12/03/2016 Scottish National Party Conference

Hello and a very warm welcome to our live coverage of the SNP spring

conference. The partypos-macro leader, Nicola Sturgeon, will make a

speech at 3pm and we'll bring you that life. Delegates have gathered

at the SEC see on the banks of the Clyde in Glasgow. They're expecting

to hear Nicola Sturgeon promised the basic rate of income tax will not be

increased in Scotland if returned as First Minister following me 's

election. I'll be joined for the duration of the programme by

Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University and our

political editor, Brian Taylor, is that the conference venue, live at

the SECC in Glasgow. What's the mood like? Zouma be fairly upbeat, given

the polls. -- presumably fairly upbeat.

Apologies. I know you can hear me, Brian, but we can't hear you at. We

will come at a US soon as we can. John Curtice, it will be upbeat,

won't it quest? Yes, this is a party that achieved getting must of the

vote in the UK election last May and the opinion polls for me's coming

election suggest that serve me on the constituency part, where people

are voting for individual MSPs, all the polls but the SNP somewhere

between virgin and the Zend and 60%. Still all of the polls suggesting

the SNP run the high 40s. This looks like a party which, five years ago,

shocked everybody by getting an overall majority in the Scottish

Parliament, despite the use of representation system. I think it

raises an interesting question about how the SNP will handle both this

conference and the coming weeks. For a party that is far ahead and a

party that the opinion polls are saying, for the most part we think

you done a pretty good job in government, the temptation must be

to focus as much as possible on what we've achieved and to say as little

as possible about what it might want to do in future and perhaps

particularly not to come up with anything that perhaps might cause

controversy or rock the boat. And maybe, maybe, we are seeing a little

bit of that latter character in the fat that we're expecting Nicola

Sturgeon to say, it's OK, the basic rate of income tax in Scotland may

now be decided in the Scottish Parliament rather than in

Westminster but under our hands at least it will not be higher than in

England. Let's talk about what they do in a moment but first on the

basics of apology this, the SNP at their conference, seemed keen for

people to vote for the SNP both on the constituency vote and on the

list vote. Why is that so crucial for them? The truth is this is a

source of controversy about whether that is gone to be crucial to them

or not. The truth is if you take this morning's opinion poll in the

Times, with the SNP on about 49% for the constituencies and about 43% for

the list, if you go and do the arithmetic you discover that

certainly if the movements that those figures represent is compared

with five years ago, about a 4-point increase in the SNP vote in the

constituencies and about the same on the list, actually the SNP would

probably, given the Labour Party are dying on about a fifth of the vote,

when 36 seats at Holyrood from the constituencies alone and then won't

need any list seats to get an overall majority. It also follows

that if that were to happen there are probably only a couple of

regions in Scotland, the South of Scotland and the Highlands and

Islands, where the SNP would not be doing well enough in the

constituencies that they would end up saying, they are not going to get

any more seats allocated through proportional representation by the

system, they've got so many constituency seats already. Of

course, that presumes, if the opinion polls are right, and it

presumes also the decline in labour's vote is pretty much uniform

and that some of their sitting MSPs don't manage to buck the tide and

had on to their seats. If any of that begins to happen, the SNP may

not have 66 constituency seats, they may only have 61 or 62, and then

they may need the list vote in order to get them past the overall point.

The truth is, mobility will party is going to want to take the risk, no

political party is going to want to say to people, "Don't vote for

someone of the votes," but I think the fact that the SNP are making the

hashtag on social media for this conference "SNP both votes" is an

indication that they are worried some people will say, "Maybe I could

vote for the Greens on the list vote because that might help them to get

an MSP, where is perhaps in my region it's not going to help the

SNP". The conference got under way with the welcome address on the

Deputy First Minister, John Swinney. We gather here, friends, in great

spirits. This is the biggest pre-election conference the SNP has

ever held. 3000 attendees, 49 stands across two halls. That's ?1.8

million pumped into the economy of the great city of Glasgow. Our

spring conference is not just larger than the annual conferences of our

opponents, it is now probably larger than all of the annual conferences

of all of our opponents put together.

APPLAUSE Me's election will be the first time

at which Nicola Sturgeon is standing for First Minister. When Nicola took

over, all of us were still hurting from the disappointment of the

referendum result. She picked us all up and gave us the leadership when

we needed it. Over the last 16 months, I've been immensely proud to

work alongside her everyday in government, her relentless drive it

never ceasing to amaze me. She always stands up for Scotland's

interests, she is not accountable to party bosses in London, accountable

only to the people of Scotland. She never accept second best. She's won

new friends for Scotland across the UK and beyond. Delegates, Nicola

Sturgeon has done Scotland proud and in me's election, she is by far and

away the best candidate to be First Minister of Scotland.

