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David Cameron has said he has the "character and judgement" to lead the country through the financial crisis.
In his closing speech to the Conservative conference in Birmingham, the leader of the Opposition said the party had shown it could "rise to the challenge of what the country requires and what the times demand".
He blamed Gordon Brown for the state of the economy, and dismissed the prime minister's claim that "this is no time for a novice".
"If we win we will inherit a huge deficit and an economy in a mess. We will need to do difficult and unpopular things for the long-term good of the country. I know that. I'm ready for that," he said.
"And there is a big argument I want to make - about the financial crisis and the economic downturn, but about the other issues facing the country too. It's an argument about experience.
"To do difficult things for the long-term or even to get us through the financial crisis in the short-term, what matters more than experience is character and judgement, and what you really believe needs to happen to make things right.
"I believe that to rebuild our economy, it's not more of the same we need, but change.
"To repair our broken society, it's not more of the same we need, but change."
He went on to say that "experience is the excuse of the incumbent over the ages", and that Brown had presided over a massive increase in debt and taxes.
"There is a simple truth for times like this. When you've taken the wrong road, you don't just keep going.
"You change direction - and that is what we need to do."
Sound money
Cameron said he believed the government's main economic duty is to ensure "sound money and low taxes".
A Conservative government would, he said, rein in private borrowing by restoring the Bank of England's power to monitor the financial markets and national debt.
"At the heart of the financial crisis is a simple fact," he said.
"The tap marked 'borrowing' was turned on - and it was left running for far too long.
"The debts we built up were too high. Far too high. The authorities - on both sides of the Atlantic - thought it could go on for ever."
Gordon Brown's "spending splurge" had left the government borrowing money when it should have been saving, he went on.
"We will rein in government borrowing", Cameron said, through reforming inefficient public services and dealing with long-term social problems that use up state spending.
The Tories' proposed independent Office of Budget Responsibility, he said, represented a "major shake-up in the way the public finances are run and we have the character and the judgement to scrap the discredited financial rules and make this vital long-term change".
"I believe in low taxes", Cameron said, at a time when "working people are crying out for relief".
But describing himself as a "fiscal conservative", he said "we do not believe in tax cuts paid for by reckless borrowing".
"We will only cut taxes once it's responsible to do so once we've made government live within its means."
Broken society
Warning that the problems facing the country go "far beyond financial crisis and economic downturn", Cameron said: "In the end I want to be judged not just on how we handle crises, but on two things.
"How we improve the public institution in this country I care about most, the NHS, and how we fulfil what will be the long-term mission of the next Conservative government: to repair our broken society."
Labour, he said, were clutching at the idea of a bigger state as "some sort of intellectual lifeline".
"When times are tough, it's not a bigger state we need: it's better, more efficient government.
"But even more than that we need a stronger society. That means trusting people. And sharing responsibility."
On health, Cameron said the Tories were "the party of the NHS in Britain today, and under my leadership that's how it's going to stay".
He said that party's central task was "our plan for social reform".
"It's not just the crime; not even the anti-social behaviour.
"It's the angry, harsh culture of incivility that seems to be all around us.
"When in one generation we seem to have abandoned the habits of all human history that in a civilised society, adults have a proper role - a responsibility - to uphold rules and order in the public realm, not just for their own children but for other people's too."
Having emphasised "social responsibility, not state control", he told the conference that those who emphasise the need for tough punishment were right only "to a degree".
"Let's recognise, once and for all, that such an approach only deals with the symptoms, picking up the pieces of failure that has gone before."
Warning that the returns from big state intervention were declining, he said: "I want us to be different: to deal with the long-term causes. That will be the test of our character and judgement."
The party would support families through 4,000 extra health visitors for new parents and back marriage in the tax system, he said.
Schools and welfare
Describing schools as a second chance for children from failed families, Cameron said the party's planned expansion of the academies programme would "break open the state monopoly and allow new schools to be set up".
"And to those who say we cannot wait for structural reform and competition to raise standards, I say - yes, you're right, and we will not wait.
"The election of a Conservative government will bring - and I mean this almost literally - a declaration of war against those parts of the educational establishment who cling to the cruelty of the 'all must win prizes' philosophy and the dangerous practice of dumbing down."
He went on: "If strengthening families is the first line of defence against social breakdown, and school reform is the second - then welfare reform is the full, pitched battle."
"Decades ago, when we had a universal collective culture of respect for work, a system of unconditional benefits was good and right and effective.
"But if we're going to talk straight we've got to admit something.
"That culture doesn't exist any more. In fact, worse than that, the benefits system itself encourages a benefit culture, and sens some pretty perverse messages."
The Tories would "end the something for nothing culture", he said, by cutting benefits for those who refuse work and making the unemployed work for benefits.
Social justice
Cameron said that with the help of former leader Iain Duncan Smith the modern Conservative Party had become "the party of social justice".
"It is this party, the Conservative Party, it is our means, Conservative means that will achieve those great and noble progressive ends of fighting poverty, extending opportunity, and repairing our broken society."
He went on: "These difficult times need leadership, yes. They need character and judgement.
"The leadership to unite your party and build a strong team. The character to stick to your guns and not bottle it when times get tough.
"The judgement to understand the mistakes that have been made and to offer the country change.
"Leadership, character, judgement. That's what Britain needs at a time like this and that's what this party now offers."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd