13/03/2016 Scottish National Party Conference

# I feel it in my toes #. There is a bit of a party

atmosphere in the SECC. # Love is all around the...

#. Wet Wet Wet were on stage last

night. Across both days, the SNP were here to party. 3000 of their

150,000 members. With just two months until the Scottish election,

this party is hoping to follow its stunning success in the Westminster

election with a historic third term in office at Holyrood. Many of the

rank-and-file are impatient for another independence referendum. The

talk has been that a UK vote to leave in the EU referendum come

Scots voted to remain, would provide the perfect catalyst. It would be

the legal basis for your proper and -- proposition that there might be a

second independent referendum. It would be the same as the legal basis

as for the last referendum. It is the moral basis that interest me. I

preface what I'm about to say on this: I don't want this scenario to

come about, and I mean that sincerely, where the UK votes to

leave. I think it is better for the UK and Scotland. I am not trying to

secretly engineer a situation that results in a Brexit but that would

pave the way for a second thought. You must be tempted. No, because if

I were being dreadfully Machiavellian about all that, to get

to that outcome depends on Scotland to vote to stay in, so for me to

argue Foran out vote would not work. It is too complicated.

That was Nicola Sturgeon on Friday, when Brian Taylor also quizzed her

on how she would be using Scotland's new tax powers. Would you support a

50p top top tax rate? I will not lay out today what I think on every

individual aspect. I understand your disappointment, but I will insist on

disappointing year. The Chancellor will set out his budget next week,

so that will determine the tax rates, broadly speaking, that we

inherit, and I think it is sensible to wait to know what they are before

we decide what our position is. I am very clear on some of the principles

that will guide decisions. First, I think it is not right to increase

the basic rate of income tax, because people are still struggling

to make ends meet. It is transferring the burden onto the

shoulders of the weakest rather than those who are most able to afford to

pay it. Second, given the pressure that our public services face,

equally, I don't think it is right to have hefty tax cuts for the

better off in our society. These are the principles that will guide the

decisions we take, and we will set out our precise proposals before

Parliament defaults. -- dissolves. So, we will have to wait and see. We

start with a speech by John Swinney, the party's campaign director.

In 2000 live, that was our springboard to deliver an historic

victory. It was the springboard to a majority. This weekend it will be a

springboard to our 2016 campaign and to securing a historic third term

for the SNP Government in Scotland. Our party has never been larger, our

support never stronger, but, delegates, the responsibility

honours has never been greater. It is the responsibility to make good

on a pledge to Scotland, never ever to take the people of this country

for granted, our pledge never to become what we have overcome, the

failed Labour Party in Scotland. Our job is to work for everyone, to

reach out on every doorstep the length and breadth of this land, and

persuade our fellow Scots that we deserve their confidence and their

votes once again. That is what we must do, not just until the 5th of

May, but each and every day that we act to serve the people of Scotland.

That is what this party must do. APPLAUSE

Our opponents often say that they want to fight this election on the

SNP's record in Government. That is, of course, when they're not too busy

fighting amongst themselves. They don't need to worry, because we will

be talking a lot about our record over the next few weeks. For one

simple reason: The Scottish National party and Government has a record to

be very proud of. -- in Government. When we took office in 2007, none of

us knew that we would face the toughest recession in living memory

and the harshest period of Tory austerity, but we have used average

power at our disposal to move Scotland forward. Employment in

Scotland today is at the highest level of any nation in the United

Kingdom. Our National Health Service is receiving the highest level of

funding it has ever received, with recognisable as of staff working

within our National Health Service. Thanks to the efforts of those

staff, patients in Scotland are getting some of the fastest and best

treatment anywhere in the United Kingdom. Conference, with the

historic independence referendum, we lead the most invigorating process

of democratic engagement and renewal this country has seen in

generations, perhaps ever in our history. We brought hundreds of

thousands of people into political debate for the first time, and we

fought a campaign of which we can all be proud. We won over so many of

our fellow citizens to our cause of Scottish independence, a cause which

today remains a cause that we all know will be won.

And then something of a surprise, the topics for discussion are

decided by the standing orders and agenda committee, and published in

this booklet. The first thing the Conference has to do is approve the

agenda, but there was an objection. There are 17 policy motions on the

agenda. Three quarters of these were submitted by members of the Scottish

and UK parliaments, with only four mike from the SNP's 200 branches.

