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Tag: Speeches

  • Anthony Eden – 1965 Memorial Speech to Winston Churchill

    Below is the text of the speech made by Anthony Eden in the House of Lords (he was then the Earl of Avon) on 15 January 1965.

    My Lords, this is a day not only of national mourning but of mourning throughout the Free World. For Sir Winston’s service was to mankind, and for this his place will always be among the few immortals. Many of your Lordships knew Sir Winston well, and worked with him closely at one or other period of his career. But this afternoon, as has been apparent from almost every speech, our minds go back more especially to that period of the Second World War which he himself called our “finest hour”, and which was certainly his.

    It seems to me in every sense appropriate that this sad occasion should be so exceptionally signalised as in this Royal Message—and not only because of Sir Winston’s qualities of true greatness in leadership above all. These in themselves would be cause enough for the Message which we have received. But there is also another reason: that Churchill epitomised, at the same time as he led, the nation, at a time of brave and (why should it not be said?) splendid resistance against odds which might have seemed overwhelming. So, my Lords, as we mourn and honour Sir Winston, we reverence also all those who fell to bring victory to a cause for which he had dedicated himself and us. They are now together.

    My Lords, what follows is a suggestion to which I expect, of course, No immediate reply or comment, and which I make with some temerity, but from messages I have received I believe that it is not only my thought. It seems to me that the nation would feel glad if there could be a “Churchill Day”. This could be most appropriately connected, perhaps, with some date in that summer of 1940, when both Churchill’s leadership and this country’s will to resist, whatever the cost, expressed themselves so gloriously. They could then be enshrined together for as long as our calendar endures.

    I should like also to associate myself with the messages to Lady Churchill. No tribute, however penned or phrased, could out-measure what is deserved.

    My Lords, courage is never easy to define. Sometimes it is shown in the heat of battle; and that we all respect. But there is that rarer courage which can sustain repeated disappointment, unexpected failure, and even shattering defeat. Churchill had that, too; and he had need of it, as the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, will remember, not only for days but sometimes for weeks and for months. Looking back now at the war, victory may seem to have been certain. But it was not always certain; and when news is bad, it is very lonely at the top.

    Like one or two of those who are with us in this House this afternoon, I saw much of Sir Winston then—often many times a day, not only at official meetings but in such periods of comparative relaxation as there were, at meals and, as was his wont, late into the night. I grew to respect and love him, even though the argument might sometimes be sharp.

    My Lords, there is the granite type which feels little. Sir Winston was nothing of that at all. He felt deeply every blow of fortune and every gleam of hope. Alert, eager and questing as his temper was, he could hold on through all tides and tempests; and he had that gift, rare and difficult to discharge in statesmanship, of knowing when to reject “No” as an answer, recognising that the arguments against any positive action could always be trusted to marshal themselves. During those war years his mind was always projected to the next move, and in this he was aided by an energy which was something much more than zest for life. With that constitution, Sir Winston would have survived any strain in any age, but he loved best the present one in which he lived. I have heard it said in criticism that his opinions were of his own generation. Certainly they were. And that was his strength, because he was at the same time open-minded and comprehending as are very few men in this century. He saw clearly and further than most, and he spoke fearlessly and without favour of what he saw. He sensed the danger for his country with the instinct of the artist and the knowledge of the historian.

    As we cast our minds back this afternoon and pay tribute to his memory, there is, of course, nothing for which we in this Assembly shall remember him more than as a Parliamentarian. He called himself a “child of the House of Commons”. But he was, of course, much more than that. He had been brought up in a great Parliamentary age. I remember how he used to tell me how in those days speeches, even of Under-Secretaries, were fully reported in the Press. With awe, almost, he spoke of those days. And the great figures that dominated that period gave him an intimate sense of the power of Parliament which he never lost, just as he never forgot that Parliament put him where he was in 1940. It was a memory with him always.

    So, my Lords, as we say farewell to him now, we thank this, the greatest of all Parliamentarians whom we shall know; and we can best enshrine his work by devoting ourselves to the same thing, to those cherished thoughts, traditions and beliefs to which he held, through life, till death.

  • Joe Ashton – 1968 Maiden Speech to the House of Commons

    Below is the text of the maiden speech made by Joe Ashton to the House of Commons on 7 November 1968.

    Mr. Speaker, I request the indulgence of the House to introduce myself. I am the new Member for Bassetlaw, and I am very honoured to be here. I am grateful for this opportunity to make my maiden speech.

    Bassetlaw was represented by the Right Hon. Frederick Bellenger for about 33 years. In that time, he became very well known and liked in the constituency. Eventually, his popularity was acknowledged just before his death, when he was made a Freeman of the Borough of Worksop.

    In Bassetlaw, a very varied constituency, the main industries are mining and agriculture. Currently, about 6,000 miners are employed there, and many more retired miners live there. Obviously, the subject that we are debating is one of great concern to them.

    Fortunately, it is a mining area which is developing. The most modern mine in the country, Bevercotes, is in the constituency, and, although there are geological problems there, we expect a very long life for it. One mine, at Firbeck, is closing at Christmas, though I am glad to say that it is not due to a shortage of coal or to economic reasons, but merely because of the presence of gas in the seam.

    The modern mines in my constituency give rise to an interest in tips and their safety because they will be producing material for tips for many years to come. At Manton, extensive experiments have been conducted to grow vegetation on tips and so improve their visual appearance. This is very important from the point of view of attracting new industry, because, in a mining and agricultural area, where more and more mechanisation is taking place and there are fewer opportunities for school leavers, new industry must be attracted. In that connection, we await eagerly the Report of the Hunt Committee, but that does not mean that nothing has happened in that direction in the past.

    If we hope to attract new industry to an area, potential industrialists must be convinced that there is no danger from tips and that something can be done to make them less of an eyesore than they have been for many years. We have a flat terrain in Bassetlaw. There are no slopes, as there are in Wales, and there have been no problems of tip safety. At Harworth Colliery, an overhead conveyor has been constructed, and wastage is carried in large buckets to the tip. It has been found necessary to develop an industrial site in the area and, though it is unsightly to carry slag across it by cable, if we can convince potential industrialists that there is no danger they will be reassured. In time, we hope to be able to make the site more attractive to industrialists and find some other way of disposing of the slag.

    The problems of mine and tip safety and of clearing derelict sites are very important to Bassetlaw, and I am pleased to have been able to make my first speech in this House on the subject.

    Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you, my right hon. and hon. Friends and right hon. and hon. Gentlemen opposite for being patient with me not only during this speech, but during the past three days in the House. I have received a great deal of help from everyone.

  • Nicky Morgan – 2016 Speech on Extremism

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    Below is the text of the speech made by Nicky Morgan, the Secretary of State for Education, at Bethnal Green Academy in London on 19 January 2016.

    It really is a pleasure to speak here at Bethnal Green Academy

    A school that as we’ve just heard, knows all too well the devastating impact that extremist ideology can have on young people, schools and whole communities.

    I know that this has been an immensely difficult time for everyone involved here, but I want to commend Mark [Keary – Principal of Bethnal Green Academy and CEO of Green Spring Education Trust] and his staff for the leadership that they’ve shown in the face of this tragedy.

    I spoke to Mark shortly after the girls fled and was impressed then by his determination to ensure that other students’ education was not interrupted.

    And for the whole school’s commitment, as he outlined to me at the time, to ensure that pupils here continue to thrive in a safe, tolerant environment where the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance are enshrined in everything you do. Thank you to Mark, and all of your staff and leadership team.

