Author: regan

Speaking to Conservative Party Conference 2010 Sayeeda Warsi said: (Check Against Delivery) Thirteen years. Four Party Leaders. Three General Elections. And now two parties, one government. And finally something we have wanted to say for years: A Conservative Prime Minister in Downing Street Not so long ago people said our party was history. They said we would never be in government again. But look at what you have achieved this year. The biggest swing in our history. 148 new MPs. 49 women now on the Conservative benches. And 11 MPs who are black and minority ethnic. You even won back my home seat of Dewsbury. And thanks to your positive, patriotic campaigning in my home community, we finally finished off the BNP. We also did something really special after polling day. We could have been sullen and gone into opposition. We could have been mean and tried to form a minority government. But instead, we reached out and formed a strong coalition in the National Interest. So Conference, let me say loudly and clearly: To the army of activists who pounded the pavements… …to the canvassers who knocked on millions of doors… …to the associations who wore the blue rosette with pride… …to everyone who voted Conservative – especially those who voted for us the first time….a big heartfelt, thumping thank you Conference, this is a big moment for me. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say. I was quite humbled by the journey I’ve been on. Because Conference it was only fifty years ago that my Dad came to this country with two pounds in his pocket. He worked double shifts in the Yorkshire mills. He did every job going. He was a bus conductor, a bus driver, a cab driver… …he went through unemployment. I was born in a one up, one down. Dewsbury Gate Road – it’s still there. But my Dad wasn’t prepared to accept that this was where we should stay. He believed in opportunity. He believed in equality. And he believed in hard work and fair play. In the mills, my Dad was told that Labour was the party for him. They said that Labour looked after the poorest. That it looked after the vulnerable and minorities. But Conference, today, my dad and millions of decent, hard-working, fair-minded people like him, are appalled at the state Labour have left this country in. Appalled that Labour abandoned the very people they promised to protect. With the poorest getting poorer. The gap between the rich and poor getting wider. Youth unemployment hitting new heights. One in five pensioners living in poverty. One in six children growing up in households where no one works. Terrible rates of drink and drug abuse. Appalling levels of teenage pregnancy. One of the worst rates of family breakdown in Europe. And UNICEF saying that Britain was the worst place in the developed world to be a child. The longest recession. The deepest recession. The doubling of the debt. And spending more on debt interest than on the education of our children. Conference, this is Labour’s legacy to Britain This is their gift to the poor. And that’s why, Conference… ….they should never ever be allowed to do it again. The fact is that Labour said they’d abolished boom and bust… ….but they brought bust back to Britain with one almighty bang. And so I find it bizarre that having created this mess, Labour politicians now stump up on the news channels and attack us for taking the difficult decisions they never took. They say we want to make spending cuts. They say we are letting down the poor. But it was them who left us with this mess. So let me say something to the Labour Party. We left you a thriving, buoyant economy in 1997… …and you brought Britain back to the brink of bankruptcy. You hammered the working classes by scrapping the 10p tax band. You left an economy where people who are black or brown are twice as likely to be unemployed. And you let down the regions by creating an economy where for every ten private sector jobs created in the South, just one was created in the North and the Midlands. So Mr. Miliband, Don’t you dare say you are a friend of the working classes. Don’t you dare say you’re a friend of minorities. Don’t you dare say you’re the friend of people in the north. Because I am all of those things and you are no friend of mine! So what are we going to do about this mess? It’s simple: two parties, one purpose: together in the national interest. And I’m so proud that this party is playing its part. Because governing in the national interest is what we do best. That’s why we served under Lloyd George in the first World War. That’s why we served under Ramsay MacDonald in the 1930s. And that’s why, seventy years ago, this year, at the most dangerous moment in our history…. …Churchill formed a War Cabinet, faced up to Hitler, and together we won the Battle of Britain. Patriotism has always powered our party. And that’s what we’re showing again. And Conference, we’ve made a strong start. Look at what we have achieved. We’ve scrapped Labour’s jobs tax. We’re controlling immigration. We’re lifting almost a million out of income tax. We’re restoring the link between earnings and