Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the UK Liberal Democrats
Speech to the Scottish Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Aviemore.
Friday 29 February 2008
Thank you for your kind welcome.
And thanks also to Nicol Stephen for such a generous introduction.
It is a great pleasure to be here with you today in Aviemore – in the constituency of my good friend Danny Alexander.
This is of course the first Scottish Conference in nine years at which the Federal Leader’s speech has been delivered by someone from south of the border.
I’m very proud to be that Leader.
And I want you to know that I will do everything within my power to help in your quest to turn the Scottish Liberal Democrats into the dominant force in Scottish politics.
You know, it’s been good for our party that our recent leaders have been Scots.
Ming Campbell – a man of principle and integrity with an outstanding grasp of our country’s role in the world.
And Charles Kennedy – a politician with an unparalleled ability to connect with the British public and – here in the Highlands – a true Local Hero.
As leaders, their feel for Scottish politics has been invaluable to our party in the early years of devolution.
And they have made an enormous impression on the British stage too.
Charles and Ming – we are indebted to you.
And now, as Leader, I want to make my contribution too.
I am determined to connect this party to our country’s liberal majority.
To show that the Liberal Democrats have the ideas and the values needed to build the liberal society that people want to live in.
The Need for Change
Let me tell you, our party is facing a moment of real opportunity.
Labour looks old, tired, and incompetent.
Who now believes that Gordon Brown holds the answers to the challenges facing Britain?
If he really has the ideas to free millions of people from the poverty trap in which so many are snared, why has social mobility stagnated under his watch?
If he really gets the urgency of tackling climate change, why has he allowed carbon emissions to rise while green taxes have fallen?
If he really understands the will of the British people to reassert an independent foreign policy, why are our troops still hunkered down in Iraqi barracks awaiting George Bush’s signal that they can go home?
Gordon was quick to understand that the British people want change.
But slow to recognise that he can’t deliver it.
The waste, the incompetence, and the arrogance of the Blair years live on in the Brown era.
And no-one seriously believes that the Tories can deliver change either.
David Cameron cannot claim to be the architect of a new political order when he spends so much time peddling the same ideas as his nemesis in Downing Street.
The same policies on council tax.
The same policies on Trident.
The same policies on Iraq.
Bitter enemies they may be, but the sourness between Brown and Cameron is not due to some great chasm between them -
It’s just the narcissism of small differences.
What after all would the Tories actually change?
Well, they’d switch seats in the European Parliament so they don’t sit with anyone who’s normal.
They’d replace Human Rights Act so that peoples’ rights are watered down.
And they’d tax single parents so that they can give £20 a week to incentivise marriage.
Reactionary, remote, regressive.
Small steps may be the best that the Tories can offer: but they are small steps in the wrong direction.
Underneath the veneer of progressive words, the Tories are still the Tories.
We’ve seen it all before, we’ve heard it all before, we’ve rejected it all before.
People want real change.
A party that doesn’t always split the difference, play it safe or chase the niche voter.
But a party that has the guts to walk away from those tactics and to really stand up for what it believes in –
To say these are our principles and this is how we’ll lead.
The Anti-establishment Party
That’s what I want this party to be about.
A progressive force with the energy and ideas to deliver real social justice.
And with the courage to do that by challenging the conventional wisdom.
The tried and failed notion that the central state always knows best.
We need to show our determination to take power away from the centre.
So that we can empower communities and individual people too.
That means more power for Holyrood and Home Rule for Scotland – yes.
But it also means finding ways to devolve power down further so that Scottish communities and Scottish families have more power over their own lives.
That’s a liberal agenda that will capture this country’s imagination.
You know, unquestioning support for the established order is not the liberal way.
Liberal Democrats must stand for change.
So I will work tirelessly to raise the issues that really matter to people –
And lead the campaign for a different kind of politics –
Where freedom is cherished.
Where fairness is central.
And where government is on the side of the people.
That’s what motivates me:
The ambition to shape a new politics where people are masters of their own destiny.