    If you’d been drawing up the job description for Secretary of State for Education, just 5 years ago, I’d doubt that tackling extremism would have featured at all. How different things are today.

    In fact, my first task as Education Secretary was to respond in Parliament to Peter Clarke’s report on the Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham.

    Since then I have led a department which has found itself at the forefront of the fight to protect and safeguard young people from the threat of extreme and fundamentalist ideologies.

    And that threat is like no enemy we have faced before – an enemy not defined by physical geography, but by a shared set of warped beliefs.

    An enemy that thanks to new technology has a potential channel from camps in Syria to homes right here in the United Kingdom – an enemy determined to take away our future by focusing their efforts to target the next generation.

    Defeating such an enemy requires a co-ordinated response. Not just from the police, intelligence and security services, but from civil society – from schools and from parents.

    Because left unchecked those that seek to destroy our way of life start to do so, by, as the Prime Minister said at the Conservative Party Conference last year, putting poison in the minds and hatred in the hearts of impressionable young people.

    It’s hard to comprehend that promising, bright girls from this school took the decision to leave their homes, families and country to join a brutal terrorist group.

    But I do know this, they didn’t take that decision alone – instead they were systematically targeted and groomed.

    Daesh has developed sophisticated social media strategies to allow them to spread their lies and propaganda on an unprecedented scale.

    They prey on and exploit young people’s vulnerabilities – claiming to offer them an identity and a sense of belonging, which is nothing more than a fiction built on lies and manipulation.

    That’s why, just as we so proactively take steps to safeguard children from sexual exploitation, the threat of gangs, drugs or FGM [female genital mutilation], we must all of us here today stand together as government, parents, teachers, heads, charities and civil society groups.

    All of us must work to protect children from the threat that Daesh poses.

    Doing that isn’t easy.

    Far from it. I absolutely understand the concerns of teachers and school staff who’ve said to me, this isn’t our role, this isn’t why I came into the profession, it’s not what schooling should be about.

    But to those teachers and staff I say this – the most powerful thing that you can do to keep young people safe, are the things that you do every single day:

    engaging, broadening horizons and challenging young minds
    ensuring young people leave school as well-rounded young people – ready to be active citizens, able to participate in society, with an understanding of the responsibility that brings
    That is why our work to tackle extremism – and specifically the Prevent duty are absolutely not about shutting down debate in schools – in fact they’re about reinvigorating it.

    Because what defines every extremist organisation throughout history is that more than anything else their mission is to close and narrow young minds – to indoctrinate, instruct and inspire hatred.

    That’s what we saw in the Birmingham schools at the heart of the Trojan Horse Affair: a concerted attempt to limit young people’s world view and spread poisonous views which had no place in our education system.

    That’s why we are taking action to remove those responsible from our classrooms and have put robust measures in place to prevent anyone else from being able to do the same again.

    But that action alone will not be enough to keep young people safe. Alongside tackling extremists directly, we must also ensure that young people understand British values – that they have the tools and arguments they need to challenge extremism and to deconstruct the false claims of groups like Daesh.

    It means that schools and universities need to be able to recognise the difference between a debate involving an academic controversialists like Germaine Greer and some of the events hosted by groups like CAGE, which have no place on our campuses and certainly not in our schools.

    That isn’t easy, there’s no hard and fast rule, age appropriateness matters, as do the motivations of the speakers.

    It requires judgement – but just as we must be absolutely clear that we should never give those who peddle extremist ideologies entry in to our schools or colleges, so too we must guard against inadvertently hiding young people from views which we simply think are wrong and disagree with.

    We will not do young people any favours by wrapping them in cotton wool or subscribing to a definition of safe spaces that makes young people more fragile, and that seeks to protect young people from offence rather than from extremism.

    The difference matters.

    I hold no truck with the move on some campuses to limit debate and ban those with offensive rather than extremist views.

    Far better, I think, to tackle Germaine Greer’s wrong-headed views about gender identity in open debate.

    Because it’s the resilience that young people develop through that challenge and debate which will be their best defence should they ever then find themselves confronted by the truly hateful views of extremist groups.

    I hope that all of you as educators will agree with me that our approach to protecting young people must be twofold.

    We must continue to root out those who peddle extremism in our schools, but at the same time we must equip young people with the mental agility, arguments and insight to see through and overcome the propaganda of extremist groups, be it the Islamist extremism of Daesh or the fundamentalism of the far right.

    As a government we are determined, and I am determined, to provide schools with the support they need to do this.

    That is why I am delighted to be launching the Educate Against Hate website today alongside the Minister for Security [John Hayes MP].

    The site brings together the best advice, support and resources available for parents, teachers and school leaders who want to learn how to protect young people from extremism and radicalisation, and that really is the result of successful collaboration between the Department for Education, the Home Office, the NSPCC, Internet Matters, Childnet, ParentZone, UK Internet Safety Centre, and the many other organisations who have contributed resources.

    What’s so important about this resource is that it doesn’t just offer information for teachers and schools – but parents as well.

    While schools may be able to spot the signs of radicalisation, the truth is much of it takes place beyond the school gates, in families or friendship groups, in communities and increasingly online.

    That means parents must be equipped to help protect their children from extremism.

    They need to understand the threat that extremist organisations pose, how radicalisation happens, what the warning signs look like and who to turn to for support if they are ever worried.

    The information and advice available on Educate Against Hate will be an invaluable resource in helping them to do that and I encourage all parents to visit the site and familiarise themselves with the information it provides.

    But as I said, schools also play a key role in spotting the signs of radicalisation – just as they do when young people experience other threats or difficulties, such as CSE [child sexual exploitation], eating disorders, mental health problems or drugs.

    Schools can pick up those behavioural changes which may signal that a student is being radicalised before their peers or even their parents have spotted those signs.

    That is why it is so important that schools see protecting children from radicalisation as part of their safeguarding duties. I know that the vast majority of staff in schools do this already and want to play their part.

    And I want Educate Against Hate to become a tool that helps them do that.

    It provides up-to-date, practical advice that will help heads and governors understand the procedures their school should have in place to robustly tackle the threat, and will help teachers facing these issues in the classroom to understand radicalisation, its warning signs, and crucially where they can get further support.

    Further resources, particularly those that help teachers to build children’s critical thinking skills, will be added over the coming months.

    And as the threat evolves, as we know it will, the site will be updated so that it continues to be a live and relevant source of support.

    Alongside this, I want to make sure that wherever children are being educated they are safe. I have said before, and I reiterate today, I fundamentally support the right of parents to decide where and how to educate their children.

    Our duty as the government is to make sure that those children are safe from harm. So when children are taken out of school and taken off the register, we must know where they end up to ensure they are safe not just from radicalisation, but also from female genital mutilation, forced marriage and child sexual exploitation.

    That is why, today I am also launching a consultation on improving communication and co-ordination between schools and local authorities to help them quickly and effectively identify children who are missing from education.

    By strengthening regulations and allowing local authorities to obtain the information they need, we will ensure that they don’t waste time filling information gaps, but instead focus efforts and resources on children who are at risk.

    Finally, alongside protecting children who are missing in education, we will take action to tackle those institutions where children are being educated in illegally operating unregistered schools.

    And let me be clear what I mean by an unregistered school, I mean an institution that is operating and educating young people full time and therefore should be subject to the same requirements as any other school.

    These unregistered schools often fail to meet even basic safety and educational requirements – putting young people at risk, and in some cases evidence suggests subjecting them to extreme and intolerant views.

