Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
6 October 2007

**Check against delivery**

There is nothing I like more than a conference speech.
The excitement, the expectation, the drama.
Nothing I like more…
…except, that is, one thing.
A Liberal Democrat victory in an election.
And on Thursday evening, at 11.32 – I know because I have kept the text message! – news came through that that our candidate, Andrew Nisbet had won the Helensburgh by election.

A sensational victory for the Liberal Democrats in a seat where the Tories had come first back in May and the SNP were convinced they were going to win this time.
The candidate for that election is now a councillor and he is here with us today. Andrew congratulations. You fought an outstanding campaign.
This victory proves we are in good shape and high spirits, in a strong position to make gains across Scotland if a general election is called next week.
So come on Mr Brown, make up your mind – because the Liberal Democrats are ready and up for the contest.

That is the backdrop against which this conference is being held.
It could not be a more important time for our party in Scotland and across the UK.
Today I want to look forward to that election, whenever it may come.
And, yes. There is someone is posted at the door to give us a signal if it is called while I am standing up here.

But I also want to tell you why Scotland and Britain needs the Liberal Democrats, now more than ever.
Our prospects in Scotland are strong.
Think about it: If you had been told that in the Scottish Parliament election the SNP would gain 20 seats and the Labour party lose 4;
If you had been told the SNP share of the vote would go up by 9% and the Labour vote fall by 2%;

How would you predict the Liberal Democrats would have done.
The result on the day?
Our share of the constituency vote went up.
Our share of the vote went up to over 16%, for the very first time
– our highest vote for any Scottish Parliament election.
And we won tens of thousands of extra votes on the regional list as well.
The highlight of the campaign was undoubtedly the success of Jim Tolson as the new member of the Scottish Parliament for Dunfermline West.
Defeating Labour once again in Gordon Brown’s back yard.
So this nation remains a bedrock for the Liberal Democrats.
12 out of the 63 Liberal Democrat MPs across the UK.
16 MSPs. 166 – no - 167 local councillors.

The largest party, controlling Edinburgh, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen councils.
Of course we wished for more.
You know, I can recall when I first campaigned for this great party, back in the 1970s.
The resurgence of the Liberal Party after the bleak times of the 50s and early 60s.
I remember the excitement, the energy, the enthusiasm.
For me it is still there – and it has grown.
The passion for liberalism, the rights of the individual, the importance of communities. A free, fair and just society. The values that we believe in and that bind us together.
In those days - when I was the willing foot soldier, delivering the leaflets and attending the rallies, we won around 8% of the vote in Scotland.
In fact in1979, we worked harder than ever and surged to nearly nine.
I worked hard then because I believed in, I was energised by what I knew was a noble cause.

A party with honesty and values; that would stand up for the individual, the underdog, the disadvantaged.
They were exciting times because we knew, we believed to our core that Scotland and Britain needed change.
The two old parties were failing our nation, too timid, too centralised, too wedded to the politics of class and division.
Now look about you, in a new century, after 18 years of the Conservatives, after Thatcher and Major and now 10 years of Blair look about you, and think if any of that has changed.

And think of the future – the future for you, for your children and for this planet.
The values of liberal democracy have never been more urgently needed.
And those two old parties are still letting our nation down,
- too alike, too complacent, two failures
In the last few weeks I have travelled across Scotland,
visiting students and young people in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Stirling, Dundee.

They want to join our party and to vote for us in ever greater numbers.
Young people believe in our values, on climate change and the environment, on poverty, on civil liberties, on the war in Iraq. They see our ideals and they see our ambition – outward, international, compassionate.
Their idealism shines out.

And look at the marches against the war in Iraq, the support for Make Poverty History, the streets of our towns and cities filled with people who care about their local health services.

These are people fired up by a cause, coming together as individuals to bring benefit to their communities, their country or their planet.
Liberal Democracy is about freedom - that no one should be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.
And the world needs liberal democracy to grow and to spread. In some places it is urgent.

Look at Burma today.
Remember Kenji Nagai the Japanese photographer, shot, point blank by a Burmese soldier.
Remember the monks, bludgeoned defenceless to death
Or sitting this very minute, quiet and dignified, incarcerated and in shackles in holding centres from which they may never emerge.

