UKPOL.CO.UK

Tag: 2011 Labour Party Conference

  • Andy Burnham – 2011 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    andyburnham

    Below is the text of the speech made by Andy Burnham to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on 28th September 2011.

    Conference.

    What do you think of my home city?

    Brilliant isn’t it?

    So welcome to Liverpool – or at least it was Liverpool last time I checked, before the Boundary Commission came along.

    I’ve had a great week.

    It started with a goal at the annual MPs versus Press football match.

    Last year, Ed Balls and I were rivals.

    This year we were united up front together – and, he must be doing a good job, because if you’ve seen the photos, there was certainly no ‘squeezed middle’.

    But it’s not all been good news.

    Recently GQ voted me the fourth worst-dressed man in Britain.

    My brother said at least it showed I was trying to fit in with teachers.

    In this job, there’s one thing you notice.

    How, on an almost daily basis, people who didn’t go to state schools, and don’t send their children to them, pop up in the media to tell us all how awful they are.

    Is there any country in the world which runs down its schools, its teachers and its young people in the way we seem to do?

    Well, Conference, at least let us put that right today.

    Will you join me in thanking our teachers, dinner ladies, support staff, lollipop ladies whose utter devotion to our children makes England’s schools amongst the best in the world?

    And let us all thank inspirational heads like Yvonne Sharples and Andrew Chubb for what they do to lift aspirations in places where life is hardest.

    And let me thank my brilliant team – Kevin Brennan, Sharon Hodgson, Iain Wright, Toby Perkins and Stella Creasy.

    Today, Labour reaches out beyond its own closed circle and I want to welcome all the members of the public and young members who join us today.

    My home city is much stronger for 13 years of a Labour Government.

    These days, the people hiring taxis are the Yellow Tories – sent packing for propping up a ruthless Tory Government cutting this Council’s budget by over £100 for every person who lives here.

    And, yet, take heart from this.

    Liverpool’s Labour Leader – Joe Anderson and his team have found a way to keep building new schools for the people of this city.

    A lesson for Gove and his Tories: never, ever underestimate the people of this city.

    Streetwise, self-confident – but always the city of the underdog, as its blue half will show in Saturday’s Merseyside Derby.

    On some issues, though, we stand together.

    For 22 years, this city has borne the deepest scars imaginable when 96 of its sons and daughters didn’t come home from an FA Cup semi-final.

    As it sought answers, obstacles were thrown up and insults added to injury.

    Perhaps we could have done more.

    But, with Gordon’s support, Labour made the historic commitment to disclose all public documents through the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

    Conference, I ask you and our Party to stand with those Hillsborough families until they have finally prevailed in their dignified campaign for truth and justice.

    Nothing matters more to me on a personal level.

    That’s because my own family story is bound up with the ups and downs of Liverpool.

    And, in that story, a vivid illustration of Ed’s Promise of Britain.

    In the 60s and 70s, my grandad drove a lorry around these docks for Tate & Lyle. Could he ever have imagined that his grandson, a former Cabinet Minister, would stand on these very same docks addressing this Conference?

    We’ve all come a long way.

    But, in the cold light of this century, it suddenly feels much harder for young people who don’t have much, to dare to dream.

    As traditional industries have declined, so too have the ladders-up they once provided.

    And today young people face agonising choices. It’s not easy to take on the cost of a degree when you know that you’re expected to work for free to get on.

    But if things weren’t hard enough, they just got a whole lot harder.

    They’ve launched an all-out attack on aspiration, on the hopes and dreams of ordinary kids.

    Before the Election, David Cameron looked young people in the eye. He said he’d keep the Education Maintenance Allowance.

    What kind of man does that, leaving thousands of young souls cut adrift?

    Cameron the Conman, that’s who.

    What kind of man destroys England’s careers service with youth unemployment at record levels?

    And what kind of man chooses this moment to make young people pay with their life chances.

    All across England, you can hear the sound of falling aspiration. And it’s terrifying.

    Tony Blair said his priorities were education, education, education.

    And because of what he did we can now go further: aspiration, aspiration, aspiration.

    In this challenging century, we will be the party for families who want to get on in life, who want better for their children.

    Labour will give every child a path in life. Put hope in every heart.

    Walk into any primary school in England and you will see the change we made.

    University opened up to thousands – and the greatest increase amongst the poorest children.

    But we need to go further and yesterday Ed laid down that challenge.

    Let’s face up to one thing, though.

    As a country, we haven’t focused anything like enough on the opportunities for the 50% or more of kids who don’t plan to go to university.

    Young people who want to head towards work or an apprenticeship are left to fend for themselves.

