Let the message go out from this conference:
After what they put this country through.
We will fix the roof when the sun is shining.
And that presents me with a choice - indeed, it presents all politicians with a choice.
We can either pretend to the British people before the election that this can be done withhardly any cuts. That's what we saw last week.
Or we can level with people now, and tell them the kind of difficult decisions that are stillrequired to fix the economy.
I've done this job for almost five years.
And I can tell you, it's only because we've levelled with people that we've been able to bringthem with us on the journey our country has had to take.
The latest Treasury estimate is that eliminating the deficit requires a further ?25 billion ofpermanent public expenditure savings or new taxes.
And I tell you in all candour, that the option of taxing your way out of a deficit no longerexists, if it ever did.
In a modern global economy where people can move their investment from one country toanother at the touch of a button - and companies can relocate jobs overnight - the economicsof high taxation are the economics of the past.
And we choose the future.
The problem for a modern country like Britain is not that it taxes too little - it is that it spendstoo much.
The proposals Labour present to the country for higher taxes on income, taxes on business,taxes on savings, on investments, on finance, on pensions, homes and on jobs, would be aneconomic disaster for every person in the United Kingdom.
And by the way, when Scotland is rightly given greater control over its taxes, I suspect thepeople of Scotland will choose to put them down not up.
Let me be clear: we will honour in full our commitments to Scotland.
And we are also absolutely clear that, as Scots get more control over their taxes, it is rightthat Northern Ireland, Wales and England should get more control over their taxes and theirlaws too.
Now I'm not going to pretend that finding ?25 billion of spending savings will be easy; but noris it impossible.
We have already found ?100 billion of savings in this Parliament, so we have the track record toshow it can be done if you have discipline and grip.