STURGEON'S SPEECH
TO SPRING CONFERENCE
Speaking at the SNP Spring
Conference in Dundee, SNP Deputy Leader Nicola Sturgeon MSP said:
"Fellow nationalists,
The great scientist Isaac
Newton, a man whose ideas and ambition revolutionised the world, once
said that if he had seen further and achieved more than others it was
only because he had been 'standing on the shoulders of giants'.
I think those words sum up
perfectly how many of us feel today, as we mourn the loss of our friend
- our very dear and valued friend – Margaret Ewing.
Maggie was - and in our
memory still is - a giant of our movement. The progress we make is
because we stand on her shoulders, and on the shoulders of so many like
her.
Even though she was taken
from us so young, Maggie's political career spanned four decades.
In the 1970's she was the
dynamic young heart of the SNP, blessed, as Donnie Stewart put it, with
brains and beauty.
In the 1980's she showed
determination in hard times. She won her way back to Westminster and to
the job she did best - representing, fighting for and working with
ordinary men and women.
In the 1990's she was our
Parliamentary leader, a tireless advocate of independence and a true
friend to all those who came to her for help.
And in this decade she
supported our new MSPs, offered sound advice and battled bravely against
ill health to honour her commitments to her many causes and her beloved
Moray.
We in this party owe
Margaret an enormous debt of gratitude. But we owe her more than that.
We owe it to her - and to
Danny Coffey and Tom McAlpine and to all the great nationalists we have
lost in recent months - we owe it to them to battle on to fulfil their
dream.
To complete their work
To secure what they
fought to secure.
To win Independence for
Scotland.
Fellow nationalists,
The opportunity to do just
that lies 390 days from today. On the 3rd of May 2007 the people of
Scotland will choose a new government.
For every one of those 390
days our job - your job and my job - is to persuade the Scottish people
that we are fit to be, ready to be, hungry to be that new government.
We should approach that
challenge with optimism and confidence. There is no doubt, no doubt
at all, that the SNP is on the up.
We won new seats at last
year's General Election and our new MPs, Stewart Hosie and Angus
MacNeill have been making their mark.
I would say, just ask Tony
Blair how effective they've been; but he is probably too busy being
questioned by the Metropolitan Police to be able to answer.
Our success has had that
big an impact!
But it has also bred
further success. We have increased our share of the vote in every
parliamentary by-election.
A poll today shows that we
are well ahead of the Liberals and the Tories and that we are breathing
down Labour's neck.
Since our conference last
September, we have elected four new councillors - more wins than any
other party in Scotland.
Wins that have elected
effective new councillors into Scotland's rotten Labour burghs - George
Kay in Fife, Owen Thomson in Midlothian, Billy McAllister in Glasgow and
- just last week - Scott Farmer in Stirling.
And, later this month,
Richard Lochhead will be elected as a worthy successor to Margaret
Ewing.
Delegates,
Contrast that progress with
Labour's inexorable decline.
Labour's vote has fallen at
every election since 1997. All over Scotland people are turning away
from Labour, sickened by broken promises, failed by missed targets and
alienated by endless dishonest spin.
People are scunnered with
Labour. There is a palpable sense of disgust across the country at the
actions of an arrogant political elite; a party that came to office
promising so much, but which is now a stranger to truth and an abuser of
democratic accountability.
Yet no one should be
surprised by a Prime Minister who sells seats in the House of Lords to
fund his election campaigns.
For it is the same Prime
Minister who lied to take our country into an illegal war.
But its not just Tony
Blair.
When did you last hear our
First Minister challenge the corruption of his party machine?
In fact, when did you last
hear from Jack McConnell at all?
In the last few days, since
bird flu was found in Fife, the public, the poultry industry, the whole
nation has needed reassurance.
Reassurance that there is
no cause for panic.
The public servants working
round the clock to help contain the outbreak deserve support.
Ross Finnie has done his
best.
