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Scottish Conservative Party Conference - Perth 2009


David Cameron MP - Leader of the Conservative Party
Annabel Goldie MSP - Scottish Conservative Leader
George Osborne MP - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Liam Fox MP - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Elizabeth Smith MSP - Education Debate

Friday 15th May 2009
David Cameron addresses Scottish Conservative Conference

It’s great to be in Perth.

The Fair City holds a special place in my heart.

After the last General Election, I came here during the contest for the leadership of this party.

And at the next General Election, I really believe we have a chance to take this seat from the SNP.

But to do that, we have to show the people of Perth, of Scotland, of the United Kingdom, the leadership they deserve.

That’s what I want to talk about today.

The leadership we need to solve the problems we face:

An economic recession, and a debt crisis on a scale we’ve never seen before.

Social breakdown that has made Britain, for millions, a grim place to live.

A Union between our two countries that is in danger.

And as we’ve seen this week, a political system that has lost the trust of the people.

EXPENSES

For the past few days, I’ve been working to redeem some of that trust.

Too many MPs – from all parties – have made expense claims that do not stand up to public scrutiny.

I don’t care if these claims were within the rules – they were wrong.

That’s why we acted quickly to start sorting it out.

Members of the Shadow Cabinet have agreed to pay back those claims that caused such concern.

We have set up a Scrutiny Panel to review expense claims made by Conservative MPs and to advise and discuss with them how much money should be paid back.

Our MPs will take part in this process – or they will no longer be Conservative MPs.

All our MPs, starting with the Shadow Cabinet, will publish each and every one of their expense claims online, for everyone to see.

If a Conservative MP sells a home for which the mortgage interest payments are currently paid by the taxpayer, they are going to have to pay Capital Gains Tax.

This practice of ‘flipping’ second homes to get more money – I’ve banned it.

And from now on, Conservative MPs will only be allowed to claim the bare necessities: no furniture, no household goods, no food bills, no decorations.

That’s the action we in this Party are taking right now on MPs expenses.

But in amongst this torrent of allegations and revelations, there are two simple facts that every Member of Parliament – in fact everyone elected to public office - needs to remember.

First, remember whose money it is you’re spending.

When you spend money, it’s not your money, it’s not government money – it’s taxpayers’ money. 

Second, remember who you work for.

We work for the people, our constituents. 

To slightly misquote the song: “don’t forget it’s they who put you where you are now” – and, complete the lyric – “they can put you back down too”.

That’s why I’m pleased that some of my colleagues who have been in the spotlight this week are going back to the people who put them in parliament.

They are holding open public meetings in their constituencies.

They will be explaining what they’ve done, listening to what their constituents think, and together working out how to put right what’s wrong.

That is not just listening, it’s leadership too and I think it sets an example for others to follow.

It is right that we show leadership on this issue because I want us to be the party of change in Britain today…

…and if change means anything in British politics these days it means changing politics itself.

So the action we’ve taken this week backs up the changes we proposed last year.

Ending MPs voting on their own pay.

Closing the final salary pension scheme.

And cutting the cost of politics.

But I know that these changes alone will not fix our broken politics…

…they are just a start…

...because I understand how deep the damage goes.

Our politics is reviled.

Our Parliament is held in scorn.

Our people have had enough.

Let us be clear. 

This moment is dangerous, yet vital. 

The decisions we make and the actions we take in these coming days, weeks and months will help determine the future path of our politics and our Westminster Parliament.

Will it be a politics of change and hope - or a politics of distrust and despair?

Will we rebuild a Parliament that commands respect at home and abroad – or allow ours, the Mother of Parliaments, to descend further into a state of ridicule and contempt?

Let us be clear, this is not just about MPs’ expenses.

We will need to make big changes to fix our broken politics.

We in this Party must be on the side of this change – both in the next few weeks and at the next election.

It is in our hands – and future generations will never forgive us if we take the wrong path.

UNION

What has happened isn’t just bad news for our democracy.

It’s bad news for the Union between our two countries.

You can imagine the glee these stories were met with in the SNP headquarters.

Each expense claim marked down as ammunition for Alex Salmond’s separatist agenda, even though his own MPs are not squeaky clean.

The greater the impression of a Westminster mired in corruption...

...the greater the impression that Alex Salmond’s call for independence is credible.

And while we’re on the First Minister, I’d like to say this to him:

Before you talk about MPs fiddling the system, let’s look at your record.

You say you’re Scotland’s voice in Westminster – well, I haven’t heard it.

You take the salary but what do your constituents get?

An attendance record in the House of Commons and a voting record that is amongst the worst of all Scottish MPs.

You sit in two legislatures – Holyrood and Westminster.

You draw two salaries.

But you haven’t got a leg to stand on.

My position on the question of the dual mandate is this: one politician should not try to serve two masters...

...so they should only sit in one legislature.

I know the problems. Promises are made to serve a full term.  In parts of our United Kingdom the practice of dual mandates has grown up and become established.

But this needs to change.  That’s why any Conservative who is elected to a second legislature will give up the other seat at the first available electoral opportunity.

And to the Scottish people, I say this: I know you’re angry with politicians at Westminster.

But a vote for the SNP puts our Union at risk.

And don’t put our Union at risk because remember what it has done for us...

...is doing for us...

...and will do for us in the future.

We have a long and proud history together.

We turned a small, off-shore European island into the one of the most powerful countries known to man.

We ruled the waves, started the industrial revolution, defeated fascism and led the world.

Just forty miles away from here in Edinburgh, a Scotsman was born – David Hume – who built on the work of an Englishman – John Locke – to lead the Enlightenment.

Just twenty miles away in Dundee, it was Scottish shipbuilding and mills that joined with English industry to transform the global economy.

And just down the road, here in Perth, is the traditional headquarters of the Black Watch – a Scottish regiment that stood shoulder to shoulder with their English counterparts from Flanders to Korea.

But the Union is not just a sentimental Union.

It’s a matter for the present as well as the past – the head as well as the heart.

Together, we are richer – as the fifth largest economy in the world.

Together we are stronger...

...with one of only five permanent seats of the United Nations Security Council we are listened to in a way that other countries can only dream of.

And together, we are safer.

We have the British military - one of the most respected armed forces in the world.

Scotland punches above its weight in Britain's armed forces…

… and Britain punches above its weight in the world because of the expertise and bravery of those forces.

We share these strengths.

But yes, today, we also share some problems.

CHALLENGES TODAY

We have an economy that is running out of money.

The highest borrowing in peacetime history.

The deepest recession since the war.

And a society that is struggling.

The welfare claimant who can work but doesn’t work.

                                                                                    

The father who leaves his family to fend for themselves.

The teenager who beats someone up and films it on their mobile phone.

A battered economy.

A broken society.

These problems are deep and daunting.

But I have hope.

Because if I am given the privilege of being Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...

...Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland...

...I know that we can meet these challenges with our core Conservative values.

Those values are thrift in government and responsibility in society.

Let me explain what I mean.

A GOVERNMENT OF THRIFT

In this new age of austerity, Britain needs a government of thrift.

But all we are getting from Labour is more of the same irresponsibility that got us into this mess.

They are planning to borrow more in the next two years than all our previous governments – put together.

More in twenty-four months than in over three hundred years.

They say we can keep on borrowing more and keep on spending more and deal with their debt crisis later.

That’s wrong.

We need to deal with this debt crisis now or we risk higher interest rates and taxes and a weaker economy for years to come.

Let me give you just one fact.

We will soon be spending more on paying off the interest on that debt than we will on schooling our children.

Everyone in this room knows there is only one way out of this mess – big change in how we run the government.

For a start, we need proper spending control.

That means weeding out all that spending and borrowing that is not essential.

That’s why we opposed the pointless VAT cut.

It’s why we said Labour should reduce their spending plans back in 2008 – and are now saying they should abandon their irresponsible plans for big spending increases in 2010.

And it’s why we will reverse all those extensions of the state – like I.D. Cards and Regional Assemblies - that cost so much money and will do more harm than good.

For Conservatives, these are easy choices to make.

We’ll need to make some hard ones too.

That’s why right now, each member of the Shadow Cabinet is going through every bit of government spending and seeing what is really necessary, and what can be dropped in this new age of austerity.

But proper spending control is not enough.

We need a whole change of culture in government too.

I want everyone – from Minister to adviser; Permanent Secretary to civil servant – to be as careful with public money as they are with their own.

Again, let me give you one fact.

At a time when our armed forces are over-stretched and under fire in the dust and heat of Afghanistan, this Government spent £2.3 billion on refurbishing the MOD.

It’s got to stop.

In our war on waste, we’ll use every weapon - the traditional and new.

In terms of the traditional, there’ll be leadership from the front.

With me as Prime Minister, it will be simple: if Ministers do more for less they get promoted; if they do less for more, they get sacked.

In terms of the new: there’ll be transparency.

With our Right to Know plan, we will publish online every item of government spending over £25,000 and each public sector salary over £150,000.

It’ll all be there – online and for all to see.

The days of ever accelerating bills for the quangos that have grown and grown under Labour will be over.

A RESPONSIBLE SOCIETY

So we will bring about a government of thrift to fix our broken economy.

But as we have been arguing for years, our society is broken too.

Teenage pregnancy. Incivility. Crime. Fear. Wasted lives.

The thread that links it all together passes yes, through family breakdown, welfare dependency, debt, drugs, poverty, poor policing, and failing schools...

....but it is a thread that goes deeper.

We see a society that is in danger of losing that core value – responsibility.

Yes – politicians have got to start with themselves. We cannot convincingly talk to others until we put our own house in order.

But, as we do, I want that word – responsibility – to be at the heart of everything a Conservative Government will do.

That’s why we have put such massive emphasis on welfare reform.

If people don’t accept the offer of a good job, their benefits will be cut.

It’s why we must bring some honesty back into sentencing: if you commit a crime, you’ve got pay the price.

And it’s why the Scottish Conservatives have taken such a lead on tackling drug addiction in some of our most deprived communities.

It’s simple: if you do the right thing and want to go clean, we’re here to help you.

FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY

Of course, our expectations of people don’t just stop with the responsibility they have to themselves.

We also have a responsibility to the people around us.

The most important of these is our family.

Family is the place where a person’s identity is shaped and values are formed…

…where they understand what it means to live in community with others…

…and first learn to act responsibly.

So when families break down and fall apart, so too can the people within them.

For this reason, we cannot remain neutral on this issue.

Let me be clear: I get the modern world – I’m a child of it.

I know sometimes two people just grow apart and sadly there is nothing that can be done.

But I also know that it’s right...

...not just right, but absolutely crucial, if we want to build the responsible society...

...that we do everything we can to help couples stay together.

So I want us to be the party that really gets being family-friendly.

That looks at every aspect of a family’s life and asks: how can we make it stronger?

That looks at the benefits system and says: the destructive couple penalty, that pays parents to live apart, has got to go.

That looks at the tax system and says: it’s got to recognise marriage.

That looks at home life and says: families want time together so we will give every parent the right to request flexible working.

And that looks at our media companies and says: you’re introducing children to emotional dilemmas at too young an age and you’ve got to be more responsible.

That’s how we are going to build strong and responsible families.

LOCAL RESPONSIBILITY

But we are not just responsible to those we know and love.

We have obligations to those beyond our front door – to our neighbours and in our community.

And we know people will only start connecting to the world outside their windows once they know that they can make a real difference.

When you say to local people ‘this is your street, this is your neighbourhood, if you want to make it better we’ll help you and we won’t stand in your way’, they respond by doing just that.

Community is born through common purpose – and we’re going to give people the power and control to drive that common purpose.

That’s why today, we’re the party of radical decentralisation – of a control shift in power from the centre down to local people.

And we’re the only ones who can carry out this agenda because we’re the only ones who genuinely believe in it.

Labour are top-down.

Always have been. Always will be.

We’re bottom-up.

Labour trusts the state.

We trust society.

Labour believe in themselves.

We believe in people.

DEVOLUTION

That’s why in this, the Fair City...

...and in this auspicious year - the tenth anniversary of devolution...

...I stand here, the leader of the Conservative Party, and say loudly and proudly...

...we support devolution, we back it heart and soul, and we will make it work for everyone.

That’s precisely what the Scottish Conservatives are doing.

We’re winning the arguments in the Scottish Parliament.

During the Budget negotiations, when the Liberal Democrats, Labour, Greens and Scottish Nationalists were reduced to petty squabbling, point scoring and picking fights...

...it was Annabel Goldie – who else? - who showed unstinting leadership and secured a package worth over £230 million for the benefit of Scotland’s businesses and families.

And we’re winning the arguments on the future of devolution and how to keep the Union together.

I have said that if we win the General Election, one of the first things I will do is come to Scotland and meet with the First Minister.

And I can announce today that if I become Prime Minister...

...and if the Scottish Parliament so wishes...

...I will come to Holyrood once a year and answer questions from MSPs on any subject – from Scotland to the wider world.

I mean it when I say I want the U.K. Government and the Scottish Government...

...Westminster and Holyrood...

...to work together.

That’s why with the Conservatives, this kind of cooperation will be extended across all levels of government.

My Treasury Ministers will explain to Holyrood, in person, what the Budget and Pre-Budget Reports mean for Scotland.

And my Scottish Secretary would seek a meeting with the First Minister every month – and explain the implications of the Queen’s Speech for the devolved areas at the start of the Parliamentary session.

In the end, this commitment to making devolution work is all about our values.

Thrift – because money that is spent closer to people is money that is spent wiser.

And responsibility – because when people know they have real power over the decisions that affect them, the bigger and better part they play in their community.

ALEX SALMOND

And when that truly happens, we can end the politics of division in Scotland, and start a new one of unity.

So, let me send a very clear message to Alex Salmond.

I know you’ve got a plan.

I know you think a Conservative government at Westminster will ignore what Scotland wants and needs, and that you will use such claims to promote your separatist agenda.

Well, think again.

Whatever the outcome in Scotland of the next General Election, a Conservative Government will govern the whole of the United Kingdom, including Scotland, with respect.

Whoever is Scotland’s First Minister, I would be a Prime Minister who acts on the voice of the Scottish people and works tirelessly for consent and consensus.

And whenever the precious Union between our two countries is challenged, we – the Party of the Union – will respond by defending that Union with every ounce of passion in our body.

I’ve said it before. 

I’ll say it again.

I want to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – all of it.

Stronger together, weaker apart …. Let’s make sure that’s the way it’s always going to be.

CONCLUSION

So that’s what we’re fighting for.

And while all that may seem a long way from Labour’s Britain, I believe that a new government can bring new hope.

So to everyone in this room: I ask you to come together, work together like never before to deliver the change that our country so desperately needs.

And to everyone beyond these walls: to the disillusioned, the despondent, the detached, I say…

…you might have lost faith in individual politicians, but don’t lose faith in politics – because it is still our best hope to effect meaningful change.

To the young, old, rich, poor – you’re looking for leadership, we’re ready to lead.

To those who voted for Labour, to those who trusted the SNP, to everyone who’s been let down…

…you want things to be different, so help us make a difference.

Now is the time for change.

In place of a government that is casual with money, a government of thrift.

In place of the irresponsible, the responsible society.

In place of the politics of personal destruction, the politics of thrift and personal responsibility.

In place of a grim life under Labour, a good life for all.

In place of drift, leadership.

In place of despair, hope.

Thursday 14th May 2009
Annabel Goldie MSP – Scottish Conservative Leader

Ladies and Gentlemen – what an introduction and from the man we all want to see as the next UK Prime Minister, David Cameron.

So Gordon Brown find your political bottle and call that General Election – because we are ready for it now. Bring it on.

It’s a great pleasure to be here again in this magnificent venue in Perth, and to see so many old friends – and, I must say, to see so many new people as well. I want to thank all of you who have worked so hard for the party day in and day out, weekends and holidays, good times and bad.

Thank you to our Councillors working hard throughout Scotland – I really appreciate your efforts.

Thank you to David Mundell who works tirelessly on our behalf at Westminster. I confidently predict, as do the bookies, that you will have many more Scottish MP colleagues after the election.

