population boast a degree and only a quarter of Doncaster’s
This is not just a question of social justice
it is an appalling waste of potential
and it is holding this country back
because there is no reason why the inhabitants of one part of the country should be geographically fated to be poorer than others
or why people should feel they have to move away from their loved ones, or communities to reach their potential
When Thomas Gray stood in that country churchyard in 1750 and wrote his famous elegy
as the curfew tolled the knell of parting day
he lamented
the wasted talents of those buried around him
the flowers born to blush unseen
the mute inglorious miltons who never wrote a poem
because they never got to read
the simple folk who died illiterate and innumerate
and he knew that it was an injustice
let me ask you, maybe you know
where was he standing when he chewed his pensive quill ? Anybody know
Correct, thank you, he was standing in Stoke poges
my friends there may be underprivileged parts of this country but stoke poges is not now among them
in fact it was only recently determined by the Daily Telegraph
and if you can’t believe that, what can you believe my friends
to be the 8th richest village in England
since gray elegised, Buckinghamshire has levelled up to be among the most productive regions in the whole of Europe
Stoke Poges may still of course have its problems
but they are the overwhelmingly caused the sheer lust of other people to live in or near Stoke Poges
overcrowded trains
endless commutes
too little time with the kids
the constant anxiety that your immemorial view of chalk downland is going to be desecrated by ugly new homes
and that is why levelling up works for the whole country
and is the right and responsible policy, because it
helps to take the pressure off parts of the overheating South East
while simultaneously
offering hope and opportunity to those areas that have felt left behind
and let us be clear that there is a huge philosophical difference between us and labour
because in their souls they don’t like levelling up
they like levelling down they do
they like decapitating the tall poppies and taxing the rich till the pips squeak
they dislike academic competition latin I hear
and in Islington – I kid you not I have seen it with my own eyes – they like kids to run races where nobody actually wins
and I have to tell you I don’t believe that is a good preparation for life
let alone for the Olympic games
and if you insist on the economic theory behind levelling up
it is contained in the insight of Wilfredo Pareto
a 19th century Italian figre who floated from the cobwebbed attic of my memories
that there are all kinds of improvements
you can make to people’s lives he said
without diminishing anyone else
Rishi will I am sure confirm this
and we call these pareto improvements
and they are the means of levelling up
and the idea in a nutshell it is that you will find talent genius flair imagination enthusiasm everywhere in this country all of them evenly distributed
but opportunity is not
and it is our mission as conservatives to promote opportunity
with every tool we have
and it is still a grim fact that in this country
that some kids will grow up in neighbourhoods that are safer than others
and some will be, as Priti was saying, some will be sucked into gangs
and some will be at risk of stabbing and shooting
and some will get themselves caught in the one way ratchet of the criminal justice system
and many others will not
that’s why levelling up means fighting crime
putting more police out on the beat as we are
and toughening sentences
and rolling up the county lines drugs networks as we are
1100 gone already
and giving the police the powers they need
to fight these dealers in death and misery that’s what we want to do
– and what is Labour’s answer, by the way –
to decriminalise hard drugs apparently
to let the gangsters off with a caution
an answer that is straight from the powder rooms of the North London dinner parties
and nothing to do with the real needs of this country
crime has been falling
and not just by the way because we took the precaution of locking up the public for much of the last 18 months
but because you have a conservative government that understands the broken windows theory of crime
I read a learned article by some lawyer saying we should not bother about pet theft
Well I say to Cruella de Vil QC – if you can steal a dog or a cat
then there is frankly no limit to your depravity
and you know those people gluing themselves to roads
I don’t call them legitimate protestors
like some Labour councillors do I, some Labour councillors actually glue themselves to roads
I say they are a confounded nuisance who are blocking ambulances, stopping people go about their daily lives
and I am glad Priti is taking new powers to insulate them snugly in prison where they belong
what I found most incredible of all was the decision by Labour
now led by lefty Islington lawyers
to vote against tougher sentences for serious sexual and violent offenders
and on behalf of the entire government I tell you