    For too long these illegal schools have been operating under the radar. No more.

    Let me be clear if you operate an unregistered school, you are committing a criminal offence and will face the consequences.

    We have been working closely with Ofsted and local authorities to identify and tackle these schools, and the Chief Inspector has powers to make unannounced visits to any institution that he suspects is operating unlawfully as an independent school.

    Indeed, these powers have already allowed Ofsted to work with the local authority to secure the closure of several unregistered schools operating in Birmingham.

    But we must do more to take tough action against those who disregard the law in this area, and so I have agreed to give Ofsted additional resources so that they can go out on the ground to locate and investigate unregistered schools.

    I have also instructed Ofsted to start preparing prosecutions against the proprietors of these schools.

    Britain’s classrooms have for centuries shaped great minds, who in turn have gone on to shape the course of history.

    That is why it is so important that we do everything we can to ensure they remain places of enquiry and engagement, not breeding grounds for intolerance and indoctrination.

    There will be no single knockout blow against those who seek to corrupt young people, but the action we are taking, to protect children inform parents and support teachers will put us firmly on the front foot.

    It demonstrates our total commitment towards ensuring that we prevail in the battle against hateful extremist ideologies.

    Because we want to ensure that every single child is where they should be – receiving a great education that will help them to build a bright future.

    Thank you.

  • Robert Goodwill – 2016 Speech at Intertek

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    Below is the text of the speech made by Robert Goodwill, the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, at Intertek in Milton Keynes on 14 January 2016.

    It’s a real honour to open Intertek’s new testing facility today.

    And I am really pleased that Intertek will be using its expertise in a new field.

    The UK automotive industry is a genuine economic success story.

    Last year Britain built 1.5 million cars.

    One and a quarter million of which we exported to over a hundred different countries.

    Almost 800,000 people are employed in an industry that in 2013 turned over £64 billion.

    In 2014, a single plant – Nissan in Sunderland – made more cars than the whole of Italy.

    That makes you feel proud.

    And it means Britain’s transport manufacturing sector has passed its pre-recession peak and continues to grow.

    But that success is dependent on British-made cars being not just reliable, safe, clean and efficient, but verifiably so.

    The effect that cars have on our air quality has been in the news a lot recently.

    That focus won’t go away.

    Poor air is a real health danger in many towns and cities and CO2 standards for new cars are continually being tightened.

    Meanwhile, car manufacturers are facing global competition, unpredictable commodity prices and exchange rates, and ever-increasing consumer expectations.

    I have no doubt that the UK’s automotive sector will rise to these challenges, but only if research and development keep pace.

    And that’s where Intertek’s fantastic new facility comes in.

    It’s a vital addition to the UK’s testing capability, and it means we can test more of our cars here, in the UK, rather than sending them abroad.

    That’s convenient for manufacturers, and it keeps the commercial advantage here, too.

    We need to develop our expertise in testing electric vehicles, because by 2050 we want virtually every car on the road to be an ultra low emission vehicle.

    To help us achieve our target, the government is spending over £600 million to support the ultra low emission vehicle market.

    We have funded more than 50,000 Plug-in Car and Van Grants to help motorists buy ultra low emission vehicles.

    We have invested in refuelling infrastructure, including charging points for electric, hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

    We are running the Go Ultra Low communications campaign, supporting cleaner buses and taxis and working with Innovate UK and the Advanced Propulsion Centre to develop new technology.

    This investment will ensure that the low emission vehicles of the future are designed, developed and tested here in the UK.

    So Intertek’s investment makes perfect sense.

    You are helping us on the way to low emission vehicles being increasingly commonplace on our roads, offering drivers all the convenience of internal combustion engine vehicles, but with cheaper running costs and cleaner, quieter engines.

    It means that we have come a long way in 120 years. On the 7th and 8th of May we will celebrate the 120th anniversary of the first horseless carriage exhibition, with a recreation of the event at Imperial College.

    I hope to see some of you there.

    But I would like to end my remarks by saying thank you.

    Thank you for your vote of confidence in the UK’s car manufacturing sector.

    And thank you for your commitment to the future of motoring.

    Your work here helps make the UK a global leader in the design, production and testing of cutting-edge vehicles, and will do nothing less than revolutionise personal transport.

    Thank you.

  • Nick Gibb – 2016 Speech on Enterprise and Entrepreneurship

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    Below is the text of the speech made by Nick Gibb at the Education World Forum at Westminster Hall, in London, on 19 January 2016.

    Can I start by saying thank you for inviting me to be part of this panel. Since coming to office in 2010, entrepreneurship and enterprise have been cornerstones of this government’s long term plan for the economy.

    We have saved businesses £10 billion in red tape, and have extended the doubling of small business rate relief until April 2017. Over 34,000 start-up loans worth £187 million have been provided to people starting their own business. Compared with 2010, there are now 900,000 more small businesses, and employment in small businesses has increased by 1.6 million. Today, business in Britain is flourishing and growing.

    Such measures have created a fertile garden for new enterprises to grow, but the extent of such growth is ultimately determined by the number of knowledgeable, skilled and ambitious young people leaving our schools. Highly qualified school leavers are an irreplaceable component of a strong economy.

    But what actually constitutes being ‘highly qualified?’ Since 2010, the government has focused on increasing the challenge, and the academic ambition, of our national examinations and qualifications. We have overturned a culture of low expectations that discouraged generations of capable pupils, predominantly from disadvantaged backgrounds, from studying the core academic subjects that would open doors to their future.

    It is our belief that all schools should introduce their pupils, up to the age of 16, with an understanding of the world around them. To be given the best chance of success in later life, all pupils should know the rules of mathematics and the natural sciences, great historical events, geographical landmarks, a language other than their own, and enduring works of art and literature. In short, they should be given the gift of knowledge.

    Such a message is, perhaps, at odds with the message often delivered at international education forums such as this. There is a common view amongst some educationists that the internet, and the advent of google in particular, makes the teaching of knowledge redundant.

    One educationist who is well known on the international stage recently wrote a book promoting ‘new pedagogies’. Chief amongst them was ‘learning to learn.’ He wrote of today’s education, ‘the goal is not to master content knowledge; it is to master the learning process.’

    Indeed, the Director of Education at a leading global think tank wrote in a 2010 report: ‘Educational success is no longer about reproducing content knowledge… Education today is much more about ways of thinking which involve creative and critical approaches to problem-solving and decision-making.’

    Though such a view may seem forward-thinking and persuasive, I believe it to be profoundly misguided. Those who are most adept at problem solving and decision making, and most easily master ‘the learning process’, are those with a well of background knowledge to draw upon.

    An educationist who has shaped my thinking on this more than any other is Daniel Willingham, professor of cognitive science at the University of Virginia. With reference to robust scientific evidence, he explains how the ‘thinking skills’ most prized by schools and employers are dependent upon background knowledge.

    In mathematics, pupils can only solve complex problems once they have achieved fluency in the use of algorithms, and memorised their number bonds and multiplication tables. Communication in a foreign language is impossible without having mastered its grammar, and learnt an extensive vocabulary. In studying a historical period, a knowledge of the events is vital before attempting to analyse evidence or explain causes.

    One memorable example Daniel Willingham cites is an experiment where good readers with a low knowledge of baseball, and poor readers with a high knowledge of baseball, were both asked to read a text about baseball, and tested for understanding. In this instance, the ability to read was not enough: poor readers with high knowledge performed much better than good readers with low knowledge.