And thank you to my group of MSPs – what a fantastic job they are doing in the Scottish Parliament – not just providing the only effective opposition to the Government but also getting Conservative policies into law for the first time in more than a decade. Well done

And of course a big thank you to Andrew Fulton and Central Office for their unstinting work supporting all of us so well in our political roles.

And I am confident that one day soon all our efforts will be rewarded and we will have a Conservative Prime Minister again.

And let us continue to rise to the challenge and secure even more Conservative MSPs in 2011, and Councillors in 2012.
 
Our country faces 3 enormous challenges - to fix our broken economy, to fix our broken society and to fix our broken devolved politics.

Not only are we in the midst of the deepest economic recession since World War 2 but we are also facing a social recession which personally I am deeply worried about.

Let me be clear – the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party will continue to fight against the SNP’s soft touch Scotland, we will continue to fight against the scourge of drugs and we will continue to fight for the children who are so often thrown on the scrap heap of society because of a lack of parental responsibility.

And just as we have the ideas to mend our broken economy and our broken society so to we have the ideas to mend our broken devolved politics. As David Cameron has outlined so clearly in the past few months we have the ideas to fix the damage done by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP to devolution. We have the vision to secure Scotland in the Union. Scottish and British and proud to be both.

But first the economy. Rightly it was top of our Conference agenda this morning and I thank all those people who took part. I also want to thank George Osborne for his speech on the scale of Labour’s massive failure on the economy, and about the challenge the next Conservative Government will face to tackle the wreckage of the public finances under Gordon Brown.

What a refreshing change it would be to have a Chancellor who wants to pay back debt rather than run up more and more and more debt.

Chancellor of the Exchequer is one of the great offices of state: but after a decade of Brown and Darling what a state that office is in.

Indeed the only thing more difficult than being Chancellor in a Labour Government is being Chancellor after a Labour Government.

It beggars belief that, in just 12 years, Gordon Brown, first as Chancellor and then as Prime Minister, squandered the golden legacy handed to him by a Conservative Government.

And don’t let Gordon Brown or the Labour party con you into believing that all our troubles are as a result of global events. Britain is set to have the highest borrowing of all the G20 countries - in fact we have borrowed even more than America. According to the IMF Britain will have one of the deepest recessions of any major economy and the OECD says we will have the largest rise in unemployment. As David Cameron so aptly put it:-

“though the current crisis may have had its trigger in the US, over the past decade the gun has been loaded at home.”

This is Labour’s recession, made in Downing Street, delivered by Brown.

Our task isn’t just to give people hope of a better future: it is to give them the reality of one. And let’s not pretend that everything will be sorted the minute Labour is deservedly kicked out of government. Labour’s legacy of debt will be with us for years, perhaps decades to come. I’m still stunned that every baby born will be saddled with a debt of twenty two and a half thousand pounds because of this failing Labour Government and its addiction to debt.

But facing up to harsh truths, confronting the mess that is Labour in Government is something the Conservatives have had to do in the past. Good heavens the Conservatives could give a master class in cleaning up after Labour has messed up.

Gordon Brown says we need experience well I say to you Britain has experienced enough of Gordon Brown.

And life will be better under a Conservative Government.

We have an excellent team ready to take over the minute Gordon Brown has the courage to call an election. We’ve heard already from George Osborne, Liam Fox and David Mundell – tomorrow I look forward to welcoming the man we all want to see as our next Prime Minister – David Cameron.

And as his introduction to me shows David Cameron is well aware of our achievements in the Scottish Parliament.

He knows that the Scottish Conservatives are doing everything in our power to help businesses through Labour’s recession. Nearly 150,000 small businesses have had their rates cut or abolished because of us.

He knows that we secured £60 million for town centre regeneration.

He knows that for the first time in more than a decade Conservative policies are being delivered and it is here in Scotland.   

I am proud of that fact. I am proud that we are winning the arguments again. Conservatives planning for change across the UK, delivering change in Scotland.

Now in just three weeks time, Scotland will vote to select its new Members of the European Parliament.

It’s a great opportunity to send a message to Gordon Brown and the rest of the Labour Party. 

But most of all, it’s a great opportunity to do in Brussels what we’ve been doing in Edinburgh – putting Conservative policies into action.

I call on everyone in the party, everyone in the party, to work hard in the run up to June 4th to ensure we don’t let Labour off the hook.

Scotland has been well served in the last five years by Struan Stevenson and John Purvis. John has fought our corner in Brussels for 15 years, and I want to thank him for all his hard work and wish him well for the future.

Struan is leading our excellent team of European Candidates into the election. Belinda Don, second on our list, is well known to everyone in this room and I wish Struan, Belinda and all of our European Team the very best in the campaign. We are right behind you.

Now, a few hours ago, I tackled Alex Salmond at First Minister’s Questions. It’s my job to hold him to account and to tell it as I see it.

Some people might say, hang on, that’s Iain Gray’s job. I simply say to them – if you think Labour isn’t up to the job of Government, just take a look at them in opposition. 

Even in opposition, Labour has failed Scotland.

Why has Alex Salmond been able to create so many divisions between our two Governments?

Not because he is some form of political genius – he’s not - but because Labour has spent the past two years handing him opportunity after opportunity to stir up trouble. Shame on them.

It is staggering that Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and Alex Salmond as First Minister did not meet for nearly a year – nearly a year - during Labour’s recession. I am sure that if David Mundell at Westminster and I at Holyrood hadn’t exposed their lack of contact, the Prime Minister and the First Minister would still be ignoring each other. If there was ever an example of putting petty party politics before the national interest then that is it.

Gordon Brown in a huff, Alex Salmond obsessed with independence – both sitting in their separate towers not speaking to each other.

Gordon Brown has been suckered into Alex Salmond’s separatist trap and it’s pathetic. And who loses out? I’ll tell you who – the people of Scotland. We deserve better from our politicians.

We need a new approach to Government in this country: one that recognises that a different party will often be in power at UK level to that in power in the devolved administrations – whether we’re talking of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

That’s what devolution was designed to allow – and making devolution work means that Scotland’s two governments should work with each other, not against each other.

And that is why I welcome David Cameron’s commitment, if he becomes Prime Minister, to meet with the First Minister within the first week of taking office.

Unlike Labour, he will allow his Ministers to appear before Holyrood committees.

Unlike Labour, he believes that the Scottish Secretary should meet once a month with the First Minister.

Unlike Labour, he believes that the Scottish Secretary should appear before MSPs to explain the implications for Scotland of the Queen’s speech.

That is mature, grown up politics. That is the politics of mutual respect where Westminster and Holyrood, the UK Government and the Scottish Government, the Prime Minister and the First Minister work together for the good of this nation.

That is the politics of devolution - so I challenge Alex Salmond – put aside the gripe and grievance politics of old and work with David Cameron. He respects the Scottish parliament and the people of Scotland – are you big enough to put aside your obsession with independence and show some respect yourself?

After 10 years of devolution, and 12 years in Government, Labour hasn’t realised that the interests of the Labour Party are not the same as the interests of the nation; just as Alex Salmond seems incapable of understanding that what is good for Scotland is not the same as what is good for the SNP.

Let me make it clear to you today - Nationalism is not good for Scotland. Nationalism wants devolution to fail. I will not take risks with the Union, and nor will David Cameron. Labour's failure is Labour's failure, not the Union's. And the SNP’s failure is the SNP’s failure, not Scotland’s.

But not risking the Union isn't the same as saying no to every change – in fact the very strength of the Union has been its flexibility, its ability to evolve to deal with the changing needs of our nations.

I look forward to the Calman Commission’s report and the suggestions it brings forward. Scotland needed an independent MOT on devolution ten years on – that is why I supported it, that is why David Mundell and I have given evidence to the Commission, that is why David Cameron and George Osborne have met with Sir Kenneth Calman.  That is why when the report is published I will take it seriously and I know David Cameron will too.

Understanding the broader national interest is essential to making devolution work, whatever level of Government we’re talking about. That’s why I speak regularly with David Cameron, why I frequently attend the Shadow Cabinet at Westminster and why my Holyrood Shadow Cabinet also frequently meet with their UK counterparts.

Scottish Conservatives have already been credited with understanding devolution better than the Labour Party, as shown in our handling of this minority government. Some might say that is ironic, but it’s only ironic if you’ve been living on a desert island for the past 12 years and don’t understand how the Scottish Conservatives have moved on.