Think what more our values and our governments could do for them. Think too of Darfur and Rwanda and the Balkans. Ethnic cleansing, starvation, genocide.
Yet Labour and the Conservatives together have diminished Britain’s international reputation and undermined international law.
Under a Labour government, ethical foreign policy has collapsed and we are mired in an illegal war in Iraq.
The car bombs, the carnage, the kidnappings, the killings.
A war voted through the House of Commons by Labour and the Tories together.
A war funded by Gordon Brown and supported by David Cameron. Labour and the Conservatives cow towed to George W Bush.
We stood tall.
I am proud to be a member of a party that has said no to war, led with such courage and consistency and conviction by our leader Menzies Campbell.
I am proud to be a Liberal Democrat.

I took part in that Make Poverty History march.
And poverty and lack of opportunity still hang like dark shadows over our nation too.
I was looking at some statistics – those who live in deprived areas – those who are not in employment - those with drug problems – those failing in our schools - and those who are on short term prison sentences.
Five separate sets of statistics. But they are not statistics they are people - too often the very same people.
Poverty enslaves.
Yet together Labour and the Tories have let down the most disadvantaged in our communities.
I remember Labour politicians lambasting Margaret Thatcher – and yes, they did sometimes do that – lambasting her because in Thatcher’s Britain the rich had got richer and the poor had got poorer.
You don’t hear much of that anymore do you. And I’ll tell you why.
Because in Brown’s Britain it’s worse, not better.
A Labour government has allowed more tax to be taken from poor people than from the rich.
A Labour government has doubled the tax rate for our poorest workers.
Labour and the Tories, together again, hitting the poor.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
That is why our plans for tax are so dramatic.
4p off income tax, giving real benefit to families in Scotland.
Money in the pockets of the low paid and middle earners.
Council tax scrapped, saving the lowest earners hundreds of pounds each year.
A fairer more just society.
That is not an aim, it is a determination, a priority, a passion, and the Liberal Democrat pledge.

And in that fair society, the rule of law and civil liberties are at the very heart of Liberal Democracy.
The retention of DNA by the State has immense implications for civil liberties.
DNA does not help to solve every crime. In fact it helps with just a fraction of one per cent of crimes.
Think about this; the UK has the largest data base in the world of DNA.
But when you look more closely you find it should be more accurately described as the largest data bank of black, male youths in the world.
In Scotland there are children as young as nine with their DNA stored for life
So it might be tough and it will not be popular with those who say that the erosion of civil liberties is a price worth paying.

But as a Liberal Democrat I stand firm in defence of our hard earned liberties.

Under a Labour government we have more surveillance cameras,
more DNA.
Sweeping new powers of telephone snooping.
10 billion pounds to be spent on ID cards.
A clamp down on civil liberties.
Your right, my right, to protest outside our Parliament in Westminster removed.
The 21st century Labour Party means the steady erosion of protections once regarded as the corner stones of our legal rights.
And the Conservatives want to go further, abolishing the Human Rights Act…quick as ever to rush for the hits of cheap publicity.
There is a danger when we let hard won freedoms be surrendered.
We want safety and security and a nation free of crime. Of course we do
But we want a society where the innocent go free and their rights, their freedoms are protected.
I am prepared to make the case for the restraint of the state, even if no other party will.

Liberal Democrats, we will be the guardians of those freedoms,
not the guarantors of Guantanamo.
And we say no to the erosion of our rights and values.
No to the big brother society of Orwell or of Endemol.

Too often our politics, our society is short term, sensational, superficial.
Yet, now we must tackle the most significant, substantial issue facing our nation and our planet. Climate change.
Liberal Democrat values tell us that the current generation acts as trustees of the planet. We have a responsibility to hand it on safe and sustainable to the next generation.
Yet under this Labour government green taxes have fallen.
The Conservatives the same. A score of zero for their manifesto from Friends of the Earth.
Labour and Conservative, the same. Failing together on climate change, the biggest threat to our society.
I want to lead the charge against climate change.
We need a bold ambitious vision.
Last year I set out our plans for 100% renewable electricity in Scotland by 2050. That vision now will be part of our plans for the UK elections.
And we will make the UK carbon neutral by 2050.
Radical plans to switch to green taxes – taxing the polluters and helping the low paid.
Our targets will require bold and, at times, difficult decisions.
But our principles and values mean we must guarantee freedom for future generations by tackling climate change in this generation.

Liberating people by providing the very best education is a core Liberal Democrat belief.
Our Party constitution, our whole reason to exist and to campaign, is that no one should be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.
Labour and the Conservatives continue to fail too many young people on education.
In England, for example, skills academies focus government investment on less than 1% of children, with a curriculum matched to the whim of a rich sponsor rather than the needs of the child.
We reject that approach in Scotland. Our plans focus on far more individual learning for every pupil.
We have to inspire, give confidence, develop creativity and excitement in every child. We have to make education fun.

