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SALMOND'S FOCUS ON FIRST 100 DAYS
Speaking in
his address to the SNP Spring Conference in Dundee, SNP Leader Alex
Salmond MP said:
"Fellow
delegates,
I've found
the solution to raising election funds.
As you know
we can't just flog a few peerages like the London parties.
However I
can report that I am being offered fancy money for my cowboy hat.
I used to
say that I wore tartan trews for devolution but would keep the kilt for
independence. One of the press pack challenged me yesterday on why I was
wearing the kilt before independence.
Hey! - I'm
confident.
I'd seen
the latest poll figures on support for independence!
I was in
New York promoting a new Robert Burns tartan - my nomination for the
Scot of the millennium.
And it is
Rabbie who best sums up my attitude to publicity.
The mair
they talk the better I'm kent.
Friends
We had some
fun in America. We also did some good.
However
this year for the national movement our campaigns have been marked by a
great sadness
In Margaret
Kelly, Cllr Tom McAlpine, Cllr Danny Coffey and most recently Margaret
Ewing MSP we have seen the passing of four outstanding advocates of the
national cause.
Margaret
Kelly was one of the great foot soldiers for the national party, Tom did
so much to make the party credible in the 1970s, Danny was on the very
cusp of winning his beloved Kilmarnock for the SNP and Margaret was
simply exceptional in everything that she did.
When I was
a young MP you may remember I got into a spot of bother in the middle of
a budget speech. Anyway as I was up protesting about the poll tax I was
aware of a tugging at my jacket.
The day
went pretty well and afterwards the entire parliamentary group (that was
the three of us Margaret, Andrew and me) were having a celebration
dinner and I said to Margaret: “ Why were you tugging at my jacket?”
She said "I
wasn't tugging it I was straightening it. What would Moira say if you
had been flung out of the Commons in a crumpled suit!"
Margaret
led our group of three with grace and distinction - punching way, way
above our numbers.
She was
held in the highest regard by everyone who encountered her and her
entire political life was a credit to our movement and our cause.
We will all
miss her very much indeed.
Apparently
the Tory party, the Tory party, are trying to claim her political legacy
in Moray - except that they don't bother to mention the fact that they
are Tories in their thoroughly disreputable literature.
Well let's
remind these Tories of the difference
Margaret
always fought for our fishing communities; she never sold them down the
river.
She fought
against the poll tax. She didn't impose it upon the Scottish people.
Margaret
fought for Scotland all her adult life - she never campaigned against
Scotland.
We - every
one of us - knew Margaret Ewing - she was our friend, our colleague, our
inspiration.
Mrs Scanlon
you're no Margaret Ewing.
Delegates
Every year
politics brings new challenges
Right now
it is dealing with public concerns over bird flu
Let me say
outright that I think the general approach being taken is correct. It is
proportionate to the danger.
We should
be concerned, and vigilant but not alarmed.
Of course
even in a drama there are moments of comedy.
Ross Finnie
is known as Captain Mainwaring. Being told don't panic, don't panic by
Captain Mainwaring is quite something.
Nicola
yesterday said that Jack McConnell had said nothing at all. That is not
quite true. He has been quoted as saying that him coming home would make
matters worse - well many a true word
Our job as
a responsible opposition is to put the interests of our people first.
That we
will do.
However
when something goes wrong we will say so.
It is not
acceptable to have both the First Minister and his deputy in different
time zones and neither in Scotland.
Nor is it
acceptable to have an 8 day delay in confirming the presence of this
dangerous virus.
However we
will support the government provided they are honest and straight with
the people.
The way to
maintain confidence is to embrace and not to fear the truth.
Oh and just
a message to Waitrose.
If you
don't want to stock any Scottish produce then just don't bother applying
for any stores in Scotland.
Delegates
I want to
tell you a story about a man called Maundy Gregory.
He was an
MI6 agent just after the first war and as a sideline he sold peerages
and titles for first Lloyd George and later for the Tory Stanley
Baldwin.
In 1920 his
two jobs came together when he started investigating the former
independent Labour Party MP for Colne Valley, Victor Grayson, for being
a soviet agent.