the basic pension. And we are ensuring that never again will a British government hand more power to Brussels without your say so.Above all, Conference we’re rolling up our sleeves and getting the job done. Taking the difficult decisions. Making the tough calls. Dealing with the deficit. Restoring confidence in our economy. And thanks to George Osborne, Britain is once again open to business. And the big question for Labour is what part do they want to play? They can stand on the sidelines and snipe. Or they can start making amends for the mess they made. And that, for me, was what was so depressing about the whole Labour leadership race. You know, back in May, they had an amazing opportunity. They could have turned a page on their past. They could have moved on from the Blair-Brown saga. Instead, they went backwards. They picked a man who doesn’t even have the support of his own party. He wasn’t the choice of Labour MPs. He wasn’t the choice of Labour activists. For all I know, he wasn’t even the first choice of his own family. So, after more feuding, new factions, and still no answers… ….in the end, the Unions got their man. Now Mr. Miliband needs to prove that he has some answers… …to the challenges Britain faces today… …to the big problems left by Labour… ….and that he has a real vision of where he wants Britain to go. And that begins with a proper economic plan. He said he would be serious, he promised responsibility. He said there are cuts he wouldn’t oppose But all we’ve heard so far is a long list of the things he does oppose. This is the big question for Mr. Miliband. What’s your plan? Will you tell us how you would deal with the biggest problem facing our country? Or will you follow Ed Balls and his union buddies and abandon the centre ground? Conference, I hope you don’t mind if I end by saying a few personal things. It’s an honour to be here. And I’m surrounded by a fabulous team. I’ve got the experience of Michael Fallon. The activism of Nicola Blackwood. The youth of Andrew Stephenson. And the business brains of Alan Lewis. And there’s one person I want to mention particularly. Thanks to this man, our party is in ship shape condition. Thanks to him, we’re better organised than ever. No David, this time I’m not talking about you. It’s Andrew Feldman, and I’m so proud that he is co-Chairmen with me. Andrew, you are a huge asset to our party… ….you could even say that you are like a brother to me…. …but that’s an older brother, Andrew! But to be serious, it should be a source of huge pride that we have two people running this party. One the great grandson of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe; One the daughter of Muslim immigrants from Pakistan. But the fact is it’s no big surprise. This party has always been a champion of progress and equality. It’s why we had Nancy Astor, the first woman in Parliament. It’s why we had Benjamin Disraeli, the first Jewish Prime Minister. And that’s why we had that fantastic first female Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher. And now Conference, it is my privilege to stand before you as the first British Muslim to be a full Member of the British Cabinet. And my job is to fly the flag for our party. Conference, I know that in the past I have sometimes given my press officer sleepless nights. Well I didn’t come into politics to stand on the sidelines. I didn’t come into politics to play it safe.These are tough times – and I tell it as it is. So when I saw immigration getting out of control, I said so. I believe AV is the wrong system, so I will fight it. And when there are cases of electoral fraud, I will always speak out. So let me tell you what I want to see for our great Party. I want us to attract more members. I want to see a strengthened and robust voluntary party. And I want our grassroots to have a strong voice on policy. Our Party has always been at its best when we develop policy together. We want to harness the talents of all of our members to help identify the future challenges that Britain will face. And that’s why, Conference, today I can announce that our reinvigorated Conservative Policy Forum is back up and running… ..and that we will now be reaching out to hear your views. It means that all our Party Members can have real say on how our policies develop. And we will always make sure that voice is heard, respected and understood. Conference, in 2005 you elected David Cameron as our leader. You made a choice about the way our party should be. Since then, we have reclaimed the centre ground of politics. And today this party is the force of progressive change once again. The One Nation Party… …that thinks, looks and feels like today’s Britain…. …that understands the challenge of today’s Britain. And Conference, it’s because we changed our party that we can change our country. Yes of course, we are today’s generation. But let’s also respect the last generation too. And think deeply and responsibly about the next generation – Our children and our children’s children Conference, this party fights for all generations. We’ve done it before. We will do it again.