A couple of weeks ago, the Prime Minister came to Scotland and talked

about how much he feared an SNP victory in May. It seems the Tories

don't like having a Scottish Government that stands up to them. I

think that's another good reason for us to get out there and to vote and

campaign for an SNP victory but more importantly, this just shows us what

a formidable First Minister Scotland has in Nicola Sturgeon. Can anyone

seriously imagine the other party leaders in Scotland so effectively

standing up for Scotland? We know who fights for Scotland, we know who

is stronger for Scotland and so does David Cameron. So this weekend we

will show the people of Scotland that we have a record in office to

be proud of, but in Nicola Sturgeon we have an outstanding candidate for

First Minister and that our party is ready to govern for another term.

That's our message and our mission. It's quite straightforward. Stronger

for Scotland, both votes SNP. Thank you very much.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE STUDIO: That was the warm welcome

but soon afterwards there were some signs that not all delegates were

fully on message. It happened in the report of the

standing orders and agenda committee, referred to as Soac. My

apologies, we don't seem to have that. Hopefully we might see that in

a moment. John Curtice, you heard what John Swinney had to say. This

popularity which you described a moment ago of the SNP, how much of

that is independence, legacy from that, and how much of it is actually

Nicola Sturgeon? There is no doubt the Nicola Sturgeon is part of this.

She is undoubtedly one of the most charismatic politicians not only in

Scotland but across the whole of the UK. I think the truth is she not

only filled Alex Salmond's boots but I think in truth she now needs a

bigger size footwear then Alexander had. She clearly does dominate her

party, she done its the country and is perhaps not quite as

controversial character as Alex was. Or polarising? Indeed. If you look

at the opinion polls, Nicola Sturgeon, you get 60 odd % of people

saying they are satisfied with the performance as First Minister,

relatively few people dissatisfied. And none of her opponents, not least

Kezia Dugdale, can come anywhere near that. In this morning's poll,

more people think that Kezia Dugdale is doing badly than doing well. So

there are voters out there who are just looking to see who they think

of Scotland best but there is no doubt that Nicola Sturgeon is an

asset for her party. That said, one needs to understand that since

September 2014, electoral politics in Scotland, which way people vote

in elections, is now focused very strongly on the issue of Scotland's

constitutional future. What seems to have happened is that where is in

the past people might have said to the pollsters, "Oh, yeah, I quite

like the idea of Scotland being independent," but were going on to

say, "But I think I will vote Labour," once they vote for a

constitutional change, which the SNP were championing and more or less

exclusively championing, pretty much all of that referendum vote has gone

to the SNP, and if you take this morning's poll, which is not a

typical, 85% of those who say they voted yes in September 2014 are now

behind the SNP, and there were some no voters, but only around 15 or 20%

of them, who are also backing the particle stop you can see how

independence is the central dividing line in Scottish electoral politics

and the SNP's great advantage is that essentially they are the only

party representing the independence cause. They pretty much have the

whole of the "yes" vote behind them, whereas Labour and the Conservatives

are fighting it out amongst themselves for the Unionist vote.