we will not rest until we have increased the successful prosecutions for rape
because too many lying bullying cowardly men are using the law’s delay
to get away with violence against women
and we cannot and we will not stand for it
and I know that there are some who now tell us that we are ungenerous and unfeeling in our attempts to control our borders
and I say – don’t give me that
This is the government that stood up to China and announced that we would provide a haven for British overseas nationals in Hong Kong
30,000 have already applied
and I am really proud to be part of a Conservative government that will welcome 20,000 Afghans
people who risked their lives to guide us and translate for us
we are doing the right and responsible thing
and speaking as the great grandson of a Turk who fled in fear of his life I know that this country is a beacon of light and hope for people around the world
provided they come here legally
provided we understand who they are and what they want to contribute
and that is why we took back control of our borders
and will pass the borders bill
because we believe there must be a distinction between someone who comes here legally and someone who doesn’t
and though I have every sympathy with people genuinely in fear of their lives
I have no sympathy whatever
with the people traffickers who take thousands of pounds
to send children to sea in frail and dangerous craft
and we must end this lethal trade
we must break the gangsters’ business model
and is it not a sublime irony that even in French politics there is now a leading centre right politician calling for a referendum on the EU
Who is now calling for France to reprendre le controle??
it’s good old Michel Barnier
that’s what happens if you spend a year trying to argue with Lord Frost
the greatest frost since the great frost of 1709
and we will fight these gangs at home and abroad
because their victims are invariably the poorest and the neediest
and I will tell you what levelling up is
a few years ago they started a school not far from the Olympic park
a new school that anyone could send their kids to
in an area that has for decades been one of the most disadvantaged in London
that school is Brampton Manor academy and it now sends more kids to Oxbridge than Eton
and if you want proof of what I mean by unleashing potential
and by levelling up
look at Brampton Manor
and we can do it
There is absolutely no reason why the kids of this country should lag behind
or why so many should be unable to read and write or do basic mathematics at the age of 11
and to level up
– on top of the extra 14 bn we’re putting into education
and on top of the increase that means every teacher starts with a salary of £30k
we are announcing a levelling up premium of up to £3000 to send the best maths and science teachers to the places that need them most
and above all we are investing in our skills, skills folks
our universities are world beating, I owe everything to my tutors and they are one of the great glories of our economy
but we all know that some of the most brilliant and imaginative and creative people in Britain
and some of the best paid people in Britain
did not go to university
and to level up you need to give people the options
the skills
that are right for them
and to make the most of those skills and knowledge
and to level up you need urgently to
plug all the other the gaps in our infrastructure that are still holding people and communities back
As I’ve been saying over this wonderful conference to you
when I became leader of this party, there were only, can you remember, what percentage of households had gigabit broadband when you were so kind as to make me leader? 7 percent, only 7 percent
and by the new year that will be up to 68 per cent
thanks to Rishi’s superdeduction the pace is now accelerating massively
as companies thrust the fibre-optic vermicelli in the most hard to reach places
it’s wonderful, for years SNP leader Ian Blackford has been telling the Commons that he is nothing but a humble crofter on the isle of Skye
well now we have fibre optic broadband of very high quality that we can inspect the library or is it perhaps the billiard room of Ian Blackford’s croft
and that is levelling up in action
and my friends it is not good enough just to rely on zoom
after decades of ducked decisions
our national infrastructure is way behind some of our key competitors
It is a disgrace that you still can’t swiftly cross the pennines by rail
a disgrace that leeds is the largest city in Europe with no proper metro system
a waste of human potential that so many places are not served by decent bus routes
transport is one of the supreme leveller-uppers
and we are making the big generational changes shirked by previous governments
we will do Northern Powerhouse rail
we will link up the cities of the midlands and the north
we will restore those sinews of the union that have been allowed to atrophy
the A1 north of Berwick and on into Scotland
the A 75 in Scotland that is so vital for the links with northern Ireland and the rest of the country
the north wales corridor
and we will invest in our roads