I am having a divine week. First, I celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr. Last night I was at dinner with the Chief Rabbi, who has just marked the Jewish New Year. Today I am delighted to be here with you, the Bishops of the Church of England. And on Friday I will be meeting His Holiness the Pope. So if anyone suggests that this government does not understand, does not appreciate, does not defend people of faith, dare I even say, does not “do God”, then I hope my schedule this week will go some way to banishing that myth. But to be serious, I think everyone here will agree that we have had a big problem in Britain in the way the state has been handling issues of faith and religion. Indeed, I would go even further: I think we have a big problem in the way we think about faith in our society as a whole. This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this. Last year, I spoke out at the Conservative Conference about the growing suspicion of faith by the political elite in Britain. That feeling was fuelled by a flurry of stories in the media: The nurse suspended from her job for offering to pray for the recovery of a patient; The think-tank report suggesting that we downgrade Christmas to help race relations; And reports of faith charities being put off from applying for public funding by a barrage of bureaucracy. Whichever way you see it, it’s clear we have got into a real mess when it comes to talking about the relationship between faith and society. The political elite in particular have got things badly wrong. Far too often, too many intellectuals, journalists, commentators and politicians have been too quick to dismiss faith and its contribution to society. Unpicking these problems is a huge operation, but today I want to make a start and focus on one part of the confusion: The role of government. Now I don’t want to score big political points this morning. It’s clear that there are people of integrity in all parties and beyond. What’s more, whatever is said about the previous two Prime Ministers, there is no doubt they were men of faith and spiritual sincerity. But at the same time, it seems clear that the previous government did get things profoundly wrong. It got things wrong because it sent the wrong signals about the right relationship between state, faith and society. To quote the Archbishop of Canterbury last year: “The trouble with a lot of government initiatives about faith is that they assume it is a problem, it’s an eccentricity, [and that] it’s practised by oddities, foreigners and minorities.” Oddities, foreigners, minorities. Some people would say I fall into all three categories. But of course, faith isn’t something confined to these people. `So the question is why the last government came to the impression that it was. And as I see it, it was because of the following things: they misjudged the actual state of faith in our society – they thought that faith was essentially a rather quaint relic of our pre-industrial history; they were also too suspicious of faith’s potential for contributing to society – behind every faith-based charity, they sensed the whiff of conversion and exclusivity; and because of these prejudices they didn’t create policies to unleash the positive power of faith in our society. As a result of all this, the relationship between state, faith and society got out of kilter. We urgently need to put that right – and that means starting by doing three things. First, we need to understand the current state of faith in Britain. Second, we need a richer recognition of the Anglican and wider faith-based contribution to society. And third, we need to draw the right conclusions for policy, especially when it comes to voluntary action, social cohesion and the Big Society. Let me take each of these steps in turn. THE STATE OF FAITH First, the current state of faith in Britain and the world. Twenty years ago, Soviet communism came to an end revealing shocking information about how terribly Jewish, Christian, Muslim and other minorities had been treated by the Soviet Empire. Soon afterwards, Bosniak Muslims were ethnically cleansed in Bosnia which reminded us of the horrors of the Holocaust. And then, just as some were claiming that a clash of faiths and civilisations was inevitable, came the terrible events of September 11th.Sadly, some took that day as the excuse to scale up their attacks on all people of faith. Others kept pushing the myth that religion had died out in modern societies and was the source of most conflict in less developed ones. And meanwhile we have seen the rise of a new kind of intellectual, who dines out on free flowing media and sustains a vocabulary of secularist intolerance. But is faith actually in decline? Is it a symptom of economic backwardness? And with the progress of history, is faith something which will ultimately fade away? Not as I see it. For a start, we know that the proportion of people in the world who adhere to the four biggest religions has actually increased in the past century. And right here in Britain, despite what many say, religion is certainly not going away. Not only did up to eighty per cent of British people say that they had some kind of religious belief in the last census but there is evidence to show that religious attendance actually seems to be rising. Tearfund tells us that number of people attending church each year increased between 2007 and 2008, from around one in five adults to around one in four. Cathedral worship has increased since the turn of the century. And the Baptist Union have been recording rising attendances – especially among the young. Part of the problem of course is that for decades university social science departments taught that as societies modernised they would become more secular. And they suggested that as the ‘modern’ state grew, faith-based voluntary action and social care would wither away. One of the most extreme examples is the sociologist Peter Berger. Back in 1968, Peter Berger predicted that “by the twenty-first century, religious believers are likely to be found only in small sects, huddled together to resist a worldwide secular culture”. Fast forward three decades, and he has had to retract the prediction