What is ironic is that Labour and the Liberal Democrats, the architects of devolution, have failed so lamentably to make it work. In 2009 it is the Conservative Party that understands devolution, has the ideas to make it work and the vision to secure Scotland in the Union. 

For Scottish voters a very clear choice is arising. Labour has failed the Union, the SNP wants to wreck the Union – only the Conservatives will fight to protect the Union.

I have talked about fixing our broken economy and our broken devolved politics. Now I would like to talk about something I personally feel very strongly about – mending our broken society.

Last month the Scottish Conservatives held a conference in Edinburgh entitled Breaking the Chain. We managed to draw together nearly 50 experts from all over the country and from all areas to discuss how to ensure children got the best start in life and didn’t enter the cycle of poverty and crime. It was hugely successful. Iain Duncan Smith and a whole host of other leading people discussed the issue and we will be taking this agenda forward.

Once again I spoke about the importance of parental responsibility and I make no apology for that. I still believe that the family is the bedrock of our society.

And I am talking about families in whatever form they come. Wherever there is a loving, caring, nurturing environment that is a sure sign of good parenting and a strong family.

A family can consist of a single mum who looks after and takes responsibility for a child, where she provides a loving and caring environment.

But a mother and father who don't provide responsible parenting, who ply their kids with alcohol or don't make them go to school or don't make sure they are in by a reasonable hour or are not concerned by their child's behaviour are not good parents.

In Scotland 1,000 children a week are reported as neglected, 60,000 children live with drug addicted parents, 65,000 children live with alcoholic parents, 500 children are being treated for drug and drink addiction and more children in Scotland are living in workless households than any other European country.

What does that say about the 8 years Labour and the Lib Dems ran Scotland? To me it says it was a waste. A waste of a generation.

So what are we going to do about it?

We would encourage parental responsibility and we would end the culture of long-term dependency. But I want to go further.


So today I can announce that - the Scottish Conservatives are committed to providing more and better support for new parents through a massive increase in home health visiting services. Children deserve a decent start in life, so a guaranteed level of support will be offered to mothers before their baby is born and in the first two weeks of a baby’s life we guarantee a minimum of six hours help in the home. This level of support will last until the child is five years old.

And once a child goes to school, the responsibility for their care is shared by our teachers. They do a marvellous job, but I have to tell you they, and our children and their parents are being badly let down by the SNP. Indiscipline is a nightmare.
 
So the Scottish Conservatives would restore control of the classrooms back to teachers and introduce second chance learning units for unruly and violent pupils.
 
This broken society is pervasive.

Drugs are found in Scotland’s prisons every five hours – that’s twice as many as in 2003. 31% of Scotland’s young people have been affected by gun or knife crime, 49% of criminals were drunk at the time of their offence, 22% of criminals are involved in drugs.

According to the UN, Scotland is the most violent country in the developed world. Did you hear that? I’ll just repeat it - according to the UN, Scotland is the most violent country in the developed world.

What does that say about the SNP’s soft touch approach to crime in Scotland. It says to me that Alex Salmond is making all the same mistakes as the previous Lib/Lab pact. It says to me that the only party with the vision and the determination to fix our broken society is the Conservative party.

Already we’ve got more police on the beat, we want mandatory drug testing in jails and have drug free wings in prisons. We would clamp down hard on retailers who sell alcohol to kids and we would introduce honesty in prison sentencing. And we will clamp down on knife crime.

Knife crime is the new blight on modern Scotland.

The duty to protect the public is one of the most fundamental tasks of Government. On knife crime, it is a duty they are failing.

Everyone in Scotland knows that when it comes to tackling the key issue of crime on Scotland’s streets, Scottish Conservatives will not waiver.

Too many criminals carry and use knives completely undeterred by the law safe in the knowledge that the consequences for doing so are not what they should be.

I fully respect the need to protect the ability of judges to sentence criminals as they see fit – but the time has come to send a tougher message to knife carrying criminals.

So I have an announcement today. The Scottish Conservatives want to change the law to introduce a mandatory minimum jail term of two years for knife crimes.  It is time to send a clear message that just carrying a knife means prison. Go out with a blade and you’ll be going inside.

Only in the most exceptional circumstances will the court have any discretion.

Although the SNP might want to see more people out of prison, I don't think the public want to see our prisons emptied on the grounds of political dogma.

It is a scandal that someone sentenced to 12 months in jail for a vicious assault can be released after only a few weeks to confront his victim again. That is not justice – that is a disgrace.

I want to bring back honesty in sentencing. I want prisoners to serve the entirety of their sentence unless, as a result of good behaviour, they earn, and I mean earn, limited early release. 

For the Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill to paint our prisons as a skoosh is staggering. He says that the nintendos and flat screen tvs in cells make life easy for prisoners therefore we should release them into the community to do community service – what sort of SNP madness is this?


It is really quite simple Mr MacAskill – you cut the prison population by cutting crime – not releasing prisoners early into the community to commit more crime.

People the length and breadth of Scotland are looking again at the record of the Labour Government – and the SNP Government – and we are seeing more and more people turning to the Scottish Conservatives.

I spend a lot of my time going around the country meeting people from every walk of life, listening to staff in our public services, speaking to businessmen and businesswomen and being regularly approached on the Glasgow to Edinburgh train. I’ve heard the demands for change.

I’ve spoken to countless people who used to support other parties, who have taken a fresh look at the Conservatives. People like Paul McBride, one of Scotland’s leading QCs who was a lifelong supporter of the Labour party and has switched because he feels Labour has let everyone down.

People like trawlerman Jimmy Buchan who is standing as our Westminster candidate in Banff and Buchan.

People like businessman and Scotland’s grand slam rugby captain Jim Aitken who contributed £100,000 to the Scottish Conservatives because he wants change and he knows that the only party who can deliver that change, the only party that can get Gordon Brown out of Number 10 is the Conservative party.

And our Westminster Candidates all over Scotland need to get that message out there because we need as many Scottish Conservative MPs as possible.

People like Peter Lyburn who is fighting hard for the people of Perth and North Perthshire. Fighting against daft ideas like the SNP sanctioned incinerator right in the heart of this beautiful city.

It’s simple - the SNP and the Lib Dems can’t remove the Labour party from office.  And a vote for the SNP only serves to increase the risk of breaking up Britain.

By giving Alex Samond power you give him a   £30 billion budget, thousands of civil servants, the ability to pick fights with Westminster and a massive propaganda machine. Their independence referendum is not a safety net – it is an illusion designed to con Unionists into believing it is safe to vote for the SNP.  It is simple if you believe in the Union don’t vote for the SNP.

I know that the great majority of people in Scotland support the union. I also know that many of them feel both outraged and betrayed by Labour – a depth of emotion easy to understand when by tradition so many people in Scotland have for generations supported Labour. For them the choice is between the SNP and the Conservatives.

To them I would say this – the charisma and political panache of Alex Salmond may on the surface look attractive but every vote for him and his party puts at risk Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom. And that’s the problem with Alex – the cheery cheekie chappie comes with a massive political health warning – you can’t have the one without the other.

Now let me take something right on the chin. I know for many people voting Conservative in Scotland is a big ask. Some have never done it, some last did it a long time ago.

So I say to you judge us not on your perception of the echoes of the past but rather judge us on what we are now and what in the Scottish Parliament we are achieving.

The Conservatives are on the up, in Scotland as in the rest of the UK. We are winning the arguments again. Even the Guardian says we are rejuvenated and doing well. Perhaps the Daily Telegraph will follow suit – or is that too much to hope for!


People see what we’re doing, in local Councils and in the Scottish Parliament, and it’s changing the way many people think about the Scottish Conservatives.

It's reflected in the opinion polls, in Scotland as well as at UK level.

It's a real and tangible change. But there is so much more to do.

I see our role in Edinburgh as a simple, though pivotal one: to hold the SNP Government to account, and to push through as many Conservative policies as we can. To stand up for common sense and to say what needs to be said.

And we’re doing well.

Two years into this Parliament, and just look at what we’ve achieved:

More police on the beat – delivered.

An end to ring fencing for local government – delivered.

