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  • Caroline Flint – Speech to 2011 Labour Party Conference

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

    Conference, nearly 45 years ago, in this great city, the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral opened.

    Built from the donations of ordinary people, when they had so little to give.

    As the dedication reminds us, they did it by touting the streets and pubs and knocking on doors like their own.

    They did it with dolls and raffle tickets.

    They did it with pools and bingo.

    They did it with silver paper and tuppenny legacies.

    They did it with cigarette and Green Shield stamps.

    They did it with old newspapers and wedding rings.

    They did it.

    And the day it opened was their day.

    That is the history of our party.

    From the Christian socialism of the Welsh valleys.

    To the self-help tradition of the Rochdale pioneers and the co-operative movement.

    And visionary trade unionists like Doncaster railwaymen Thomas Steels and Jimmy Holmes, who moved the motion that persuaded the trade unions to create our great party.

    Ours is the story of ordinary people in ordinary communities achieving extraordinary things.

    They said that Labour could never win in Dartmouth.

    Ben Cooper was prepared to stand up for Labour values.

    And he won.

    In Barking and Dagenham, when people feared the rise of the British National Party, brave men and women like Josie Channer, stood up against ignorance and prejudice

    And won.

    In York, Liberal Democrats said that 29 was too young for someone to run the council.

    James Alexander proved that only Labour could bring the change that city wanted.

    And Labour won.

    Labour’s 800 – our new generation of councillors elected in May, prove day in day out that it is not age, it’s attitude that matters.

    Every day, in the face of huge, frontloaded cuts.

    Thousands of Labour councillors are:

    – Giving voice to their communities.

    – Defending the services people rely on.

    – And building the good society.

    The Tories like to talk the language of localism.

    But it’s a strange localism that imposes cuts that fall deeper and faster on local councils and communities, than on almost any central government department.

    It’s a strange localism that dismantles local services and puts blind faith in volunteers taking up the reins – because, as Ed Miliband has said, you can’t volunteer in your local Sure Start centre or library when it’s already been closed.

    It’s a strange localism that sees Eric Pickles take to the TV studios to smear local councillors with cynical, politically motivated attacks.

    It’s a supreme irony that a man of Eric Pickles’ stature is the Minister for Meals on Wheels.

    And barely a day goes by without another missive from Mr Pickles to local councils.

    Frankly, it would take more than a weekly bin collection to get rid of his rubbish.

    Labour councils are showing that we are the real party of localism.

    Not the party of big government, or an over-bearing Whitehall.

    But the party of quality local services, of modern housing, and stronger communities.

    Giving people a voice.

    Giving them hope – when all the Tories offer is chaos, confusion and fear.

    And I want to tell those councillors that we are doing our bit to ensure your voice is heard by the Government.

    I am proud of the support my Shadow Team give to you.

    So my thanks to:

    Barbara Keeley

    Alison Seabeck, to

    Jack Dromey

    Chris Williamson

    Angela Smith

    And Julie Elliott.

    And our Lords team:

    Jeremy Beecham

    Bill McKenzie and

    Roy Kennedy.

    And most of all, our thanks to friends, old and new, in local government.

    Who keep us on our toes.

    And show us the impact of this Government’s failed policies.

    And Dave, thanks to you. Your support has been invaluable in the last year.

    Conference, one Tory MP said that chaos in the planning system is a good thing.

    Well, they’ve certainly delivered on that.

    Their planning reforms have already caused confusion and alarm.

    But we are living in strange times when the Government reveals that the National Trust is part of a vast left-wing conspiracy

    I must be going to the wrong meetings.

    Of course, we all want an effective planning system that is able to meet our future needs for housing, transport and infrastructure, and which supports jobs and growth.

    And that is exactly what we did in government.

    Building businesses and homes, creating jobs, supporting growth.

    And we did so, while we created new National Parks. And protected over 1.6million hectares of green belt.

    Labour did so, while ensuring brownfield and town centre first policies.

    And we won’t let them undermine this now.

    It is a disgraceful sight.

    To see Tory and Liberal Democrat ministers proudly publicising their opposition to local housing schemes in their back yard.

    While standing in Parliament wringing their hands about the need for more homes.

    Pure hypocrisy.

