But, after 15 years of global economic growth, the UK is woefully prepared for a downturn, with the worst budget deficit of all industrial economies, other than Pakistan, Egypt, and Hungary.
The announcement that a Conservative government would create an independent Office of Budget Responsibility to assess the public finances and hold the Government to account joined a range of measures set to ensure long-term economic stability and reign in borrowing.
The conference revealed our plan for change - bold, radical ideas to renew our bureaucratised NHS, reform our education system and to repair our broken society:
- Empowering patients and ensuring doctors answer to patients rather than Whitehall;
- Strengthening families with more home health visitors and flexible working;
- Reforming our school system by establishing 1,000 new Academies and allowing local communities to take responsibility for schools out of Local Education Authority control;
- Ending the 'something for nothing' culture with radical welfare reform.
The return of Peter Mandelson to the cabinet is a mark of Gordon Brown's desparate fight for his political survival. But this economic crisis shows we need change, not more of the 'Gordon Brown experience'.
Instead of a divided Government led by the man who left the economy so badly prepared - last week Conservatives showed a strong, united and positive alternative to Labour - ready to serve the country.