09/03/2012 Party Political Broadcasts - Scottish Labour Party

I taught for over 20 years and loved every minute of it,

even the tough times.

When I qualified at first, I came and taught on Bute, and Rothesay Academy.

Teaching is... You're learning about the human condition.

You're learning about what happens to people,

but it's also a profession where, although the school is hierarchical, you work as part of a team,

so some of the funniest things that have ever happened to me in my life,

and some of the hardest things that have happened in my life, have happened when I was teaching.

What's happening right now is frightening.

One in three of all the jobs being lost in the United Kingdom

are being lost in Scotland.

And 400 women a day are now losing their jobs.

That is an absolute scandal.

I just think the Government needs to focus on creating

the economic opportunities - where the public purse has been spent,

using that to create jobs to support businesses to survive. The Scottish Government is not doing that.

Focusing on funding further education, making the hard choices

so that the colleges can thrive, that people can get a chance to get the skills they need to work

and that they can work with local businesses to create opportunities.

If we had more understanding by those making the decisions

of what the impact was on individuals and families,

maybe they would find those decisions a great deal harder to make.

There needs to be a focus and a determination to explain what we can do,

rather than what this Scottish Government does, tells us what they can't do,

because they want to prosecute a separate case,

which is their view of what Scotland should be constitutionally.

I would like them to focus on making a difference to families and communities right now.

What I learned as a teacher informs what I do now, very much informs what I do now.

Some of the things I would debate, particularly in the early days

when I was in the Parliament,

I could think of the person, I could think of the child. I can still do that.

Very often if I'm arguing, whether about a carer or...what's happening, there's a person in my head,

because one of the really important things to me

is still to continue to do my own surgeries, and try and...help people.

You know, that's the basic bread and butter of being an elected member.

Some people think the economy's a science, you see, they pretend everything's a science.

"This is inevitable, you HAVE to do this."

Actually there's always choices, and when you've got choices,

you then should understand what the impact is on families.

Everybody has the right to achieve their potential,

and I would love all the energy and capacity and abilities and talents

of people in Scotland to be focused on solving those great challenges.