    The truth is the economy isn’t stalling because of the planning system.

    It’s stalling because of the Tories.

    Cuts that go too far, too fast. And no plan for growth.

    Look at what they’re doing on housing.

    First time buyers waiting longer.

    Fewer houses built last year than any year since the 1920s.

    200,000 new homes cancelled in 18 months

    Waiting lists for council houses soaring.

    And only half a million mortgages provided last year.

    Half the number provided each year during Labour’s first ten years.

    Conference, the Tories have sucked the life out of our economy.

    And hit the building industry hard.

    And for every one of the housing developments cancelled there are skilled people put out of work and small suppliers put out of business.

    That’s why we must kickstart the building industry by repeating the bankers’ bonus tax to fund 25,000 new homes.

    And why a temporary cut in VAT to 5% on home improvements is vital.

    Because George:

    You might enjoy it hurting.

    But it certainly ain’t working.

    Conference, I am proud of what we achieved in our 13 years in power.

    Proud of the one and a half million homes modernised.

    Proud of the 250,000 affordable homes built in the teeth of a recession.

    And proud of the 1 million extra families able to buy a home for the first time.

    But I’m honest, too, that we did not do enough.

    So today I reaffirm our commitment:

    To a decent home for all.

    At a price within their means.

    In a place they want to live.

    To the many people who want to own their home.

    Who want to build an asset.

    Who want security.

    Who want a little more control over their own life.

    We will support that dream.

    But I also want those same benefits to be spread to those who live in social housing or the private rented sector as well.

    Conference, we have ambitions for social housing.

    To once again serve its original purpose.

    A positive choice for many.

    Homes for heroes.

    Homes for those in need.

    Homes for the hardworking.

    And I’m not going to take any lectures on aspiration from a prime minister who believes that, if you get a pay rise you should be kicked out of your council house.

    Under Labour, the private rented sector will be properly regulated, so every family that rents has security and choice.

    And we will not ignore that more than a million properties in the private rented sector would not meet the decent homes standard.

    It cannot be right that housing benefit continues to go into the pockets of landlords who have tenants in sub-standard properties.

    Under Labour.

    We will end it.

    To the family who own their home but worry that their children never will.

    To the older person wanting a smaller house.

    But close to the church or community they’ve known their whole life.

    To the son or daughter still living with relatives.

    Or sleeping on the sofa of a friend.

    For all those whose voice is never heard.

    I say, we are on your side.

    And we will fight to keep housing at the top of the agenda.

    But we will only do that if we give councils the powers they need to build the homes their communities want.

    In government, we were too slow to trust local councils and communities.

    We were too reluctant to relinquish the levers of the state.

    Too often, we looked like the party of Whitehall.

    Not the town hall.

    But Ed Miliband and I both know:

    The only way you create stronger, safer, fairer communities is by trusting people to make their own decisions.

    As our film showed, Labour Councils are pioneering new ways of delivering services.

    Reinvigorating civic life.

    And empowering local people.

    But localism can never mean cutting councils loose.

    Leaving communities to fend for themselves.

    Or pitting North against South.

    Where the Tories try to divide our country, we will seek unity.

    Around a funding system fair to everyone, and which reflects need, as well as encouraging growth.

    So that every council is able to deliver the services its community relies on.

    On May 5th, we took another step forward.

    From Gravesham to Gedling, Telford to Ipswich, Hull to Barrow in Furness.

    In our great cities.

    And in our market towns.

    In our villages.

    And in our seaside resorts.

    Labour is regaining the confidence of the British people.

    Town by town.

    Street by street.

    Door by door.

    At every opportunity:

    We must win more seats.

    And more councils.

    Until the Tories’ onslaught on local government is stopped in its tracks.

    Today, I say to the British people:

    Labour is once again finding its voice in all corners of our country.

    The party of community.

    The party of localism.

    And in 2015, the party of government.

  • Caroline Flint – 1997 Maiden Speech

    Below is the text of the maiden speech made by Caroline Flint in the House of Commons on 2nd June 1997.