unblocking those coagulated roundabouts and steering-wheel-bending traffic lights
putting on 4000 more clean green buses
made in this country
some of them running on hydrogen
and as we come out of covid
our towns and cities are again going to be buzzing with life
because
we know
that a productive workforce
needs that spur
that only comes with face to face meetings
and water cooler gossip
if young people are to learn on the job in the way that they always have and must
we will and must see people back in the office
and that is why we are building back better with a once in an a century £640bn pound programme
of investment
and by making neighbourhoods safer
by putting in the gigabit broadband
by putting in the roads and the schools and the healthcare
we will enable more and more young people everywhere
to share the dream of home ownership
the great ambition of the human race
that the left always privately share but publicly disparage
and we can do it
Look at this country from the air
Go on google maps
you see how our landscape has been plotted and pieced and jigsawed together by centuries of bequests and litigation
a vast testament to security of title
trust in the law
a confidence that is responsible for so much international investment
you see how rich this country is growing
the billions of loving and incremental improvements to homes and gardens
you can see how beautiful it is
vast untouched moorland
and hills
broadleaf forests
we are going to re-wild parts of the country and consecrate a total of 30 per cent to nature
we are planting tens of millions of trees
otters are returning to rivers from which they have been absent for decades
beavers that have not been seen on some rivers since tudor times
massacred for their pelts
are now back
and if that isn’t conservatism, my friends I don’t know what is
build back beaver
and though the beavers may sometimes build without local authority permission
you can also see how much room there is
to build the homes that young families need in this country
not on green fields
not just jammed in the south east
but beautiful homes on brownfield sites
in places where homes make sense
Home ownership
And this government is helping young people to afford a home
It has been a scandal – a rebuke to all we stand for
that over the last 20 years the dream of home ownership
has receded
and yet under this government we are turning the tide
we have not only built more homes than at any time in the last 30 years
we are helping young people on to the property ladder
with our 95 per cent mortgages
and there is no happiness like taking a set of keys
and knowing that the place is yours
and you can paint the front door any colour you like
as it happens I am not allowed to paint my own front door, it has to be black
but I certainly don’t have far to go to work
and if you don’t have too far to go to work
and the commute is not too dreadful
and if
the job suits your skills
and your wifi is fast and reliable
then I tell you something else
that housing
in the right place
at an affordable price
will add massively not just to your general joie de vivre
but to your productivity
and that is how we solve the national productivity puzzle
by fixing the broken housing market
by plugging in the gigabit
by putting in decent safe bus routes and all other transport infrastructure
and by investing in skills skills skills
and that by the way is how we help to cut the cost of living for everyone
because housing, energy, transport
are now huge parts of our monthly bills
and it is by fixing our broken housing market
by sorting out our energy supply – more wind, more nuclear, becoming less dependent on hydrocarbons from abroad
by putting in those transport links
we will hold costs down and save you money
and we will make this country an even more attractive destination for foreign direct investment
We are already the number one
– look at the Nissan investment in Sunderland
or the Pfizer vaccine manufacturing centre that’s coming to Swindon
and with these productivity gains we will turbo charge that advantage
and help businesses to start and grow everywhere
so let me come now to the punchline of my sermon on the vaccine
It was not the government that made the wonder drug
it wasn’t brewed in the alembicks of the department of health
It was, of course it was Oxford University, but it was the private sector that made it possible
behind those vaccines are
companies and shareholders and, yes,
bankers
you need deep pools of liquidity that are to be found in the City of London
it was capitalism that ensured that we had a vaccine in less than a year
and the answer therefore is not to attack the wealth creators
it is to encourage them because they are responsible for the aggregate increase in the country’s wealth
that enables us to make those pareto improvements
and to level up everywhere
and to rub home my point
it is not just that vaccination has saved more than 120,000 lives
Vaccination has allowed us to meet like this
and blessed us with such rapid growth
with wages rising fastest for those on lowest incomes
and that levelling up in action
The vaccines have ensured that by a simple vowel mutation jabs jabs jabs