Grayson
replied by making a series of speeches claiming that a "monocled dandy
with offices in Whitehall" was selling peerages and said that "one day I
will name that man"
He didn't
get the chance. He disappeared without trace and many years later an
investigation established that the last place he was seen alive was
entering a London house owned by one Maundy Gregory.
With
Grayson out of the way Maundy continued on his merry way selling baubles
until in 1933 he finally came across that rarest of creatures in London
politics - an honest man.
Lt
Commander Billyard-Leake reported him to the met for trying to sell him
a knighthood for £10,000 and Maundy was prosecuted under the 1925
legislation Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act"
Maundy
threatened to reveal all - and I mean all - but was finally persuaded to
plead guilty. He was sentenced to three months and a £50 fine.
When he
left prison he was whisked off to the boat train crossed the channel and
lived out the rest of his days on a £2,000 pension – provided by
Conservative Party backers.
I tell you
this little bit of history for two reasons.
Firstly so
that young Angus MacNeil keeps his wits about him in London - Angus we
don't want you disappearing without trace down the Thames.
Secondly
and more seriously to emphasise this fact - the selling of honours is
not a joke or a giggle. Nor is it simply an act of dubious morality.
It is
criminality, pure and simple, and the fact that it is an open secret
that the London parties have been doing it for generations doesn't make
it any less of a crime.
Lloyd
George sold 36 peerages. He was a mere amateur compared to this lot.
Blair has
appointed 292 members of the House of Lords!
Before the
loans scandal - before the loans scandal - 80p out of every pound of
individual donations to the labour party came from people who were
subsequently honoured or knighted.
The impact
is not just to sully the reputation of politics. It is to financially
gerrymander the democratic process.
How they
must have laughed - Tories and labour -last year when they spent the
best part of £20 million on the election campaign - 100 times what we
were able to spend.
In fact
their money was soiled and tainted. They subsidise their Scottish
appendages with the same dirty money.
The London
Tories gave their Scottish puppets £1 million to spend and elected one
solitary MP.
We raised
£200,000, honestly, and elected six.
So next
year let us determine to make it a fair contest - in Govan speak a
square go
We have
nothing to sell, nothing to trade, no advantage to confer, just an idea
to proclaim, but it is a great idea, independence, freedom,
self-respect.
If we can
raise £1 million then we will not be outspent.
The cash
tap will be turned off for Labour and Tory in Scotland as their London
bosses struggle to pay off their secret loans with no more peerages to
sell.
This latest
Whitehall farce indicates how wise this party has been to give the House
of Lords a wide berth.
Not until
democracy has swept out Tony's cronies and shut down Labour's cashpoint
should we even countenance seats in a second chamber.
And always
remember we are in London not to settle down but to settle up for
Scotland.
We are a
year out from the election
We are
already neck and neck with Labour and believe me their support is not
going to go up any time soon.
We need to
win 20 new seats to win the election. In my estimation we are already
half way to that objective.
20 seats
sounds a lot. In fact it represents only a switch of 26,000 votes across
Scotland compared with the last elections.
Or to put
it another way if every member of this party influenced just 3 voters in
these seats then we would win with something to spare.
And make no
mistake. We are the challengers. Labour hold 40 first passed the post
seats in Scotland. We are second in 36 of these seats!
In contrast
the Liberals are in sixth place in as many Scottish seats as they are in
2nd place - not so much winning here as last here.
And they
are in fifth place in more seats than they hold - not so much winning
here as losing here.
Everything
the liberals touch turns to dust.
They hold
the transport portfolio but are making a total botch of the Aberdeen
peripheral road and the tolls on the Tay and the Forth.
We are
meeting in Dundee. Is there a single person in this city who thinks it
is fair to abolish the tolls on everywhere but the Tay and the Forth?
And Jim
Wallace the man who calls for a public enquiry into rendition flights
but opposes it in the Shirley McKie scandal.
Might that
be something to do with the fact that he was the Justice minister who
failed in his duty to justice?