    Does this mean that schools should aim to teach all information that pupils are likely to encounter in the working world? No, such an aim is impossible. Schools can equip pupils, however, with a framework of knowledge which enables them to learn more in the future. This framework is what an academic curriculum provides.

    It is the consensus of most cognitive psychologists that an individual can only hold 5 to 7 new pieces of information in their working memory at any one time. All other information must reside in long term memory for new knowledge to be understood – or else ‘cognitive overload’ is experienced. This is why, for someone with no background knowledge, browsing the internet is such a barren and fruitless means of learning.

    Say, for example, a young tech entrepreneur wants to find out about the advantages of cloud computing. The first paragraph on the Wikipedia page suggests that sharing resources achieves ‘economies of scale’, an unfamiliar term. So the young entrepreneur looks it up, but the definition for ‘economies of scale’ uses another unfamiliar term: ‘variable cost’. The definition of which in turn contains the terms ‘fixed’ and ‘marginal costs’, and so on and so forth in an infinite series of google searches which take the young entrepreneur further and further away from the original term ‘cloud computing’.

    The internet is a wonderful tool for those who already possess considerable knowledge. As a means of initial instruction it is not so useful.

    In 2013, we reformed the national curriculum in England to put in much of the subject knowledge that previous governments – under the influence of the 21st century skills movement – had taken out. Our mathematics and science curriculum content was based in part on the curriculums of far eastern education systems such as Shanghai and Singapore, where schools still place great value on the mastery of academic subject knowledge. It is no coincidence, to my mind, that their pupils top international league tables such as PISA and TIMSS.

    Of course, many argue that whilst pupils in the Far East do well in tests, their formal style of education limits creativity and independent-mindedness. One look at the skyline of Shanghai, or the commercial district of Singapore, should put such arguments to rest. According to the World Intellectual Property Organisations, China, Japan and Korea provided 3 of the 4 top patent offices for the number of patent applications in 2014. Remarkably, China contributed 89% of the worldwide growth in patents filed in 2014, compared with 2013. So much for a formal, academic education limiting a country’s potential to innovate.

    And it is this formal, academic education which best equips pupils for work in the modern world. The 2012 PISA survey of financial literacy in 13 OECD countries contained a very interesting finding. Pupils completed financial literacy tasks, on areas such as variable interest rates and inflation. There was a strong correlation between pupils’ performance in numeracy and literacy tests, and pupils’ financial literacy. However, there was no clear relationship between states which offer lessons in personal finance, and pupils’ financial literacy. For pupils from Shanghai, which topped the financial literacy table by quite some margin, mastering mathematics appeared to be the best means of becoming financially literate.

    In opposition to the idea that a formal education is the best means of fostering enterprising and entrepreneurial citizens, the individual cases of well-known school or university drop outs are often cited. ‘Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg both dropped out of Harvard,’ it is claimed. ‘Richard Branson never completed school,’ they add. Less often is it mentioned that prior to university, each of them received an academic education at an elite private school.

    Indeed, 2 Swedish academics recently took on the myth of the untutored business genius in their Centre for Policy Studies paper ‘SuperEntrepreneurs …and how your country can get them’. They analysed the educational background of around 1000 self-made men and women who have earned at least $1 billion. Only 16% of such ‘superenterpreneurs’ from the USA lacked a college degree, compared to 54% of salaried workers.

    In addition, superenterpreneurs in the USA were 5 times more likely to hold a PhD degree as the general population. One third of American superentrepreneurs have degrees from one of the top 14 American universities, compared to 1% of the general population. The exceptional stories of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and the Rausing brothers are well known precisely for that reason: they are exceptions. When it comes to producing a new generation of entrepreneurs, an investment in an academic curriculum will always pay dividends.

    This brings me to my second point. Any discussion of enterprise and entrepreneurship must consider the great advances in technology that are transforming the world. Schools must respond positively to these advances, but they should do so in a thoughtful and judicious fashion.

    As part of our national curriculum reforms, our government has introduced a new computing curriculum into schools, which moves away from everyday computer use – ICT, and focuses instead on understanding how computers work. The curriculum has been developed by teachers and sector experts, led by the British Computer Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering, with input from industry leaders like Microsoft, Google and leaders in the computer games industry.

    From primary school until the age of 14, pupils will be taught programming languages, computational thinking, and Boolean logic – making this country, I believe, the first in the G20 to teach such a curriculum.

    Secondly, instead of proclaiming that educational technology will ‘disrupt’ traditional schooling, we should focus instead on how technology can supplement what teachers already do well. For example, educational technology has the potential to bring enormous efficiencies to the important but time-consuming process of marking pupils’ work.

    In this country, the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring at Durham University and the company GL Assessment offer well-honed computerised assessments. These allow a teacher, with minimal effort in terms of marking, to assess a pupils’ understanding with great accuracy, and diagnose areas for further work.

    One of the 3 British teachers nominated for the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize is Colin Hegarty, who left his accountancy job in the city to teach mathematics at a London secondary school. I met him last week, and he demonstrated the website he has been developing, which combines instructional videos in mathematics with sophisticated computerised assessment, based on a bank of 400,000 carefully designed questions. Such programmes have the potential to improve radically the way in which teachers assess the strengths and weaknesses of their pupils.

    Similarly, computer apps provide excellent tools for quizzing pupils about key facts and information. As cognitive scientists such as Robert Bjork have demonstrated, frequent quizzing reinforces the place of knowledge in our long-term memory. No longer do pupils revising for examinations have to use flashcards: they can use computer apps such as Quizlet or Memrise on their smartphone instead.

    One highly successful UK educational technology export is Show My Homework, a cloud-based homework software, which allows teachers to post homework assignments online so that children (and perhaps more importantly parents!) can check what work they should be doing. It is now used in over 1000 schools, and has 2.5 million users worldwide.

    In the cases of computerised assessment, quizzing apps, and useful teacher tools, educational technology is used to supplement what teachers already do. This does not mean, however, that computers can replace the work of teachers. Teaching is an unavoidably human activity. A computer may supplement the work of a teacher, but it will never supplant it.

    One well-known educationist shot to fame a few years ago with a popular TED talk, extolling the ability of pupils to learn from the internet independently. He asked in his talk: ‘if there’s stuff on Google, why would you need to stuff it into your head?’, and added ‘I decided that groups of children can navigate the internet to achieve educational objectives on their own.’

    There is considerable empirical evidence from classroom studies, however, that web-based learning does not improve pupil outcomes. Professor John Hattie from the University of Melbourne published ‘Visible Learning’ in 2009. This seminal book brings together 800 meta-analyses of academic research in order to judge the impact of 138 different teaching methods and school interventions.

    Amongst all 138 interventions, web-based learning was in the bottom quintile of effect sizes, ranking well below Professor Hattie’s threshold for an effective intervention. By contrast, teacher-led interventions, such as Mastery Learning or Direct Instruction scored very highly. Teachers will always remain the pre-eminent means of ensuring that a pupil succeeds: a teacher not only brings knowledge to the classroom: she brings motivation, personality, and ongoing support.

    Last year’s OECD report into school computer use appeared to confirm that, whilst an extremely important aspect of modern schooling, computers are not the magic bullet of education reform. The 5 countries where pupils spend the least time using the internet in school – Poland, Japan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and South Korea – are all amongst the world’s highest achieving jurisdictions.

    No education minister should fill schools with the latest technologies and expect that they, on their own, will spark an education revolution. Such practices will not provide a country with a new generation of entrepreneurs. In fact, by allowing educational technology to crowd out the timeless benefits of a knowledge-based curriculum and high-quality teacher instruction, it may well mitigate against such an aim.

