EVERY family in Wales knows just how tough the last 12 months have been.

More people are out of work. Businesses have gone to the wall. Prosperity levels have fallen further behind the UK average. Public services are stretched to breaking point.

As we approach the General Election people need hope for the future and the country needs to change direction.

But Labour’s failure to be honest with people has only made matters worse.

Remember how Gordon Brown said he’d abolished boom and bust – then gave us the longest and deepest recession since records began?

He said we were the best-placed country to deal with the global downturn, but we’re still in recession while all our major competitors are in recovery.

Remember how Rhodri Morgan, when he was First Minister, said the Welsh economy was showing encouraging signs of resilience?

Yet unemployment is now the highest of any UK nation and almost half the total number of jobs lost in the whole of the United Kingdom in the last three months were in Wales – for the second quarter running.

Rhodri Morgan also said he was “confident of delivering economic prosperity for Wales”.

Yet when he left office figures showed Wales is still the poorest nation or region in the United Kingdom.

Families across Wales will be hit hard by Labour's failure to tackle the debt crisis.

Net Government debt is projected to grow to almost £1.5 trillion by 2014-15, according to the Pre Budget Report. That’s the equivalent to £23,000 debt for every person in the United Kingdom.

I know that in 2010 we need to make tough decisions about how to deal with Labour's debt crisis.

Even Peter Hain agrees.

In July he said: “Total public spending will be restrained over the three years 2011-14. There is no avoiding that as we look to rebuild the public finances we will need patience as well as prudence. It will mean being tough on priorities and really going hard for efficiency.”

That means Labour cuts.

Mr Hain also failed to be straight with people – characterising ‘nice’ Labour reductions in public spending versus ‘nasty’ Tory cutbacks.

This is a mistake. People can see through this.

It is the same Mr Hain who has been trying to create hysteria about the choices facing people at the next election through his increasingly desperate attempts to divert attention from Labour's abysmal record with fantasy claims on Conservative policy.

His recent comments, for example, on a supposed 23% rise in VAT by a Conservative Government were based on his own works of fiction.

Threatening that a Conservative Government would cut initiatives such as free swimming and bus passes for elderly people, or claiming people would be dying on trolleys in hospital corridors, are equally ridiculous.

Conservatives have been honest in telling people about the choices ahead and making it clear which choices we would make.

Gordon Brown is treating people like fools by pretending these choices on spending can be avoided.

But the alternative is a tax bombshell that would hit hard pressed families and damage Britain's economy for years to come.

It’s not just Labour’s failure to accept the reality of their own failure that should concern us.

It’s their increasingly desperate attempts to manipulate the truth that charts a worrying course between now and the General Election.

People want positive politics. They want to know the truth and then contribute to the solutions, supporting the decisions that must be taken to offer a brighter future.

They do not want slanging matches and scaremongering.

As many families struggle to make ends meet this Christmas, or worry about whether they’ll have jobs to go to in the New Year, people want to know what government can do to provide secure jobs, promote prosperity and invest in the services they rely on.

In the four years since I was appointed by David Cameron I have witnessed at first hand the many challenges facing Wales.

And I have seen the Conservative Party rise to meet those challenges.

In Wales our party has made great strides, culminating in the historic European election win last June.

But that is not enough. And we are not complacent in thinking the hard work has been done and victory is assured.

Our next big challenge is to defeat Labour in the General Election and give Wales and the United Kingdom hope for the future.

That’s why we’ve been setting out bold plans to deal with the big problems the country faces.

We need to get banks lending again. For nearly a year, we have been calling for a National Loan Guarantee Scheme to underwrite bank lending to businesses, to save businesses and protect jobs.

To restore investor confidence, we need a credible plan to get the annual deficit under control.

That means taking the tough choices in public spending we have set out, such as a one-year public sector pay freeze except for the lowest paid.

And in the Assembly we will re-balance the budgets, focusing on frontline services, not costly gimmicks and giveaways.

We have said that we will start with ourselves announcing that if we win the General Election we will cut ministerial salaries and freeze them for the duration of the Parliament.

On jobs we will abolish all tax on jobs created by new companies for two years and introduce a introduce a radical new programme for everyone who is unemployed so we can Get Britain Working again, backed by new apprenticeships and university places.

I believe the Conservative Party is united, determined and ready to deliver the tough and radical change Britain needs to rebuild our broken economy, mend our broken society and set out country on a new path.