But that reassurance and
support should have been coming from the First Minister.
And yet Jack McConnell has
said nothing at all.
Delegates,
Let me be clear. In my
judgment, for a First Minister that is just not good enough.
Delegates,
Arrogance, self interest
and contempt for public opinion are the hallmarks of New Labour.
But they are alive and well
in the Liberal Democrats as well.
Nothing illustrates that
better than the case of Shirley McKie.
Nine years ago something
went very wrong at the heart of Scotland's Justice System. As a
result, an innocent woman lost her career, her health and almost her
liberty.
A brutal murder went - and
remains - unsolved.
A young man spent years in
jail for a crime he did not commit.
Scotland's justice system
failed the people it is meant to serve.
And yet the First Minister
and two successive justice ministers – the hapless Jim Wallace and the
hopeless Cathy Jameson - have failed to explain what went wrong.
And they have done nothing
to ensure that it never happens again.
Jim Wallace even had the
brass neck this week to go on TV and demand a public inquiry into
rendition flights, while he and the Liberal Democrats continue to block
a public inquiry into the Shirley McKie case.
You'd think they had
something to hide.
If Jim Wallace is looking
for something to do when he retires from parliament next year, here's a
suggestion: Jim Wallace should run master classes in hypocrisy.
Delegates,
This case is about the very
foundation of our society - the integrity of our justice system.
So let me sound this
warning to those who conspire to conceal the truth.
Let me make this promise to
Scotland.
The SNP Government, elected
next May, will order a full, public judicial inquiry into the Shirley
McKie case.
The truth will be told.
Fellow delegates,
It took 18 years for the
Tories to be totally corrupted and ruined by political power.
But it seems that, here
too, Labour is more Tory than the Tories - it has taken them just half
that time.
Just nine years to make it
clear to all of us that Labour must go if integrity and honesty are to
be restored to public life.
More and more people think
it is time for Labour to go.
More and more people are
willing to vote Labour out.
But, delegates, votes lost
to Labour still have to be won, by us, for the SNP.
Scotland needs a new, a
more exciting and a more engaging vision of the future.
The SNP offers that vision.
A vision of ambition and
achievement.
A Scotland where anything
and everything is possible if we try hard enough.
Independence for our
country and for everyone who lives here.
We know that independence
is normal and right for countries all over the world; there is no good
reason why Scotland should be different.
But independence is about
much more than powers for parliaments and politicians.
Independence is a way of
seeing the world, and our own place in it.
It is a philosophy; a way
of life.
Think about it.
What we aspire to for our
country - the freedom to take our own decisions, to be in control of our
own future, to fulfil our own potential - is what every individual in
Scotland aspires to.
For themselves.
And for their families.
It is our job - the SNP's
job - to give everyone in Scotland the opportunity to succeed.
It is our job to help Scots
and Scotland achieve independence.
Delegates,
It was fantastic, wasn't
it, to watch our athletes excel at the Commonwealth Games; winning medal
after medal after medal; and making Scotland proud.
And it will be fantastic
for our own city of Glasgow to host the Games in 8 years time.
But why stop there? Why
limit our ambition?
Why not send our own
Scottish team to fly the Saltire at the Olympic Games?
To compete, to take part,
to win for Scotland.
Delegates,
Ambition, aspiration,
opportunity for all - these will be the watchwords of an SNP government.
Our job is to help everyone
in Scotland realise their dreams.
But we cannot do that
unless we are in government; for only in government can we start on
these vital tasks.
The task of encouraging
every citizen to excel.
The task of ensuring that
ability and hard work are what count.
The task of enabling every
child to flourish so that no child is held back by poverty or by the ill
health and poor education that are poverty's dismal companions.
There is nothing more
important than giving children the best start in life.
That is why we'll give them
more nursery education and continue to drive down primary class sizes.
That is why we will strive
for an education system that stretches every child to the limits of
their ability.
And as young people become
adults - that time in everyone's life when the desire to be independent,
to leave the nest and fly solo, is at its strongest - we'll be there to
support them, not there making life harder and holding them back.
That's what graduate debt
does - so we will write it off and restore grants.
We will abolish tuition
fees - front door, back door, any door.
Let there be no doubt: an
SNP government will make education free again.
And just as we will support
individuals, so we will support families.
The council tax is deeply
unfair. It punishes those who can least afford to pay it.
The SNP will abolish it.
We'll put in its place a
local income tax - a tax that is based on the ability to pay, like every
tax should be.
It is called fairness; a
principle that New Labour has betrayed.
Just like it has betrayed
so many others.
Delegates,
We'll ensure too that
everyone gets the health care they need; when they need it.
We won't duck the reforms
that the NHS is crying out for, to make it more responsive, more
efficient.
We'll treat patients with
respect, because they are people not statistics. An SNP government will
give every patient an individual - and binding - guarantee.
The guarantee of free
health care, when they need it.
And a guarantee, a
cast-iron guarantee, that an SNP government will not divert public money
to help the private sector undermine the National Health Service.
Delegates,
In every generation there
are challenges.
Some of those challenges
stand out and demand our attention.
For us, today, one in
particular must be answered.
We must ensure that our
children and our grandchildren inherit a planet worth having.
That is a task for every
single one of us as citizens, not just for government.
We all have big decisions
to take and that is why - in preparation for government - we have
established our own energy review.
But for the SNP, one
principle is already abundantly clear.
Jack McConnell hums and
haws about nuclear power.
He says no or maybe, only
because he hasn't yet found a safe political way of saying yes - as
Blair and Brown are telling him to do.
So in time he will say
yes. He always says yes to London Labour.
But nuclear power is
unsafe. Its waste is unstable. Nuclear energy pollutes not for a
generation but for hundreds of generations.
And there are better
alternatives. Wind, wave, tidal power, clean coal, carbon capture,
micro generation - the list is long and the possibilities are great.
That is why we are clear.
That is why we will be very firm.
With the SNP, there will be
no new nuclear power stations in Scotland.
Of course, Labour - and the
Tories if they were ever given the chance again - plan a nuclear double
whammy.
They are planning, not just
for nuclear power but for new Trident nuclear weapons as well.
We say "No".
"No" to nuclear power in
our backyard.
"No" to the madness of £20
billion wasted on weapons of mass destruction.
"No" to new nuclear weapons
on the Clyde.
Delegates,
All of our policies, all of
these progressive policies, are designed to build a Scotland we can be
proud of.
To give everyone in
Scotland the best chance to succeed, to make the most of their lives and
to fulfil their potential.
They are what Scotland
needs at this time.
For too long, Scotland's
oil wealth has been wasted and our potential has been squandered.
But it is not too late.
For the sake of our
generation and for generations to come, it is time now to take
responsibility; it is time now to invest our oil wealth in the future of
our nation.
Fellow nationalists,
I began today with a
reference to Isaac Newton.
As every school child
knows, the apple fell into his lap.
But the prize of victory
next year will not just fall into ours.
It will have to be worked
for, campaigned for, earned - in every constituency, the length and
breadth of Scotland.
For the next 390 days the
things I have been talking about today need to be talked about by all of
us.
Out in the streets, in
every city, town and village, in work places, in colleges and
universities - everywhere.
Because the choice that our
fellow citizens make on the 3rd of May 2007 will be a defining choice
for our country.
It is up to us to persuade
them that we have the vision, the ideas and the people to build a
Scotland to be proud of.
A Scotland that is
confident, sustainable and outward-looking.
A Scotland where no-one's
life chances are ruined by poverty and lack of opportunity.
A Scotland where talent and
hard work really are more important than background.
Fellow nationalists,
I know that this is a
Scotland worth striving for.
A better Scotland, for our
generation.
An independent Scotland, in
our time."
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