Tag: Margaret Curran

Below is the text of the speech made by Margaret Curran, the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, to the 2013 Labour Party conference in Brighton.

Conference,

On 18th September next year, people in Scotland will decide their future.

And they will decide the future of Britain too.

This is a decision that matters to every Scot, but it also matters to every person here today.

And to each one of you, who have campaigned, leafleted, made the case and taken the argument to the SNP.

I say thank you.

This is your campaign, and I pay tribute to each and every one of you today.

Because what we are fighting for;

– a future of working together and not apart,

– a future of shared hopes,

Is based on the same values that brought together in 1900 the men and women who created the British Labour Party.

A gathering of people from Glasgow, from Cardiff and Liverpool, from the north of England to the valleys of Wales.

They watched Kier Hardie – a proud Scot – make the case for the creation of our party.

Hardie believed passionately in a Scottish Parliament but he knew then, as we know now, that to advance the cause of working people, to overcome those who would divide and rule, we had to work together across Britain.

Not split along national or regional borders and compete against each other, but work shoulder to shoulder for our cause.

And, friends, time after time, the Labour Party – influenced, shaped and led by Scots – guided by those values of solidarity, fairness and equality have built lasting monuments to what we can achieve together.

Social housing and equal pay,

The welfare state,

The National Health Service.

These are the pillars that support our society and join the Labour Party of Hardie, Wheatley and Jennie Lee with the Labour Party of Brown, Dewar and John Smith.

Labour giants who we pay tribute to today.

Conference, I don’t look to our past because I think the best times are behind us.

I do it because it reminds me of what we have achieved together.

And it tells me how much we can still do in the future, if we stay together, and work together as a united Labour Party and a united people.

Because we aren’t like Salmond’s Nationalists who think that a problem pushed over the border is a problem solved.

Nor like David Cameron’s Tories who want to set us all against each other in a race to the bottom.

But, Conference, if the SNP have their way their plan will mean the breakup of the Labour Party.

And I want to send a clear message from this conference.

That after 113 years, Alex Salmond is not going to bring our movement to an end.

Because, Conference, we are the party of Scotland.

Whose values are the values of the Scottish people.

The party that shaped a generation and made good on the promise of a Parliament.

That didn’t sit through 18 years of Tory rule nursing a grievance, but became the true voice of our nation.

Conference,

Don’t let Alex Salmond fool you or the SNP delude you.

They are nationalists and their entire mission is independence.

To them, the only division that matters is the one they think exists between Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Every action they have taken since the start of this campaign has been with separation in mind.

Not the people of Scotland.

So Alex Salmond will attack the Tories one day.

And then he’ll turn on Labour the next.

He tells people that he wants to continue all the best policies we started.

But we could never call on his support when we were in power.

He’ll promote every other union, like the EU and NATO.

But won’t support the union on our own doorstep even when jobs and opportunities are threatened.

Conference, don’t be fooled.

The SNP have many masks, but behind them all there is nationalism.

Conference, you’ve probably heard that Johann Lamont has been taking on the SNP with energy and focus.

She’s taking Alex Salmond down a peg or two every week in the Scottish Parliament.

Now, Conference, I’ve known Johann for a long time.

And I really should have warned Alex Salmond that her specialty has always been sorting out arrogant men whose self-regard knows no bounds.

Under Johann’s focus arguments for separation are beginning to wither.

The realities are being exposed.

We now know the SNP say one thing in public, and another in private.

And they’ll go to any length to keep the truth away from the Scottish people.

Remember, this is a government, when challenged about their legal advice on Scotland’s EU membership, went to court, using taxpayers money, to cover up advice they were forced to reveal didn’t even exist.

This is a government that tells us in public that when we’re independent our state pensions will be guaranteed, but in a leaked paper admit they don’t know how they will be funded.

This is a government that can’t answer the shop stewards at Rosyth and Govan when they say independence will cost thousands of jobs in Scottish shipbuilding.

And, Conference, unbelievably, the Nationalists can’t even make up their mind about what currency an independent Scotland should use.

Alex Salmond says the Pound, but the head of the Yes Campaign wants something different.

Conference, we all know Alex Salmond likes a day at the races, but don’t let him gamble with the future of Scotland.

We all want to change Scotland.

We want to see a better future for our country.

But Alex Salmond is putting his party’s interests above those of the Scottish people.

It’s now time to make our Governments understand what is really happening in our homes, our businesses, and our communities.

Families struggling, looking in disbelief, as they see that bankers’ bonuses are back but their wages are going down.

Young people who can only see a life of short term contracts ahead of them.

Businesses with shattered confidence and empty order books.

Parents across the country who fear that they won’t be able to give their children what only a few years ago they took for granted.

These are the realities that both the UK and Scottish Governments can’t address.

That’s why people are looking to Labour to set out a new way.

And this week in Brighton, people across Scotland will see our alternative.

An alternative that demonstrates we have the plan to deal with the cost of living crisis facing hard working families.

And a plan that shows it’s only One Nation Labour that can rid Scotland, and Britain, of the Tories.

Conference, this week people in Scotland will see there is a clear choice.

A clear choice between Labour and the Tories.

And between Labour and the SNP.

You have to ask yourself – who do you trust with your future?

Ed Miliband – a Prime Minister who will repeal the bedroom tax?

Or a Scottish National Party who want to slash tax for big corporations?

