Friends, Britons, countrymen/women/other, and vile treacherous racists. Our nation is at a fork in the road.

And, as the great Yogi Berra said, when you come to a fork in the road you should take it.

But let me warn you about those who speak the language of division and run our country down.

Through 14 years of Tory chaos did you ever hear me talking about the economy being trashed, or public institutions being broken or in decline?

Now we are fixing the foundations. Reset, rebuild, renew, reform - but the latter definitely with a lower case initial.

A Britain for all. A flag reclaimed from the bigots. Why, look, even in the conference hall I've got cabinet ministers to wave Union Jacks like schoolchildren at a royal visit. That's because we are a party of patriots, even though I pronounce it paytriots like the Americans do despite the traditional English pronunciation being patriot, although both ways........

© Shropshire Star