Calling time on Brown's age of irresponsibility

On his excellent speech to the Conservative conference today, George Osborne set out a Conservative policy to deal with the credit crunch and end Gordon Brown's "Age of Irresponsibility."

Measures to be taken by an incoming Conservative government will include:

* Scrapping the discredited fiscal rules

* Creating a new Office for Budget Responsibility to assess independently the sustainability of the public finances and hold the Government to account

* Giving the Bank of England a far greater role in market oversight

* Creating a new Debt Responsibility Mechanism

* Introducing a new system of deposit insurance for savers for the first £50,000 of deposits, to be paid out within a week.

George stressed that the Conservative plan for a strong economy will demonstrate that “the election of a Conservative Government would herald a new age of responsibility and economic reconstruction”

The Shadow Chancellor's proposals for financial and fiscal responsibility are set out in a document entitled "Reconstruction - our plan for a strong economy" which is available on the Conservative website here.