Anyone who thinks Britain can ease up should look across the Channel - look to the countrieswho thought they were out of crisis, eased up and so now risk returning to crisis.
And then there is the wider world beyond.
The borders with Russia are aflame;
A terrible virus is sweeping through West Africa;
And we're engaged in a generational struggle against barbaric Islamist extremism.
Our armed forces are once again risking their lives to protect our freedom. Let us togethersalute their courage.
Any and all of these events have an impact, not just on our national security but on oureconomic security.
These are big questions - but they're not the only ones we face.
We are also living through an economic upheaval as big as the Industrial Revolution - everysingle day new technologies, and new companies, and new economies are fundamentallyshaking up the established way of doing things.
It's extraordinarily exciting, and we as Conservatives applaud the power it places in the handsof citizens.
It's never been easier for thousands to start their own business in Britain, and reach the wholeworld.
But a single app can appear overnight and disrupt an entire industry.
It can be exciting - yes - but unsettling too.
For this technology brings intense competition that spells rapid decline for any sector, or anycountry, that fails to keep up.
These are big questions that require big answers.
And it is our job to provide them - and the next Conservative Government will.
That is what this party has always done - apply our values and ideas to the challenges of theage and march this country towards progress, and that is what we will do again.
Labour can't do that.
Did you see that speech last week?
Ed Miliband made a pitch for office that was so forgettable that he forgot it himself.
But I have to tell you, in all seriousness, that forgetting to talk about the deficit is not justsome hapless mistake of an accident prone politician.
It is completely and totally a disqualification for the high office he seeks.
The economy may mean nothing to Labour - but it means everything to the people of Britain.
It means our security, and whether we pay our bills and provide for our families - and haverewarding jobs and enjoy decent retirements.
And you know what?
There is a fashionable claim made these days - a claim that the link between the prosperityof the national economy, and the prosperity of the people who live in that economy has beenbroken.
I want to take that head on because it is a dangerous fallacy.