become jobs jobs jobs
the world’s most effective vaccines have saved our open society and free market economy
and it is our open society and free market economy that have produced the world’s most effective vaccines
and that is the symmetry in the lesson of the covid vaccines
– science, innovation, capitalism –
is vital now for the challenge we face
the challenge the whole humanity faces
is even more existential for our way of life
in just a few weeks time this country will host the summit of our generation in Glasgow
when the resolve of the world is put to the test
can we keep alive the ambition of Paris – to stop the planet heating by more than 1.5 degrees
government can’t do it alone
and taxpayers certainly can’t do it alone
the other day I took a boat out into the moray firth
to see an aquatic forest of white turbines towering over the water like the redwoods of california
and you have no idea of their size until you see them up close
the deceptive speed of their wings
twice the diameter of the London eye
their tips slicing the air at more than 100 miles per hour
and I met the young men and women
apprentices
who had moved straight across from the world of oil and gas
and they had the same excitement at working amid winds and wave
and being able to see whales and dolphins from the office window
but they had the extra satisfaction that goes with knowing you are doing something to save the planet
and get Britain to Net Zero by 2050
and that is the symmetry represented by these giant windmills
massive and innovative private sector investment
and a government taking the tough decisions to make it possible
that’s the difference between this radical and optimistic Conservatism
and a tired old Labour
did you see them last week, did you watch them last week in Brighton
hopelessly divided I thought they looked
their leader like a seriously rattled bus conductor
pushed this way and that by, not that they have bus conductors any more unfortunately, like a seriously rattled bus conductor pushed this way and that by a corbynista mob of sellotape-spectacled sans-culottes
or the skipper of a cruise liner that has been captured by Somali pirates
desperately trying to negotiate a change of course
and then changing his mind
and remember Labour’s performance during the pandemic
flapping with all the conviction of a damp tea towel
They refused to say that schools were safe
they would have kept us in the European medicines agency
and slammed the brakes on the vaccine roll out
the Labour leader attacked the vaccine task force for spending money on outreach to vaccine hesitant minority groups
when it is hard to think of any better use of public money
and let us try to forgive him on the basis that he probably didn’t know what he was talking about
in previous national crises labour leaders have opted to minimise public anxiety and confusion by not trying to score cheap party political points
one thinks of Attlee or even Michael foot in the falklands crisis
sadly that was not the approach taken by captain hindsight
attacking one week
then rowing in behind when it seemed to be working
the human weathervane
the starmer chameleon
and in his final act of absurd opportunism he decided to oppose step four of the roadmap in July
that’s right folks
if we had listened to captain hindsight we would still be in lockdown we wouldn’t have the fastest growth in the G7
if Columbus had listened to captain hindsight he’d be famous for having discovered Tenerife
and how utterly astonishing that in the last few weeks labour should actually have voted against new funding we’re putting frward for the NHS
and we need to remember why and how we have been able to back people through this pandemic at all
it was because we Conservatives fixed the economy
we repaired the damage Labour left behind
every labour government has left office with unemployment higher than when it came in
every single one – ever since the party was invented
and today we are going to fix this economy and build back better than ever before
and just as we used our new freedoms to accelerate the vaccine rollout
we are going to use our brexit freedoms to
to do things differently
we are doing the borders bill
we have seen off the European superleague and protected grassroots football
we are doing at least eight freeports
superfertilised loam in which
business will plant new jobs across the UK
and now we are going further
not only jettisoning the EU rules we don’t need any more
but using new freedoms to
improve the way we regulate in the great growth areas of the 21st century
as we fulfil our ambition of becoming a science superpower
gene editing
data management
AI
Cyber quantum
we are going to be ever more global in our outlook
we have done 68 free trade deals including that great free trade deal with our friends in the EU that they all said was impossible
and after decades of bewildering refusal we have persuaded the Americans to import prime British beef
a market already worth £66 m
build back burger I say
and you ask yourself how have the americans been able to survive without British beef for so long?