    At 13, 14, 15, too many children lose their way because they can’t see where school is taking them.

    That’s wrong and I want to put it right.

    Young people on the university path know what is expected if they are to make the grade.

    I want young people who aspire to apprenticeships to have the same clarity, ambition and sense of purpose.

    I want them to be able to find out and apply for them in exactly the same way as people apply for university.

    So let’s look at a national UCAS-style system for apprenticeships, raising sights, rewarding those who work hardest, giving all children hope and a goal in life.

    A 21st century school system where employers have more influence on what subjects children take.

    A 21st century school system based on the solid principle that hard work will be properly rewarded.

    Truly comprehensive education for the 21st century: giving every child a clear path; putting hope in every heart.

    With new ideas like this, Labour is facing up to the challenges of today.

    By contrast, the government’s approach to education reminds me of the film ‘Back to the Future.’

    Remember it?

    It starred a man called Michael who was trapped in the 1950s.

    Here we are in 2011 and we have the spectacle of a Tory Education Secretary promoting Latin and Ancient Greek over Engineering, ICT and Business Studies.

    I want as many children as possible to take the subjects in the English Baccalaureate.

    But they are not right for everyone.

    And yet the message is clear – any school or student who doesn’t succeed is second best.

    As we have heard today, there is a growing grassroots rejection of Mr Gove and his elitist and divisive policies.

    If we just shout from the sidelines and wait for the next election, too many young lives will be written off.

    So we need an alternative.

    A curriculum that sets high ambitions for everyone in English and Maths.

    A curriculum that gets young people ready for the modern world where they can expect to have around 10 job changes and will need different skills and qualities to succeed.

    Not segregated routes between academic and vocational education but a true Baccalaureate.

    A unified programme of study geared to the needs of the 21st century: stretching the brightest, yes, but giving all children a relevant route and a solid qualification behind them.

    This is Labour’s vision.

    Supporting the development of the Modern Baccalaureate, drawing on the example of the Welsh and International Baccalaureates, as an alternative to Gove’s backward-looking vision.

    He is stuck in the past and obsessed with structural changes.

    He throws money at his favoured schools – free schools and academies – and treats the rest as if they don’t matter.

    A man with a plan for some schools and some children, not all schools and all children.

    He cancels new schools in areas of greatest need to build new ones in wealthier areas.

    And make no mistake – Gove’s academies are not Labour’s academies. We focused on areas of real need; he gives more to the best-performing schools.

    In this free-for-all, with a weakened admissions code and all schools judged by the English Baccalaureate, vulnerable children will lose out.

    Back to the 1950s. Two-tier education and selection by the back-door.

    A new generation of grammars and secondary moderns.

    We shouldn’t judge any school by its structure or status. We should judge them by their values and achievements.

    Free schools and academies can embody the comprehensive ideal.

    But Conference, make no mistake, that ideal is under attack.

    And if I believe in anything I believe with all my heart in what it stands for: all backgrounds together, learning to see life from all sides, aspirational for everyone.

    These comprehensive values should be as intrinsic to this party’s DNA as the values of the NHS.

    We must reform it now for new times, meeting the aspirations of every family and our country and fulfilling the Promise of Britain.

    So that’s our mission.

    Comprehensive education for the 21st century.

    Rewarding hard work.

    Stretching the brightest.

    Putting hope in every heart.

  • Hilary Benn – 2011 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    tonybenn

    Below is the text of the speech made by Hilary Benn to the 2011 Labour Party conference on 29th September 2011.

    Good morning Conference. Can I begin by thanking my team Helen Jones and Paul Blomfield – Paul it’s great to see you back fit and well – and all our MPs for the work they do taking the fight to the Government in the House of Commons.

    Ed’s great speech on Tuesday reminded us that politics – like life – is about the choices we make. It’s about the values we uphold. And nothing matters more right now than the economy.

    Where we got it wrong – like on bank regulation – we’ve held our hands up. But everyone else got it wrong too. George Osborne used to complain not that we weren’t doing enough on the banks but that we were being too tough on them. He was wrong then and we’ll take no lectures from him.

    And he was wrong again when those frightened people were queuing up outside the branches of Northern Rock to ask for all their money back. Now when that happens – your banking system is on the point of collapse.

    And the real test of politics is not what you do when times are easy but the choices you make when times are tough. And we made the right choice. I rang my father up that day and said “Dad, you know you always told me that we should nationalise the banks. Well I’ve got some news for you”

    And why did we do it ? Because we made a choice to protect people’s savings, to protect people’s jobs and to protect people’s homes, and for that we should never apologise.

    And it’s exactly the same choice we face today when a new crisis threatens. Do you act or do you stand on one side. And whose side on you on?

