The biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those who denounce new thinking as heresy. In its long history Europe has experience of heretics who turned out to have a point. – David Cameron
We cannot go on as we are with 2.6 million people on incapacity benefit, 500,000 of them are under 35. Are we really saying there are half a million people in this country under 35 who are simply too ill to work? I don’t think that’s right. – David Cameron
Britain is characterized not just by its independence but, above all, by its openness. – David Cameron
We need the Chinese to – you know, spend more, save less – consume more and not be so focused on exports. There are big changes we need in the world. – David Cameron
But we will say something else. That for far too long in this country, people who can work, people who are able to work, and people who choose not to work: you cannot go on claiming welfare like you are now. – David Cameron
When you’re taking the country through difficult times and difficult decisions you’ve got to take the country with you. That means permanently trying to make the argument that what you’re doing is fair and seen to be fair. – David Cameron
We spend billions of pounds on welfare, yet millions are trapped on welfare. It’s not worth their while going into work. – David Cameron
I believe something very deeply. That Britain’s national interest is best served in a flexible, adaptable and open European Union and that such a European Union is best with Britain in it. – David Cameron
Cap the well, yes. Clear up the mess, yes. Make compensation – yes, absolutely. But would it be right to have legislation that independently targets BP rather than other companies? I don’t think that – would be right. – David Cameron
The political system is broken, the economy is broken and so is society. That is why people are so depressed about the state of our country. – David Cameron
I am a very instinctive Conservative. I have created a welfare system where it pays to work. I have created independent schools within the state sector bringing excellence to children wherever they are. – David Cameron
I watched, for the 17th and hopefully the last time, The ‘Guns of Navarone’ on New Year’s Eve. I always watch just in case the explosives don’t go off in the end. You have to watch the end, just to make sure it’s OK. – David Cameron
If you lose control of your debt and deficit, you get massive cuts in things such as health and education. You get appalling insecurity, jobs lost, firms going overseas. – David Cameron
There’s another way we are getting behind business – by sorting out the banks. Taxpayers bailed you out. Now it’s time for you to repay the favour and start lending to Britain’s small businesses. – David Cameron
In a global race, can we really justify the huge number of expensive peripheral European institutions? Can we justify a commission that gets ever larger? Can we carry on with an organisation that has a multibillion pound budget but not enough focus on controlling spending and shutting down programmes that haven’t worked? – David Cameron
We have the character of an island nation: independent, forthright, passionate in defence of our sovereignty. We can no more change this British sensibility than we can drain the English Channel. And because of this sensibility, we come to the European Union with a frame of mind that is more practical than emotional. – David Cameron
People feel that the EU is heading in a direction that they never signed up to. They resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation. And they wonder what the point of it all is. Put simply, many ask ‘why can’t we just have what we voted to join – a common market?’ – David Cameron
On the one hand we have got to ask, are there some areas of universal benefits that are no longer affordable? But on the other hand let us look at the issue of dependency where we have trapped people in poverty through the extent of welfare that they have. – David Cameron
As far as I am concerned this referendum should settle the matter. I believe it will one way or another be decisive. Britain will not want to go through this again. On the other hand if we vote to leave, this really is irreversible. – David Cameron
I have no time for those who say there is no way Scotland could go it alone. I know first-hand the contribution Scotland and Scots make to Britain’s success – so for me there’s no question about whether Scotland could be an independent nation. – David Cameron
2012 has been an extraordinary year for our country. We cheered our Queen to the rafters with the Jubilee, showed the world what we’re made of by staging the most spectacular Olympic and Paralympic Games ever and – let’s not forget – punched way above our weight in the medals table. – David Cameron
More of the same will just produce more of the same: less competitiveness, less growth, fewer jobs. – David Cameron
I mean, I’m a conservative. I believe that, you know, if you borrow too much, you just build up debts for your children to pay off. You put pressure on interest rates. You put at risk your economy. That’s the case in Britain. We’re not a reserve currency, so we need to get on and deal with this issue. – David Cameron
People are increasingly frustrated that decisions taken further and further away from them mean their living standards are slashed through enforced austerity or their taxes are used to bail out governments on the other side of the continent. – David Cameron
If we left the European Union, it would be a one-way ticket, not a return. So we will have time for a proper, reasoned debate. At the end of that debate you, the British people, will decide. – David Cameron
It does not seem to me that the steps which would be needed to make Britain – and others – more comfortable in their relationship in the European Union are inherently so outlandish or unreasonable. – David Cameron
I want completing the single market to be our driving mission. I want us to be at the forefront of transformative trade deals with the US, Japan and India as part of the drive towards global free trade. And I want us to be pushing to exempt Europe’s smallest entrepreneurial companies from more EU directives. – David Cameron
One of the pleas you get when you’re talking to the tourist industry or the energy industry or the whoever is, ‘Please, can we just have the same minister for longer than five minutes?’ – David Cameron