    The optimal mixture of knowledge, attitudes and character traits which will produce an enterprising and entrepreneurial population will always be a subject of debate. As school ministers, however, we underestimate the importance of knowledge at our peril.

    We must draw the entrepreneurs and business leaders of tomorrow from all quarters of society, irrespective of birth or background. And that is why all children should be taught the core academic curriculum which will enable them to carry on learning for the rest of their lives.

  • Nicky Morgan – 2016 Speech to the Education World Forum

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    Below is the text of the speech made by Nicky Morgan, the Secretary of State for Education, to the Education World Forum at Westminster Hall, in London, on 19 January 2016.

    What a pleasure it is to be here at the Education World Forum again.

    It has become a unique meeting of education ministers from around the world and I am personally very proud to be here.

    It’s so good to see so many of you, not only willing, but eager to share with us what is happening in education in your countries.

    I know that ministers in my department have hugely enjoyed recent meetings with ministers from France, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Uruguay, Brazil, Turkey, Canada and others.

    To discuss and witness first-hand, areas as diverse as early years, the curriculum, attendance, teacher recruitment and vocational education. Last month I met with the Japanese education minister, Hiroshie Hase, to discuss values and citizenship. This sharing of ideas and knowledge makes so much sense because of the globalised world in which we live.

    Our neighbours may be our competitors, and I make no secret of wanting England to be a world leader in education, but they are also our partners. The truth is that educational performance isn’t a zero-sum game.

    I hope that as a result of this forum each of us will feel that what we have learned will strengthen and improve our approach to education policy, which ultimately enables all of us to better extend opportunity for the next generation.

    I know there is so much for us to share here and that particular strides forward are being made worldwide on school inspections, curriculums, assessments and performance tables.

    PISA

    The truth is that nobody has perfected every aspect of education policy. And international benchmarking tells us much about what we need to improve.

    For instance here in England we know – from the OECD’s library of PISA data alongside their comprehensive ‘Education at a Glance’ and other studies that the gap between our highest and our lowest-performing pupils is substantial compared to other countries.

    We know that pupils approaching the end of secondary education do not perform as well as their peers from a number of countries worldwide and that, as a result, they are not as well prepared for the next phase of their life as their international colleagues.

    From the same sources we know that other countries achieve incredible levels of performance in different areas and I want us to learn from those jurisdictions: Shanghai and Singapore have quite literally ‘mastered’ the teaching of maths, and we are beginning to unpick how through our successful exchange programmes in the last year.

    In Germany only 2.9% of 15- to 19-year-olds are neither in education, employment or training (NEET). In Macao, Hong Kong and Estonia, pupil performance is much less strongly associated with pupil backgrounds than is the case in other countries, including England.

    But there are also many exciting things happening here in England and I would like to share some key themes from what is happening here, framed within our conference theme: a new start for learning and skills through the prism of the sustainable development goals.

    Sustainable development goals

    How appropriate that the sustainable development goals should be our theme this year considering education not only forms one of the 17 goals but informs the targets on many others.

    Unlike the millennium development goals that preceded them, the sustainable development goals are outward-focusing; they are not confined either in letter or in spirit to developing nations but – quite rightly – are goals to which all nations should aspire.

    And I am so very pleased and proud the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was so involved in shaping this agenda.

    Education as a sustainable development goal

    The millennium development goals did much for education – for example, a near 50% decrease in the number of children not in school – but the focus needed to be widened beyond access to education in general. I think sustainable development goal 4 does exactly that.

    It calls for us to:

    “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning for all.”

    There are 10 targets attached to it and the first of these is about ensuring all children complete free, quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.

    I think this is crucial for 2 reasons. The first key component is quality. That is to say it isn’t enough simply to have access to education but the provision must be excellent too.

    Here in England we have made it our mission to spread educational excellence everywhere.

    As I said last year at this forum, all children deserve excellent teachers. Countries like Korea and Japan have demonstrated that this is possible.

    Here in England we are introducing a national teaching service to deploy our best teachers and best school leaders to areas that have struggled to recruit and have the most need of new teachers. Our Prime Minister, David Cameron, said just last week that we should give all young people the opportunity to dream big.

    To do that our young people need an excellent grounding in education and so we have sought to raise standards at every tier of education and every level of ability.

    This time last year we declared our determination to tackle illiteracy and innumeracy for primary school students.

    Additionally, in our manifesto last year we committed to matching the standards of reading of the best readers in Europe.

    It is a high bar but we want the very best for our young people. Because we know that maths and English are non-negotiable for future success.

    And let me say something about knowledge. There are those who say that a knowledge based education system is outdated. They claim that our young people need only creativity, imagination and critical thinking skills to get on in life.

    Don’t get me wrong – they do need those. But my view is that these skills cannot be acquired without an excellent knowledge base.

    Renowned cognitive psychologists like Daniel T. Willingham have produced compelling research to suggest that knowledge is crucial to educational success.

    We have therefore focussed on a rigorous, quality curriculum that accepts knowledge as a necessity in the pursuit of skills.

    The second key component is the call for education to lead to relevant and effective learning outcomes. For me this means that the education we are offering to young people should prepare them for their future.

    One of the ministers in my department visited an innovative project in Norway recently. The Jåttå School offers 6 vocational routes which are the basis for around 100 individual occupations.

    The minister was impressed by the school’s approach to building partnerships with other vocational schools, community leaders and employers – noting that its focus on achieving excellent career outcomes for its pupils. Its success is marked by the fact that it is highly oversubscribed.

    Here in England we have stripped away outdated vocational training courses that failed to give young people any advantage in the jobs market and have overseen the opening of university technical colleges.

    These are specialist colleges for 14- to 19-year-olds, sponsored by universities; they teach the national curriculum alongside high-quality vocational courses.

    They are designed to give their students the skills employers really want.

    They are focused on knowledge as well as outcomes.

    We have done more than any government before us to bring business leaders – both big business and small and medium-size enterprises – into the process of education as well as its governance.

    We now have business sponsoring schools, acting as non-executive directors, shaping school mission statements, informing curriculums and driving careers advice.

    This is because we take the view that business knows what business needs and with their expertise, complementing the work of excellent schools, we can truly deliver a truly excellent education system. One that ensures our school leavers are workforce ready.

    Character and resilience

    We believe there is another component that is vital if our young people are to succeed in life and that is character.

    I’m talking about the grit, resilience and determination: the ability to work with others, to be humble in the face of success, to bounce back from life’s disappointments.

    We are convinced that where character education can complement excellent academic study our students can become the well-rounded citizens we really want them to be.

    We are looking at innovative ways of bringing character education into schools which includes input from our sports people, first-aiders, social enterprises – with trials happening up and down the country.

    Just this week I am meeting a former England Rugby Captain and World Cup winner to discuss character education. He knows what it’s like to be under pressure, win or lose.

    The mentality of an elite sports team is built around the idea of pursuing success collectively – working together, complementing each other’s skills and having clear measures of what success should look like.

    This is the mentality any company, whether it’s a small business or a large corporation, expects from its workforce.

    We want to give our young people as much opportunity as possible to build their character and we have directed funding towards this important educational tool.

    Over the coming years we are confident that we can become a world leader in character education.

    Conclusion

    As ever, it is a real pleasure to come to this forum and I look forward to seeing many of you at the BETT fair on Wednesday too.