And where government steps in to ensure fairness, but knows to keep out of private life.
So when people ask you what we are for tell them this.
Tell them that our party exists to champion the hopes and ambitions of each citizen.
And to expose, shame and eliminate every vested interest – public and private - that stands in their way.
And I know that approach is well understood here in Scotland.
This is a country known for its egalitarian principles and passion for social justice.
For its suspicion of orthodoxy and establishment thinking.
And what better example is there for a political party challenging the old order than our achievement of fair votes for local government here in Scotland.
In just one election PR has cleared out the single-party fiefdoms that have served as the bedrock of Labour’s dominance for far too long.
Down from outright control of thirteen councils to outright control of just two.
Who’d have imagined until now that Labour would lose its majority in the City of Dundee, in South Lanarkshire, or in West Lothian?
But they have.
And who’d have imagined until now that Liberal Democrats would be in power in Angus, in East Lothian and in Renfrewshire?
But we are.
We’ve gone from being in power in seven councils to thirteen because we have embraced change.
We’ve worked with others to redraw the map of Scotland’s local government.
And we’ve taken a new broom to the old order by making every vote count.
Overturning the orthodoxies, challenging the establishment, working for change.
That’s liberalism in practice.
That’s the Liberal Democrats in action.
So we shouldn’t hold back in the quest for change.
We should be bold, demanding – thrawn:
In Scotland and throughout the UK.
So that people know that our party speaks for them with a voice that is clear and certain.
That’s the reason that I speak out on behalf of families facing soaring fuel bills while energy companies rack up record profits.
That’s the reason that I campaign against the creeping intrusion of Gordon Brown’s surveillance state with its ID cards, databases and arbitrary restrictions on individual liberty.
And it’s the reason that I stand against human rights abuses – all human rights abuses – wherever we find them.
From stonings in Saudi to executions in Iran.
From ethnic violence in Kenya to arbitrary trial in China.
From water boarding in Guantanamo Bay to rendition flights on UK soil.
Human rights are absolute and indivisible.
And it is the duty of every liberal to defend those rights against those who would undermine them – both in this country and abroad.
Devolution in Practice – the Ideas to Make it Work
But I also know when to hold my tongue:
Not something which comes easily to a politician.
Because I know why the Scottish Parliament was established.
To hand power down to those who know best how to use it.
And give responsibility to those who had been denied it.
So that there truly are Scottish solutions to Scottish problems.
Does that mean that our Scottish Party might have different policies from Welsh Party or the English Party?
Yes it might – and that’s fine by me.
That’s what our vision for home rule is all about.
You know, the principles that guide our party are universal.
But the circumstances that shape our politics are not.
So here’s my guarantee to you:
When it comes to issues affecting Britain as a whole, I will lead you.
And when it comes to issues affecting Scotland alone, I will support you.
Nicol and I will work together – there are co-pilots in this partnership, and no backseat driver.
Of course, not every party has adjusted so well to the devolved politics.
Like an over-bearing father, Gordon Brown has had problems letting go of Scottish Labour.
He wants Wendy Alexander to deliver Brown’s Britain in miniature.
She’s done a pretty good job of that.
Today, Scottish Labour is a party paralysed by indecision, uncertainty, and drift.
They have run out of ideas and run out steam.
When I look at Gordon Brown and Wendy Alexander I see the present fading into the past.
Labour is the party of yesterday’s Scotland.
And we are the party of Scotland’s tomorrows.
Because our priorities are Scotland’s priorities.
Progressive, radical, liberal.
We share in Scotland’s ambition to do better, to achieve more – to set free this great nation’s potential
Look at our record.
The big ideas – the big achievements – of the first eight years of devolution were Liberal Democrat ideas – each and every one.
And they were not achieved because of the Labour Party:
They were achieved in spite of the Labour Party.
It was we who forced them to back down in government: it was we how provided substance to the first two terms of Scotland’s Parliament.
And where will the big ideas come from over the next eight years?