Inevitably, therefore, neither of them is anything like capable of

challenging the SNP in the opinion polls. How would you expect apple I

was going to say normally but this is not a normal situation, that to

last? Presumably there are some right of centre SNP voters who don't

like some of the would-be leftist rhetoric of the SNP. There are

presumably some left of centre voters who, for example, might quite

like Labour Bob's idea of putting taxes up to favour education. But

you are saying they still vote SNP? The first point to make about that

is that perhaps some of the caution that we are anticipating Nicola

Sturgeon is going to repeat this afternoon when it comes to taxation

is a caution that is based on a realisation that inevitably a party

that is getting around half of the votes of any country is inevitably a

big coalition and that she therefore wants to try to ensure that her tent

remains as wide as possible. That's one of the reasons why we might

expect to see caution. One of the interesting things about the opinion

polls is that when people are asked their views about whether or not the

rate of income tax should be increased, we discover that so long

as it is for improving public services, we find around three

fifths of people in Scotland saying they are in favour and that includes

three fifths of SNP supporters and therefore it certainly looks to be

the case that Labour's position of increasing the basic rate of income

tax is actually quite popular with SNP voters but evidently that just

isn't enough to persuade them that therefore they should be voting for

the Labour Party. For them at least, the question of independence,

together with Nicola Sturgeon looking better than Kezia Dugdale

and, we think the SNP have quite a good record in government, all those

other things are stacked so clearly in the SNP's favour that so far at

least, the Labour Party has been trying to come up with lots of

policy ideas. We've had the question of income tax, we've had the idea of

giving money to first-time buyers who have saved up a 3000 quid to top

up their savings, yet despite the fact that everybody seems to have

been -- the Labour Party seems to have been richer in policy ideas, it

doesn't seem to have moved the punters. Before the conference got

under way, Brian Taylor interviewed Nicola Sturgeon for our conference

webcam. We do plan to fundamentally change

how local services are paid for, so as well as the short-term changes to

the council tax that I outlined last week, which I'll come onto if you

want, we've set out plans to sign, as the Scottish Parliament takes

responsibility for income tax, a share of those income tax revenues

to local governor done that as a number of things. Firstly, it makes

local government as interested and motivated by the Scottish economy as

the Scottish Government will be because the more successful we are,

the more revenues we will have to invest, but that will also make the

funding of local services overall progressive and crucially, it will

tie the funding of local services much more closely to income. So

that's the longer term, more fundamental change we propose. In

the shorter term, we propose changes to the council tax to make it fairer

and more progressive, so those in higher bands will pay more, and

those at the very bottom of the income spectrum with children will

pay less, therefore households across the country would pay no more

than they do right now and overall, our reforms will raise an additional

?100 million a year, which I'm proposing we would invest in

education. A range of concerns here. I'll

summarise this question, summarising the ones you mentioned, talking

about pensioners and at least still talking about income, because people

have saved and Ewan asks, this penalises those who 're prudent and

have saved over their working life. We have recognised there are some

people living in higher band houses on moderate incomes sowe have

proposed an exemption for people under net medium income, under

?25,000. So you don't think it's many, you are saying those... We

have recognised there'll be exceptions. That's why we have

proposed the exemption. I'm conscious that no proposes to

changes in taxation will satisfy people. Nobody likes paying tax?

Yes. I recognise that it's easy in opposition to use tax as some kind

of symbol of political Royalty, but it shouldn't be that, because every

decision a politician makes has to be paid for by people who work hard

to get their income. It's right proposals are fair and balanced and

what we have announce on the local taxation meets the fundamental

tests. Do you accept they are a substantial climb-down from saying

we are going to scrap the council tax. You said it was heated now at

the very least it's tolerated, if not loved? I took office and the

council tax had in the few years prior to that gone up by 60%. That

was when Labour were last in Government. Now, what has changed

between then and now, of course, is that we have had eight years soon to

be nine years, of a council tax freeze. That's saved the average

band D household ?1500. We have put council tax under control and one of

the other things I'm proposing, we'll not allow a return to the days

when council tax increases were out of control. We'll allow it to be

increased by no more than 3% a year. Ruth Gordon gives the flip side

asking why you have prevented freezes, she reckons it's resulted

in thousands of jobs being lost and services reduced? That's not right.

We have given councils an amount of money every year of the council tax

freeze that is equivalent to a 3% increase. In fact, there's been a

report published by the Scottish Parliament research centre that

shows that we have given councils more money than the cost of freezing

the council tax so it's been fully funded. When we move away from the

council tax freeze to a situation where councils in recognition of the

pressures they face will be able to raise the council tax by a maximum

of 3% a year. We'll also allow them to keep that ?70 million they have

had to freeze the council tax so that will significantly help

councils deal with the pressures they are facing. I'll stick with tax

and finance because it will be a huge issue at the election and it is

generally in politics. The Report this week suggesting a ?15 billion

deficit for Scotland in the year 2014-15, likely to be worse now

because oil revenues if, if anything, decreased. Ian asks, how

do you plan to reduce the gap? Can I take on the Report squarely. Our oil

industry right now is facing really tough times. The oil industry

globally is facing tough times. I don't dispute that. The point I

guess, two points, firstly, no country judges its economy

orificical position on the strength of one year's figures or even for

that matter two or three years' figures. You look at the position of

the country over the medium to long-term and over the last ten

years, the fiscal position of Scotland's been broadly similar to

the rest of the UK's and in some of thosiers it's been stronger than

UK's. That's including oil and it's shrinking and it's not likely to

rise? Which sets up the next point I was going to make which is our

onshore revenues over the past five years and it will be the case over

the next five, is outstripping the oil revenues. We have a

fundamentally strong economy, employment is higher than the UK,

faster productivity growth, so the fundamentals of the Scottish economy

are strong. The second point I would make gets more into the politics of

this, and all countries, all economies face difficulties, face

shocks for a variety of different reason. I suppose the question is

how well prepared countries are for those. If you look at Norway which

is similar in many ways in oil sense to Scotland, last week it drew down

for the first time on the capital of its massive oil fund. The fact that

Scotland doesn't have an oil fund to draw on at this time of difficulty

for the oil sector is not an indictment of the case for

independence, it's an indictment of Westminster management. I hear all

that, but we are where we are and Ronnie asks, that's the situation we

are in, where does the Government find ?15 billion worth if not in

massive spending cuts or tax cuts, you have to deal with the situation

as it is. Oil price has depressed and it's not showing any sign of

going up, there is no oil fund, how sad would you say, what a betrayal,

but we are dealing with the situation of ?15 billion deficit,

twice that of the UK. We deal with our budgets every single year by

making the tough decisions that allow us to balance the budget.