    Every day in the House of Commons we face a Tory Government kept in office by the votes of the Liberal Democrats and Nick Clegg.

    They’re not a happy bunch.

    Tim Farron wants out, and Chris Huhne is after his boss’s job. He thinks Nick Clegg should go off to be an EU Commissioner – indeed he’s so keen on the idea that he’s offered to drive him to Brussels himself.

    And why are they unhappy? Well we know why.

    Cancelling the loan to Forgemasters, not backing Bombardier in Derby where British skill and British engineering has been building trains for 170 years, and tuition fees. Nick Clegg made a promise. He broke it. And that’s why people will never trust the Lib Dems again.

    Now, beating the Lib Dems is pleasure – and we should thank them for the help they’re giving us – but Conference beating the Tories is business.

    Look at what they’re doing to the economy. Growth is flatlining. Unemployment is rising. And that’s going to make it harder to pay off the deficit.

    Look at their broken promises.

    David Cameron promised to protect Sure Start. But Sure Start centres are closing.

    He promised that ministers who came up with cuts to the front line would be sent packing, but instead it’s 16,000 police officers who are going.

    He promised no top down reorganisation of the NHS, but now he’s wasting billions on doing just that.

    And he actually wants to be able to fine your local NHS hospital up to 10% of its turnover for something called anti-competitive behaviour even though he can’t explain what that means.

    That’s the Tories for you. They actually do think that our hospitals are no different from banks or phone companies. Well we know they are different and that’s why the British people will never trust the Tories on the NHS again.

    This is a government that’s got rid of EMAs and the Future Jobs Fund at a time when one in five young people can’t find a job.

    We have a No 10 adviser who wants to get rid of maternity leave.

    A schools Secretary who seems only to be interested in the education of some of our children, when he should be interested in the education of all of our children.

    A government department that’s sending out letters to people who are terminally ill warning them that their benefits could be cut in April even though Parliament hasn’t yet approved these changes.

    And a Prime Minister who at the same time as taking away childcare tax credits from working mums, wants to abolish the 50p tax rate.

    All in in together? No, they’re just interested in a few.

    And that’s why people will be looking to us to help them. And so as we head back home let’s be proud of who we are and of how our politics can change things. Just look around this great city of Liverpool to see what we can do.

    It’s quite easy to have a go at politicians – and sometimes we deserve it. And yet being an MP or a councillor is an honourable job. It is a privilege to serve the public.

    And that’s why all these boundary changes are so wrong and so damaging. For the Tories it’s all about trying to gain party advantage, but for the rest of us they will destroy the relationship between places and communities and their MPs, and we will fight them as hard as we can.

    And we won’t allow millions of people to be thrown off the electoral register because of individual registration. Aung San Suu Kyi reminded us this week just how precious the right to vote is. And that right must be protected for all our citizens.

    And if anyone says to you – ah, you’re all the same, what’s the point, nothing ever changes – remind them of Labour’s NHS, forged in the aftermath of a world war. Remind them of Labour’s minimum wage and the winter fuel payment. Remind them of the schools and hospitals we built. Remind them of Tom Watson and Chris Bryant’s courage in standing up against Murdoch. Remind them of Ed Miliband’s belief in a something for something society.

    And then ask yourself: what would things be like without them ? Do we make a difference? Of course, we do.

    And then go out there – ignore the cynics – and look people firmly in the eye and say: we are here to stand shoulder to shoulder with you in your community, and in your workplace, and in our Parliament as together we face the future.

    And do you know what matters more than anything else? Confidence. Having confidence in ourselves as a nation. Yes, the challenges are great, but if you look around you can see that we have all the skill, passion, innovation, inventiveness, creativity and determination we need.

    And when we put the power of our politics at the service of the people, then together we can transform lives and build something better.

    Conference, we are now going to hear from someone for whom what we did in Government to support families really made a difference, but also about how her life and her family have been affected by this Government’s dismantling of the help we put in place.

    It is a moving story about why politics matters.

    She comes from Stone in Staffordshire. It is her first time at Conference.

    Will you please welcome Catherine Gregory.

  • Ed Balls – 2011 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    balls

    Below is the text of the speech made by Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, to the Labour Party conference on 26th September 2011.

     

    Conference –

    It’s a great honour to make my first conference speech as Shadow Chancellor – the first ever Labour and Co-operative Shadow Chancellor – here at our first annual conference in this great city of Liverpool since 1925.

    Thank you to Norma for that introduction – and to all the members of our Policy Commission for their hard work this year.

    And I want to say a special thank-you to my co-Chair, Cath Speight, for all her advice and leadership as a member of the NEC for the past 11 years.

