Thank you so much for that welcome.
I am pleased to be standing here as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. I am delighted – still – to have won that election.
Thank you to Nicol Stephen for all he did for us as leader; and for the continuing friendship and advice he will give us all in the years to come.
Thank you as well to Mike and to Ross for a great contest, for the ideas they brought forward in the summer. I am especially pleased that they have agreed to play such a central part in our front-bench team in Parliament.
And I give very special thanks to one person. To Jim Wallace. We go back nearly twenty years. I campaigned for him to win in Orkney & Shetland. I worked for him in the House of Commons. And in Clifton Terrace. I served as a Minister with him in Government. I know Jim Wallace. He’s a friend of mine. And here I am; on stage; for my first Leader’s speech to a Scottish Conference.
And Jim. He’s gone to Hampden to watch the football. And you will want me too, on behalf of us all; to pay a tribute to two other dear friends who aren’t here with us. To Russell Johnston and Ray Michie. If you want to know how much they mean to us, look around you. Every row, every aisle. We all know people who heard them, who were inspired by them, who joined with us because of Russell and Ray. They are gone. But what they meant cannot be taken away. Their values are our values. Their determination is our determination. Their principles and their spirit is with us, all around us and stays with us through our campaigning lives. We are stronger, our Party is stronger for all that they did with their Liberal lives. Russell and Ray knew how important it was to connect with people; and they saw great changes through their political lives.
But what would they have made of the pace of change we are seeing now? Think how fast it moves. Just this week, politics across the world has completely changed again. Think back a month.
At our federal conference in Bournemouth everything was different. If you weren’t there be assured that my speech contained great flights of satire and wit. None of it is any use now; the people have all changed. David Milliband and George Osborne were the big beasts in the political jungle. But Milliband’s banana went the wrong way. And the economic tide went right over Osborne’s head. Who talks about them any more?
In their place: a great comeback. It was a breathtaking move.
Political dash and panache. But he’s back. Once again, Alistair Carmichael is Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and Northern Ireland. That is how fast it moves.
We must always be ready. Politics is the most fluid it has been for a lifetime. And we can prove that in Glenrothes; with Harry Wills as a great champion for Fife.
People should be turning to us. The Labour campaign is only about saving Gordon Brown. The SNP campaign is only about Alex Salmond’s ego. Harry Wills’ campaign is about the people of Glenrothes; working and winning for them; joining a winning Liberal Democrat team in the House of Commons with Willie Rennie and Ming Campbell.
Harry will make the case for local people. No-one else will. Remember how Alex Salmond told us that we didn’t much mind the economic policies of Mrs Thatcher? A shiver went round Scotland. A shiver went round this room when I said her name. Proud and hard-working communities in Fife wrecked to destruction by that woman. Now she’s put into rehab by the SNP. They are just plain out of touch.
That’s why we have to be so strong and work so hard in Glenrothes. I have been there. If you haven’t been there, you need to. We need great numbers to get out a great message. Everyone in this hall needs to be in Glenrothes. Let’s commit to that today.
The tectonic plates of Scottish politics really are shifting. To take advantage of the changing political climate, we must move outside our comfort zone - away from the Holyrood bubble. We must engage individuals, families and communities about the problems that they face in their daily lives. And we must provide the big ideas – the practical solutions – that will make life easier for them.
I have started as I mean to go on. I have been to factories from Inverurie in the North East to Campbeltown in Argyll. To new affordable housing developments; to council offices, to farms and to harbours. Hearing first hand people’s stories, their struggles and concerns. We will hear some things that we might not ever have heard before. I am hearing what people need done.
Last week I went to Scottish and Southern Energy in Perth. They told me that the number of red reminder bills they are sending out is up 30% as people are finding it tough to heat their home.
This week I met staff at a supermarket in Edinburgh; I met Nicola who was worried about whether her husband – a joiner – would still have a job at Christmas.
In 1992, Bill Clinton famously told the world, ‘It’s the economy, stupid’. And that’s what people are telling me everywhere I go in Scotland. They’re worried about their job. People in Scotland expect us to respond to their fears on the cost of living. And we have to do it right now.
Our economy is facing a serious downturn. One hundred thousand jobs building houses are at risk. The banking crisis threatens tens of thousands more. Energy costs up by half; Food costs up by 30 pounds a month; Inflation the highest for 16 years. Now people are worried about their mortgages and keeping a roof over their heads. We can’t turn our backs. We've got to find ways to help people out.
It’s the measure of a political party that it can respond to urgent new demands. That’s why Liberal Democrats insist that the Scottish Budget has to change. People want to hear what we can do for them. People are tightening their belts. It’s right that Government does as well.