People say it to me, you haven't had any choice but to balance the

budget. Are you suggesting John Swinney would go to the slammer?

It's him, not me. You exempted yourself. We have to exercise the

fiscal discipline and that will stand us in good stead so we take

the decisions. That's the devolved budget. The full fiscal economy

budget, ?15 billion in deficit. Sure, I'm dealing with this. It's a

matter of regret that the vote went that way. I'm dealing with a

devolved budget right now and I'm setting out what we do to deal with

that. This gets to the heart of your question, we need to grow our

economy, take the strength of our on shore economy and grow that even

faster. My argument is, the more powers we have in our own hands, the

more successful we can be at doing just that because we have got great

strengths in our onshore economy. We met the other day as we were

publishing the figures in the biggest tech accelerator hub in the

whole of the UK, strengths in digital technology, in food and

drink, in tourism, in our Life Sciences and whole range of

different areas, we have got to concentrate on that.

As I said earlier, there were some signs that not all delegates were

fully on message. It happened in the report to have the standing orders

and the gender committee referred to as SOAC.

There are 17 policy motions on the agenda. Three quart, were submitted

by electd members of the Scottish and UK Members of Parliament with

only four from the SNP's 200 branches. With some exceptions, the

overall tone of the motions is one of complacent self-congratulation,

look for phrases like "welcomes, agrees, congratulates, sup

importants, accepts". Nearly half of the motionses are so

self-congratulatory, they even admit to state proposal or action. The big

issues of the day are conspicuously absent, public health, Europe,

Trident, Local Government finance, energy policy, land reform.

The word independence is only mentioned once.

Delegates, I've attended SNP conferences since the '70s. It pains

me to say this, but this conference is beginning to resemble the Labour

Party in the Tony Blair era. We can do better than that.

APPLAUSE Thank you. I'm grateful to Malcolm

for making some of those points because we have heard them a number

of times in recent years and particularly with regard to the

agenda that's in front of us. If you look at the SOAC report on page 84,

I have tried to explain some of the process that SOAC went through in

drawing up an agenda for what is a preelection conference as the Deputy

First Minister said. This is us gathering to set our agenda for the

election that is coming up in a few weeks' time. Demand was

exceptionally high, there were 118 resolutions submitted. We have got

time at this conference for 19. But some of the discussion, the issues

that Malcolm raised were in fact discussed at the SOAC meeting and

what we have agreed to do is resolutions rejected from branches,

there were a number that didn't quite make the cut, and we'll

automatically consider them so branches don't need to resubmit

them. We'll automatically consider them for National Council which will

happen on the 21st May. Brian joins us again now.

These objections, are these the idiosyncrasies of one individual, or

is there the feeling that it's all a bit sanitised? He got a round of

applause, but the thunderous rounds of applause are for any of the

leading figures appearing on the stage or frankly the mention even of

their name. George Osborne Swinney warned delegates not to go into the

wrong part of the SECC complex, you might find you'res in the Western

Centre. There was another much of Americao going on there.

There was a decent round of applause to the guy who said it was all a bit

sanitised but that's what Party Conferences are like these days. In

some others, they are identical. Take a glance at this, the small

conference hand book. Anything jump out at you? It's not about the SNP,

it's about Nicola Sturgeon for First Minister, they're very much

personalising this around the character of the leader. So what we

had this morning was John Swinney defending the past record of the SNP

in Government but expect Nick Nicola Sturgeon to be putting forward some

ideas for the future, a former programme if you like on health,

education, welfare, hints on taxation as well which of course she

dealt with in the web cast interview with me. Above all, it's

personalised around the leader. They believe she's an asset.

The other thing that struck me about the card you waved up there, apart

from the Nicola Sturgeon picture, it says "both votes SNP", they are

clearly worried that people are going to experiment with Greens

aren't they, or others? Since the outcome, since the beginning of the

Scottish Parliament, inception of that in 1999, there was a feeling

that perhaps folk didn't entirely tons two-vote strategy, they

believed the second vote was an alternative, a bit of a gambling, a

bit of a game, if you like. All the parties stress vote for them on both

levels, but they are going really even further at this Party

Conference, every major speaker who concludes, concludes by saying vote

SNP, it's like the old Roman Senator used to finish every speech saying a

similar thing. What do you think they'll do at this

conference? They havetwo choices really, they could use the fact that

they are so popular to do something pretty radical or they could take an

approach of, hey we are popular let's not frighten the horses?