    Cath – you are a great servant to your union and to our party and we all thank you.

    And Conference, I also want to pay tribute to our leader – my friend – Ed Miliband.

    On Libya, on phone hacking and on the riots – he has shown calm, resolute and courageous leadership:

    – not afraid to take on vested interests;

    – passionate that we have responsibility in our society from top to bottom;

    – determined that the promise of Britain – that the next generation will do better than the last – can be fulfilled.

    In Ed Miliband, conference, we have a leader who is genuine, principled, honest and fair…

    … a leader who speaks his mind and tells the truth…

    … a leader in whom I believe we can ask the British public to put their trust.

    A BETTER WAY?

    And nowhere is it more important that we win the public’s trust for an alternative future – a better way forward – than on the economy.

    Speaking to one delegate this morning, she said to me:

    “people are really worried about jobs and the cost of everything going up – and they’re all saying, ‘surely there’s a better way?’”

    Here in Liverpool, and as a result of the Coalition’s policies, unemployment is now rising again as this city faces the deepest cuts to local services in a generation.

    But – a far cry from the scuttling taxis carrying redundancy notices in the 1980s – it is a Labour Council here in Liverpool which is working night and day to make savings and cut bureaucracy so they can protect jobs and keep services for the most vulnerable.

    And I say to Liverpool’s Labour leader Joe Anderson – to all our leaders in local government facing difficult times across the UK – and to First Minister Carwyn Jones in Wales – we pay tribute to your leadership and responsibility and determination that there can be a better way:

    – yes – a credible plan to get our deficit down;

    – but action now – a plan for growth and jobs;

    – and long-term reforms to build a stronger, fairer economy;

    A Labour plan to get Britain working again.

    GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

    Conference, let’s face the facts.

    These are the darkest, most dangerous times for the global economy in my lifetime.

    Our country – the whole of the world – is facing a threat that most of us have only ever read about in the history books – a lost decade of economic stagnation:

    – The aftermath of a worldwide financial and banking crash;

    – Families and businesses fearful about the future, cutting back on spending and investment;

    – Governments all around the world trying to cut spending at the same time;

    – Demand sucked out of the economy;

    – Stock markets tumbling, banks in trouble, economies stalling, unemployment rising – a vicious circle as slow growth makes it harder to get deficits down;

    – Not a crisis of any one country or continent – but a spiralling global crisis – from which no economy can be safe…

    … threatening the jobs, pensions and living standards of families here in Britain and across the world.

    Conference –

    This is not – as the Conservatives claim – simply a crisis of public debt which can be solved – country by country – by austerity, cuts and retrenchment – but truly a global growth crisis which is deepening and becoming more dangerous by the day.

    And the world must remember the lesson of the 1930s: that there is no credibility in piling austerity on austerity, tax rise on tax rise, cut upon cut in the eventual hope that it will work when all the evidence is pointing the other way.

    I said to you a year ago – you either learn the lessons of history – or you repeat the mistakes of history – that is the choice the world faces today.

    But at a time when the world desperately needs a global plan for growth – when it needs wise and strong leadership – where will it come from?

    Not so far from the Euro zone – unable to stand together and do what it takes to restore confidence and growth.

    Not so far from America – deadlocked by the reckless games of the Republican right.

    And Conference, what about our Prime Minister and Chancellor?

    Do they urge a change of course in the Euro zone?

    No – they applaud austerity, and urge even deeper cuts.

    Do they urge sanity in America?

    No – George Osborne boasts that his Republican friends in Congress are following his advice.

    Do they urge a global growth plan in the G7, the G20 or the IMF?

    No.

    Confronted with the biggest most urgent global challenge of our age, all they can do is urge other countries to pile austerity on austerity too… ignoring the lessons of history and the evidence here in Britain, and across the world, that austerity just isn’t working.

    That is not just a failure of leadership – it is a complete abdication of responsibility too.

    A SAFE HAVEN?

    But Conference…

    It’s not right to blame David Cameron and George Osborne for everything that’s wrong with our economy.

    They didn’t cause the global financial crisis.

    That crisis was a body blow to our economy and our public finances – we went into recession, lost tax revenues, a big deficit opened up.

    Whoever won the last election faced a difficult task to secure economic recovery and reduce that deficit over time.

    And that task has been made harder by the economic problems in the Euro-zone, America and Japan.

    But the simple question that the government has to answer – the issue on which they can and must be held to account – is this: have their decisions over the past year and a half made things better or have they made things worse?

    A year ago, I warned that, with our economy still fragile and a global hurricane brewing, it was not the time to tear out the foundations of the house.