    I think the sustainable development goals give us an excellent opportunity to refocus education policy and truly have a new start for learning and skills.

    We need to ensure that it isn’t just access to education we offer but access to quality education. That our education systems are designed to lead to the outcomes our students and our economies need and want.

    And that our school leavers are workforce ready through the character and resilience building they need to get on in life.

    Education can be truly life transforming and is the most powerful tool we have to respond to this challenging world. And our challenges are many – economic change, climate change, inequality and extremism to name but a few.

    Let’s resolve to continue to work together, to share knowledge of what works and what doesn’t, and to pursue the sustainable development goals for the good of our global community.

    Thank you.

  • Nick Clegg – 2012 Speech at the Global Business Summit on Energy

    nickclegg

    Below is the text of the speech made by Nick Clegg, the then Deputy Prime Minister, at the Global Business Summit on Energy held on 6 August 2012.

    It’s a pleasure to welcome you all to today’s Global Business Summit on Energy. One of a series of events, all timed to coincide with the Olympic Games, the biggest international business conference we have ever held.

    Our aim today is to look at what more we can do together, to advance clean, smart energy generation, boosting our shared prosperity, as well as building a more resilient economy, better able to withstand future shocks.

    The UK is already the sixth largest market in low carbon and environmental goods and services.

    We lead the world in offshore wind – our total installed capacity is as much as the rest of the world put together.

    With enviable natural resources, we’re one of the biggest players in marine and tidal energy too.

    We offer political stability, legal certainty, the English language.

    This is one of the best places in the world to do business – that’s according to the World Bank;

    With the best regulatory environment in Europe – that’s according to a recent poll of European utility investors;

    As well as some of the world’s best universities and research facilities;

    Indeed we produce more Nobel Prize Winners than any other country bar the US.

    We are creating the most competitive corporate tax regime in the G7.

    Add to that the fact the world’s biggest single market is on our doorstep, despite Europe’s continuing difficulties it’s still home to 500 million consumers, and you have the ideal location to invest your money and grow your businesses: A global powerhouse in the industries you represent.

    Despite pressures on other parts of the economy, since the 2008 financial crisis our low carbon sector has grown year on year with growth averaging 4.4%. But we want to do more; we want to seize every opportunity. Last year the sector was worth around £3.3 trillion worldwide and the race for green global investment is hotting up. The biggest, savviest economies are crowding in – China, Germany, Korea, Brazil. So the UK is upping our game exploiting our competitive edge making the most of our internationally respected brand in order to stay ahead.

    Ed will set out some of detail on how the government is seeking to do that, so I will limit my remarks to our central message to you today. The one thing we want to impress on you above all else: This coalition government is unreservedly committed to helping our low carbon sector thrive – no ifs; no buts. And we want to support the shift by traditional industry to cleaner sources of energy – while of course recognising the pressures they face. When we say that we want green growth, that is not flimsy, political rhetoric: It is a very real aim, driven by very real economic needs.

    I think it’s important to put that up in lights. The coalition is sometimes presented, in the press, as if it is riddled with debate and division with regard to greening the economy. That isn’t the case. Yes, there will be internal discussions and debates on the balance and sequencing of different policies – that’s the nature of any government – and energy policies will evolve over time as costs come down. That’s why, for example, we could recently reduce the subsidy for onshore wind. But the entire government is working within the parameters of the carbon budget, which sets the pace for decarbonising our economy. And there is no one in government who wants to depart from that.

    We all want an economy rebalanced across industries and regions. We all want to build on our highest growth sectors to create more jobs.

    So our challenge is giving you as much certainty as possible – we know that’s what you crave; we know it keeps your costs down. Indeed, it’s the issue raised with me most often by the people in this room. No-one expects an entirely risk-free investment environment, but your companies are embarking on major projects, breaking new ground, building infrastructure intended to last a lifetime, relying on low carbon technologies that involve significant upfront costs. And so, understandably, you place a big premium on predictability. We hear that loud and clear. And there are three overarching ways that we are seeking to provide it.

    First – and this applies to all business: We have made macroeconomic stability an absolute priority, because it is an absolute prerequisite for confidence and growth. It is easy to forget that, at the time of the financial crash, the UK had a deficit bigger than Greece. By taking the difficult decisions we pulled our economy back from the brink. We have kept the markets at bay, remaining masters of our own destiny. Interest rates have remained historically low. A quarter of our deficit has now been paid off.

    Yes, the road to recovery is long and testing, but make no mistake: if we have to sacrifice short-term political popularity for lasting economic health – so be it. We promised to safeguard economic stability in the national interest. That is what we will continue to do.

    Second: consistency from government. So no surprises; no rabbits out of hats. We set out what we’re going to do – then we do it. It sounds obvious, but you all know governments don’t always behave like that.

    Clearly our emissions and renewable targets provide an overall policy framework. And look, for example, at how we take decisions on things like our renewable obligations banding. We review it every 4 years, like clockwork. So, every 4 years, we consult with industry on the subsidy levels, we listen to the evidence you provide, and then we set the bands. And because everyone gets a sense of what’s coming, companies can plan and prepare.

    That’s why, since announcing the new levels just a few weeks ago, we’ve already seen signs of progress on around £3.5 billion worth of investments. Today, for example, shovels will hit the ground in Tees Valley, where Air Products is building a renewable energy plant that will power 55,000 homes and create 700 construction jobs.

    It’s true that sometimes we have to take a bit of time to get the detail right – especially on major items like Electricity Market Reform. But our aim is always predictable processes; transparent and inclusive policy-making; decisions that are based on evidence above all else. And, please, let us know how we can do more of that.

    Finally: ambition. A willingness to be bold, because we seek nothing less than a clean, green, low carbon economy and the scale of that task demands imagination.

    In order to meet this challenge we need to think big.

    That’s why the UK’s fourth carbon budget constitutes the boldest emissions reduction target set, in law, by any government, anywhere in the world.

    And we have been at the forefront of attempts to secure a more ambitious target across the EU.

    We are creating the world’s first Green Investment Bank: A national bank devoted to leveraging billions of pounds for green infrastructure. The government’s UK Green Investments team has already begun making investments. And I can announce they have just sealed a contract to provide £100 million for investment in small-scale, non-domestic energy efficiency projects.

    The Green Deal will start later this year. And which will transform home energy consumption. Creating a whole new market in UK home insulation and energy efficiency.

    We’re beginning the biggest shake up of the electricity market in 3 decades. In order to level the playing field between low carbon and conventional energy.

    We’ve just announced the largest investment in rail since the Victorian era.

    We’re providing one of the best offers in the world for Carbon Capture and Storage, including our new £1 billion competition.
    We’re the first country where listed companies will include emissions data in their annual reports. Something I pressed our international partners to adopt at the Rio Sustainability Summit in June.

    We’ve dramatically overhauled our planning regulations, slimming over 1,300 pages of planning policy down to 49, easing the path for good, sustainable developments.

    Big ticket reforms. World firsts. Policy that looks decades ahead.

    So, stability. Consistency. Ambition. The building blocks of our shared prosperity. I hope today reminds you of the value this government places on your businesses and your ambitions.

    Together we find ourselves at the vanguard of one of the most dynamic, most innovative, most important industries of our time. An industry that will help us build a more stable, more sustainable, more prosperous world. That’s a vision we can all get behind. This is a journey we are on together. And on that note, let me hand over to Ed.

  • George Osborne – 2012 Speech on Energy Sector Day

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    Below is the text of the speech made by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, at Lancaster House in London on 7 August 2012.