Lower business rates for our small and medium businesses – delivered.

A new approach to tackling the scourge of drugs abuse – delivered.

New protection for rural schools – delivered.

A town centre regeneration fund – delivered.

Local Government elections on a different day from Parliamentary ones – to be delivered later today – I hope.

So with the SNP Government ditching manifesto promises faster than you can say “Local Income Tax” or “£2000 for first time buyers”, or “scrapping student debt” it’s the Scottish Conservatives who are delivering on our promises.

It is the Scottish Conservatives who are fighting the corner of right against the corner of populism.

Only the Conservatives had the guts to vote against two salaries Salmond getting his prescriptions for free. Only the Conservatives had the guts to point out that Alex Salmond is one of the laziest MPs at Westminster. Only the Conservatives have had the guts to press Salmond on what he is going to cut as a result of Labour’s £500 million budget squeeze. It is just a shame Alex Salmond doesn’t have the guts to give a straight answer.

The politician who is desperate to be liked but terrified of taking a tough decision.

And talking of tough decisions we all know the coming years are going to be challenging. I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But challenges are there to be overcome.

You don’t go in to politics to duck challenges. You go in to the Liberal Democrats to do that.

As we face up to the economic problems in our country, as we see how long it will take us to pay off Labour’s debt, it would be too easy to dwell on the negative.

We can choose to continue living beyond our means or we can choose to spend only what we can afford.

We can choose to run away from the difficult decisions or we can have the courage to take them.

We can choose to allow a failing Labour Government to continue or we can choose new hope with David Cameron.

That is the choice for every one of us and that is the choice we must put to every person throughout Scotland. Do you want to stick with this tired, stale and failing Labour Government or do you want change?

Do you want Labour’s politics of smears and fears or do you want persuasion and hope?

And we offer that change that persuasion and hope - If you want a new start, a new vision, new ideas and a new Scotland then vote for the Conservative party, vote for David Cameron, vote for change. 

back to the top

Thursday 14th May 2009
George Osborne MP, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

It’s good to be back here once again in Perth.
 
And great to be here with you once again - a Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party that is full of confidence and hope and expectation about the future.
 
We are back as a force to be reckoned with.
  
Ready now to fight these European elections;
 
Ready soon to fight the general election.
 
And that is down to you, and your leaders like Annabel and David, and your determination that Scotland deserves a strong voice in Europe, a strong unionist alternative to a flailing SNP administration in Edinburgh and a strong Conservative alternative to a failing Labour Government in Westminster.
 
Let me be blunt about what’s been going on in Westminster.
 
I don’t excuse the scandal of the MPs expenses.
 
I apologise for it.
 
We will right past wrongs.  And we will sort this mess out.
 
But let me say this.
 
You have seen this week from David Cameron the character and the judgement and the leadership in a crisis that Britain needs from its next Prime Minister.
 
While others spoke for their party, David has spoken for the country.
 
That is the true test of a leader.
 
And you too in the Scottish Conservatives have shown over the last year real leadership in these troubled economic times.
 
It would have been easy to oppose for the sake of opposing.
 
Like Labour and the Liberals, you could have been against the Budget and then for it.
 
But you put Scotland first.
 
And let me tell you who thanks you for that.
 
the thousands of small businesses whose rates you got reduced;
 
the towns whose centres the fund you secured will help regenerate;
 
the people who will prosper thanks to the more focused and economic Scottish Enterprise you insisted should be created.
  
These successes provide a real boost for Scottish businessmen and for local communities.
  
Scottish Conservatives put Scotland’s interests before party point-scoring.
 
While others flipped and flopped, Scottish Conservatives got on with the job, argued their case with determination, and won.
  
It exactly the kind of tough-minded leadership that we need in our economy at the moment, and frankly, that we don’t see enough of. 
 
Scottish Conservatives have shown how politics can work, and how we can deliver the public services people deserve even when times are tough and money scarce.
 
And that’s what I want to talk to you about today.
 
How the easy assumptions of the last decade are giving way to the hard choices of the next decade.
 
The age of irresponsibility is giving way to the age of austerity.
 
That is a statement of fact. It is caused by a Labour Government that did not fix the roof when the sun was shining.
 
To deal with it we will need a government of thrift.
 
We will need leadership and difficult decisions.
 
And we will not get that from Gordon Brown and the discredited team that helped create this mess.
 
Their last Budget has made that clear.
 
Some people called it Alistair in Wonderland.
 
And ever since the Labour Party have been hiding in their rabbit hole.
 
Instead of taking the difficult decisions now, they have postponed them all until 2011.
 
2011.
 
I wonder why they chose that date?
 
Do they really think no one will notice that they are spending before the election and then cutting after?
 
Do they actually think people won’t spot that the tax rises on the few come before polling day while the tax rises on the many come just after?
 
Labour are treating the Scottish people like fools.
 
That Budget and everything that has happened since shows that this is a government that no longer cares about governing.
 
It has forgotten about the interests of the country.
 
It cares only about drawing fake dividing lines with its opponents.
 
Gordon Brown desperately thinks that he can make the next election about ‘investment’ versus ‘cuts’.
 
There’s only one problem: on the definition of cuts that Labour used at the last election, Labour will be cutting public spending by £84 billion across the UK.
 
Even Labour MPs admit this.
 
But not the Prime Minister.
 
He is so trapped by his own reckless past that he has no vision for the future.
 
The Scottish National Party also don’t understand that there is a limit to borrowing.
 
They can’t be trusted with the public finances either.
 
Only the Conservative Party has shown itself capable of taking the tough decisions.
 
Let me remind you of the three key judgements on the economy that Conservatives have made over the last year and got right.
 
And the first of those was the judgement we have taken to oppose this government’s reckless borrowing.
 
Labour is not doubling the national debt – it is tripling it.
 
The child born today in the Perth Royal Infirmary is born owing £22,000 before they even open their mouths and take their first breath.
 
And what is Labour’s answer: more debt.
 
This debt crisis threatens today’s recovery and tomorrow’s prosperity. And only we Conservatives are prepared to do something about it.
 
I will tell you:  standing up, almost alone, and saying that the country could not afford the temporary VAT giveaway was not easy.
 
Warning that it would add billions to national debt was not popular.
 
We didn’t have the support of the unions or the majority of the media or even the business organisations.
 
In fact, it was toughest call I have had to make in this job.
 
But it was the right call.
 
Now most of the country and most of the business community agree with us.
 
And they can see from actions, and not just our words, that this Party has the courage and the judgement and the conviction to make the difficult choices and restore some sanity to the nation’s finances.
 
And you have taken tough decisions in Holyrood too.
 
Opposing so-called 'free' prescription charges.
 
So-called, because there’s nothing free about money that comes from the taxpayer and debts that we build up for our children.
 
Already Britain is spending far more on paying the interest on Labour’s debt than on the entire block grant to the Scottish Parliament.
 
This is one fact you need to know about British politics today.
 
The cupboard is bare.
 
I said it when I spoke at our national Conference last October and I say it again today.
 
All parties will have to deal with the legacy of Labour’s recklessness.
 
But, you know, people aren’t asking whether Labour has made a mess.
 
They know that Labour has made a mess.
 
What they want to know is who is going to clean it up.
 
And while the other parties complain about the tough decisions, only Conservatives have shown themselves capable of taking them.
 
I will be frank with you.
 
There will be many more decisions to come.
 
For too long we lived in a world where political success was judged by how much you spent, not by the value for money you secured.
 
Now the opposite will be true.
 
Listen to Labour’s past boasts.
 
We have doubled spending on this…
 
We have tripled spending on that…
 
They have been very generous with other people’s money.
 
But this is not an achievement.
 
It is a scandal that they have spent so much with so little reform.
 
It is a tragedy that we allowed five million people of working age to languish on benefits.
 
If reform was a luxury during the good times, it is essential during the difficult times.
 
Every proposal to spend new money will have to be carefully reviewed.
 
Every spending programme must be looked at to see whether it can be reformed.
 
Every IT project must be ruthlessly scrutinised.
 
Every need of every part of the UK must be fairly assessed.
 
And if someone wants to pay the head of a UK quango more than the Prime Minister of the day gets paid, then they will have to come and justify it to the Chancellor of the day.
 