    But David Cameron and George Osborne thought they knew better:

    – They said a VAT rise and cutting faster than any other major country would boost economic confidence and growth;

    – That if they cut public sector jobs, the private sector would more than fill the gap;

    – That their plan would make Britain immune from the global storm – and any other course of action would cause stock market turmoil…

    And to be fair, some respected people agreed with them.

    But we in this Party argued for a steadier, more balanced approach – halving the deficit over four years.

    We said that going too far, too fast would choke off the recovery and put jobs at risk;

    We warned that cutting spending and raising taxes too fast would create a vicious circle here in Britain too – and make it harder to get the deficit down.

    And look what’s happened – even before the global instability of the past three months.

    Confidence has slumped.

    Our economy has flat-lined now for nine months.

    Slower growth in Britain than any other G7 country except Japan.

    Unemployment now rising again.

    That is why the deficit is already set to be £46 billion higher than the government planned.

    Because if you choke off the recovery and put tens of thousands of people on the dole – not paying taxes, claiming benefits instead – then, of course, borrowing goes up.

    In the 1980s, the Tories told us – shockingly – that because their economic objective was to reduce inflation, rising unemployment was a price worth paying.

    This generation of Tories need to realise if your economic objective is to reduce the deficit, then rising unemployment is one thing you just can’t afford.

    NO ALTERNATIVE?

    So Conference…

    .. the global economic crisis is deepening, our economy is badly exposed…

    And what do we hear from ministers?

    However bad things get… even when we can all see it’s not working:

    ‘We are sticking to the plan,’ they say

    ‘We are not for turning.’

    ‘There is no alternative.’

    ‘There is no better way.’

    They claim that any change of course would lead to a market crisis and higher interest rates.

    But our interest rates are at record lows because our economy has stagnated.

    Markets are losing confidence in governments all around the world because there is no growth.

    And there is a growing chorus of voices calling for a change of course…

    Even the IMF now says:

    “growth is necessary for fiscal credibility”, and…

    “slamming on the brakes too quickly will hurt the recovery and worsen job prospects.”

    Yes – a credible economic policy does needs a plan to get the deficit down.

    Yes – a credible economic policy needs political agreement to implement that plan.

    But an economic policy can only be credible if it works.

    And George Osborne’s economic plan is hurting… but Conference… it’s just not working.

    ALL LABOUR’S FAULT?

    But you all heard the chorus from the Lib Dems last week…

    You all know what we will hear next week from the Tories…

    The only line in the script they’ve got left:

    ‘It’s all Labour’s fault – we’re just clearing up the mess’.

    Conference, we could spend all of our time defending our record… and there is much to be proud of.

    But for families today – struggling to pay the bills, worrying about their jobs – being told about the great things Labour did in government isn’t much comfort… it doesn’t pay the bills, help get a job or secure the pension.

    Some commentators say the opposite: accept the Tory critique that Labour spending caused the economic crisis; back Tory policy on the deficit; neutralise the issue and move on.

    And when they say we made mistakes in government, they’re right… we must admit them and show we’ve learned from them.

    The 75p pension rise – that was a mistake.

    So was abolishing the 10p tax rate.

    We didn’t do enough to get all employers to train.

    We should have adopted tougher controls on migration from Eastern Europe.

    We didn’t spend every pound of public money well.

    And yes – we didn’t regulate the banks toughly enough and stop their gross irresponsibility – here in Britain and all around the world.

    But don’t let anyone tell you that Labour in government was profligate with public money – when we went into the crisis with lower national debt than we inherited in 1997 and lower than America, France, Germany and Japan.

    And don’t let anyone say it was public spending on public services here in Britain which caused the global financial crisis.

    It wasn’t too many police officers or nurses or teachers here in Britain that bankrupted Lehman Brothers in New York.

    Conference.

    We didn’t get everything right.

    We made mistakes.

    But abolishing the Future Jobs Fund and cutting 100,000 jobs for young people out of work… that wasn’t Labour’s mistake.

    Scrapping the Regional Development Agencies, ending EMAs, cutting childcare tax credits for working parents… those aren’t Labour’s mistakes.

    Wasting £2bn on a reckless NHS reorganisation…

    Wasting £100m on elected police commissioners…

    Wasting 1bn on a tax cut for the banks…

    Wasting billions of pounds on the bills of rising unemployment…

    Ripping up our balanced plan, trying to cut the deficit faster any other country and choking off the recovery as a result…

    Conference… these aren’t Labour’s mistakes…

    They are David Cameron’s mistakes…

    And George Osborne’s mistakes…

    And Nick Clegg’s mistakes…

    Reckless. Ideological. Unfair.