With some exceptions, the overall tone of the motions is one of

complacency of congratulation. Nearly half of the motions are so

self congratulatory that they fail to state any proposal or action.

Scotland is looking to our movement for leadership, not just competent

management. We have a duty to showcase the diversity of views

within the SNP, which is our strength, not a weakness. These are

my questions. APPLAUSE

Do you have specific objectives, and if so, who wrote to them? Do you

want a party that reflect on its own performance? How do you know if

you're performing well? Have you considered soliciting feedback from

Conference and from the party's branches? Whose side are you one if

there is a conflict between the party's membership and its

management? APPLAUSE

Delegates, I have attended SNP conferences since the 1970s was it

pains me say that this Conference is beginning to resemble the Labour

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

gathering to set our agenda for the election that is coming up in a few

weeks. Demand was exceptionally high. There were 118 resolutions

submitted. We have time at this Conference for 19. I would ask

Conference to approve the written report and allow us to get on with

the momentum we need in order to win the Scottish Parliament election in

May. There will be an opportunity, and perhaps a more appropriate one,

to discuss some of these things at the internal session at 4:45pm. So I

would encourage delegates to come to that, Holger elected office bearers

to account. We are all elected by Conference and elected by the

democratic structures of the party and accountable to it.

Clearly, managing a party with 115,000 members has its

difficulties. Elsewhere, Mhairi Black spoke about what she saw as

the injustices of new pension arrangements.

There seem to be ministers in London who just aren't quite getting it.

Pensions are not a benefit, they are a bright.

-- they right. Let's not forget that we have a

Chancellor who is so obsessed with unnecessary austerity that he is

prepared to take from young people, prepare to take from the disabled,

prepared to take from those on low wages, and yes, he is taking from

our pensioners. Not just any pensioners, its female pensioners,

those who come from a generation that has constantly faced any

quality throughout their lives, in pay, in work, and through the

assumption that they would stay at home to look after children. We in

the SMP believe in doing things differently. We believe that the

measure of a society is how we look after each other, and we as a party

believe that no person in their twilight years should be left living

in anxiety and doubt because of the arrogance of Westminster. I and my

colleagues were elected on a mandate of fighting for a stronger Scotland.

Now, Conference, please, give us that mandate to stand up for our

pensioners. More passion, this time on the

subject of housing. Conference, housing is at the heart

of our ambition to make Scotland a fairer and better society the people

who live in this country. We need affordable homes and to have the

best possible start in life. We need those homes if young people are to

take advantage of employment and educational opportunities, to bring

up families, and to contribute to strong, vibrant and thriving

communities, and we need those affordable homes for our older and

senior citizens to have independence, comfort and security

in their retirement. That is why we built 30,000 affordable homes, two

thirds of them per social rent. And that is why we will build a further

50,000 affordable homes during the lifetime of the next parliament if

we are elected to form the Government of Scotland.

In a speech packed with passion, Nicola Sturgeon railed against those

who had said to vote no in the Scottish Rembrandt them and were

saying to vote to leave in the EU referendum.

-- the Scottish referendum. The EU is important for the social

guarantees it gets. These are protections that the Tories will rip

up in an instant if given the chance. Let's never forget that it

was the Tories, backed by Labour, who told as we would be thrown out

of the EU if we dare to vote her independence. For them to take ours

now to the brink of an exit is not just irresponsible, it is

staggeringly hypocritical. Then, a succession of policy

announcements, on childcare, tax, health.

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

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

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 meet. So while also promised today that over the next

Parliament there will 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. APPLAUSE

With new treatments and developing technologies like radiotherapy, we

can help more and more people beat cancer. That is why I am delighted

to announce that rack that is why I am 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 specialist to work in

our Cancer centres. And then, on extending fast broadband across all

of Scotland. 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

part of rural Scotland. But in the digital age, it is simply not

acceptable any longer for anyone to be left behind. So I can announce

today that over the next Parliament we will deliver superfast digital

broadband not to 95% by two 100% of premises across Scotland.

And then news of a radical rethink of how to present the case for

independence. Our success will depend on the strength of our

arguments and the clarity of our vision. It will mean convincing the

people of this country that independence is right not for

yesterday's world but for the complex, challenging and

increasingly interdependent world that we live in today. That is why I

can tell you today that this summer the SNP will embark on a new

initiative to build support for independence.

APPLAUSE It will not be an attempt to

browbeat anyone. I know that many across Scotland support the union is

strong link as we do independence. -- as strongly as we do

independence. I respect that. They were not persuaded in 2014, they

didn't find our arguments compelling enough. So we will listen to what

you have to say. We will hear your concerns and address your questions,

and in the process we will be prepared to have you challenge some

of our answers. Patiently and respectfully, we will seek to

convince you that independence really does offer the best future

for Scotland. To be given a clear mandate to lead this nation for the

next five years will be a precious opportunity. If you give me that

opportunity, I promise that I will seize it with both hands. I won't

always get everything right, but I will work every single day to make

our economy stronger, our NHS even better and our schools world class.

I will aim to make this country a place that others look to for

inspiration. Even if you don't always agree with me, I will strive

to be a First Minister and you have confidence in, and to lead a

Government you can be proud of. -- a First Minister and you can have

confidence in. Nicola Sturgeon touched all the

bases. The promises, the election round the corner. In Scotland, this

is the big one, the May elections to the Scottish parliament. Secondly,

she contrived to be cautious on tax. No increase in the standard rate.

Cautious, as she said to me, about increasing 45% to 50%. No giving

away to those on higher incomes. Perhaps if the Chancellor next week

reduces the burden on higher earners, perhaps in Scotland they

would seek to reverse that. But cautious throughout. Then, that

announcement on independence. Not changing the nature of the offer.

The offer remains independence. She got them really cheering and yelling

on that one. But recalibrating the detail. I thought she looked stern

and serious and solemn when she said the party had to be prepared to

reconsider some of the answers that were given to the questions raised

by people during the referendum in 2014.

How effective is our local Government? Indeed, do you even know

who your local councillors are? A fringe organised by the electoral

reform Society decided to take a long, hard look at how local

democracy works. Our approach is partnership, the

state's role should be to provide the space to discuss, to give people

a chance to input, to have their views, and then for people, if they

are sufficiently strong, if they have a desire in that direction, if

they organise that way, to take things for themselves, or to steer

more effectively how the state takes things forwards on their behalf.

There have to be lessons learned from the mistakes of the past. In

the past, regeneration meant spending a lot of money on something

big and concrete. There is a time and place for that, and it is the

1960s. We are still dealing with the scars on the urban landscape of

people being talked down to. It is time, as we have recognised, that

government realises it has to do things with people, not to people.

When I was in Sweden, the first time this really impacted on me, I was

discovering that if you earned less than ?35,000 a year you don't pay a

penny in tax to central government, you pay it all to your local

municipality, and why not, because 90% of services come from local. I

looked a bit surprised at that, and the guy said how do you do it back

in Scotland? And I just thought I wish I had never got into this, we

send all of our money through to Westminster, who through gritted

teeth send it back to Scotland, who through gritted teeth send it back

to councils who are so large we don't know anyone on them. And they

think we are weird. He said something more important, he said

don't you trust yourselves? Well,, on, if we do trust ourselves, and

the reason I am so impassioned about this, is because I think lack of

focus on this, like of trust, lack of movement towards empowering

people where they are was one of the elephants in the room in the

independence referendum, because how can you say you trust the folk of

this country to run their country when you don't trust them to run

their town or their village or whatever means most of them? It

doesn't stack up. So let's make it stack up.

The last thing that we want is a move to the commissioning quickly,

as Labour's lead candidate in the north-east of Scotland has called

for. Kevin Stuart is an MSP representing your's royal capital.

That is complete and utter stupidity, because we want to

maximise yield in the North Sea, we want to ensure that the North Sea

basin has a future, and we want to ensure that job security is there in

our country. So no to fast tracking decommissioning, as per Jenny Mara

and the Labour Party, God knows where they got that idea from.