    I thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to make my maiden speech during our consideration of this important Bill. To be able to stand here today as the new Member of Parliament for Don Valley and to speak on behalf of my constituents for the first time is a humbling experience—humbling because I am here by the grace and good will of the people of Don Valley and because my predecessor, Martin Redmond, who served the people of Don Valley for 14 hard years of opposition, was deprived of the opportunity to stand here as a new era of Labour Government begins.

    In the 10 weeks from my selection as candidate to polling day, I learnt much from the people of Don Valley about Martin. A private man, he remained living in the same village that was his home. He remained friends with the people he knew from before his election. He made time for individuals and he was regarded with warmth and affection. In his maiden speech in July 1983, Martin was able proudly to describe Don Valley’s main industry as coal mining. Now we can but say that coal mining is part of the heart and character of Don Valley, but that it is no longer the main employer. Martin saw the heavy price paid by the mining communities that are strung from east to west of the constituency as their industry closed without the necessary foresight and investment needed to build a new economic life to replace the old.

    Like many constituents who supported new Labour on 1 May, Martin Redmond understood the value of work. He believed in reward for hard work, in the respect and achievement derived from a lifetime of work and in the dignity that should be the rightful reward to be enjoyed in retirement. Martin understood the corrosive effects of persistent unemployment and the dangers of enforced idleness. He criticised the insecurity that seemed to be built into too many jobs.

    Martin Redmond witnessed a Britain divided between the haves and have-nots—those with work and those without, and those with opportunities and those without. Martin Redmond would have been proud of the start that this new Labour Government have made—the concerted plan to tackle youth unemployment and the plan to shorten NHS waiting lists. He would have been as proud as I am to welcome this Bill, which will make good the key pledge on class sizes for which Labour has received a clear mandate.

    Don Valley’s history is steeped in mining. Every previous Member of Parliament came from mining and I pay tribute to them all. Indeed, in 70 years, the constituency has had but five Members of Parliament. James Walton, a miner, was the first Member of Parliament to represent the constituency from 1918 to 1922. He was the only Labour candidate in the history of Don Valley to have the unofficial support of the Conservatives.

    I would love to boast that I am the youngest Member of Parliament in Don Valley’s history, but I am not. Tom Williams, later Baron Williams, was elected in 1922 at the age of 34. I would love to aspire to be the constituency’s longest-serving Member of Parliament, but Tom Williams served 37 years, until 1959, and I cannot imagine having such a substantial tenure. He served through great and turbulent times; his seventh general election victory was in 1945. As the right hon. Tom Williams, he then served as Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries until 1959. He made a distinguished contribution to the House and I would be proud to be mentioned on the same page in the history books.

    Tom Williams was succeeded by Dick Kelley, who served the people of Don Valley for 20 years. In his maiden speech, in November 1959, Dick Kelley was concerned for the economic survival of the village communities he represented. He pleaded: These villages must be kept alive.”—[Official Report, 9 November 1959; Vol. 613, c. 72.] In the weeks leading up to the 1997 election, that view was expressed to me many times.

    I am most grateful, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for having been allowed to make this speech so soon after my election to this House. I would love to have claimed that I was the quickest of the six Don Valley Members to have made a maiden speech, but that honour remains with Mick Welsh, who was Member of Parliament from 1979 to 1983 and who was later the Member for Doncaster, North. He addressed the House just 20 days after the general election. In his maiden speech, Michael Welsh celebrated the genuine community life of the mining villages of Don Valley. Those men embraced, celebrated and championed Don Valley’s culture and communities for the best part of a century. I celebrate it, too.

    Don Valley is a changing constituency. It is perhaps fitting that I am the first woman to represent it. I am not from a mining background. At the time of my selection, try as I might to discover that a distant grandparent had once spent a long weekend in Don Valley, I could not. I determined then that honesty was the only policy. My curriculum vitae announced, I won’t try to kid you that I’m from South Yorkshire. I’m not. Labour party members, and subsequently the electorate, welcomed me with warmth and friendliness to put down roots in the constituency, as they did for so many people before who moved from the four corners of the United Kingdom to make Don Valley their home. Indeed, I am very proud to have been made a life member of the Official’s club in Edlington, and to have been presented with a badge bearing the white rose of Yorkshire and welcomed as an honorary Yorkshirewoman.