    Tory mistakes every one of them.

    A BETTER WAY

    I think of a family I know in my constituency: self-employed – a husband and wife team – times are hard at the moment – but things are still just about ok – they can pay the mortgage – they managed a holiday with the kids this year.

    But they are worried…

    Worried about gas bills, petrol, food all going up…

    Worried about losing their tax credits and the child benefit..

    Worried when they see other local businesses closing down…

    And worried too about the future – can they keep up their pension payments, can they afford it when their son goes to college.

    Better off under Labour – but it was their hard work which did it.

    Deeply aspirational for their kids – but now very worried about their futures too.

    Believe me – they don’t want to hear about all the things Labour got right.

    And believe me – they certainly do want to know we’ve learned from our mistakes.

    But most important…

    They want to know that there’s a reason to be hopeful…

    That their hard work will be rewarded and their kids will do well…

    That there is a better way.

    Conference…

    Trying to cut the deficit too far, too fast isn’t working.

    The government must adopt a steadier, more balanced plan to get our deficit down and take immediate action now to support the economy and create jobs here in Britain.

    So here are five immediate steps the government can and should take right now:

    Step one – repeat the bank bonus tax again this year – and use the money to build 25,000 affordable homes and guarantee a job for 100,000 young people – it can’t be right to be cutting taxes on the banks when almost 1 in 5 young people are now out of work.

    Step two – genuinely bring forward long-term investment projects – schools, roads and transport – to get people back to work and strengthen our economy for the future.

    Step three – reverse January’s damaging VAT rise now for a temporary period – a £450 boost for a family with two kids – immediate help for our high streets and for struggling families and pensioners too.

    Step four – announce an immediate one year cut in VAT to 5% on home improvements, repairs and maintenance – to help homeowners and the many small businesses that are so dependent on the state of the housing market.

    Step five – a one year national insurance tax break for every small firm which takes on extra workers, using the money left over from the government’s failed national insurance rebate for new businesses – helping small businesses to grow and create jobs.

    Conference… a plan to help struggling families and small businesses, get our economy growing and create jobs which are the key to getting our deficit down.

    Action on jobs;

    Investment brought forward;

    Support for families;

    Support for homeowners;

    Support for small businesses.

    Five immediate steps the government could take tomorrow – and if they do so, we will back them.

    Call it Plan A plus

    Call it Plan B

    Call it Plan C

    I don’t care what they call it.

    Britain just needs a plan that works.

    TOUGH DECISIONS

    But I have to level with you all – and the country… a plan for growth now will help get the economy moving again and stop the vicious circle on the deficit – but by itself it won’t secure our economic future or magic the deficit away.

    A steadier, more balanced, medium-term plan to get the deficit down will still mean difficult decisions and tough choices in the years ahead that any government will face.

    Tough choices on tax and spending – like the cuts to welfare, education and Home Office budgets that we set out before the election.

    Discipline in public and private sector pay.

    And no matter how much we dislike particular Tory spending cuts or tax rises, we cannot make promises now to reverse them.

    I won’t do that and neither will any of my Shadow Cabinet colleagues.

    And while we know that the Government’s approach to pensions has been confrontational and unfair…

    That there is nothing George Osborne would like better than a strike this autumn to divert attention from his failing economic plan…

    … we know too that there are difficult decisions on pensions which we cannot duck and that under Labour contributions and the retirement age would be rising too.

    Conference – it will not be enough to expose that David Cameron and George Osborne have got the economy badly wrong.

    We still know today what we recognised seventeen years ago: we will never have credibility unless we have the discipline and the strength to take tough decisions.

    When I left the Financial Times to work for Labour in 1994, it was because I knew that a reputation for credibility and a platform of stability were the essential pre-conditions for achieving our wider goals, and I wanted to play my part.

    And Conference…

    – Bank of England independence;

    – not joining the Euro;

    – levelling with the public that saving the NHS needed a tax rise;

    – using all the £22bn windfall from the 3G mobile phone auction to repay the national debt – despite Tory demands to spend it at the time;

    … the same iron discipline that guided those decisions must guide a future Labour government too.

    And let me say these two things today.

    First, before the next election – and based on the circumstances we face – we will set out for our manifesto tough fiscal rules that the next Labour government will have to stick to – to get out country’s current budget back to balance and national debt on a downward path.

    And these fiscal rules will be independently monitored by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

    And second we know that, even as bank shares are falling again, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are still betting on a windfall gain from privatising RBS and Lloyds to pay for a pre-election giveaway.

    We could also pledge to spend that windfall.

