Bernard Ingham: The speech I hope to hear from Cameron today

We are today celebrating an election victory over the pollsters as well as Ed Miliband’s attempted Left turn.

Inconceivably, Labour’s response has been to embrace hard Left extremism in the disorganised form of Jeremy Corbyn.

Our victory, allowing us to govern alone, is a cause for satisfaction. Mr Corbyn’s arrival is not. He represents further weakening of a constructive UK body politic after the SNP takeover of Scotland.

All this comes when the UK’s future in Europe is in question; when the Eurozone is a dangerous mess; when Europe has no answer to destabilising mass migration from the Arab states and the Middle East, when President Putin is playing a dubious game in Syria after annexing the Crimea and chipping away at the Ukraine; when militant and murderous Islam presents a world threat; and when the prospect of better government in African states to keep their own people at home where they are needed is not yet on the horizon.

It is true that our economy, under George Osborne’s capable direction, is in a better state than many.

But the Government is still spending far more than its income – about £70bn a year more – and the world economy is in a febrile state. We cannot take economic security for granted.

All this means that this Conservative government – indeed, all Conservatives – have a serious job to do in explaining why our policies are needed; why Britain must be economically and defensively strong; and why we need to speak candidly about the world’s problems and find better ways of handling them.

Domestically, we face an official opposition leadership which has been seriously at odds with its own country and sympathetic to those who would harm it.

The saner part of the Parliamentary Labour Party will temper the Left’s excesses so long as they are not de-selected as MPs by single-minded Trots.

But Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell would not merely tax Britain until Denis Healey’s pips really squeaked, but also let loose the trade union movement on British industry.

They would again drive enterprises abroad and impoverish working people with unemployment and rampant inflation.

The Conservative road is not an easy one. But it is necessary. We have to eradicate Gordon Brown’s massive deficit and 
then through steady growth create the means to a better NHS, education ands care for the vulnerable. Otherwise, we are at greater risk from global economic shocks.

Ours is not austerity for austerity’s sake.

It represents a genuine care for the welfare of this nation and its people.

I must say I cannot abide the claims to moral superiority of Labour, left, right and centre, and those of the SNP. Anyone would think Tories had no concern for ordinary folk.

The long history of Tory reform and the hard Left’s proven determination to impose its debilitating will on everyone shows how preposterous is its piety and its worship of democracy.

Just think of Arthur Scargill’s private army of thugs called flying pickets.

I cannot stress too much that without a strong, effective Conservative government our liberty and democracy are at risk.

No doubt you will have noticed that last week a Eurocrat said that political cost meant nothing to them because they did not seek re-election.

Well, we are now seeking a new relationship with Europe. I hope we shall be successful in securing a free trade agreement and our release from the political objective of ever closer union, thereby restoring lost authority to Westminster. When the referendum comes, we have genuinely to feel we are again far more in command of our own nation’s affairs.

Elsewhere, we have to find a better way of managing the world’s problems or despots 
will increasingly get away 
with belligerence and tyranny that put innocent people to flight.

The rich Arab states have to do far more to bring order to the Middle East. And Muslims everywhere have loudly to condemn atrocity and genocide.

This Conservative government has a lot on its plate. Jeremy Corbyn and Co make it all the more necessary Zac Goldsmith succeeds Boris Johnson as 
Mayor of London and that we return Conservative councils next year.

It is vital for Britain – and I believe the world – that we succeed.

This country can now count only on Conservatives to create a strong Britain that is a force for good on the troubled planet.