completely. The fact is that our world is more religious than ever. Faith is here to stay. It is part of the fabric of human experience. And in Britain faith is very much alive and kicking. Deny it and you deny the ability of a huge part of society to articulate where they have come from, what they are working for, and who they are. UNDERSTANDING THE FAITH-BASED CONTRIBUTION Nowhere is this better demonstrated than when you consider the social action of millions of British believers and the work of the almost 30,000 faith-based charities. And that brings me to the second point I want to make. We have to come to a deeper understanding about the contribution of these faith communities to our society. In other words, why they do the good things they do. Unless we understand what drives people of faith to contribute to society, we cannot hope to help them on their way. Now there will always be people who look at faith-based charities and think they are something sinister. There will always be people who think that religious organisations are up to no good or on the make. You can see it in the debates at the end of the 19th century, when some parliamentarians argued that the rise of convents and monasteries was a threat to our liberty. You can see it in the way that many modern sceptics criticise Mosques, Temples, Churches and faith-based charities over the social work they do. They fail to see the vital link between these peoples’ faiths and their contribution to society. They fail to see that these people feel inspired to help others because of their faith. Let me give you just a few examples of what I mean. The 2008 Citizenship Survey suggests that those who are religiously observant are more likely to volunteer and give than their non-believing or non-practising counterparts. Again and again you see similar patterns taking shape whether it is the care of Jewish social welfare charities, the huge generosity of Muslims and others in response to the floods in Pakistan or the work of local church groups to help those overwhelmed by drink, drugs, or crime. When you think about it, it’s incredible that many people of faith give up their evenings to work as street pastors making sure that young men are less at risk of knife crime and young women less likely to run into trouble after a night out. A second line of attack from secular fundamentalists is that faith communities are “intolerant” and their welfare provision is “exclusive” or “contractual”. But recent research by York University shows that faith based provision for the homeless was both more open and inclusive than other agencies. It also came with far fewer strings attached, because it less often danced to the tune of ‘targets’. But wen you try to tell the “new atheists” about these sorts of facts, too often, they simply do not want to know. An increasing body of evidence reveals the economic contribution of Cathedrals their important work in running faith schools and the emotional support offered in hospitals, prisons and other social institutions by faith-based charities. And very often, faith communities offer us innovations which the whole of society can learn from: The Fairtrade movement was launched in an Anglican theological College in the North East. Churches were integral to the emergence of the anti-homelessness and the anti-slavery movements. The story of overseas development cannot be written without the names Christian Aid, CAFOD Islamic Relief, Jewish Care, and Muslim Aid. Of course in England it’s hard not to notice the presence in every community of a parish church served by clergy. It’s absurd to stereotype these parishes as ‘holy huddles’. They are hubs around which people of all faiths and none can meet, greet and build relationships in what can be a fragmented society. As you know better than any of us, they are also the bases where post offices, libraries and job clubs have been co-located. They are the place where self-help groups for those facing addictions can meet affordably. So the real question is not: “how should big government be controlling faith-based organisations”… ….but “how can government help people of faith do even more to build the Big Society?” FAITH AND THE BIG SOCIETY And that takes me to the third point I want to make. Once we are clear about the reason why faith-based charities do all the good things they do, we can put in place the right policies to support them responsibly. It’s simple: Faith gives rise to huge numbers of personal kindnesses and other civic contributions; Faith shapes beliefs, behaviour and a sense of purpose; And so what government should be doing is helping people of faith express themselves in this way. My conviction is that in a stronger and bigger society the scope for people of faith to take their places as equals at the public table should become easier not just on so called ‘stake-holding’ bodies but as the vanguard of an increasingly decentralised civic society. Let me explain what I mean. As Lord Wei will be saying later, our aim with the Big Society is to build a culture where we don’t just look to government to solve all our big problems. Where people are empowered and feel encouraged to take control of their local communities and neighbourhoods. And where we foster a new culture of social responsibility – not by legislation but by example and collaboration. Just imagine if the whole nation could give to charity at the same levels as people of faith already do. The question is how can government help to bring that about? One big part of it is about giving you – charities, churches, faith groups, community groups – the chance to do even more good. That means giving you the chance to take control over local community buildings or run services where the community thinks that you could do that well. Under our plans, you will have more power, more responsibility, and more choice over how to get involved in your communities and over how to apply your skills. Another part of it is about showing that we are all in this together, and ensuring that no community and no corner of society gets left behind. That’s one of the reasons why the Cabinet Office plans to establish a new fund to invest in poorer communities, called the Communities First