    But – just as with the 3G mobile phone auction – we will commit instead in our manifesto to do the responsible thing and use any windfall gain from the sale of bank shares to repay the national debt.

    Conference that will be Labour’s choice – fiscal responsibility in the national interest.

    SECURING OUR LONG-TERM ECONOMIC FUTURE

    And on that platform of fiscal responsibility and action now for jobs and growth, we must also build the long-term future of the British economy.

    And that means government must act to ensure markets work in the public interest and tackle unfair concentrations of power.

    Many of us have had enough experience of government to know that the public sector can fail too:

    – that Whitehall doesn’t always know best;

    – that well-meaning business regulations designed by public servants can sometimes do more harm than good in the real world;

    – that central directions shouted ever more loudly are no substitute for proper public service reforms that get incentives right, tackle market failure and put power in the hands of users.

    But we know too that government just walking away is not the answer…

    That government has a vital role to play, working closely with business, in making our economy stronger and more balanced for the long-term.

    John Denham, Liam Byrne, Angela Eagle and I are working on our new financial, industrial and employment policies.

    We can’t claim we have all the answers at this stage.

    But we know we can’t tackle our skills deficit unless both government and employers do more.

    We can’t have a modern industrial policy without government action:

    – to support new manufacturing technologies, including green manufacturing;

    – to make the planning system work to support investment and jobs;

    – and yes, to ensure a genuinely level playing field for procurement too.

    And we can’t tackle the debilitating short-termism which still plagues the relationship between finance and industry in Britain without radical reforms… reforms that must go beyond the tough regulation of the banks that the Vickers Commission has proposed.

    That is why Ed Miliband, John Denham and I are determined that Labour will lead a debate on how to tackle short-termism in our economy… including tackling market failures in small business lending… and that means we must now examine proposals for a National Investment Bank for small business.

    CONCLUSION

    Conference, these are vital reforms.

    Reforms upon which the future of our country depends.

    But they are reforms which this Government just cannot deliver.

    Because to back these reforms means to reject the debilitating ideology – private always good, public always bad, rising inequality inevitable – which grips this Tory-led Government.

    The same view that says government is always the problem, and getting government out of the way the solution and that rewards at the top will eventually trickle down.

    It is the same ideology that says private companies running the health service will always be better for patients.

    That says cutting police officers, youth services and family intervention projects will somehow make our communities safer.

    That claims ‘we’re all in this together’… but then delivers Budgets that hit families with children, hit women more than men and hit people with disabilities hardest of all

    It is the same ideology that believes the global financial crisis was caused by too much public spending – and that because they are cutting public spending faster than ever in our history, Britain has become a safe haven.

    A safe haven…?

    When unemployment is rising, when our economy is flat-lining – how on earth can our Prime Minister and Chancellor say that Britain is a safe-haven?

    It may be a safe haven for those who don’t need to work, for those with independent means, and those for whom £9,000 a year tuition fees is small change…

    It may be a safe haven for David Cameron and George Osborne and Boris Johnson and their friends…

    But for the 16,000 companies that have gone out of business in the last year, Tory Britain is not a safe haven:

    – for the young people losing their EMA this term;

    – for the women seeing their pensions cut;

    – for the families about to see their child benefit taken away;

    – for the million young people now out of work…

    …Tory Britain is no safe haven.

    And for the millions of families struggling with higher bills, worried about their jobs and what their children’s future holds…

    …Tory Britain is no safe haven at all.

    Conference…

    True to our values…

    Willing to make the tough decisions…

    For the sake of our economy, for al the British people…

    Labour must win the argument.

    We must show there is a reason to hope.

    We must show that there can be a better future.

    There is a better way.

  • Douglas Alexander – 2011 Speech to Labour Party Conference

    dalexander2

    Below is the text of the speech made by Douglas Alexander at the Labour Party conference on 26th September 2011.

     

    Thank you for that welcome.

    Conference.

    We gather here in Liverpool after a year of extraordinary change across the world.

    In the last year, the Arab Spring has seen the downfall of old autocrats and old assumptions.

    When Ed Miliband gave me this job in January, an uprising in Tunisia was in the news, but it wasn’t yet on the front pages.

    Within days, ordinary people across the Middle East – from Tunis in the West, to Damascus in the East – took to the streets.

    When their governments told them to go home they ignored them.

    When the batons came out, and then the machine guns, and then the tanks… they refused to retreat.

    No one in the West had seen anything like this for a generation.

    And so when I later met some of those young people in North Africa, I asked them “why has this wave of change occurred now, after decades of brittle stability?”

    And they told me “when you’re looking at satellite TV pictures, or when you see more and more people saying online that they are part of the protests…

    “… old friends, even friends in other countries…

    “… all refusing to back down… ‘it gives you hope’.”