So I am delighted that across Britain we have announced plans to use money squandered on ineffective tax credits for major new investment in education;
Targeted for those from the very poorest backgrounds.
To improve the life chances of those who need it most.
Our plans for individual learning will put us a class ahead of the other parties on education.
With passion and commitment, Scotland can do it.
When I was in India last year promoting Scottish business and education, I visited the Delhi Public School.
I met a young teenage girl there.
She had been on the verge of giving up education to support her family.
She wanted to go to Mumbai to make her fortune in Bollywood.
And that’s where the school stepped in. They warned her that to leave education would only bring short term benefits, if any at all.
So they made her a deal.
If she would stick with school, keep turning up for lessons in the morning, they would pay her to teach traditional Indian dancing to the younger children in the afternoons.
She could have a job, she could support her family, and she could carry on with her education.
And that’s in India. A country with 360 million children. Eight times poorer than Scotland.
They can find the imagination and the incentive for education.
And so can Scotland.
And so must Scotland.

Let’s look too at the way the Conservatives and Labour to our NHS.
I heard David Cameron talk passionately about the NHS. Well let’s remind you of this Mr Cameron. It was the Tories that brought our NHS to its knees.
Don’t take my word for it. Ask the doctors and nurses – and those patients who had to wait sometimes years for serious treatment.
Labour have injected more resources, but have failed to tackle those underlying causes of ill health – poverty, pollution, poor housing.
The Liberal Democrats want a more personal approach to patient care, giving diagnosis and treatment wherever possible near to your home in local communities.
For Liberal Democrats the NHS is a 24/7 service. So why do we need the misnamed NHS 24 phoneline trying to cover a glaring gap in the provision of local care?

The service we used to know has gone.
I want to see GPs, nurses, para medics and pharmacists come together to design a new model.
A model that provides all patients with safe accessible 24 hour local health care.
One that removes this false and sometimes dangerous barrier between in-hours and out-of-hours services.
I have seen it threaten the safety of my family and take the lives of too many vulnerable people, young and old alike.
Liberal Democrats, urgent action is needed.

Health, education, poverty, civil liberties, climate change.
The same story, the same failures from Labour and Tory.
And it doesn’t need to be like this.
This country needs Liberal Democrat values.
The rights and the opportunities for every individual to be a success, to make of their life everything they can be.
That is what drives me in politics.
What angers me to this day is to see wasted opportunity and wasted lives.

That is what should drive us, all of us in this room, when we go out and campaign for Liberal Democrat values.
Where we work, we win.
Where we strive, we succeed.
Where we are determined, we deliver.

I am determined to deliver. We are now seeing more and more support for our policy of more powers for the Scottish Parliament.
It is already the most popular policy with the people of Scotland.
But was it the policy of the Labour party? No
And was it the policy of the Scottish Conservatives? No
Both stood unreservedly and unashamedly for the status quo in May’s election.
Yet on a sunny afternoon in Edinburgh three weeks ago I met the leaders of the Labour and Conservative parties. It could turn out to be the start of the most significant constitutional development in Scottish politics this decade.
We agreed together to review the powers of the Scottish Parliament and to consider more powers for the Parliament – including tax raising powers.
So in terms of the powers of the Scottish Parliament, the world is moving our way. And we should take this chance, we should seize this opportunity
We want powers for a purpose.
The United Kingdom is still one of the most centralised states in the world. We still have single ministers in Whitehall who expect to control the lives of tens of millions of people from their desks.
Our defining value is that we want more power for people over their own lives.
So we must be bold in terms of the powers we demand for Scotland and for the Scottish Parliament.
It is simply not acceptable in a modern democracy that one Parliament receives a cheque for £30 billion pounds from another Parliament, and its sole responsibility is to decide how to spend the cash.
That is called a democratic deficit and, make no mistake, the Liberal Democrats are determined to deliver a better alternative.
But we need to be as bold and as strong in rejecting the case for independence.
We need to be clear that more powers for the Scottish Parliament is all about delivering a stronger Scotland in a stronger United Kingdom.
About a better more effective Scottish Parliament.
It is not and for us will never be a route to independence.
So remember, we were a minority-of-one campaigning for more powers for our Parliament. Now we lead a group of political parties supported by 70% of the electorate.