Fund. And then there is the funding you will be able to access through our Big Society Bank – a bank built up not of new taxpayers’ money, but unclaimed bank accounts. But above all we want to encourage a bonfire of the petty rules and prejudices that have held you and others back for so long. It seems crazy for the state to offer support to the voluntary sector and then shackle it with so many targets. And it’s crazy that bidding for funds as a faith-based charity is made more difficulty by a kind of religious illiteracy in local authorities. All of this needs to change and be challenged – and that’s what this government will be about. So I don’t just want to say to you that you have a lot to contribute to building the Big Society. I want to tell you that for me you are at the heart of society already and key to its future, and that this government will be on your side. CONCLUSION As I have said today, we urgently need to rethink the way we think about faith in society. The challenges of the late 20th century and early 21st century have revealed a world which is more religious than ever. It is a world where faith inspires, motivates and sustains – despite what the sociologists thought they could predict about the modern world. We need to get the relationship between state, religion and society in sync with this new reality. In Britain the resilience of religion gives us the confidence to reject the intolerance of secularist fundamentalists. It should also give us the confidence to recognise fully the huge contribution of believers everywhere. And to do that, we need first and foremost a government which understands faith, which is comfortable with faith, and which when necessary, is prepared to speak out about issues of faith. And so that leaves me with the last point I want to make. It would be easy to make this speech and walk away, maybe with the promise of returning next year. But I am serious when I say that I will be thinking about all these issues long and hard over the next few months. And I will always be ready and willing to speak out and help lead the debate. Because however things pan out over the next five years, I don’t want anyone to look back and say: “This government thought that people of faith were eccentrics or oddities.” Instead, I want this to be a new beginning for relations between society, faith and the state. Thank you. (September 15th 2010)

Speaking at the Fatima Jinnah Women’s University, July 20th 2010 Sayeeda Warsi said; I’ve had a fantastic few days in Pakistan. Everywhere I’ve been, people have given me an amazingly warm welcome. And I want to say a special thank you to the Ministry for Women’s Development and to Fatima Jinnah University for hosting me this evening and for giving me a chance to talk some of the things I’ve been thinking about over the last few days. As I’ve travelled round, people keep saying how amazing it is that I’m the first Muslim woman in the British Cabinet. They say it’s exceptional, remarkable, an unique achievement – and that’s made me think . Of course, it is great that a woman, a Muslim, whose family originated in Pakistan can get into the British Cabinet. And ladies and gentlemen, of course I’m incredibly proud – and also actually quite humbled. Far more extraordinary is the life of Fatima Jinnah. She didn’t think that being a Muslim woman barred her from politics. In fact, she had the opposite view. It was because she was a woman, and because she was a Muslim that she decided to get involved in politics in the 1940s. She defined the whole purpose of Pakistan in this way. “The story of the Pakistan movement is a story of the ideals of equality, fraternity and social and economic justice struggling against the forces of domination, exploitation, intolerance and tyranny”. This is what she said – and that is how she lived her life. There are many others in that same tradition. Look around, and you see a number of them here today. And in both our countries, Muslim women keep climbing higher and achieving greater things. Dr FahmidaMirza is the first female Parliamentary speaker of any Muslim country. Dr. MaleehaLodhi has risen to the top of two professions, journalism and politics. Young women like Fatima Bhutto now write bestselling books and appear on our television screens. And all the members of our distinguished panel are leading examples of their respective fields. Everywhere you look, you see signs of women leaders breaking through. But the fact remains that until a Muslim woman can be appointed to a British Cabinet without people saying it’s exceptional, then we know we’ve still got a lot way to go. Women in Society Everyone here knows why equality matters. A big part of it is simply about fairness. I live in a country where there are a smaller proportion of women in my Parliament than in the Parliaments of any of the following countries: Rwanda, Belarus, Cuba, Angola or Burundi. In fact until a few weeks ago, there wasa higher proportion of women in Pakistan’s National Assembly than in the House of Commons. That is not fair, and it is certainly not progressive, and it’s a sign of how bad things still are when it comes to gender inequality. But fairness is just the start of it. This is also about effectiveness. And until we get more women into our Parliaments, intoour Governments, and into the big jobs right across our countries, our politics will not be half what they could be and our countries will not be half what they could be either. I think about this in a very down to earth way. It’s not just that women bring something else to the table – although we all know that it is true. Two years ago, when I came here with David Cameron, we had a meeting with some of the women in Parliament at that time. As you’d expect, it was a lively encounter – so lively, in fact, that at the end of the meeting David Cameron turned to me and said, “gosh its good that I only have one of your in my Cabinet…”. Nor is it that I think that men can’t represent women and women can’t represent men. Of course that’s not the case. But just think about it for a second. Ask ten men and ten women separately what they see as priorities and what they see as the important issues facing families, to respond to different