Nicola Sturgeon's inchildtively cautious; John Swinney is

intuitively cautious, they know the vote that they have for May is

hard-earned and could be lost, could be lost by unpopular move, so I

suspect in particularly on taxation to be really cautious. It was

intriguing to hear the direction of travel in the web cast interview

with myself, certainly no to increasing the standard rate, well

we knew that. Pretty jolly cool on the idea of increasing 45-50,

suggesting that might not bring in any money because people might avoid

the tax. If anything, she was hinting the one thing she might do

or perhaps consider is if the Chancellor increases the threshold

at which people enter the 40% tax rate, she might leave it alone and

keep more people, if you like, in that tax rate, it would mean the tax

stake was higher in Scotland but it's caution, caution on tax. I

think Nicola Sturgeon will say in her speech this afternoon that she

gets the point. Folk don't like paying tax. It isn't just a bit of a

game, it's taking money out of people's hard-earned salaries and

she knows that is not popular and can only be done very, very

cautiously. Thank you very much. John, just on

this issue of caution, is that the sensible approach, do you think,

from their point of view for the SNP to take?

I think the truth, is one could argue it's been the approach of the

SNP pretty much ever since it first came to power back in 2007.

Certainly it's quite difficult to think, apart from the independence

referendum, which of course was an absolutely major political event and

undoubtedly also was a substantial political gamble, but beyond that,

if one thinks of the first eight years of devolution under the Labour

administration, there are a number of ideas there such as free personal

care, such as getting rid of at least upfront tuition fees, although

in fairness it was the SNP who finished the job off by getting rid

of them entirely. So that was an age when certain policies became almost

iconically associated with devolution. It was about how the

Scottish Parliament was using devolution to do things differently

in Scotland. It's much more difficult to think of

the equivalent policies that have been there in the last eight years

and certainly it's very intriguing that apparently, we are going to

hear this afternoon Nicola Sturgeon say well, we may now have got powers

over income tax and they are going to be pretty much full powers from

2017 but do you know what, I'm going to prom toys keep them the same as

they are in England. Certainly on the one hand, we have got this

position of a party that's argued very strongly for more powers, it

kept on arguing whenever there was an opportunity to do so, to say

look, the Scotland Bill's almost been put through but it doesn't

deliver on the report of the Smith Commission which is where the ideas

for advanced devolution stem from after the referendum. Actually, so

far we have been hearing relatively little from the SNP in terms of

using the new powers in such a way that might produce radically

different policies for England. We were talking earlier about how,

in a way the whole issue of independence Trumps everything else,

therefore the SNP ranked high in the polls. But in so far as independence

itself is a cipher for, let's reduce inequality, people bought into the

argument and somehow independent Scotland would take a different

approach, inequality would be reduced and so on, I mean, is there

a danger for the SNP SNP that in some point, people who voted for

independence say, hang on a minute, you are running the place and might

not have independence but you could do better than this?

There certainly is a risk that that element of Labour support which went

to the SNP, which we know from survey evidence, other kinds of

people who want a more equal Scotland and tend to be relatively

left wing, whether or not they will end up being disenchanted at some

point... If they are to be disenchanted, the Labour Party is

going to have to convince them that they would then be able to run

Scotland more effectively and would deliver the kind of Scotland they're

looking for. At the end of the day, the fundamental thing for the Labour

Party above all in challenging the SNP is that so far the SNP still

command the card, we are the party that stands up in Scotland, we

defend Scotland's interests and they still hang onto that even though

they may not necessarily be a party in government that is necessarily

wanting to do things terribly differently. Until the Labour Party

can persuade people, actually, we would stand up for Scotland just as

much as the SNP and, by the way, we will be more likely to deliver the

kind of Scotland you want, that more equal Scotland, until they reach

that point they are always going to struggle and the truth is they

require more than a few policy initiatives to do that. It means

creating a much bigger story about the kind of Scotland the Labour

Party wants and I think the Labour Party's fundamental problem is that

it has never really had that story. Let's talk a bit about Labour later

but the other thing I was puzzled about about the SNP is that when you

look at the detail of some of these polls, and I know they're different

from pole to pole, and people are asked what they make of the SNP's

record on things like education, they are quite popular, 30 odd or 40

the centre, but it is not massively popular. On the face of it there

seems to be a discrepancy between the number of people saying, when it

comes to the election we will vote SNP, and whether they actually like

what the SNP is doing. We should remember that maybe around half the

people in Scotland are going to vote for the SNP, maybe slightly more,

maybe slightly less. That's enough to win an overall majority in

parliamentary election. But such figures are perfectly commensurate

with the idea that most polls find more people say they think the SNP

has done a good job or that they are satisfied with the SNP and say they

are not. It's not necessarily dramatically so but it doesn't have

to be to be 50%. One of the things we find in today's opinion poll in

the Times is that they repeated the question that YouGov, the polling

company in question, also asked when the SNP were a minority party, and

also in the days of the Lib Dem coalition, which finds that 40

percentage eagle in Scotland approval of the SNP's record in

government and 35% is approved, so that's in line with what you're

suggesting. It's good but it's not brilliant. Those figures are

actually no better than when YouGov were asking the question when the

SNP were a minority government, yet at that time there was no sign at

all... We're talking about 2008. There was no sign of the opinion

polls that the SNP could possibly get 50% of the vote, yet that's

where they are now. Let's go to the conference hall, where the SNP

leader Nicola Sturgeon is about to take the stage for the speech. There

she is. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Conference, I start today on a sad note.

Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of one of the darkest days Scotland

has ever known. Even now, there are simply no words to express our

horror and our sadness at what happened in Dunblane primary school

on the 13th of March 19 96. All we can do is tell those who lost loved

ones, those who suffered injury and those whose lives changed for ever

that day that we have not forgotten. You are in our thoughts and in our

Hearts and you always will be. APPLAUSE

Friends, it is hard to believe that 12 months have passed since the SNP

last met here in the great city of Glasgow. We resolved then to go out

and make political history on Scotland's behalf and we did exactly

that. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

We won all but three seats across our country and we painted red

Clydeside a bright, golden yellow. APPLAUSE

We redefined what is possible in elections and we have been shaking

the foundations of the Westminster Establishment ever since. Now we

stand, just weeks from another defining election. An election to

our own national parliament, and election that will set the direction

for our country for the next five years and into a new decade. Today,

I will speak simply and directly to the people of Scotland. I will ask

you to elect us to be your government for a third consecutive

term and I will ask you to choose me to be your First Minister.

APPLAUSE I will ask you to place your trust

in me and in my party to lead our country and, in return, I promise

you this - we will strive as hard as we can, each and every day, in how

we campaign and how we govern to earn and to re-earn the trust that

you place in us. The SNP will never take your support for granted.

APPLAUSE And that sets us apart from our

opponents in this election. Labour and the Tories have decided already

that you will choose the SNP to be your government. They see there is

as simply a battle for second place. When Scottish Labour's leader was

asked if her party would come second in May, she answered boldly and

confidently. She said "Yes". Now, we can laugh but it is serious. Labour

doesn't believe it is going to be in government so it makes no effort to

put forward a credible programme for government. That is simply not good

enough that our country. A party that doesn't take itself seriously

as a party of government does not deserve to be taken seriously by

you, the people of Scotland. APPLAUSE

Indeed, Labour's position has now so we can that the Tories have been

tempted to make bold, some might say reckless, claims about their own

prospects. The Tories now say they want to be the main opposition in

Scotland. Yes, that's right. The party that is stripping vital

support from the disabled, the vulnerable and the working poor, the

party of the bedroom tax, the party that is attacking trade union

freedoms, the party that, in Scotland, wants to bring back

prescription charges for the sick and tax university education. That

party wants you to give them a bigger role in the Scottish

Parliament. Well, I don't believe for a second that you will do that.

I believe that the overwhelming majority of people across our

country know this to be true - Scotland doesn't need a Tory

opposition. Scotland needs a strong and determined opposition to the

Tories. APPLAUSE

So my message to you today is clear. The other parties can battle over

the runner-up spot if they want to. We, the SNP, are standing to be your

government and I am standing to be your First Minister.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE And with the other parties not

preparing for government, the responsibility on us to do so is

even greater. It places a responsibility on our shoulders to

set out what we will do with the precious opportunity that we seek.

That is what I will do today. I will set out what you can expect from a

new SNP government, what you can expect from me as your First

Minister. First, if you place your trust in us you will get a

government that will always fight Scotland's corner. Be in no doubt,

our loyalty and our allegiance is first, last and always to Scotland,

not to party bosses in Westminster. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

You know how vital it is to have a strong Scottish Government that will

always stand up and protect Scotland's interests. We've been

reminded of that just recently. During the referendum, the

Westminster parties promised that Scotland would get new powers. It

was a promise made freely and unconditionally but when it came to

delivering these new powers, the Tory Treasury tried to extract its

pound of flesh. The Treasury tried to cut Scotland's budget by ?7

billion in return for the powers we were promised. It was a blatant and

shameful attempt to renege on the vow they made to Scotland. But we...

APPLAUSE But we said no. John Swinney, are

outstanding Deputy First Minister stood firm.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE John Swinney said no to a 7 billion

cut and he said no to a 3 billion cut. The SNP saw off the Tory

Treasury or, as we say in Glasgow, we gubbed them.

Thanks to John Swinney, these powers will now come to Scotland without a

single penny being lost to Scotland's budget. That is standing

up for Scotland and it is what the SNP will always do.

APPLAUSE Scotland's voice needs to be heard

on the big issues that shape our future and while so many of these

issues remain in the control of Westminster, we need leaders who can

make our voice heard on the UK stage. Of course there will be

different opinions in Scotland. Not everyone will agree with me. I know

and I respect that. But as First Minister, it is my job to stand up

for Scotland, to speak up for what I believe to be right for our country.

That is why I say that Scotland's place in Europe should not, and must

not, be the casualty of a bitter and twisted Tory feud.

APPLAUSE Our place in Europe matters. It

matters for the economic opportunities it gives us and for

the social protections it guarantees. Protections that the

Tories will rip up in an instant if given the chance.