People can be confident. They can trust our approach.
By staying true to our principles, we are strong - and in a stronger position, far stronger than bending or abandoning those principles, simply to hold on to power.
So now our role in the Scottish Parliament is to challenge the new government and to promote our vision of Scotland’s future.
There is already a lot to expose.
To gain power, the SNP promised everything to everyone.
Never before have so few promised so much to so many.
And if you promise everything to everyone, the wheels will start to come off.
Remember the title of that song?
“Three wheels on my wagon and I’m still rolling along!”
By Christmas it will be two.
And by spring, who knows?
The Salmond Lexus could be replaced by a unicycle – or even a pogo-stick.
Picture that!
A whole range of 100 day promises have been broken already.
They promised to write off student debt.

But SNP Minister Fiona Hyslop now says that "the operational burden of such a move would be prohibitive."
So t.hey have betrayed students.
They have abandoned the promise to have annual carbon reduction targets.
They have betrayed the environment.
A rock solid commitment to 1,000 extra police turns out to be a plan to rebadge, redeploy and reshuffle existing police.
They have betrayed Scotland’s communities.
But you wouldn't know that the hallmarks of the SNP are flip-flops, broken promises from the language they use in government.
The new First Minister boasts that he has transformed Scotland. I disagree.
It has been the biggest spin operation we have seen since Torvill and Dean won a gold medal for their triple salco at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo in 1984..
And it is the Liberal Democrats that are determined to lead the way in holding this new government to account.
On hospital waiting times the SNP have a plan. It’s for American style litigation in the NHS. A lawyer by every bedside.
Their plan for the environment is to avoid tough decisions and to scrap public transport projects.
They can't tell us how many teachers they need for their promises on class sizes.
Not even to the nearest thousand.
They don't know and they can't say.
They haven't done the work.
We have all noticed.
The honeymoon is over.

And what of the Conservatives? Well Annabel Goldie’s coquettish love-in with Alex Salmond is surely as remarkable as it is memorable.
It is getting very close to an SNP/Tory coalition.
Week in, week out in the Scottish Parliament it is the damsel who rides to the rescue of the First Minister in distress.
Just a few months ago, the Tories tramped around the country, proclaiming that only they would save the Union.
They said that a vote for anyone else was a vote for the SNP and for independence.
And the day after polling day they tore that up.
And they have been first in the queue to cosy-up to the SNP. In fact, they are pretty much the only ones in the queue.
There they are. Alex Salmond’s little helpers.
What’s stopping investment in Scotland’s railways today?
I’ll tell you what. The Nationalists and Tories voting together to block public transport projects.
Come on Annabel. I would rather save the Edinburgh airport rail link, than Alex Salmond’s neck. What about you?
Perhaps Annabel has been watching the Nature Channel for her political inspiration.
She thinks, Alex Salmond is like one of those fish, where the adults protect the smaller fish by sheltering them in their mouths.
She has forgotten the first rule of fish school.
Check first, Annabel.
Alex Salmond is not that kind of fish.

The Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament are upbeat and positive.
United, motivated, ready for the fight.
At First Minister’s questions our attacks are hitting home.
The same cannot be said for the Labour party. They remain in shock.
And if Labour tacticians think that their secret Scottish weapon is the new Prime Minister, let me give them a short, one word response.
Dunfermline.
Defeat in his own back-yard.
And that is what is set to happen across Scotland in this general election.
Because in Aberdeen, in Edinburgh, in Glasgow - right across Scotland - we are set to make gains from the Labour party in this election, with outstanding candidates such as Fred Macintosh, Katie Gordon and Kevin Lang.
They are working hard.

And people in Scotland and across Britain can be confident.
For all those who have seen Labour and Tory alike fail on poverty, civil liberties, education, health;
We, Liberal Democrats, are there for you.
For those new, young voters who are in tune with our values of personal freedom at home and abroad;
Liberal Democrats, are right for you.
For all those who know that climate change is our biggest threat and our biggest challenge;
Liberal Democrats, are best for you.

You can trust our approach.
We stand on a powerful record.
We have proved we can be effective in government.
We have proved we can deliver radical policies
We have proved we stick to our word
We have proved we do not seek power at any price

By staying true to our principles, we are strong
In this hall there are some of the best campaigners I know;
Some of the best people I know.
Let us get out there;
And get the message to every voter in Scotland;
From Helensburgh to Dunfermline;
From Shetland to the Borders.
That with the Liberal Democrats we can win.

Ends.