events and challenges, to set out how politics should work, and you will get some very different answers from those two groups. Add to that the issues that do disproportionately affect women – health care, child care, equality in the workplace – and you see why this is about effectiveness as well as fairness. The fact is that a badly unrepresentative parliament will be ineffective. End of story. And this doesn’t just apply to politics. Look at any business, any industry, any public institution, and the same thing is obvious. Everyone knows you can’t clap with one hand. But take almost any organisation and you see that very often they are trying to clap with one hand. The largest British companies with hardly any women on the board. Civil institutions run almost entirely by men. Organisations where women are shut out or kept down. We’ve got to get more women into positions of real authority across our societies and give them more chances to apply their skills. Now some of you might say it’s too difficult, there are too many vested interests, too many barriers, too many powerful forces standing in our way. Well frankly, that didn’t stop Fatima Jinnah when she got involved in the Pakistan movement. That didn’t stop her when she decided to run for President of this country. So why should it stop you? Others say, it’s the media, they are always more interested in our dupatta and our shalwarkameez ourchadar than in our policies. Well of course, we need responsible reporting and I say it’s up to us to change the media too. Some people instead will say that the key thing is role models. We need more successful Muslim women professionals to go out and encourage and persuade people by their example – and on that point, I would totally agree. But I think that there’s something else which is even more important. It’s about giving women the skills, the knowledge, the confidence they need to stand up for themselves. We need to give women the power to sweep away all those cultural stigmas and chauvinistic laws which suffocate them. And for me, doing that all boils down to one thing: education. We need to make sure that every woman has access to the best possible training and skills. Islam and Women But before I talk about education, I want to get one thing straight. I’m no religious authority and I don’t want to spark a prolonged theological debate. But there’s no doubt in my mind that if there’s one thing the Glorious Koran is clear on, it’s that men and women should be educated equally. Prophet MuhammadPBUH said : “Education is obligatory on both Muslim men and women, even if they have to go to China to seek it”. You can’t ask for much more clarity than that. Take Khadijah and Aishah. What do their stories teach us? That women should be treated as intellectual equals. That women have been important sources of Hadith. Khadijah wasn’t just the companion of Prophet Muhammad PBUH. It was she who proposed to the Prophet. She was a businesswoman who controlled her own fortune. And she was the Prophet’s solace and source of strength. As for Aishah, we all know about theBattle of the Camel. But we should also remember that she was a scholar, skilled in medicine. And there’s another point I would make. To be true followers of Islam, we must also be historians. To get to the true meaning of our religion, we must consider the context in which our faith was formed. Because when you think what the Koran says about women, and when you put that alongside the almost total absence of equality across the world in the 7th century, then you see very quickly that Islam’s message was and is one of radical emancipation and equality. We should not let that message be hijacked. Benazir Bhutto made this same point in an article she wrote fifteen years ago. “In an age when no country, no system, no community gave women any rights, in a society where the birth of a baby girl was regarded as a curse, and where women were considered chattel, Islam treated women as individuals. The Koran says“Believers, men and women are mutual friends. They enjoin what is just and forbid what is evil”. Long ago Islam gave women rights that modern nations have conceded grudgingly and only under pressure.” It Is for these reasons that I have always thought of Islam as a profoundly egalitarian religion. In his farewell speech, Prophet Muhammad PBUH said that women are men’s “partners and committed helpers”. They should indeed be partners and so there should be no barriers to women, in education or in politics. And that leads me to the main point I want to make today. Britain and Pakistan The opportunities given to us by our faith should not be denied by our culture. Let me repeat: the opportunities given to us by our faith should not be denied by our culture. Too often warped, one-sided chauvinistic cultures are crowding out Islam’s promised equality. Both here and in Britain cultural stigmas, irrational assumptions, and a history of male monopoly are getting in the way of the real, true Muslim message about equality. Both our countries have to deal with this problem. In some ways, Britain is doing better; in other ways, Pakistan is leading the way. In all cases, there are things we need to learn from each other. Let me give you two simple examples of what I mean. Where I live in Yorkshire, some Muslim men are still arguing about whether women should be allowed to go to university. But here I am today in a Muslim country, standing in a university devoted specifically to women’s education, in a country where almost half of all students in higher education are women, and whose Air Force includes a number of female fighter pilots – including A cadet, SairaAmin, who has won the Sword of Honour. My second example is about my own story. Five years ago, I stood for election in my home town of Dewsbury. I love Dewsbury. I was born and raised there. My Dad’s manufacturing company and my legal practice are based on the high street. But none of that mattered much when it came to the election. I visited some streets where I knew my Party was popular, only to be told in no uncertain terms to depart quickly. And then when I visited some traditional Muslim communities, I was shunned because I was a woman. Too brown for some, too female