And let's never forget that it was the Tories, backed by Labour, who

told us we would be thrown out of the EU if we dared to vote for

independence. For them, to take us now to the

brink of an exit, is not just irresponsible, it is staggeringly

hypocritical. To take us through that exit door

against our will would be democratically indefensible.

Just as on Europe, Scotland's voice needs to be heard, on Trident too.

The decision on the renewal of Trident is one of the most important

and far-reaching that this Westminster Parliament will take.

With Labour hopelessly divided, it will be down to us to make the

practical and the principled case against a new generation of nuclear

weapons and we, the SNP, will make that case with passion and with

conviction. My view could not be clearer. To

spend ?167,000 million on weapons of mass destruction would be immoral.

That is why SNP MPs, each and every one, will vote against the renewal

of Trident. APPLAUSE

The SNP will always be stronger for Scotland and we will make Scotland's

voice heard. But if you re-elect us on May 5th, our most important

responsibility will be to build on the progress of the last nine years

to make this country even stronger. Today, I will set out the priorities

that we will pursue over these next five years if you re-elect us to be

your Government. We will reform our precious NHS to

make it truly fit for the future and we will keep our NHS firmly in

public hands - that is a guarantee. We will support our businesses,

large and small, to innovate, export and expand, so that they in turn

help us tackle poverty and raise your living standards. We will work

every single day to build a world class education system that gives

all of our young people the best start in life. We will protect free

access to our universities for as long as the SNP is in charge. There

will be no tuition fees in Scotland. We will use your new powers

responsibly but boldly to make our country fairer and wealthier and

we'll start by keeping our promise to abolish the bedroom tax.

The decisions we take over the next five years will equip our country

for the challenges of the next decade and beyond. So we will be

bold and ambitious and we will build on strong foundations. Take our NHS.

When our political opponents criticised the NHS in Scotland, I

ask you to consider this - in England under the Tories, the NHS is

being privatised and doctors have been forced to go on strike. In

Wales, under Labour, the NHS is in crisis. You know if you need a knee

replacement operation in Scotland, you wait an average of 80 days. In

Wales, under Labour, you will wait an average of 222 days.

So let me say this politely but firmly - when it comes to health, we

will take no lessons from Labour or from the Tories.

Our NHS is delivering some of the best and fastest care anywhere in

the UK. That is a tribute to our doctors, nurses, porters,

auxiliaries, administrators, to everyone who works in our NHS, and

we thank you for it. But we won't rest on our laurels.

Over the next 20 years, the number of people in Scotland aged over 75

will almost double. The increase will be equivalent to

the populations of Aberdeen and Dundee combined. That will have

profound implications for our health and social care services. That's why

we have a clear plan for the future based on these four commitments. I

promise you today that the NHS resource budget will rise in real

terms in each and every single year of the next Parliaments.

APPLAUSE. But more money alone will not equip

our NHS for the future, it needs reform as well. We must increase

capacity for the growing number of routine operations that an ageing

population will need. So I also promise today that, over the next

Parliament, there'll be five new elective treatment centres. In

Edinburgh, Livingston, Dundee, Inverness and Aberdeen, new

investment of ?200 million delivering hospital care, more

quickly to those who need it. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.

Keeping people out of hospital living independently in their own

homes is also vital. So I promise too that in every single year of the

next Parliament, we will invest an increasing share of the NHS budget

in primary community and social care services. And last, but by no means

least, we will redouble our efforts to reduce deaths from the big killer

diseases like cancer. Next week, we will launch our new

cancer strategy. It will set out 50 different actions that will help

prevent cancer, diagnose people more quickly and deliver even better care

and treatment. The fact is, too many people still suffer the heartache of

losing loved ones years before they should because of cancer. It doesn't

have to be this way. With new treatments and developing

technologies like radiotherapy, we can help more and more people beat

cancer. That is why I'm delighted to announce today that, over the next

Parliament, we will invest an extra ?50 million in radiotherapy

services. It will buy new state-of-the-art equipment and

employ an additional 100 radiotherapy specialists to work in

our cancer centres, vital... CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.

Vital investment to help save lives and keep families together for

longer. So curing the future of our NHS is

one of our most important responsibilities -- securing the

future. So too is education. Nothing motivates me more than the desire to

give every young person the same chances in life that I had. That

means giving them the very best education. Our plan to do that

starts in the early years. I promise today that by the end of the next

Parliament, the SNP will double the provision of free early years

education and childcare. We will make sure it's flexible and

high-quality, to meet the needs of children and parents alike. And

today, I make this additional commitment. In the last Parliament,

we delivered free school meals for primaries one to three. Benefitting

135,000 children and saving families ?380 a year for each child. Today, I

can announce that when we expand early years education to include

full day provision, we will extend entitlement to free meals, to two,

three and four-year-olds in our nurseries as well.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE. We will make sure that our youngest

children get access to a healthy, nutritious meal that improves their

capacity to learn, without the stigma of means testing. We will

also step up our work to close the gap in attainment in our schools.