I will not balance the budget on the backs of those who work on the frontline of our public services.
 
But I will be ruthless with those areas of waste and excess.
 
And when we present our first budget, I will insist that one of the Treasury Ministers comes to the Scottish Parliament so we can engage in a dialogue across a committee room, instead of a shouting match across an entire country.
 
We must not judge our success by how much we spend on behalf of taxpayers but by how much value we get for the taxpayer.
 
And we will do everything we can to avoid the Labour tax rises that are coming down the track. The National Insurance rises on the incomes of every Scot earning more than £20,000.
 
I said there were three big judgements we Conservatives had got right.
 
The first was to warn about the debt crisis.
 
The second is to have made it clear from the start of this crisis that the system of financial regulation has failed and needs to be replaced.
 
It failed to stop our banks from becoming amongst the most indebted, most leveraged in the world, banks which borrowed thirty nine times their capital compared to seventeen times in US banks.
 
Whether it is the failures of the Dunfermline Building Society or Northern Rock, HBOS or the Royal Bank of Scotland it is clear that it was not just American banks that gambled recklessly on the property market.
 
Nor was it just American CEOs that led their companies to the brink of insolvency.
 
The IMF said this week that some of Britain’s economic difficulties are ‘home-grown’.
 
This can’t happen again.
 
In the short term we need to get credit flowing again to Scotland’s businesses.
 
That’s why for six months now we have called for a National Loan Guarantee Scheme.
 
It is a scandal that the credit schemes eventually announced by the government are still not operating even as jobs are lost and firms go to the wall.
 
In the long term, we must make Britain’s financial system stable and successful again.
 
We owe it to the many tens of thousands of people here in Scotland who aren’t the super rich, who don’t have £700,000 a year pensions or even pensions a tenth of that, but who work in the bank branches and the call centres and the insurance firms of this nation great financial services industry.
 
I want Scotland’s financial services back on its feet again.  That is why I have come here time and again to talk to the troubled banks and to meet with the financial community.
 
And I say to them: We have to rediscover some of the traditional virtues of Scottish banking.
 
Thrift.  Knowing your customer.  Lending prudently.  Asking for a deposit in return for a mortgage.  Encouraging people to save as well as borrow.
 
And we need a system of regulation that doesn’t have the wool pulled over its eyes by bank boards who didn't themselves know the risks their own banks are running.
 
We need to replace the failed tripartite system that Gordon Brown created twelve years ago and refuses to change.
 
We need to give the Bank of England the power it once had to call time on debt and impose responsibility.
 
And as we come in time to sell the huge stakes we have in some of our oldest banks, let us build a banking system which is more diverse, more competitive, less concentrated, and, above, all less risky.
 
Let us rebuild Scotland's proud banks.
 
There is one final judgement call I want to talk about today.
 
And that is about the kind of economy we want to see in the future.
 
This is set to be the longest recession since the Second World War.
 
The economy is set to shrink by more this year than any year since the Great Depresssion.
 
Unemployment is rising at its fastest rate for a generation.
 
I hope to see growth return at the end of this year.
 
After all, Britain has already been in recession for a year now.
 
But the idea that we can go from boom to bust, and then straight back to boom again is a dangerous fantasy.
 
Yet that is the recovery that the Labour Party predicts.
 
That prediction doesn’t tell you a lot about the real economy – as the Bank of England made clear yesterday, even they think the government is wrong.
 
But it does tell you a lot about the attitude of the Labour Party.
 
They simply don’t understand that the model of growth they pursued through all those years of irresponsibility is fundamentally broken.
 
When will they realise that we can’t rebuild our economy on a mountain of debt?
 
This is the pledge that a Conservative government will make.
 
No relying on unaffordable public borrowing  and unsustainable  house price bubbles to cover up the weaknesses in our economy.
 
We will move from an economy built on debt to an economy where save and invest.
 
Did you know that most of the jobs created in Britain over the last six years have come from just three areas: construction, finance, and the public sector.
 
We will need to find new sources of growth.
 
You know what: Britain need's to make things again.
 
And I am a great optimist about the future – about this nation’s future.
 
Scotland’s strengths are impressive.
 
I've seen some of them today. A world beating oil and gas industry whose representatives I met in Aberdeen this morning with Alex Johnstone.
 
Drinks that are prized around the world - like the Famous Grouse HQ I visited with Peter Lyburn this afternoon here in Perth.
 
And Scotland has some of the world’s best universities: from St Andrews and Edinburgh, to Glasgow and Dundee and Robert Gordon and Aberdeen.
 
It has incredible electronic and digital media sectors, including more than 800 Information and Communication Technology companies.
 
Scotland’s life sciences industry is among the most advanced in Europe.
 
 In arts and in media and in design and in tourism, Scotland’s reputation travels far.
 
And in renewable energy, farming and fishing, Scotland’s natural resources can be harnessed to the resourcefulness of the Scottish people.
 
And it is all these industries – biotech, greentech, digital media, creative industries, high value manufacturing and education – that I hope will join financial services in driving the UK economy in the future.
 
We need to attract them and help them to grow.
 
That’s why we are working on designing the right tax environment to encourage start-ups, new enterprise and investment.
 
That's why we oppose complex and unpredictable changes to oil tax that threaten to leave billions of barrels in the ground and prematurely end the life of the North Sea.
 
That’s why we’ll cut tax on companies and large, and fund it by simplifying Gordon Brown’s complicated corporate tax system.
 
That’s why we will help get the unemployed back to work by cutting the national insurance of any business that employs them – not increasing that tax on jobs as Labour proposes.
 
In time, when we get the nation’s finances under control, I want us to lower taxes overall - so we give money back to people not just take it away.
 
This is our economic strategy for the recovery backed by the judgements we have made and got right.
 
Solving the debt crisis before it engulfs us all.
 
Reforming our banks and our system of regulation so responsibility returns.
 
Fixing a broken model of economic growth, so in future we save and invest instead of borrow and spend.
 
This great nation is crying out for change.
 
The European Elections next month is their next chance to vote for it.
 
And their chance too to vote for the referendum on the European constitution that every party once promised but only our party can now deliver.
 
Let our message be clear - in the coming weeks and months.
  
We cannot fix our broken economy and broken society until we mend our broken politics.
 
And we cannot mend our broken politics until we change our national government.
 
And the only Party who can do that is our Party, the Conservative and Unionist Party.
 
 Let us get on and do it.


Thursday 14th May 2009
Liam Fox MP - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence

It is perhaps inevitable that in difficult times we focus in on ourselves.

The economic crisis and labour’s catastrophic handling of public finances –loading a mountain of debt onto next generation of voters- clearly preoccupies the country. People worry about keeping their jobs and their homes.
 
In Westminster the abuse, by some, of MP’s allowances has dominated politics and caused anxiety and anger amongst those who want to see a healthy democratic system.
 
We are lucky to have David Cameron, someone who just did not respond to events but provided strong and courageous leadership. What a contrast to the tired, out of touch, and increasingly shambolic occupant of Number 10—Labour’s own albatross, Gordon Brown.
 
And we will need strong leadership. Because while we are concerned with events here at home, the picture abroad continues to deteriorate.
 
Beyond the United Kingdom there is a big bad world out there.
 
A world where Britain’s economic and security interests are so interlinked into a larger global interdependent network that we have an unavoidable shared set of interests with a multitude of others in all parts of the globe.  As a consequence we also now have the unavoidable importation of strategic risk.
 
It is a world which is both dangerous and unpredictable.
 
Let me give you a flavour. While some debate the merits of Britain building two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy, Russia’s plans for its navy include the construction of six nuclear powered aircraft carriers and eight ballistic missile submarines. Further plans include 4,000 APCs and tanks, 1,000 helicopters and fix wing aircraft and the largest nuclear ice breakers in the world to use in the Arctic— to the alarm of our allies in Canada and Norway.
 
Russia may be building from a low base given the degraded state of its conventional forces and it may not pose a direct threat to the security of this country but the Russian leadership has shown in Georgia how they could destabilise our allies and indirectly threaten our security through their strangle hold on energy supplies.
 
And what about Georgia—a situation that has all but fallen off the radar in this country?
 
