Candidate Launch Speech for Scottish Parliament Labour Goup Leader
Friday, 17th August 2007I really appreciate you all coming along today at what was, in truth, very short notice. As you might have expected I have a speech prepared and a few things that I want to say to you, but in many ways the first sentence that I wrote was the easiest and the most important.
It was:
Today I offer myself as a candidate to lead Labour in the Scottish Parliament.
For me there could be no greater honour and privilege than to lead the Labour Party in the Parliament we did so much to create.
I joined the Labour party while still at school and it has been one of the cornerstones of my life ever since.
It is a party that I am proud of and a party, which has done so much to make Scotland a better country – a country where health, education, care for the elderly, and housing have all improved.
And today I make this promise. Together we will rebuild a Party with energy, a party with vision, a party with compassion, a party the people of Scotland see as theirs.
A party for all of Scotland.
Walk the streets of Glasgow, Inverness or Dumfries; look inside the offices of Dundee, Stirling and Greenock or the boardrooms of Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
You can feel and see the growing confidence. We have more jobs, more apprentices than ever before, a better infrastructure and fast growing dynamic sectors. Our entrepreneurs and their ideas, drive and skills are there to be seen throughout the world.
It is Labour in Scotland, with our strong traditions of radical, progressive policies, that has changed this country for the better. Think back to our historic leadership on land reform, social housing, and hydro power. And in modern times free bus travel, community land ownership, the smoking ban and tackling anti-social behaviour – all progressive policies made in Scotland by Scottish Labour.
And I salute Jack McConnell for his leadership and dedicated contribution to changing Scotland for the better.
We in the Labour Party should be rightly proud of our past achievements. But we must also be ready to face the future.
Times change.
A lot has changed in my life in recent years.
Marriage.
Children.
Motherhood
And a lot has changed in our national life too.
On May 3 we lost.
Despite our achievements we failed to convince the people of Scotland that we deserved their continued support.
Too many people felt let down. Perhaps they felt we hadn’t listened to their concerns. Perhaps they thought we had become complacent. What is certain is that some people who had supported us in the past became disillusioned.
And the SNP was the beneficiary of that disillusionment.
The SNP victory – no matter how slim – was a judgement on Labour. Yes Iraq and cash for honours allegations, played their part, but we would be fooling ourselves if we didn’t recognise that we, in Scottish Labour were also at fault in that defeat.
The SNP didn’t just win with slick presentational tricks. Nor did they win thanks to their manifesto.
They won because they seized Labour’s agenda of hope and aspiration.
Well I’m here to tell you that we’re going to seize it back.
Scottish Labour stands at a political crossroads. We can carry on as we are now and hope that we will regain the reins of power at the next Holyrood election by default.
But anyone who believes that is kidding themselves.
That road is a dead end.
On May 3rd the people of Scotland told us loud and clear they wanted change.
They didn’t whisper, they shouted it.
I heard it and so did you.
Change. The question is: what sort of change?
The SNP think this change is all about the constitution – 100 days in and only one Bill published. The subject? Surprise, surprise.
A referendum on independence.
This isn’t the sort of change people were looking for. They wanted social and economic change more than they wanted institutional and constitutional change.
They wanted to know that we were listening to them, recognising their hopes and keeping pace with their aspirations.
The people of Scotland didn’t lose faith with Labour’s core values. But they doubted our ability to deliver on those values.
So change we must.
Change how we behave,
Change how we engage and
Change how we respond to the people we represent.
We must be humble enough to listen, wise enough to engage and brave enough to renew.
As Labour’s leader in Scotland I will be uncompromising in my support for that change. And I will give the leadership that people the length and breadth of Scotland want and expect from Labour.
I will give them a party of Scotland, a party for Scotland.
Under my leadership Scottish Labour will reform, renew and reconnect
Reform our party organisation
Renew our policies
Reconnect with the people of Scotland
To reform our party, we must recognise that we have big challenges ahead. It is a task for us all. I have thought hard about what it will take.
Our history suggests that some of Labour’s greatest achievements came from leaders who understood the power of the team. I will lead a team that draws on all the talents in the party.
I want to re- build and re-energise our team. I want to make our team, fitter, stronger and ready to reach out beyond our ranks and across Scotland.
If we are to achieve anything, then reforming and renewing our party organisation must be a priority. And only when we all work as a team, can we win.
I want to see a new structure for Scottish Labour, signalling a party that takes more responsibility for itself.
We have organisational challenges. If I am elected leader, the Scottish Labour Conference next spring will consider a new governance structure. One fit for a modern Scotland and fit for the 21st century.
We have political challenges. Labour needs to become an all Scotland party again. Let no one believe we are only a party of west central Scotland. So in this campaign not only will I visit every part of the country – I will lead a party that speaks for all parts of Scotland.
But most of all we need to change our culture. That is what the people of Scotland want from us. People have to see that passion in each and every one of us.
I want to see a revitalised party – with a sense of purpose, a sense of pride and confidence that we can win again the trust of the people of Scotland.
Hand in hand with the reform of our party will be a renewal of our policies.
I have talked of how times change and as they do, people’s aspirations change with them.
And yes, changing times also I believe justify a fresh look at our relationships within the UK. Look at the challenges which have emerged since Donald Dewar’s time – the threat to our security at home, floods and climate change, even migration and asylum seeking – all challenges that have emerged in recent times, and all challenges that do not recognise borders. They all require a common response within this one island.
And the relationships that exist amongst the peoples of that one island is again the subject of debate.