    I am delighted to be here at the Energy Sector Day at Lancaster House when the world is here in London for the Olympics.

    The Global Business Summit is a demonstration of how the UK can lead the world in the energy sector: securing investment, creating jobs and building a more prosperous future.

    And there is no better example of the significant contribution that this sector makes to our economy than the UK oil and gas industry.

    This has long been one of our great industrial success stories, supporting a third of a million jobs, and extracting the equivalent of over 40 billion barrels of oil to date.

    We recognise that companies operating in the North Sea work in a truly global market – and that we have to work hard to attract their capital and their jobs.

    We are committed to ensuring that these businesses continue to see the UK and the UK Continental Shelf as an attractive location for that investment.

    To making the most of our remaining oil and gas reserves.

    And to ensuring that the UK economy continues to benefit from the fruits of this remarkable industry.

    That is why, at this year’s Budget, I introduced an ambitious package of tax measures to encourage investment and innovation in the North Sea.

    I announced that we would end the uncertainty that has hung over the industry for years by introducing a contractual approach to oil and gas decommissioning.

    This will stimulate the market in North Sea assets, release billions of pounds of capital for further investment, and give companies the assurance they need to continue investing in mature fields.

    I also announced changes to the field allowance regime to encourage investment in commercially marginal fields.

    Including a £3 billion allowance for large and deep fields, to open up the West of Shetland, the last area of the basin left to be developed.

    And it is great to see the very important Rosebank project pressing ahead as a result.

    Building on this success, last month we introduced a further allowance for large shallow-water gas fields. Following this announcement, we have seen confirmation of the £1.4 billion investment in the Cygnus gas field.

    This will be the largest gas development in the Southern North Sea in the past 25 years. Once in production, it is estimated that the field will deliver 5% of the UK gas demand and contribute significantly to UK security of supply.

    This reinforces our commitment to gas as the biggest source of energy in the UK.

    With 80% of the project’s expenditure destined for UK companies, Cygnus is expected to create around 4,000 jobs across the UK.

    Just today, the companies involved have awarded contracts to a number of UK suppliers, including yards in Hartlepool and Fife.

    These contracts alone will support 1,235 jobs.

    I am proud that highly skilled supply companies such as these have developed a global reputation of excellence and expertise.

    Proud that the UK is home to businesses that lead the world in cutting edge research and technology.

    As we are committed to providing the best possible environment for investment in oil & gas, so we want to the UK continue as an open, competitive location for investment in electricity generation.

    We have an independently regulated market that welcomes investment from all over the world.

    This helps provide the UK with the expertise and resources available around the world and with a diverse and secure supply of power.

    We have a clear and stable investment regime which allows investors to commit funds with confidence.

    The carbon price floor provides a clear cost trajectory for gas and coal generators.

    The new support rates announced for renewable technologies will ensure that low carbon generation remains affordable for consumers whilst providing certainty for investors.

    Last month we made clear that we expect gas to play a key role in meeting electricity demand for the UK throughout the 2020s and beyond.

    We will provide more detail in the autumn on steps we will take to make the UK an even more attractive place for gas investors.

    Together these polices will enable billions of pounds of investment in the UK economy; creating jobs, and securing the UK’s position as a world leader in energy technology development.

    And this Government is committed to ensuring the UK maintains its competitive edge in science, and to putting innovation and research at the very heart of its growth agenda.

    That’s why top businesses such as BP are investing in the UK and supporting our world-leading universities in delivering cutting edge research.

    It gives me great pleasure today to welcome BP’s announcement to create an International Centre for Advanced Materials.

    The fact that Manchester University is the hub for this great project and that two of the three spokes are at Cambridge University and Imperial College clearly demonstrates the UK’s strength in science and innovation.

    The centre will play a key role in helping to maintain the world-leading status of the UK in the research of advanced materials and I want to acknowledge the substantial investment by BP in creating 25 new academic posts, 70 post-grad researchers and 50 postdoctoral fellows.

    In my capacity as a local MP as well as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, I am delighted that this investment will further strengthen Manchester and the North West of England as a world-leading centre of expertise in materials technologies.

    It complements the £50m investment to create a Graphene Global Research and Technology Hub based in Manchester that the Government announced last year.

    It will also strengthen other centres of materials expertise such as the National Composites Centre in the South West, and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield, which are working in partnership with global businesses such as Airbus, GKN and Rolls Royce, and Boeing.

    The UK’s research base is second only to the USA for number of citations, and it is the most productive country for research in the G8 in citations and publications per pound.

    Our research institutes include world-leading facilities that combine flexibility to pursue innovative research with a unique environment for developing outstanding students and early career researchers.

    Throughout the energy sector and beyond, we are committed to creating an environment that allows research and innovation to flourish, ensuring that world-leading businesses, including energy businesses, continue to see the UK as an attractive location for investment.

    And we are committed to harnessing their success to drive our economy forward.

    Thank you.

  • Danny Alexander – 2012 Speech to the Global Business Summit

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    Below is the text of the speech made by Danny Alexander, the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to the Global Business Summit held on 8 August 2012.

    Good morning, it gives me great pleasure to open this breakfast meeting on UK infrastructure.

    To kick off this meeting, I want to say a few general words on how government policy supports investment in infrastructure, and how that investment supports a strong and balanced economic recovery.

    I don’t need to remind you of the difficult economic times we face and I know that times are particularly tough for some of the businesses represented here.

    The UK is still recovering from the biggest debt and financial crisis of our lifetimes – a recovery that is made no easier by the ongoing challenges in the Euro area and in our banking system.

    But in the midst of some sobering facts, we should not lose sight of the positives for the UK – employment up by 181,000 last quarter; 840,000 private sector jobs created since this government came to power; and inflation down to 2.4 per cent in June.

    These successes come in a very challenging climate, and though we still have much to do, they support the view that the Government is following the right economic strategy.

    Our objective is to return this country to sustainable prosperity and to rebalance our economy.

    That means fiscal consolidation, to sort out the public finances and ensure the UK commands the confidence of international markets.

    If means supply side reform, ensuring Britain is an excellent place to do Business, and raising our growth potential.

    And it means dealing with our long standing weaknesses – for example delivering a more mobile workforce, with the right skills in the right places.

    Infrastructure enables us to deliver on the latter two. And through taking tough choices on government spending, we are in fact investing more in transport infrastructure and in broadband access and quality than at the height of the spending boom.

    At the same time, the credibility that we have established has given the Bank of England space to keep the base rate low, and provide further monetary support for infrastructure investment, such as quantitative easing and the new Funding for Lending scheme, which came into operation last week.

    And it has allowed us to support further investment directly, for example through the ‘UK Guarantees’ scheme that we announced a fortnight ago.

    This will help to accelerate major infrastructure investment by offering guarantees of up to £40 billion of major projects, and a temporary lending programme that will allow around £6 billion pounds of public-private partnership projects to proceed without delay.

    Already we have had over 30 expressions of interest since the announcement, and we continue to receive more on a daily basis.

    The Treasury’s door is open to discussions with any project that meets our criteria – nationally significant, financially credible, good value for the tax-payer, dependent on a guarantee, and ready to start in a year – and we will deal with applications as quickly as possible.

    I can tell you this morning that the Green Deal will be an early candidate for the use of these guarantees. The Green deal is the largest ever programme for investing in the energy efficiency of our Housing stock and we are looking at whether and how a guarantee could ensure that the finances are in place to get the programme of to a very strong start.