for others – not surprisingly, I did not win. At some point during the election, a group of elders came to see my father. They told him it was shameful that his daughter was putting herself forward for election. It wasn’t the first time they had been to see him. In 1976, the elders visited my father to say that it was shameful he was letting his wife learn to drive. In 1985, they knocked on the door to say that it was shameful he was letting his daughter go to university. Now in 2005, they were back once again saying that a daughter was bring fresh shame on the family. He gave them the same reply he’d given each previous time: no, it wasn’t shameful. In fact, he thought it was a pretty good thing. He said he wanted his daughter to go into politics. To stand up for what she believed in. We need far more fathers, far more husbands, far more brothers and sons who stand up and say the same thing. Until more fathers want what their daughters want, we’re not going to get anywhere. But it’s not just supportive fathers that matter. We need more Muslim mothers to do the same thing, and I’ve been incredibly lucky. I am the second oldest of five sisters, and when we were young, our mother told us that that while she didn’t go to university, it was our duty to go on her behalf and bring her back five university degrees. We had no choice in the matter – but she knew that education is the door to opportunity. She knew that it’s education which really unlocks the door to equality. And thank goodness for her, I went. Women and Education Now here inPakistan, nowhere near enough girls are being given this opportunity.At university level, fewer than five per cent of Pakistani women are in education. If you consider primary and secondary education, the situation is even more distressing. The average length of time spent in school for a Pakistani girl is just over 6 years. And more than a quarter of all girls aged 10 to 14 have no education at all. You don’t need me to tell you why this is a problem. It’s not just that as your population grows dramatically, doubling in the next forty years, you are not equipping the economy with the right skills to compete properly. It’s that unless we change all this and smash the cycle of education failure, we are condemning millions of girls and boys to a life of destitution, illiteracy and social immobility. Just consider the following facts. When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later. She also will have two fewer kids. Give her just one extra year in primary school and that means a ten or twenty per cent boost in her earning power later in life. Now apply that to Pakistan and you see that just extending the average primary school career for every girl by just one year and you’ve helped to tackle your big challenges of demography and economy. Their earning will add billions of rupees to your economy. But this is not about money, it’s about social mobility. It’s about giving every Muslim girl the chance to succeed. There’s a saying in the Koran that if you educate a girl you educate a family; if you educate a man, you educate an individual. Well that is pretty insightful stuff when you consider that young women in the developing world who are educated have a 90 per cent chance of ploughing their earnings back into their families, whereas with men it is only 30 per cent. So the big question is how can we make education in Pakistan better? And how can we make sure that more women have access to it? Now DFID – the British government’s development department – has been doing crucial work in this area alongside your own federal government. A big part of that is about providing stipends to help keep girls in education. Last year, DFID helped to keep around 300,000 girls in schools thanks to these stipends. And another key thing is providing textbooks and teachers – last year, 4.3 million textbooks and 4,200 teachers were paid for by the UK. But let’s be frank, there’s still a lot more to do, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwaand other affected areas. With AusAid, the Australian Government’s overseas aid program, we’ve just reached an agreement to supply more textbooks and stipends in this province. And by committing £250 million to support education in Pakistan over the coming years, the British government will ensure that it does everything possible to support the Pakistani government’s National Education Plan. Prime Minister Gilani is absolutely right to make education a priority. But it would be a mistake to make great sweeping predictions too far in the future. Remember the five year plan in 1956 which promised universal primary school enrolment in five years? Remember the same promise that was made in 1988? We’ve got to move one step at a time and make sure that step is properly implemented. That’s why I’m so pleased that the Prime Minister’s Education Taskforce is being chaired by Sir Michael Barber and Her Excellency the Adviser to the Prime Minister,ShahnazWazir Ali. The Taskforce has already focussed on the crucial important of implementation. As Sir Michael has said, rather than writing reports, this taskforce is actually going to get things done. This is absolutely the right approach – and why the next few years could be very exciting. But we have also got to accept the limits of what any government can achieve on its own. This is a big country, with big variations within the different provinces. Just to give you an example, if the Minister of Education in Punjab decided to visit every single school in the province, he would have to visit around ten a day and it would take him forty years until he had seen them all. When you think about it like that, you see that to make real inroads into education reform, and to extend education to everyone in every village and every community, we need to harness all the available skills and passion of people across society. And that’s where charities and voluntary organisations come in. Since 2002, I’ve been involved in a women’s empowerment charity called the SavayraFoundation which supports widows, divorcees, and orphan girls through skills, education and other poverty relief programmes.Over the last seven years, we have set up five skill centres in District