Back in August we saw the first Russian tanks roll into Georgia. David Cameron was one of the first western political leaders to visit Tbilisi and give his support.  Nine months later 10,000 Russian troops are still based in the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia where there are plans to build permanent Russian bases, and European Union observers are still no closer to being allowed in either breakaway republic.
 
Yesterday, I met with the Georgian Prime Minister in London. As NATO conducts a major military exercise, and only one week after a failed military mutiny, he asked us not to forget them. Our message to him and the people of Georgia must be very clear—we will not forget you.
 
Another security threat we face is the proliferation of nuclear weapons and top of the list is Iran.
 
There are those who say that we must accommodate Iran as a nuclear weapon state. Let me give you three reasons why this is simply not acceptable.
 
First, the nature of Iran’s leadership.  Those such as President Ahmadinejad who talk about wiping Israel off the map simply do not belong in the civilised family of nations.
 
Secondly, the Iranian regime has shown itself to be, par excellence, a net exporter of terror and destabilisation. Do we really want to see nuclear weapons added to this mix? Iran has already shown its intent to destabilise the region. In Iraq, in Syria, and in Israel through Hamas.
 
But the third reason is perhaps the most important. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon then Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are likely to be next in the queue. Surely we do not want a new nuclear arms race in the world’s most unpredictable region. After all that we went through in the Cold War, is this legacy we want to leave to the next generation?
 
These are just a few of the more serious threats we face. And at the pinnacle sits the ever-increasing threat of Islamist fundamentalists and the complex challenge of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
 
There are those in the Islamic world who dislike us for what we do – our involvement in Iraq or our close ties with Israel. Their resentment is a reaction to our deeds but our differences are largely containable.
 
But there is another group who hate us – not for what we do – but for who we are. They hate our culture, our way of life, our history and our traditions. They are irreconcilable to our political system and our values.
 
They will have to be confronted as they have already decided to confront us. We must not make the mistake that everyone who wishes us ill is reconcilable by dialogue and reason. Fanaticism is alien to our way of thought but we must not forget that it exists or what it can mean. The 1930s should have taught us that lesson.
 
With events in Iraq winding down for British troops, the focus has shifted to Afghanistan—and rightly so. Afghanistan and Pakistan present the single biggest foreign policy and military challenge for the United Kingdom.
 
Yet there is not a clear and achievable political mission to support the military mission in Afghanistan.
 
Governance in Afghanistan, including widespread corruption, must be tackled because it is undermining our efforts. Focus needs to be placed on empowering local and district governments.
 
“Local solutions for local problems” has been the only way forward in most of Afghanistan for hundreds of years and we should not expect this to change anytime soon.
 
The military mission in Afghanistan is undermanned and under-resourced. And too many of our NATO allies are failing to properly carry their fair share of the load. 
 
Here at home, an NAO report published today criticised the Government for not providing enough equipment for troops to train on before deploying to Afghanistan.
 
Only 57 % of consignments reach units operating in Afghanistan in the allocated time.
 
The replacement for unsafe snatch land rovers is mechanically unreliable. There are too few spare parts for armoured vehicles. Helicopters are being cannibalised because there are too few spare parts for them too.
 
How can this be?
 
Ministers keep telling us that we will be there for a long time but seven years into the conflict we can’t keep some of our armoured vehicles moving or our helicopters flying.
 
And I know it is hard to believe but we have troops arriving to Afghanistan, in a combat environment, troops who are not only seeing certain pieces of equipment for the first time—but having to use this equipment on operations without any prior training back in the UK.  This is a scandal. And this Labour Government should be ashamed this is happening to our troops.
 
Then we have Pakistan.
 
If we find it challenging trying to rebuild a failed 14th Century state in Afghanistan we will see that this is a walk in the park when compared to the magnitude of problems we will face if Pakistan—a diverse country three times the size of the United Kingdom with 165 million people and several dozen nuclear warheads—becomes a failed state under the control of Taliban Islamic Fundamentalists. 
 
When I was last in Islamabad several weeks ago I got the impression that the Government was just managing to cope.
 
As I speak here today Pakistan is facing an existential threat from Islamist Extremism. Unfortunately for Pakistan, and the West, this is a threat for which they are ill equipped to fight. The Pakistani Armed Forces is trained, resourced and manned for state-on-state warfare against a perceived threat from India.
 
Consequently, they are not able to conduct counter insurgency operations. We must do all we can to build their capacity and support them as they face this threat.
 
It is hugely encouraging to see Hillary Clinton to take a firm line on this and the appointment of General Karl Eikenberry as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan is a very positive step. 
 
For the problems of Afghanistan and Pakistan are inseparable.  We cannot achieve stability and security in Afghanistan until we disrupt the Taliban/al Qaeda network attacking from Pakistan.
 
Failure in Afghanistan cannot be an option for two reasons. First, it could mean the end of the NATO alliance. What would happen to the creditability and cohesion of NATO if we failed our first major test since the end of the Cold War?
 
Secondly, a defeat of western forces in Afghanistan will act as a shot in the arm to all Islamic fundamentalist worldwide.
 
Neither is an outcome that is acceptable.
 
And one more words on Afghanistan to our Scottish Nationalist friends. When I meet our troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, they do not ask each other whether they come from Edinburgh, or Cardiff, or Belfast, or London. They are part of the British Armed Forces, proud of whom they are, and dedicated to defending all the people of all the United Kingdom.
 
When the next Government comes into office in 2010, or before, it will inherit a military that is overstretched, undermanned, and in possession of worn out equipment due to the on going operations in Iraq and Afghanistan
 
The top 19 major procurement projects have gone over budget by a total of £2.95bn and are cumulatively 429 months delayed, and our over-stretched Armed Forces are currently under-strength by more than 5,000 personnel. 
 
All of this results from a decade of neglect of our Armed Forces, and their families, by the Labour Government— because Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, was never willing to fully fund Tony Blair’s wars.
 
I am constantly asked how much the Conservative Party is willing to spend on defence of we come into office. There are two main problems here.
 
The first is that we simply cannot know how bad Labour’s economic train crash really is. The only thing missing from the Chancellor’s budget projections was his confirmation of the existence of the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. Only the Chancellor and the Prime minister believe the fantasy figures cooked up in the Brown Bunker.
 
No one really knows how bad it might be. We must not make any promises that we cannot deliver. That is Labour’s way—not ours.
 
And there is a second problem specific to defence.
 
For reasons of commercial sensitivity or national security a good deal of financial details about procurement projects and military planning is not presented in the public’s domain. While I understand this it makes specific planning almost impossible.
 
 But I can guarantee that a future Conservative Government will never under-resource our overseas military operations. We will match resources with commitments. We have a moral duty to fully fund any conflict where we send our forces into harm’s way. If we cannot, or if we are not willing to fund them fully, we shouldn’t send them in the first place.
 
In order to make sense of this, one of the first acts of a future Conservative Government will be to conduct a Strategic Defence Review immediately after coming into office.
 
The purpose of the Strategic Defence Review will be to define Britain’s strategic interests and where they exist at home and abroad. This will allow us to then assess the strategic environment and the threats posed to our interests within reasonably predictable limits.
 
It will then determine the capabilities we need to protect those interests.
 
Only then will we be able to look at specific programmes and the shape of our Armed Forces to see if they can deliver the capabilities we need. [Of course, the main challenge here is between equipping our forces to succeed in our current conflicts without failing to prepare for any unknown future contingencies for our Armed Forces.]
 
Finally we will have to determine their affordability and whether they offer value for money. And believe me, in the new age of austerity all defence programmes will need to demonstrate their value for money before we start spending taxpayer’s money.
 
In sum, an SDR will serve as the primary means of the Ministry of Defence to assess the global and strategic threats to the United Kingdom and how our response to these threats will be translated into potentially new policies, capabilities and force structure.
 
The fact that the last SDR was in 1998 is completely unacceptable. The world has changed.  Only this Labour Government can be so far detached from reality that it would believe that our Armed Forces can operate with a defence review designed for the pre 9/11 world.
 
And there is one area however where the basic argument has not changed. 
 
There will be a replacement to the submarine-based nuclear deterrent under a future Conservative Government.
 