and if you want a supreme example of global Britain in action
of something daring and brilliant that would simply not have happened if we had remained in the EU
I give you AUKUS – an idea so transparently right that Labour conference voted overwhelmingly against it
and I know that there has been a certain raucus squaukus from the anti-aukus caucus
But Aukus is simply a recognition of the reality that
the world is tilting on its economic axis
and our trade and relations with the Indo pacfific region are becoming ever more vital than ever before
and that is why we have
sent the amazing carrier strike group
to the far east
been performing manoeuvres with 40 friendly countries
HMS Queen Elizabeth
as long as the entire palace of Westminster
and rather more compelling as an argument
than many speeches made in the house of commons
it has dozens of F35s on board
and 66 thousand sausages aboard
not because want to threaten or be adversarial to anyone
either with the F35s or indeed the sausages
but because we want to stick up for the rule of law that is so vital for freedom of navigation and free trade
and that is what brings AUKUS together
Australia, UK, US
shared values
a shared belief in democracy and human rights
and a shared belief in the equal dignity and worth of every human being
very few countries could have pulled off the Kabul airlift – an astonishing feat by our brave armed forces
even fewer have the same moral priorities
No other government brokered a deal such as this government did with Astra Zeneca
so that the Oxford vaccine has been distributed at cost around the world
more than a billion low cost vaccines
invented in Britain
saving millions of lives
we are led by our values
by the things we stand for
and we should never forget that people around the world admire this country for its history and its traditions
they love the groovy new architecture and the fashion and the music and the chance of meeting Michael in the disco
but they like the way it emerges organically from a vast inherited conglomerate of culture and tradition
and we conservatives understand the need for both and
how each nourishes the other
and we attack and deny our history at our peril
and when they began to attack Churchill as a racist I was minded to ignore them
it is only 20 years ago since BBC audiences overwhelmingly voted him the greatest Briton of all time
because he helped defeat a regime after all that was defined by one of the most vicious racisms
the world has ever seen
but as time has gone by it has become clear to me that
this isn’t just a joke
they really do want to re-write our national story
starting with hereward the woke
we really are at risk of a kind of know nothing cancel culture know nothing iconoclasm
and so we Conservatives will defend our history and cultural inheritance
not because we are proud of everything
but because trying to edit it now is as dishonest as a celebrity trying furtively to change his entry in Wikipedia
and its a betrayal of our children’s education
churchill’s last words to his cabinet, actually his whole ministers but his cabinet were there
were
Never be separated from the americans
pretty good advice I’m sure you’ll agree –
–
and ended with the observation
man is spirit
He was right there.
I believe that through history and accident this country has a unique spirit
the spirit of the NHS nurses AND the entrepreneurs
whose innovative flair means that there are three countries in the world that have produced more than 100 unicorns not a mythical beast
tech companies worth more than a billion dollars each
They are the US and China and the UK and those unicorns they are now dispersed around the United Kingdom in a way that is new to our country, that is the spirit of levelling up
and we need the spirit of the NHS nurses and the entrepreneurs because each enables the other
I mean
the spirit of the footballers who took England into the final of a major knock out tournament for the first time in the lives of the vast majority of the people of this country
probably, looking around at all you young thrusters, the majority of you in this room
the indomitable spirit of Emma Raducanu
her grace and her mental resilience when the game was going against her
because that is what counts
the spirit of our Olympians
it is an incredible thing to come yet again in the top four
a formidable effort for a country that has only 0.8 per cent of the world’s population
in spite of the best efforts of some us jacob
but when we come second in the Paralympics as well –
that shows our values
not only the achievement of those elite athletes
but a country that is proud to be a trailblazer
to judge people not by where they come from
but by their spirit
and by what is inside them
That is the spirit that is the same across this country
in every town and village and city that can be found
that can be found in the hearts and minds of kids growing up everywhere
and that is the spirit we are going to unleash
