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Saturday, 3 March 2007, 17:25 GMT

Bourne's Tory light bulb giveaway

Tories pushing for poll gains

Conference diary

Welsh assembly Conservative leader Nick Bourne Welsh assembly Conservative leader Nick Bourne has said the party will give every household £20 of low energy light bulbs if they win power in May's poll.

Mr Bourne told the party's conference in Cardiff that climate change is the biggest challenge of our age.

He said the policy would cost £6m a year and make a "very real difference to climate change in our country."

People must try to buy locally, cut supermarket packaging and develop renewable energy technologies, he said.

In a wide-ranging speech setting out the main issues which will form the core of the Welsh Conservative assembly election manifesto, Mr Bourne said health was the party's other key policy to campaign on.

He promised to end Labour's hospital shake-up and "consult on the best way forward to restore trust in our communities".

New direction

Developing a theme of giving more power to local communities, Mr Bourne pledged to restore the Post Office Development Fund to "guarantee them a viable future".

He urged party members to go into every community to get their message across.

Mr Bourne said: "Welsh Conservatives have changed and with the support of the public we can bring about that change of government and a new direction for Wales."

Earlier, shadow foreign secretary William Hague said the Conservatives would table a commons motion for an inquiry into the Iraq war if the government failed to do so.

He promised a Conservative government would end the "sofa-style decision making" of Tony Blair's Downing Street.

The shadow foreign secretary said Mr Blair's method of government led to "weak and last minute decision making".

Mr Hague said his party favoured a privy council inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Iraq war and its aftermath.

He said the motion would be tabled "in the coming months" unless the government announced its own investigation.

William Hague

He also made a blistering attack on Labour spin which he said had done huge damage to British politics.

The former Tory leader told delegates: "Tony Blair will leave office with the word of government less believed, and its basic honesty less assumed than at any time in the modern history of Britain.

"He has debased the coinage of politics, adding to widespread disaffection and distrust of the political system itself."

Mr Hague, a former Welsh secretary, also paid warm tribute to Conservatives in Wales whom he said had "kept the Conservative cause alive at its darkest hours".

He said the party could look forward "with optimism" to May's Welsh assembly elections with the party's support on the rise.

Later Welsh Conservative MEP Jonathan Evans confidently predicted that more people would vote for the party than in the two previous Welsh assembly elections.

Mr Evans also praised the late AM and MP for Blaenau Gwent, Peter Law.

In a possible hint at the chances of Tory involvement in some form of ruling coalition after May, he said Mr Law's approach of working with other parties to put the people's needs first was the one the Conservatives were now following.



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Related to this story:
Bulbs must be efficient 'by 2009' (02 Nov 06 |  UK Politics )
Tories' OAP council tax promise (02 Mar 07 |  Wales )
Morgan's 'Tory nightmare' warning (24 Feb 07 |  Wales )
NHS 'at heart' of Tory campaign (18 Jan 07 |  Wales )
Saving energy on the home front (23 Oct 06 |  Science/Nature )

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