Without growth all promises are empty After a lull over Christmas and the New Year, the political guns are starting up again across the Westminster battlefield. David Cameron fired the first salvo of the final full year before the general election by pledging that a future Conservative government would guarantee the real value of the state pension until 2020. In an interview on the BBC, he also talked of tighter immigration controls and of his confidence of securing a new deal with Europe. The clear intention is to shore up the crumbling Tory base, which has deserted in droves to Ukip as a new poll commissioned by Lord Ashcroft, the former party deputy chairman, confirmed yesterday. But the problem for the Conservatives is that they also need to reach out to new voters while at the same time reassuring long-standing supporters that they understand their concerns. It is a difficult task which, as James Kirkup points out on these pages, has led to a protracted clash between so-called modernisers and traditionalists over the party's direction. Yet for many voters this is an arcane debate. What they care about is whether the Government can make their lives better - not just the low-paid whose taxes Mr Cameron promised to cut yesterday, but everyone. And here there is a good story to be told. A survey of more than 1,500 firms by Lloyds Bank shows that confidence among businesses is at its strongest level since January 1994. They expect to see rising orders, sales and profits over the next six months. Another survey of finance directors indicates that they are more inclined to invest than at any time for almost 20 years. Since companies are sitting on cash reserves worth many billions of pounds, this is a far more significant development than any provided by a snapshot of disgruntled voter opinion. In addition, Britain's manufacturing sector is expected to expand by 2.7 per cent in 2014, among the fastest rates in Europe. Latest research suggests a vast improvement in confidence, with companies hoping for an increase in exports to emerging markets. All of this encouraging economic news provides the Tories, and their Coalition partners, with a powerful argument in the run up to the election. If investment and jobs are growing once more after the worst crash since the Thirties, why on earth would voters re-elect a Labour Party that not only wrecked the public finances but opposed tooth and nail the policies that have helped bring about the recovery? As George Osborne, the Chancellor, will say in a speech today, this is the "hard truth" to be confronted in 2014: without growth, all talk of inflation-proof pensions, lower deficits and tax cuts will be meaningless.