Johann Lamont who fights for carers and college students?

Or Alex Salmond who fights for constitutional change?

Do you trust a Labour Party whose story is the story of Scotland’s communities?

Or a Scottish National Party who, after eighty years, can’t even get their story straight?

Conference, this is the choice we face.

And at this key moment in Labour’s story and Scotland’s history.

With Johann Lamont in Scotland.

And Ed Miliband across the UK.

We will reject the division of nationalism.

And fight together united for a better future for all of Scotland’s people.

Below is the text of the speech made by Margaret Curran, the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, to the Labour Party conference on 2nd October 2012.

Conference, I want to tell you about Scotland.

I want to tell you about a country of just 5 million that has the passion and pride of a place with millions more.

A country that contains in its history the beginnings of the enlightenment and the engine room of an empire.

And where people today are forging a future that relies as much on the digital economy as it does on heavy industry.

Conference this is my country – and because of the Union it is your country too.

But, Conference, too many want to leave the story there.

They’re happy to celebrate these glories, but they’re not prepared to see the realities that, today, too many people across Scotland face.

Because how could a nation that gave the world the steam engine, the telephone and penicillin be expected to watch as the ingenuity of young Scots goes unrealised with one in four heading from the school gate to the dole queue?

How can a country whose education system was the envy of the world be expected to stay silent when 10,000 of our sons and daughters languish on college waiting lists?

And how can a people whose sense of solidarity was so deep that closing a yard meant much more than the loss of a workplace be expected to watch again as their communities are ravaged by recession?

Let me tell you Conference – we can’t stand for it and we won’t.

Scots are trapped between two Governments that have their priorities all wrong.

And by the day, the similarities between them are growing.

What’s the solution to every economic problem?

A cut in the taxes paid by their people and an assault on the services used by our people.

So when George Osborne suggests lowering corporation tax to 22 per cent, Alex Salmond goes further and says bring it down to 20.

While Osborne makes nurses and care workers and classroom assistants pay for a crisis not of their making, Salmond joins in and cuts 30,000 jobs from Scotland’s public sector.

And when the coalition cuts and Scots are at the sharp end, where is the Secretary of State for Scotland?

Conference, Michael Moore is nowhere to be seen.

Take it from me, it’s a difficult job to Shadow the Scottish Secretary when he’s barely casting a shadow on Government himself.

But I’ll tell you the one place you can find him. Day after day, night after night, he’s there in the voting lobbies with the Tories.

Regardless of the consequences.

A double dip recession.

Tax credits cut.

Long term unemployment at a 16 year high.

Parents relying on food banks to feed their families.

Taking from pensioners to provide to millionaires.

All his Government’s choices.

All his shared responsibility.

Conference, Scotland could and should be better than this.

We have a life sciences industry that employs over 32,000 people.

Creative industries that contribute £3 billion to our prosperity.

And close to a fifth of our nation’s economy relies on our energy sector.

Our people have so much to give, but still too many just don’t get that opportunity to get on, to do well and to flourish.

And as the world changes around us,

As the weight of the global economy moves to the world’s South and East,

As technology opens up new fronts in our search for prosperity and opportunity,

Scots realise that we can’t look to the solutions of the past to make us strong in the future.

Our response has to be rooted in the reality of the world around us, a world that is more interconnected and interdependent than ever before.

We cannot afford to listen to those who say that the answer to Scotland’s problems is to build a wall around ourselves.

So, the strength to overcome the challenges of our time comes from binding together, not breaking apart.

And that is as true of the challenges we face as a nation as it is of those we face in our families, our towns or our cities.

And, Conference, this is what separates us from the Tories and the SNP.

That whether we’re talking about improving our schools, raising our living standards, or deciding how we govern ourselves we are led by one simple truth: “That by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.”

This isn’t just a slogan written on our membership cards but a truth written on our hearts.

We believe it, we live by it and if we are honoured with the confidence of the Scottish people at the next election we intend to govern by it.

Conference, with Ed Miliband as our Leader, we have a vision for a new economy, a new politics and a new society.

And in Johann Lamont, as we saw last week, we have a Scottish Leader who is unafraid to tell the hard truths or face the big issues.

And thanks to that great top team, we’re off our knees and winning again, across Scotland.

Winning people’s confidence.

Winning the trust of business, our vibrant third sector and our community groups.

Winning the elections which give us the chance to put our principles into action.

We’ve got a long way to go yet, but conference, if you want to know why all the campaigning and hard work and long nights and tough fights are worth it – just remember how you felt when you heard the magic words:

GLASGOW.

LABOUR HOLD.

We know that when we fight, we win. And we are in the fight of our lives. Because in 2014, Scotland faces a decision about whether to break up Britain.

A decision with consequences not only for every Scot but every person across these islands.

And in the years that follow we will have to fight again, when we face UK and Scottish General Elections.

On the one side two parties that play the politics of division.

And on the other a Labour Party that sees the strength in all of us to work together and succeed.

A Labour Party that isn’t satisfied with what Scotland is today, but obsessed with what Scots could be tomorrow.

A Labour Party with the ideas, imagination and strength to rebuild Scotland and rebuild Britain.

And a Party which believes the Scots’ ideals of solidarity and social justice speak to concerns which are so great, so urgent, so universal, that we should never allow them to stop at our border, but send them onwards and outwards, to inspire not just the rest of Britain, but the rest of the world.