Rawalpindi andGujerkhan to help financially destitute women and give them training and professional skills. Each skill centre trains two lots of thirty women each year. That’s 300 annually, and more than 2,000 so far. Of course, by itself this is just a tiny part of the solution. But it is a small step in the right direction. The point is that if we really are going to give every girl the best possible start in life, then we need everyone to play their part and get involved. It’s going to take a massive, concerted, national effort at every level to make education a universal experience. So we need a sustained outpouring of determination, forward thinking and political will. This is not just about what happens in politicians’ offices. It’s about what happens in every town, every village, every community. It means saying to teachers who don’t turn up to teach, if you keep doing this you will be sacked and lose your pay. It means saying to businesses, we need your support to make education accessible. And it means saying to parents, if you’re angry at the lack of facilities in your local school, we will give you real power to complain and make change. And above all, it means a national attitude of not accepting second best. In the hands of every single girl there is so much talent and skill waiting to be unlocked. It is a tragedy if those hands, because of a lack of education, are compelled to open and forced to beg. Every single child matters, and every child should be given the right education opportunities. Conclusion For me, the truly precious thing about education is that it gives you the power to understand who you are. The ability to know your mind and reach your destiny. The skills and confidence to be all you could be. And yes, education also gives you an opening into understanding Islam, and using our true Muslim values to tackle inequality. As I stand here today, I’m not going to pretend that life as a British Muslim female politician has always been comfortable. Of course, there are times when all these things – being British, Muslim, female and in politics – collide. But education opens the door to resolving all of these things. It allows you to realise your identity. And tonight, the final thought I want to leave you with is personal as much as it is political. It’s the lesson I’ve learned through my life’s education so far. Keep all the good things that you find in your culture. Strip away all those things that are wrong. Understand your heritage and know where you come from. Adhere to your faith and achieve its true meaning. And in doing all these things, love your family; support your community; and be proud and loyal to your country. Thank you all so much for listening to me this evening. May Allah give you the strength to succeed. (July 20th 2010)

Our party has always been called upon, time and time again to mend our country’s broken economy. This time, we also have a challenge to mend our broken politics and our broken society. Conference today, we live in a country which under Labour has become less at ease with itself… For too many… it has become a country which is unclear about its values Led by a Government which is too timid to talk about where we come from… And unsure about where we are going The country faces a clear choice at the election… A Labour Government that is committed to the politics of division or a Conservative Government with a clear strategy for national integration. A framework… to bring our nation together. To build… a stronger and more united society. One that is optimistic, and aspirational… And one that trusts people, trusts families and trusts communities. This strategy would mean that all those that choose to make Britain their home will make an economic… social… and political contribution to our society. An approach that will tear down the barriers of state-driven multiculturalism… that under Labour, has emphasised those things that divide us rather than unite us. An Integration Strategy that we can all sign up to… giving us a common purpose…, driving towards a shared future… And this will mean that the ‘rights agenda’ which has ballooned under Labour…, will at last be rebalanced with a focus on ‘responsibilities’. Where social action becomes as part of our country’s DNA… like as it has become part of our party’s. Where ‘social entrepreneurs’ are set free…, ‘communities activists’ are supported and ‘active citizens doing their bit’… becomes the norm. An approach that means… that our children will be taught British history in our schools. A strategy that recognises that the English language is the bedrock of our national identity. And that anybody coming to live in our country must be proficient in English. And a strategy that does not forget those already here who will finally be given the tools to learn English and become full members of our society. An approach that means that faith communities will no longer be discriminated against… simply because of their faith. And recognises and accepts that God plays an important role in their lives, motivating them to do the good work that they do. Our approach will significantly reduce immigration, and it will demand that those that join us here, also join our laws, our principles, and our values. Conference these may seem like tough demands, and I make no excuse for that… Because only by doing this can we open those doors which for too long have been closed to real equality. Where politicians… in the name of cultural sensitivities… have for too long remained silent and in doing so, let down communities. We will ensure that all in our country have the opportunity to realise their full potential. We will reward responsibility and back those that do the right thing… Together, we can mend our broken society… Conference, under David Cameron… Our Party has changed… Our policies are responding to the challenges facing today’s Britain. Our candidates and activists… people from all races, all faiths and all walks of life… come from today’s Britain. Conference we must now take this message to England, to Northern Ireland, to Scotland and to Wales… That this is the opportunity… That this is your opportunity to… To vote for change… (Check against delivery) (March 30th 2010)