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Scottish Labour: New Directions Change Is What We Do

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Scottish Labour: New Directions Change Is What We Do Working for Scotland Listening to you Scottish Labour: new directions Change is what we do By Wendy Alexander MSP Leader of Scottish Labour in the Scottish Parliament Change is what we do – Wendy Alexander MSP But it is an SNP in power, while we are in Boldness and opposition. Progressive Nobody in Scottish Labour should be under any illusion that the 2007 election Politics was just a mistake that will be put right at the next election. We have no divine We in the Labour Party have been right to be elected, no automatic call fortunate to live in a time when politics on the people’s support, no guarantees in the English-speaking world have of unwavering allegiance. We will have been dominated by three of the most to work as hard, if not harder, than we gifted politicians of the centre-left – Bill did in 1997, to secure victory at the Clinton, Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown. next election. We will have to work in Under the guidance of these three men, every street, every community, and in all the USA and the UK were rescued from corners of our country to command the the economic doldrums and enjoyed the respect of, and win back the support of, longest period of sustained growth that Scotland. either country has known while huge strides towards reducing injustices and That’s why Scottish Labour can learn inequality were made. Together, they from Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and Gordon proved what we in the Labour Party Brown. They did that work, they won that knew, but the rest of the world did not respect and support, and we should learn believe – that centre-left parties can run the lessons. For the bitterest lesson the economy not just well, but better of all is that the SNP have certainly than right-wing parties, while healing done so. The slogan that headlined the the social rifts that right-wing politics Nationalist campaign that defeated us worsen. was “It’s time for change”. They managed to capture a mood in Scotland that In the Scottish Labour Party, we need wanted change. It was the same mood to remember that, not just to celebrate that we in Scottish Labour caught in it, but to know and understand why 1997 and 1999. We stayed in tune with those three men succeeded where so that feeling in 2001, 2003, and 2005. many others with the best of intentions But we lost it in 2007. did not. We need to understand those lessons because we now face one of the As a minister who was proud to serve toughest challenges in our history – a under Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish and Scottish National Party in government. Jack McConnell, and as a Labour Party It may be an SNP that won the 2007 member who worked in those elections, I election by just one seat, it may be that take my share of the blame for that. But the one seat was won by just 46 votes, there is no future for us in seeking to and it may be an SNP which is well short lay the blame at any one person’s door. of a majority in the Scottish Parliament. The future lies in learning the lessons, putting them into practice, and getting 1 Change is what we do – Wendy Alexander MSP back to what Scottish Labour should be In key respects, the Nationalists are all about. worse than the Conservatives. The Nationalists seek to disguise their The truth is that change is at the heart conservatism in the language of of progressive politics and must be at radicalism. But at heart, they are deeply the heart of Scottish Labour. We are the conservative. They want to turn the party of change. We want to change the clock back 300 years to a past that never institutions, the practices, the beliefs was in order to achieve a future that that hold our society back. If institutions never can be. Nobody on the centre- are not working to make Scotland a left should be in any doubt that if the better place, our job is to put something Nationalists ever came close to achieving better in their place. If there are practices what they want, the winners will be few that are holding Scotland back, our task and the losers will be many. is to sweep them away. And if there are beliefs that are checking progress, our Tony Blair taught Labour to put internal aim is to challenge and defeat them. division aside and to seek power. Our job as a party of the centre-left is to ensure Bill Clinton memorably told the Labour that power is used for the benefit of the Party conference in Blackpool in 2002 many and not the few. We learned also that for politicians of the centre-left, that we must encourage the creation even those in power, the phrase “it’s time of wealth. But it is our job as Labour for a change” should not be a threat, not politicians to make sure that wealth is even a challenge, but should instead be not just created, but is also put to work a constant theme. For those of us on the to create jobs and opportunities for progressive wing of politics, it is always everyone, not to stagnate in the hands “time for a change”, because change is of select and fortunate individuals. why people vote for us. But how do we do that? What kind of It is no coincidence that our principal policies do we adopt in order to make opponents have historically been sure that power and wealth can be used labelled “conservatives”. At heart, they for the benefit of all? Gordon Brown has wish to conserve what already exists given us the answer to that, in actions because that is how the privileges and in words. Amplifying a theme set enjoyed by them and their supporters out the previous year by Tony Blair he are maintained. They want to keep told us at the 2003 Labour conference the power and wealth they have, the in Bournemouth that we needed to be inevitable end result of which is that clear and confident about our principles, power and wealth stays in the hands of confident that Labour values are the a few, denying many the chances to live values of the British people. More prosperous and fulfilling lives. importantly, he told us that we need to be bold in our policies. Labour, he said, is best when at its boldest, best when united, and best when we are Labour. 2 Change is what we do – Wendy Alexander MSP These are the principles that guide my leadership. I intend that we should be the party of change, that the Scotland we seek will be a country where wealth- creation and the use of wealth to benefit all Scots is encouraged. We must be bold, united, and Labour. 3 Change is what we do – Wendy Alexander MSP and then an Act putting duties on Scottish Labour, local authorities to produce plans for building houses for working people. But Boldness and it was only the election of a Labour government in 1924, and the arrival of Change a Clydesider, John Wheatley, as Minister of Health and Housing, that a quantum Scottish Labour needs no lectures on leap forward occurred. Wheatley’s how bold policies win support and can Housing Act is widely acknowledged make life immeasurably better for people. as the central legislative achievement But, occasionally, it is good to remind of Ramsay MacDonald’s government. ourselves, and others, of just how much It provided central government funds has been achieved by those who went to local authorities to build houses to before us. Under the SNP, a dishonest approved standards for rent. and manipulative re-writing of history has begun. It has commenced with the Pushed through in the teeth of SNP claiming to be the mother, the Tory opposition, which refused to father, and the midwife of the Scottish acknowledge that the private sector Parliament that we now have. It is was unwilling to build quality, low-rent manifestly untrue, but that won’t stop housing, the council housing estates the Nationalists seeking to claim credit that rapidly sprang up across Scotland for much more. provided desperately needed escape from poisonous squalor for hundreds of So let’s remind ourselves of a few thousands of Scottish families. landmarks in the social fabric of our nation’s history, some of which were Labour’s creation of the National Health constructed before the SNP was even Service in 1948 is rightly credited to formed. One such is social housing, Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health in born out of the quite appalling housing Clement Attlee’s Labour government, conditions that those who were toiling and to William Beveridge, who wrote to build the ships and munitions to the report bearing his name advocating fight in World War One, and the women the NHS. But they knew it would work who were bringing up families while because, in all but name, the NHS was their husbands were fighting at the already in being in Scotland. front, were expected to endure. Not only was the overcrowding – whole The credit for that goes to Tom Johnston, families confined to one room and an a Labour Scottish Secretary in Winston outside toilet shared by others – utterly Churchill’s wartime national government. intolerable, but the rents they were He had the inspiration to see that civil expected to pay were extortionate.
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