Instead, what we want to see is a situation where Chancellor Osbourne

gets his hands in his pooch and repays Aberdeen, the north-east of

Scotland and the oil and gas industry for all of the money we

have given to the Treasury over the past four decades. Occasionally,

delegates can be moved to tears by speakers personal experience. This

one was in a debate in inclusive sex and gender education. It wasn't easy

for me to get up there and speak today, not just because I get

nervous speaking in front of my English class, never mind this many

people. But I also struggled to fill out the speaker sheet. I don't know

how many of you in this room have seen a speaker sheet, but a speaker

sheet has two boxes to be ticked, labelled male and female. Now this

one had me stumped. You see, I am gender fluid. In simple terms, this

means I cannot tell you that I am 100% male 100% female. So to take

either of these boxes felt like a liar to be. Now I have been quite

lucky in my high school. After actually explaining what gender

fluid means, a lot of the teachers are very accenting, and I am allowed

to use the toilet I choose, but I'm not stupid, I know not everyone has

it this easy. APPLAUSE This country is filled with such

ignorance, and so many kids are bullied as identifying as LGBT plus,

I was bullied when I came out, as were all of my LGBT plus friends. I

have seen first-hand 13-year-old to have been bullied to the point where

they hate themselves so much they would want to kill themselves. It

happens all the time. One in four LGBT plus years have attempted

suicide due to LGBT plus phobic bullying. It is as simple as

teaching kids that it's OK to be different. I don't think that is too

much to ask. Thank you. APPLAUSE Fringe meetings give us the chance

to see a more informal side to politicians, compared to when they

are making big set piece speeches was dubbed John Swinney told the

political editor of the daily record that achieving independence would

take time and commitment. I have always taken this view, and I

suppose this probably defines me as a gradual list in the great debate

about our constitutional politics. I have always taken the view that the

more power that is devolved to Scotland, the more people would

become accustomed to it and the more they would want more. APPLAUSE

Because we have been viewed by the people of Scotland to be a strong

and convincing political party, with emphatic and effectively do ship

that has been trusted by the people of Scotland, and the Labour Party

has deserted its core support by its actions in the referendum. The way

in which the Labour Party allowed itself to be, essentially, aligned

so closely to an argument that belittled Scotland, and ran down the

country and its attributes, and essentially, by the dreadful

decision to align themselves with the Tories, just alienating

thousands and thousands and thousands of their supporters. Just

on your point about taking people for granted, in the last weekend of

the fiscal framework negotiations, I had been down in London on Friday,

and I had been on the telly, you know, in the aftermath of it all, it

is all major news, discussion still underway, and the Saturday morning,

I went out, canvassing in my own constituency. I went to the door of

a man comedy was down on my list as being an SNP supporter, so I

expected a warm welcome. And I went to the door, and the door open, and

before I could see income I could not even get a good morning out, he

said what the hell are you doing here? I said I am here to speak to

you about the election. He said to me, but you have been away down to

London, you are in the midst of this fiscal framework, what are you doing

on my doorstep, you have more important things to be doing! I said

to him, today I think that is the day I become like my political

opponents. APPLAUSE Let's be clear, Scotland can't

afford the risk of a Labour or Tory or any other government dismantling

the hard-won gains of the last five years. Stuart Mosey, the party's

deputy leader on economics. Many of those gains were in the areas of

business and economy. Our productivity, hard to believe it

when you hear what some will say, is now 4% higher than the precrisis

level. The UK has flat line. Why? Because we have supported 100,000

businesses through the small business bonus, so they pay zero or

reduced business rates. We have encouraged exports, and Scottish

firms have risen to the challenge with a 36% increase in exports.

APPLAUSE We have a joined up approach to

innovation, the delivery of six new innovation centres, and ?78 million

of new money, support, to help yet more businesses indent, innovate,

and work directly with our universities. The conference was

incredibly upbeat. There was one droll moment when John Sweeney noted

that there was a country to country Festival of country music going on

in a venue elsewhere in the complex, and he want people not to wander

into that by mistake, saying perhaps a super fluidity of Stetsons would

be a giveaway, but it was like a country revival in there as well.

The conference opened with one delegate complaining that it was all

a bit too much self-congratulation, I think he called at complacency of

congratulations. That wasn't really the mood that went down with the

rest of the delegates. The noted what they said and moved on to

congratulate the Scottish Government even more vigorously and

enthusiastically. It is what you do when there is an election around the

corner, it is not just confined to the SNP. Huge turnout, the huge

enthusiasm and a huge sense that perhaps if the electors will, could

be going on to an historic third term. That is all from our coverage

from the SNP conference at Glasgow SECC. Join us next week when we will

be over there at the city science Centre to bring you highlight of

Labour's Spring gathering.