    The deals my colleagues will be announcing later today show the UK is already in a strong position. And the work we are doing is building on that to strengthen it further still.

    Alongside these measures to support investment finance, we are also taking major steps to remove non-financial barriers to investment – reforming our planning regulations, and identifying skills gaps or capability issues.

    And to ensure that Britain’s infrastructure is delivering on Britain’s priorities, our National Infrastructure Plan sets out a clear vision for the £250 billion of investment that we expect to 2015 and beyond. Our updated plan brings together a comprehensive cross-sectoral analysis of the UK’s infrastructure networks, and sets out clear, long-term ambitions for improving performance in each sector.

    Our newly established Cabinet Committee, which I chair, will ensure that this plan is delivered, focussing on the top 40 growth projects identified in the National Infrastructure Plan.

    We have made great progress in removing barriers to investment – working with industry to resolve radar interference issues affecting four gigawatts of wind energy developments, and supporting the establishment of a new Pension Infrastructure Platform, which will make the first wave of its initial £2 billion investment in UK infrastructure by early 2013.

    The scale of the challenges we face as a country makes delivering on our hugely ambitious infrastructure agenda all the more essential. We want to work together with you to make that happen by removing barriers to project delivery and creating a supportive environment for long term investment in infrastructure. Today’s conversation is an important staging post in realising those ambitions.

    Thank you.

  • Nick Clegg – 2012 Speech at UKTI Manufacturing Conference

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    Below is the text of the speech made by Nick Clegg, the then Deputy Prime Minister, at the UKTI Manufacturing Conference held on 10 August 2012.

    Nick thank you very much and thank you all very, very much for being here this morning for this excellent event.

    I was at the Olympic Park yesterday like a lucky number of others watching Nicola Adams win the first gold medal, medal ever for a woman boxer in this new Olympic phenomenon female boxing. And it was such an uplifting celebration of talent and grit and determination and such a wonderful response to all the cynics and naysayers that Nick referred to and travelling here this morning I thought to myself that in many respects that celebration of success and that rejection of cynicism and pessimism is exactly what we should dwell on here this morning when we consider the strengths and potential in Great Britain for our advanced manufacturing and engineering sectors.

    Because for far, far too long we’ve laboured under the wrong narrative which has undervalued our successes in this area and undervalued our future potential as well. For far too long there has been almost a sort of hidden, unspoken assumption that inventing, designing and manufacturing, exporting things is part of the sort of past legacy of our manufacturing heritage, but that the future is all about services, that going in to boring subjects like engineering and science is the wrong thing, that what you should do is always aspire to go in to the whizz bang service industries – accountancy, lawyer, the City, City – and so on.

    And that is a dramatic misreading of our national strengths as a national economy and I really just want to in a very few minutes make three basic points, highlight our strengths as a global power for manufacturing and engineering. Secondly emphasise how determined we are as a Coalition Government to do more to expand on those strengths and thirdly to underline the importance I attach and we attach to inspire just as young people have been inspired by the Olympics, to inspire the next generation to dream of being the, the new Brunels and Stephensons of the future.

    So firstly our, our strengths. It is just worth repeating how important so many of you are in the fabric of our British economy, some of the most successful companies in the world operate – Airbus, (indistinct) Jaguar and Land Rover – all of whom are very, very welcome sponsors of this event and Nissan, Siemens, BAE and so many other dynamic businesses represented here. We have the second largest aerospace industry in the world.

    Despite the very disappointing trade statistics that were published overnight last night, we nonetheless saw that in the early months of this year the United Kingdom has, was exporting more cars than we import for the first time since 1976. A quarter of all Ford engines are made here, eight out of twelve Formula One teams are based here for good reason, because of access to skilled engineers and cutting edge technology.

    It is a sector advanced, advanced manufacturing, responsible for almost three quarters of business research and development in this country and in so much of that research and development we lead the world in neuroscience, computer science, ecology, energy, material science and so on. And we pride ourselves that we also have strengths, natural strengths, (indistinct) that we are right at the heart of the world’s largest borderless single market right on our doorstep in the European Union, all of those strengths are strengths which we must celebrate because they are very, very phenomenal strengths indeed.

    We need however as I said secondly to do more to build on those strengths and I won’t, because it’ll consume too much time and I know that Vince Cable and others will go in to this in greater detail later, enumerate all the measures that the Government has taken, but whether it is the new technology innovation centres, that try and emulate some of the world’s best examples of clustering academic excellence with advanced manufacturing research; whether it’s our very ambitious plans in infrastructure (indistinct) long term productivity of the economy so heavily depend; whether it’s the commitment to a high speed train spine up and down the length of the country, whether it’s the new guarantee scheme that we have recently announced using the strength of the Government’s balance sheet to mobilise private sector infrastructure and investment infrastructure; whether it’s the Green Investment Bank, the first of its kind, (indistinct) using three billion pounds worth of public money to leverage in several times that private sector money in our new renewable energy infrastructures.

    Those are all examples of commitment to infrastructure which is so necessary to your work, whether it’s rebalancing the sectorally unbalanced pattern of British, the British economy over, which has built up over the last two or three decades where so much growth is concentrated in the City of London, the South East and not enough is concentrated in what has become regions elsewhere in the country, in the North of the country in particular who’ve become over reliant on public sector subsidy. We’re using instruments like the Regional Growth Fund, two and a half billion pounds worth of direct finance from the Government to companies and particularly to manufacturers elsewhere outside the South East of the country who are committed to diversifying their businesses, creating jobs and creating greater private sector dynamism in other parts of the country.

    Those are just some of the examples of what we are doing. We’ve already launched, already implementing in the last two and a half years to build on those successes. But as I said at the outset, the final point I’m going to make to you before taking questions and comments from you is the importance of the, and the Olympics, the slogan is inspire a generation. I think we together, everybody in this room, the politicians and you in industry, we need to work together to inspire a generation so that unlike, I’m forty five, when I was at school I wasn’t the greatest at science and maths, but nonetheless no one suggested to me or to my friends at school at the time that maybe we wanted to dream of being engineers, of being, going in to industry, going in to manufacturing. This was, this was the early Eighties and it was all about making a fast buck in the City of London or going in to the glamorous industries of advertising or the media. There was no positive image visually given to our youngsters of an alternative career path. That has to change and thankfully it is changing.

    I’ve got three little sons. I want my sons to dream of doing what their grandfather and their great grandfather did who were in different capacities, scientists and industrialists and, and manufacturers. And we’re committed to do that, whether it is, notwithstanding all the difficult cuts we’ve had to introduce in public spending, protecting public spending on science, whether it’s the reforms that we are introducing in order to ensure and guarantee that our universities remain amongst the very best universities in the world; whether it’s the expansion of apprenticeships on a scale that has not been seen in this country in the post war period, we’re delivering a quarter of a million more apprenticeships during this Parliament than was planned by the previous administration; whether it’s the creation of twenty four new university technical colleges which specialise in subjects like advanced manufacturing, engineering and health technologies; whether it’s the new Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering which was launched, which is an international prize with a million pounds from us in order to celebrate and highlight the best achievements in engineering; whether it’s the network of around twenty eight thousand volunteers we’ve had from academia and industry who are going in to schools to get children enthused about a career in science and technology.

    All of those things and more are the kind of things we need to do together to make sure that we don’t regard our manufacturing excellence as something which only belongs to the past and present, but it’s also absolutely crucial to a thriving and prosperous future for the United Kingdom in the years to come as well. Thank you very much for listening to me.