Our new national improvement framework will deliver a revolution

in school transparency, giving parents and the public more

information than ever before about the progress of their children and

the performance of our schools. And to make sure progress is

accelerated, we will invest extra resources where they are needed

most. The Scottish attainment fund is already delivering support to

more than 300 primary schools in the most deprived parts of our country.

And in the budget, two weeks ago, John Swinney doubled the attainment

fund to more than ?50 million every year.

I can announce today we'll go further and expand significantly its

scope and scale. Last week, I announced progressive changes to

local taxation that will raise an extra ?100 million a year. I said

that this money would go to schools and it will.

It will see the reach of our attainment fund extend to every part

of Scotland. The money will be allocated according to the number of

children in each primary school and in the first three years of each

secondary school that meet the eligibility criteria for free school

meals and it will go direct to head teachers. It will mean they can

invest in extra teachers, classroom assistants, equipment or additional

support for learning. It means that over the next

Parliament, we will commit over and above existing budgets an extra

three quarters of a billion pounds to reach the attainment of the most

disadvantaged people in our country. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.

-- raise the attainment. Opportunity for all - that is the

defining principle of the Government I lead.

A strong education system is the foundation of a strong economy and a

strong economy is essential to all of us. Today, in Scotland, we have

higher employment than the rest of the UK. We have faster productivity

growth and we have had the longest period of economic growth since

devolution. One of the things our economy depends on is fast, reliable

and future-proofed digital infrastructure.

Our digital Scotland programme is already scheduled to deliver

Broadband to 95% of premises across our country by the end of next year.

The 5% not covered will be in some of the hardest to reach parts of

rural Scotland. But in the digital age, it simply is not acceptable any

longer for anyone to be left behind. So I can announce today, that over

the next Parliament, we'll deliver superfast digital Broadband, not to

95%, but 20100% of premises across Scotland. -- but to 100% of premises

across Scotland. A growing economy underpins

everything we do but a fairer society, where everyone gets the

chance to contribute, is also essential. That's why inclusive

growth is at the heart of our economic strategy, and it's why we

are determined to tackle low pay and lift people out of poverty. Scotland

already has a higher proportion of workers paid the living wage than

any other nation in the UK. APPLAUSE

And I'm proud to tell you today that from October, thanks to the budget

decisions we have taken, the living wage will be paid to social care

workers right across our country. APPLAUSE

But we will go further. When I became First Minister, there were

just 78 accredited living wage employers in Scotland. I set the

ambition of increasing that to 500 by the end of this Parliament. I'm

pleased to report today that this target was met last week. We now

have 500 living wage accredited employers.

APPLAUSE So now I'm going to double the

target. My pledge today is that by autumn next year, Scotland will have

at least 1000 accredited living wage employers.

Economic success benefiting the many, not just the few. That is our

aim. Over these past nine years, we have used the existing powers of the

Scottish Parliament to make Scotland better. We will use our new powers

to do that, too. We've already pledged to improve carers' allowance

and to abolish the bedroom tax and we've set out plans to establish a

new Social Security agency to administer new welfare powers, and

that matters cos the less reliant Scotland has to be an Iain Duncan

Smith's Department for Work and Pensions, the better.

Today I want to outline how we will also use new powers to help tackle

child poverty. The sure start maternity grant makes a payment of

?500 to low income families on the birth of a child. It helps parents

meet the essential costs of looking after a new baby and it helps to

protect babies born into low-income households in the very first days of

their lives from some of the disadvantages of poverty. Now, not

surprisingly one of the first things the Tories did in 2010 was cut it.

It now applies only to first-born children. So I can announce today

that we will replace the sure start maternity grant with a new and

expanded maternity and early years allowance, targeted at our lowest

income families. The payment at birth for a first child will

increase from ?500 to ?600 and we will put back what the Tories took

away. We will restore payments of ?300 each for second and subsequent

children. But we... APPLAUSE

But we also recognise that the disadvantages of poverty affected

children not just at birth but at other key stages of their young

lives, as well. If we're going to close the poverty gap later in life,

we need to do more to level the playing field in the early years, so

we will also make payments of ?250 to help meet the additional costs

low income parents face at two further stages in their child's

lives, when they start nursery and again when they start school.

Helping children... APPLAUSE

Helping children get the best possible start in life - that is how

the SNP will use our parliament's new powers. Of course, from April

next year the Scottish Parliament will also be responsible for setting

income tax rates. I promise you today that we will use these new

powers fairly and responsibly. We are determined to make this country

fairer but to do that we also need Scotland to be an attractive place

to live, to work and to do business. So let me set out some key

principles that will guide us. Firstly, we will never forget that

every