We should not fear a debate on our constitution.
But our starting point – as most Scots would agree – is to make the relationships within the UK work better not to stop it working at all.
The Scots I know are generally optimistic about Scotland. Yet in the weeks leading up to May the 3rd whatever our intentions, many believed that in making the case for the United Kingdom we in Labour were in some way talking Scotland down. That must change. From now on we must speak with a new confidence.
People also like the idea of partnership. They are relaxed about our relationship with the rest of the UK. Our Scottishness is not under threat. We need to make the case for a new partnership in the UK and make it with the voice of confident Scots.
So as someone who worked 20 years ago to help take Labour into the Constitutional Convention and who worked 10 years ago to deliver the Parliament I welcome fresh look at our partnership with colleagues across the UK.
Like most Scots we believe the politics of the future of these islands is best built through debate and dialogue not division and dissent.
Have the debate, have the dialogue but do not allow Scotland to be used and abused for the sake of a constitutional battle.
As the last week’s White Paper confirms the SNP are still about one issue and one answer only: separation.
And I serve notice on our opponents in the SNP – you do not serve the nation well if the constitution becomes the only issue. I share the growing fears of many that the constitutional obsessions dominate to such an extent that the people’s priorities are no longer heard.
The voters want politics in Scotland to be about the issues that touch their lives.
But our reformed party and our renewed policies are only a means to an end and that end is to reconnect with the people of Scotland.
People ask us “what does Scottish Labour stand for?”
And our answer is that we stand –as we have always done – for progressive values of justice, equality, and community.
These values are the bedrock on which our party was founded and have sustained us ever since; and still do today.
But our task today as the Scottish Labour Party is to embody these values in our own time.
Scots remain instinctively sympathetic to our values. That did not change on May 3rd.
So what went wrong?
Despite their sympathy for our values, too many Scots wondered if we really understood their lives today and their hopes and their aspirations.
The core concerns of Scottish families are how to get on in life, to make sure their kids get the best possible start, and to live in safe and friendly communities. These are the dominating issues in homes up and down the country.
But what it takes – to get on in life, to give your kids the best start and to live in safety – is changing all the time.
In short, conditions change, and aspirations rise. And we need to be more in tune with those changes.
Ten years ago we were repairing neglect in schools, hospitals and putting people back to work. Today rising aspirations mean people are looking for better, more personalised services from those same schools and hospitals.
Ten years ago after decades of neglect there was a crying need for new schools fit for purpose. Scottish Labour has delivered those new schools. But now there are new needs. Today’s concerns are about the leadership in those schools, with modernising the curriculum and ever more personalised learning with one on one tuition.
Ten years ago we led the assault on the big killer diseases. Thanks to reforms introduced by Scottish Labour, we are well on the way to dealing with these scourges. Now there are new worries. Today’s concerns are increasingly how we help patients with chronic conditions manage their own care.
Ten years ago, the urgent priority was to create more highly skilled jobs. Scottish Labour’s radical economic strategies have created those jobs. Today those same employees aspire to their own homes.
Ten years ago Scottish Labour established the first ever universal nursery places. Today, the new priority is to support parents, families and communities – to give our children better childhoods.
We need to understand these rising aspirations. We then need to meet the voters on their ground. To be out of touch is to be out of power.
So I want Labour to stand for an aspirational Scotland – helping tomorrow’s generations fulfil their hopes and dreams. This is our challenge.
And don’t let anyone say a more aspirational Scotland is only for some. No one aspires to change more than people from the poorest families living in the poorest areas often served by poorer public services.
So we will reclaim our place as the party, which listens to, and stands up for, the people of Scotland and the communities in which they live.
If we can get alongside people and their aspirations we are on the road back to power.
Because the issue we can then put at the heart of Scottish politics – is who speaks for the people and for their priorities?
The people will give short shrift to politicians who put their own agendas first.
In four years time Scottish voters will ask only one question of politicians how did they spend their time and how did they spend our money?
Scotland wants politicians willing to roll their sleeves up and get on with it. Improving services, matching rising expectations, challenging vested interests.
Are the next four years about the people’s aspirations or Alex Salmond’s aspirations?
Is his main concern how high the Saltire flies on Edinburgh castle? His calls to the flag this summer simply bypass the real worries of Scottish families – their kids’ lives, their health, and their pension worries.
Our challenge is to meet the people’s aspirations. It means the road ahead for Labour must be the radical road.
It is clearly marked; and it is the road I believe that will take us back to power.
We cannot reform or renew overnight – but neither can we afford to hesitate. Labour can, and will, be reinvigorated by a period of reflection.
Under my leadership Labour will speak for all Scots – no matter where they live, no matter their age, social or ethnic background.
It will be a party of principle and energy.
It will be a party with vision. A party with compassion.
A party for all of Scotland.
A party that can build a Scotland where children learn in a well-run 21st century school, with kids from all backgrounds, playing safely – proud of their country.
Where every child has the opportunity to go on to further education at a top class college or university.
I want us to build a Scotland with a strong economy with employment opportunities for everyone and the belief they can better themselves.
And a Scotland where the massive gulf between rich and poor is closed.
- With a health service and care service that respects and cares for all, especially the vulnerable and the elderly in our society.
- A Scotland at ease within a UK and accepted throughout the world as a fair and progressive nation.
These are the priorities that I have for my family and I believe these are the priorities of families all across our country.
In the end the people’s priorities will win out.
So their priorities must be ours. Their hopes ours. Their aspirations ours
Grant me your support, and together we will deliver.
Thank you.