No one can accurately predict the threats that the UK will face between 2025 and 2055 – when the next generation of the deterrent will be in service – just as no one 20 years ago could have anticipated the collapse of the Soviet Union, or the nature of the conflicts which currently confront us in Afghanistan or Iraq.
 
The United Kingdom has traditionally played a bigger role in acting on a number of global security related issues then to many of our medium sized allies—especially in Europe.
 
Consequently, we are more susceptible to nuclear blackmail by rogue states in possession of nuclear arms. Furthermore, because Britain is an island nation it would be harder to defeat by conventional military if the European continent was ever overrun. Consequently, a nuclear deterrent is vital to our nation’s defence.
 
Many of the opponents to the nuclear deterrent are the same individuals who at other times claim that Britain is already too dependent on American foreign and defence policy. Yet, not having a nuclear deterrent would make us even more dependent on America for our security.
 
While British and American interests are likely to coincide in the future and the Anglo-American relationship remains our most important strategic alliance, the UK must ultimately be able to guarantee its own security.
 
Here today we can pay tribute to Scotland’s role in our country’s security.
 
In fact, because of Scotland’s historical and traditional role in the defence of the United Kingdom, we, as a country, are left safer than we otherwise would be in what is a very dangerous and unpredictable world. 
 
More than 18,000 Scots currently serve in the Armed Forces and thousands have seen active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
Scotland plays host to 381 MoD sites across the country including 58 Territorial Army centres, the northernmost radar base which provides key early warning capabilities that help defend UK airspace, and  of course, Scotland is home of our nuclear deterrent.
 
The defence industry in Scotland provides the jobs of more than 11,000 people. Thousands more jobs are indirectly supported by the defence industry in Scotland. One way to safeguard and increase these Scottish jobs is to increase Britain’s overall share of world wide defence exports.
 
To make this happen, one of the first acts of a Conservative led Government will be to reinstate the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) which was abolished by Labour in what can only be described as an act of industrial vandalism.
 
I end by giving you a snapshot of what a decade of Labour’s neglect has done to our armed forces.
 
The Nimrod MRA4 project, which is delayed by 92 months, is £789 million over budget, and the order size has been reduced from 21 to 12.
 
The Astute class submarine, which is delayed by 47 months, is £1.228 billion over budget.
 
The Type 45 destroyer is delayed by 42 months and is £989 million over budget.
 
Despite an almost unprecedented use of our armed forces in conflict since Labour came into office, Army numbers have been cut by nearly 2,500, the Royal Navy by nearly 7,000, the RAF by over 14,000 and the Territorial Army by 24,000.
 
Our attack submarines are down by four, our frigates and destroyers by 12, our aircraft carriers by one, fixed-wing aircraft by 168, infantry battalions by four, and armoured fighting vehicles by 479.
 
According to the Government’s own figures, 31 out of 36 infantry battalions are under-strength, the shortage being equivalent to four battalions-worth of soldiers.
 
Twelve out of 14 TA infantry battalions are under-strength with the two Scottish Territorial Army infantry battalions facing the largest shortfalls of all.
 
In 2004, when we were already involved in two wars, the Government cut the helicopter budget by £1.4 billion, and we are still suffering from the consequences.
 
To cap it all, despite the two wars, this year’s defence spending, at 2.2 per cent of GDP, is the lowest since the 1930s.
 
It is a desperately sorry record, which will take a very different Government a long time to put right.

Friday 15th May 2009
Elizabeth Smith MSP - Education Debate

Ladies and Gentlemen

When parents send their children off to school, I believe they want 3 things: they expect them to come back able to read, write and count properly, they expect them to be taught in a well disciplined environment and they expect their children to become well rounded individuals with plenty of scope to take part in extra-curricular activity.

In my view, that shouldn’t be too much to ask. After all, Scottish education has a long and distinguished history of excellence. At one time, we led the world when it came to the teaching of the 3Rs, good manners and discipline, and when it came to inspiring youngsters to look well beyond the classroom for their wider education; but recently we have been badly slipping back- indeed in the words of Fiona Hyslop’s own Minister  “we should be doing a lot better” - and under the SNP, given the cutbacks in Highers and Advanced Highers within some local authorities, it is now becoming a postcode lottery as to what is on offer in your school. Like my former colleagues in the teaching profession, like parents and employers and university and college lecturers, I don’t believe that’s good enough. So that is why, over the last two years, I have been concentrating all my energies on addressing policy in these 3 areas; on the basic skills, on good discipline and on developing extra-curricular activity for every pupil; And that is why this  session in Conference will also focus on these 3 issues and how to bring the best out in every youngster.

To help me do that, I am delighted that we can harness the expertise of two very well-known public faces; Gavin Hastings and Sue Palmer, both of whom have had extensive experience working with young people and teachers, and also the expertise of some of our candidates who have made it their business to reach out to young people in their respective constituencies. If there is one message I want you to take away with you today, it is that this party cares about all our young people, irrespective of their backgrounds or academic abilities, and that we will do everything we can to help young people develop a sense of purpose, self-esteem, confidence and self-discipline.
And so, without any further ado, over to Gavin Hastings:

Screen play with Gavin Hastings commentary
Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a strong message in that video and that is why we have made outdoor education such an important part of our policy agenda. But I don’t doubt that the most important challenge facing schools in Scotland is to improve basic skills in reading, writing and arithmetic. Now, the SNP told us not to worry because it had a flagship policy; they promised us that in primaries 1 -3 class class sizes would be 18 or less – although I think they meant to say fewer – but under their watch things have just got worse.

At the end of primary 3, 85% of pupils are making good progress in maths but by S2 no more than 30% have acquired that competency and, each year, almost 10,000 Scottish pupils leave school without being able to read or write properly.

That, Ladies and Gentlemen is a disgrace, and so for me there is one simple message; there should be far more rigour applied to the testing of the 3Rs in primary school – not more tests or tests which are applied only when a teacher thinks the child is ready to cope with the stress or when the league tables are about to be produced, but better tests which truly reflect the ability of the pupil before they move on to secondary school.

Teachers are, on the whole, a highly professional group of people - increasingly so these days as a result of the very high standards in teacher training – and they are perfectly capable of administering these tests properly and allaying the anxieties of pupils and parents. So, I’m afraid I don’t swallow the excuses and that is why we have called for more rigorous testing by the end of primary 7 and I believe that is why Fiona Hyslop has now supported us even if is through her well gritted teeth.

Ladies and Gentlemen, politicians receive hundreds of letters and emails on a regular basis. People are not slow to tell us when we have got things wrong, and quite rightly so, but neither are they slow to tell us when we’ve got something right. And if my mail-bag and the letters pages of a wide range of newspapers are anything to go by, we have got this policy right. But don’t take that just from me. I would now like to introduce Sue Palmer who is a writer, broadcaster and consultant on the education of young children.

She is well-known to UK teachers as a specialist in literacy, especially the teaching of writing, and her concern about children’s lifestyles led her to write a best-selling book Toxic Childhood and I know you will join me in extending a very warm welcome to Sue Palmer.

Sue Palmer presentation
Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I think it will be abundantly clear from what you have heard just why Sue Palmer, just like Gavin Hastings, can lend such important weight to this debate. They have certainly given us plenty to think about and so too will our next speakers, each of whom will expand on some of the areas of policy we have been developing this past year.

Candidate contributions
Ladies and Gentlemen, can I thank all our speakers and may I now close this session on education by telling you that over recent weeks we have been putting together the main themes for our election manifesto and I can promise you that the schools section of that will address the best interests of our children rather than the best interests of the bureaucrats: so let me conclude by telling you that as well as committing the party to more rigorous testing of the 3Rs, to the principle of second chance discipline units and to residential outdoor education for all pupils, the manifesto will also commit the Conservative Party in Scotland to greater devolution within our school system; with headteachers having far more control of what goes on in their schools and also with parents  having a greater say in the education of their children.  Because we believe in opening up opportunities for parents to choose the school which they believe will offer their child the best chance of fulfilling his or her potential. This party firmly believes that every community across Scotland deserves good local schools and that will be achieved if we allow more choice for parents instead of school placements being dictated only by relevant postcodes.

Ladies and Gentlemen, education is a precious gift – it should be the right of every child to enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

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