Prime Minister Tony Blair will use Labour's annual conference in Brighton to thank grass routes activists for delivering a third term.

Delegates will also be told next week of numerous policy papers setting out detailed reforms in schools, care outside hospitals and welfare reform.

In his welcome message in the conference magazine, the Prime Minister says: "I saw for myself across the country how hard you worked.

"Without your tireless campaigning, your deep roots in communities and the role you played in shaping our policies and agenda, our victory would not have been possible.

"The real reason for celebration is the chance we have been given to embed and accelerate the changes we are making to this country - renewing Britain as a modern social democracy and building a more prosperous and fairer country with opportunity and security for all."

Mr Blair told a pre-conference meeting of the Cabinet yesterday: "We have to secure Britain's future in a world of rapid change driven by globalisation, new technology and new economic powers such as China and India.

"My recent visits to China and India have brought home even further the magnitude of the global challenge we face.

"We have to change and modernise for a purpose - to equip everyone for this changing world.

"Faced with the opportunities and insecurities the future brings, our New Labour government must manage this change and not turn our face against it."

Thursday, September 22, 2005