The Liberal
Party - the party which puts the moan into sanctimony.
I came back
to the front line of Scottish politics to challenge to be first minister
of Scotland and to change Scotland for good.
I'm not
sure if Mr McConnell has had time to notice - amid all of his
international travels - but there is a beam hanging over the Scottish
parliament.
Labour have
plunged pensions into chaos and the roof is coming down.
The health
service is closing local hospitals and the roof is coming down.
The
Scottish economy is struggling and the roof is coming down.
Nicola
knocks Mr McConnell around the chamber every week at first minister's
questions.
Indeed
there is a theory that he unfastened the bracket himself just to get out
of the chamber.
Yesterday
Nicola displayed a hitherto unexpected talent when she surveyed the
Grand National field and looked for a horse that summed up the present
first minister.
She came up
with iznogoud.
I just
happened to be glancing - as one does - at the form descriptions of the
horses in the Independent newspaper
Iznogoud
was described in the following terms.
"In and out
performer who hasn't won for more than two years and this season's
efforts have been anything but encouraging. Probably best watched."
Well for
McConnell watchers the question is what exactly has been achieved in
seven long years of Labour-Liberal coalition in Scotland - and the
answer is precious little, at least on the things that really matter.
And the
question for the SNP is how do we demonstrate that our administration -
a Scottish government - would be different.
We have
just commissioned the largest survey of Scottish opinion for 5 years.
The results
are encouraging - our central policy of independence for our country is
popular and our route of achieving it - by a referendum of the Scottish
people - is almost universally accepted as right and proper.
We are the
preferred government of Scotland. But there are also lessons for us in
the findings.
People want
to know more about what we intend to achieve for Scotland
And so
today let me spell out just seven of the things which I intend to do in
the first 100 days of being First Minister.
We will
introduce legislation to abolish the council tax and replace it with a
fair local income tax. (And we will genuinely deliver on the
parliament's commitment to free personal care for the elderly).
We will
introduce our Patients' Rights Act - with patients given a legally
binding waiting time guarantee.
We will cut
the rates burden for small and medium sized business in Scotland - as a
signal of our determination to make the country competitive.
We will set
in train the process to replace the private finance initiative with a
Scottish futures trust to mobilize public investment in the future of
our country.
We will
establish a council of economic advisers to chart a process of recovery
for the Scottish economy out of the Labour - Liberal slump.
We will
publish the referendum bill signalling our intention to give the
opportunity for our people to vote on independence in the course of the
first term of office.
We will
establish St Andrew's day as a national holiday so that all of our
people can celebrate our national day just like normal nations.
Seven
targets for delivery in 2007.
People may
look at that early programme and question whether it can be achieved.
More likely
they will look at us and say - at last political leadership for
Scotland.
No more
playing second fiddle to the interests of elsewhere.
No more
orders handed down from London and quietly accepted.
No more
making do or making excuses.
It is about
leadership, ambition and ideas.
It means
putting Scotland first so together we can build a better life for today
and for the future.
Things must
get better and after nine years of labour they certainly can't get
worse.
We today
have published our detailed economic strategy for Scotland – let
Scotland Flourish - a strategy which is light years in advance of
anything produced by the London based parties in Scotland.
A national
strategy which will be matched at local level by every SNP candidate.
The first of these when our outstanding candidate Richard Lochhead
publishes Let Moray Flourish next week.
It points
the way to how we can jolt the economy out of slow managed decline into
fast track but sustainable growth.
No more
leaving Scotland for the best jobs and the best life chances. No more of
the second best or second rate for Scotland.
Friends
There is a
song by the Corries called "Scotland will flourish"
It goes
"Scotland will flourish when we reap our own harvest and ring our
own tills
Scotland will flourish by the sweat of our labour, the strength of
our heart and the force of our minds.
Scotland will flourish with an eye to the future and a heart to
forgive.
And let us be rid of these bigots and fools who will not let
Scotland live and let live."
We have a
clear target - 20 additional seats.
We have the
best programme - the only Scottish programme.
We know the
timescale - one year to the election.
Let us go
forth and get the job done."
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