    In his 1941 book about Don Valley entitled “Old King Coal”, Robert W. L. Ward wrote: Men from Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Durham, Northumberland, Wales and Ireland came in hundreds, bringing with them customs, dialects, superstitions and faiths foreign to the Don Valley. Gradually these foreigners from the midlands and the north have become digested by their South Yorkshire hosts. And such digestion has done something to enrich the local strain. The Don Valley that I know is a diverse community. It is dominated by the former mining villages of Conisbrough, Denaby, Edlington, Rossington, and Hatfield—a new addition to the constituency. It is a constituency of striking landmarks, scenic villages and many beauty spots. It includes villages stretching to the borders of Nottinghamshire, such as Bawtry. The constituency has seen a rapid expansion of villages such as Auckley, Finningley and Sprotbrough, with new families and their young children moving to the area every week.

    Don Valley is the historic heart of South Yorkshire, boasting two castles—Tickhill and Conisbrough, which is the setting for the classic story “Ivanhoe”, penned by Sir Walter Scott in a room in the Boat inn at Sprotbrough falls. If The Mirror is to be believed, “Ivanhoe” is the favourite book of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister.

    In the book, Sir Walter Scott describes Conisbrough castle. He wrote: There are few more beautiful or more striking scenes in England than are presented by the vicinity of this ancient Saxon fortress. The soft and gentle River Don sweeps through an amphitheatre in which cultivation is richly blended with woodland, and on a mount ascending from the river, well defended by walls and ditches, rises this ancient edifice. Conisbrough castle is part of Don Valley’s past, but it is also part of its future. Along with the Earth centre on the site of the old Denaby main colliery, Conisbrough castle affords opportunities to attract visitors from afar and become part of Don Valley’s economic regeneration.

    I know that the people of Don Valley will welcome the Bill, which will pave the way to reducing class sizes. That pledge, coupled with the ambitious goal of raising education standards and opportunities for children and young people, will be received with great enthusiasm by the electors of Don Valley. Families with young people in Don Valley know that, unlike for previous generations, the mines will not provide the gateway to employment for the many. They know that education is the foundation. The achievement of their children will determine their life chances thereafter. The Bill demonstrates that the Government intend to place education at the centre of their programme—the No. 1 priority. Education is the building block for the future, and children must be at the heart of it.

    During the election campaign, one French teacher asked me how she could teach French to children in year 7 of secondary school if, when they arrived, some had not yet mastered the basics of written and spoken English. That is a problem that the Conservatives refused to tackle. Standards are the cornerstone of our education policy. Schools are a vital part of any community and have a precious role to play in the life of the small villages that dominate my constituency.

    However, schools are not islands, and must be encouraged to share their expertise, spread their best practice and learn from each other. Where a school is failing, we must look to turn it around in six months, not six years. That should be the Government’s ambition. Not to do so is to condemn generations of children.

    Gone are the days when the height of Government ambition was to have one good school in every town. That proposal was rejected at the election. We must ensure that every school is a good school; that every school comes up to scratch—nothing less is acceptable. Gone will be the complacency that allowed class sizes to rise steadily throughout the years of the Major Government. By 1996, more than 1.25 million children were in classes of 31 or more. Indeed, in my constituency, more than 2,000 children are in classes of more than 30 pupils.

    I welcome the Government’s intention to review the presentation of league tables, because, vital as they are, the many qualities that a school offers—leadership, morale and parental involvement—are all essential ingredients that add value to a child’s education. Those qualities must be reflected in information made available to parents. The Bill makes a start. Those who choose to buy private education for their child are buying one thing above all else: smaller class sizes. Yet for the majority in Britain, the past five years have seen an unrelenting rise in class sizes. That rise must be brought to an end, and the Bill helps to release resources to begin that task.

    The Bill will be welcomed by the electorate of Don Valley as a sign of a new Labour Government who govern for the many not for the few; a sign that Britain has turned a page in history and entered a new era. The Government deserve praise for the flying start that they have made, showing in weeks that a change of Government can lead to a change of mood and priorities. I hope that, for the duration of the Government’s term of office, I serve my constituency well in this new era in British life—a period of new hope and great opportunities. As the Member of Parliament for Don Valley, and, perhaps more important, as the mother of three children in state education, I commend the Bill to the House.