    Ponder those words….”it gives you hope.”

    Because that hope has changed history.

    Conference, let’s be honest with each other.

    Too often in the past, the West has backed stability over democracy in the Middle East.

    So I’m so proud that this year, this Party, chose to stand with these young people, and against the old autocrats.

    That choice meant I could stand on the street in Tunis a few months ago and look them in the eye.

    And it means I can look you in the eye today and say: when there is violence in Syria, in Bahrain, and in Yeman we are on the right side of history.

    And so let us say today from this conference to President Assad, we cannot and will not accept your violence against your own people, we will use every diplomatic measure to stop it. You must go, and go now.

    But of course the Arab Spring has not changed everything in the Middle East.

    So in opposition, as in government, we will continue to stand with and support the cause of negotiated peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

    We must stand with the young people in Jericho who want to see an end to illegal settlement building, an end to blockades and, yes, the establishment of an independent viable Palestinian state recognised at the United Nations.

    And we must also stand with the young people in Tel Aviv who want to go to a nightclub or get on a bus without fear and want to raise their children in a secure Israel, recognised by its neighbours across the Arab World.

    Conference, since accepting this role I have been open in saying that I understand, that the loss of life, and the loss of trust that followed the Iraq war still casts a long shadow.

    But in March, when it came to Libya, we debated these issues with another shadow hanging over us: the promise from Colonel Gaddafi to destroy Benghazi – a city larger than Liverpool.

    It would have been open to us to say no, this is too hard, it’s not our call, we should leave well alone.

    But to allow that to happen would have been wrong: wrong for Libya, wrong for Britain, and wrong for Labour.

    With Ed Miliband leading us, we got that judgement right.

    So Conference, let us again show our appreciation and respect for the incredible bravery of our British Armed Forces. They risked their lives to save the lives of others.

    Their work is, we hope, coming to an end.

    So too is the work of Britain’s forces in Afghanistan.

    That conflict has been a far longer, far costlier, and far more painful conflict for Britain.

    It has been part of an international effort to make Afghanistan more stable and our world more safe.

    And after many years of sacrifice Britain’s task now is to manage that transition and ensure that as our forces step back, there are Afghan forces ready to step up.

    Conference, our forces have already served in Afghanistan for a decade.

    And just this month we remembered the horror of September 11th.

    We have witnessed a difficult decade for the world – that began with a terror attack, and that ended with an economic crisis.

    So my challenge as your Shadow Foreign Secretary is to set a new course: to develop a new foreign policy for a new decade.

    And it is to frame that new approach, when across Europe, parties of the left are losing more elections than we are winning.

    After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the centre left was defeating the right. Now the centre right is defeating the left.

    Out of power in Germany. Out of power in France. Out of power in Italy. Out of power in Sweden.

    And Labour’s new approach must be built on the understanding that Britain’s strength abroad begins with strength at home.

    So we need to set out how Britain can earn its living, and pay its way in the years ahead.

    The real question for the new generation isn’t about the reach of Brussels – it’s about the rise of Beijing.

    For with power and money moving East, no country has an alternative but to work in partnership with other countries.

    Conference, these new challenges are daunting but it is our enduring values that will be our guide.

    Our party cards remind us that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.

    That means urging decisive action in the eurozone when British exports, British jobs, and British prosperity are all at stake.

    That means working to find shared solutions to shared problems from global climate change to global trade.

    And that means having a foreign policy that is realistic about what we can achieve alone, but idealistic about what we can achieve together.

    Because Conference, I am optimistic about our country’s enduring strengths.

    Despite everything, despite the riots, despite the cuts and the deficit and despite the flatlining economy.

    Britain today is so much better than its Government.

    Britain has strengths that we should acknowledge, celebrate and deploy.

    The only country with a seat at the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, NATO and the Commonwealth.

    It was Desmond Tutu who said a promise made to the poor is a sacred thing. So I am proud that this is a country, thanks to the path set by Labour, that is on track to meet our aid promise to the world’s poorest people.

    A country that is home to the BBC World Service, and a National Health Service that remains a beacon to the world.

    Conference, just for a minute pause and consider the history of the great docks in which we stand.

    Think of the men and women who worked here and the ships that set sail from here on the Mersey or the Clyde, the Thames or the Tyne.

    And then try and tell me we’re a small, inward looking country that should step back from the world.

    As a country, we are so much better than that.

    In the years ahead it will fall, once again, to our Party to realise that promise.

    That is Labour’s responsibility.

    That is Labour’s obligation.

    And working together, under Ed Miliband’s leadership, that can be Labour’s achievement.