Families are feeling the pinch. They are having to make sacrifices just to make ends meet. We Liberal Democrats will respond to that. Across Britain, Liberal Democrats will give tax cuts for people on low and middle incomes. But I know we can do more in Scotland.
We should use the Scottish Parliament’s power to cut income tax by two pence in the pound. Saving the average Scot more than three hundred pounds a year. Putting money back in the pockets of people who need it most. And it forms the centre of the radical plans we will bring to the Scottish Budget. We do it not because we’re hung up on ideology. We take action because it is the right thing to do. Right now. We’ll help those on low and fixed incomes even more when we scrap the unfair council tax that they hate so much.
And when I meet our council group leaders, when I speak to them every week on our conference call, they’ve made it plain to me: This Party knows that if it’s not Local, then it’s not a Local Income Tax.
And we’ll have nothing to do with reform that isn’t local. We’ll take action to drive the green-collar jobs that form the future for Scotland’s economy. We will bring new investment to marine renewable energy.
You might have heard of the Saltire Prize for energy – it’s smallest prize in the world. The SNP announced it nearly two years ago. It has been launched on at least eleven occasions. They’ve gone to America and set up a self-help group for it. The SNP boast that it is the biggest prize there’s ever been. No, it’s the smallest. The smallest number of winners. They say it’s like the Nobel Prize. But people win the Nobel Prize every year. Nobody has won the Saltire Prize.
Back in the real world Scottish marine energy companies can’t wait much longer. They need support for Research and Development to create the world-beating energy ideas in Scotland. Even the Republican petrol-heads in the USA have set up a marine energy research scheme. Ireland already has one. Scotland used to have one - until the SNP killed it off. And that’s a demand I now make for the Scottish Budget. Bring back research support for marine energy in Scotland. Do it now, before Scottish companies have to pack up and give up. Do it now before someone else wins the technology for the 21st century.
And in these tough times we need to protect high quality research in our universities as well. We’ll ensure Scotland competes for the long term in the global economy. We’ll extend support for our universities and students.
The SNP can’t be trusted with Scottish Higher Education. Hundreds of thousands of students already know that. They were told before the election that the SNP would dump their debt. Then they found out they were just going to dump the policy. Then it turns out they were going to dump students completely. Well, I have been to campuses. I can tell you that students are going to dump the SNP.
Now the top priority for the SNP is to pass new laws to forbid any student from buying a bottle of beer or a spoonful of sherry for a trifle. Tens of thousands of the brightest students in the UK are thinking of coming to Scotland next year. So if the First Minister is seriously thinking of converting Scotland’s universities into a network of temperance colleges he should say so.
Students need to know before they sign up to four year courses. And if those students turn away it will be Scotland’s loss. Let’s have a better plan. Let this SNP Government listen and take notice of students, young people and all the other parties in the Parliament. Respect the votes of Parliament. Respect the vote that this conference has just taken. Enforce the laws that will really make a difference. And Drop the alcohol plans that target students to get a headline.
I want a Scottish Budget to work for families, individuals and businesses. We will ask the Government at every parliamentary committee: “How does this line of spending meet the urgent economic needs of Scotland?” We will insist that every proposal for extra spending meets the tough test: “Does this put more money in the pockets of families and individuals right now?” People expect us to work together. But if the SNP’s top priority is to spend tens of millions on new quangos; or the Tories want to dream up new spending gimmicks; we’ll tell them that their plans will simply have to wait.
The Liberal Democrats are the party with the ideas to help people out in difficult times. We’ll take the decisions needed to help the Scottish economy. Our plans are the most radical package that has been presented to the Scottish Parliament since it was re-convened in 1999. My challenge to the other parties today is this, “Come with us. Work with us. Build a Scottish budget that meets the needs of these economic hard times.”
Tax cuts into people’s pockets right now. Fair local tax locked into the Scottish system. Renewable energy – supported not squandered. Top level skills for a permanent place in the economic premier league. And practical help for small business before it’s too late for too many jobs. With this, we can show that the Scottish Parliament has the capacity and the imagination to change and respond when people need it most. Let’s show we have a Parliament that works hardest when people need it most. We promise to work with others to tackle the crisis.
Just as Nick Clegg and Vince Cable have pledged to work hard in London to help Britain. Nick said on Wednesday: “When a ship is sinking, we send out the lifeboats. We don’t argue about who has steered it into an iceberg.” But let me be clear: There will be a reckoning. For ten years Gordon Brown was warned about the City loopholes that gave every incentive to get-rich-quick schemes. For ten years, he told us that he had conquered boom and bust.
There was no more bust. For ten years he ran an economy based on ever-increasing house prices; that would never fall; that would feed a credit explosion; that would leave a trillion pounds of consumer debt. Labour told us the only problem was to how to fix inheritance tax to protect this bounty and bonanza. Then the music stops; because this ship is sinking. We accept that the ship’s captain has to help row the lifeboats to the shore. But when we get there, he should be stripped of his promotion, not given another go on the tiller. For that I think we prefer Admiral Clegg and Commodore Cable. I say, step forward. Vince Cable, who gave warning, but was derided. Who spoke up, but was ignored. Who forecast the storm but was told to paint the deckchairs. And now Gordon Brown has decided to start a whole new performance. Starting again as an end-of-the-pier magic show; producing rabbits out of the hat; the Kirkcaldy Conjurer. Are you under his spell?
But with Peter Mandelson it’s more like the penny arcade game. You know the one? When, however hard you hit the thing on the head, it pops up somewhere else and you have to hit it on the head again. And Gordon Brown is forgetting that fundamental of show business with his new Cabinet. When the audience sees, everyone who has ever been in the show; the heroes, the villains; the people grotesquely killed off in Act One; all stood there smiling and waving then it can mean only one thing.
The show is over. And Labour’s show is over. Their curtain is coming down. We have had it all over ten years from Labour: morality; comedy; tragedy; mystery; farce; bloodshed; But now we have had enough. Let’s face it: if the answer to the question is “Peter Mandelson”, then you are asking the wrong question.
And what else is on offer? If there is anyone in this hall, who ever thought, that being a small, independent country would be any more use than a chocolate fireguard when the economic heat comes on, I’ve got only one word: Iceland.
Nationalism is no answer in these times. Iceland was part of what the SNP called the arc of prosperity. The people they would like to be. Now it’s an arc of insolvency. Could it be that the land of fire and ice finishes off their case? And on the home front, they are losing economic credibility fast.
Alex Salmond said that - as Minister-President of an Independent Scotland - he would have ordered the Central Bank to pay out one hundred billion pounds to help Halifax Bank of Scotland. But he has previously said there would be no bank, not central, not under his control and without one hundred billion. To his credit, he admitted it had all been a bit of a “misunderstanding”.
But what I don’t understand is what happened on Thursday. I offered him the chance to use the UK’s 50 billion pound bailout to make a new case for HBOS; to stay in Scotland and to stay independent. And he wasn’t even interested. Saving HBOS for Scotland means saving jobs; Saving the headquarters; Saving expertise for Scottish business.
So what use is a First Minister who won’t step up and make the case for Scotland when he gets the offer of full co-operation? He should think again and he should stand up for Scotland. And the priorities of the rest of the Government get even more bizarre.
As the world faces recession or depression, the SNP set up summits on seagulls and chose to use Parliament to debate Non-Native Invasive Species. I was excited about that one. I thought it was something to do with Vikings. But more of their programme is doing actual harm to the economy.
Let’s talk about the Scottish Futures Trust. It sounded great, didn’t it? Some people here, I think, wanted it to do well. Patriotic Scottish families would buy bonds to pay for infrastructure. Everything would be cheaper. All would be well. When the SNP Government actually launched it, the statement mentioned how the Trust would “advise”, “encourage”, “act as a focal point”, “promote opportunities” and “become a reference point”. But it didn’t say when it would pay for anything. It’s just a big call centre? “For advice on your contract, dial 1.” “For access to the reference point, dial 2.” “For guidance, dial 3.” “For actual cash on your project?” Well, there’s just a click and the line goes dead. And you have been charged for this call.
And the construction industry is really worried. The Institute of Civil Engineers have gone public: “Smaller engineering contractors”, it says, “are being hit hard by delays in public project awards.”
Contractors say that because of the delay in its launch, no new public contracts have been awarded since January. The workload for civil engineers has slumped. Our message to the SNP is clear. They need to get this moving or get out of the way. So there you have it for Scotland too; If other parties won’t shape up and stand up when the economy turns bad, they have to step aside. I’ve given you an entire speech about the economy. I think people would expect nothing less. My generation has not seen a big recession. So I want to lead a political party that will be prepared to provide the answers. The others will attack us for having ideas; for daring to think differently. They will criticise us for wanting change from business as normal. For wanting every taxpayer’s pound to be spent on people who are hurting.
If the other parties forget what they are there for, we will not. We will be the ones standing up for Scottish jobs; Standing up for Scotland; On your side; Determined to help; Determined to make it happen. I hope you are ready; because I can’t wait.