From the Tories?
A party that never wanted a Scottish Parliament in the first place -
A party which draped itself in the Union Jack, but which now hangs around at the feet of Alex Salmond in the desperate hope of scraps from his plate?
Or from the Nationalists?
Less than a year into government, and there is barely a single idea, policy or commitment that they been unwilling to sling overboard.
What happened to the idea of funding maximum class sizes of eighteen?
What happened to the policy of mandatory annual targets for cutting carbon emissions?
What happened to the commitment to pay off Scottish students’ loans?
In the quest for power the SNP promised everything.
But in the government they have found that reality bites.
Bluster, hubris and spin have been their cover for a record of broken promises and centralisation.
Nowhere is this more apparent than here in the Highlands and Islands.
This constituency has gained in prosperity and confidence by being able to pursue distinctive policies suited to the UK’s most remote and dispersed area.
That autonomy is being threatened by SNP cuts.
Alex Salmond’s real goal remains the dissolution of Britain.
Everything else is just gamesmanship, tactics and words.
Scotland deserves better than that.
A Second Enlightenment
Three hundred years ago Scotland was one of the poorest countries in Europe.
And yet from that poverty streams of rich thought bubbled to the surface.
The Scottish Enlightenment produced philosophers, scientists, thinkers of every variety –
Men who came together in the taverns of Edinburgh to share their ideas for a better future.
Men like Adam Ferguson, David Hume, and Adam Smith whose words and deeds shaped the future.
The hardship facing this country inspired their values: improvement, virtue, hard work.
They rejected the old ways and superstitions, and instead they embraced reason and progress – progress for themselves and for their society.
Those values are our values too.
So I say that our party should lead the debate on new ideas for a progressive Scotland:
That we should harness Scotland’s frustrated ambitions and spearhead ideas for Scotland’s future –
That we should ride the wave of a second Scottish Enlightenment.
And become the beating heart of Scotland’s progressive future.
So go out and speak to people.
Find today’s artists, writers, and thinkers.
And the designers, and engineers and entrepreneurs too.
Bring them together.
If they’re liberal by conviction, sign them up.
But above all ask them what they believe Scotland needs to enjoy a new age of creativity, progress and success.
And look to translate the best of their ideas into the best of liberal policies.
Because after eight years of devolution, Scots are restless for more from their Parliament and more from their politics.
And if the Liberal Democrats deliver it, as we can do – as we will do – there is no limit to our potential.
We can change the future of Scottish politics.
From Devolution to Home Rule
But Scotland’s potential will only be reached if its parliament is free to deliver on Scotland’s priorities.
So I share Nicol Stephen’s ambition to strengthen and deepen devolution in Scotland –
To move beyond the present devolution to the future home rule.
Nicol has led the debate on the future powers of the Scottish Parliament.
And he has been right to do so.
Why can’t the Scottish Parliament raise more of its own money rather than relying on a block grant from Westminster?
That’s what happens in other devolved administrations across Europe.
Is Holyrood worth less than the German Lander?
We should ask why green tax levers are reserved for Westminster.
And we should ask why Scotland’s marine powers are so limited when Scotland’s marine needs are so specific - and Westminster is dragging its heels.
Where the case for centralised powers is robust, we should respect that.
But the assumption must be that power will lie as close as possible to the people it affects.
Because empowering Scotland’s Parliament will empower Scotland’s communities, and Scotland’s people too –
Holyrood will never win the full confidence of those it serves unless it’s given the authority and freedom to do make its mark.
That’s the Liberal Democrat recipe for real devolution – for home rule in Scotland
And it’s what the Scottish people want too.
Poll after poll shows that Scots don’t want to leave the UK.
But they don’t want things to stagnate either.
What people want is a better deal on the way that they are governed –
A stronger Scotland and a more popular Union.
That’s what we will campaign for.
And I believe that is what Scotland will vote for.
The Party of Scotland’s Future
By the election after next I want us to more than double the number of Westminster MPs that we have today.
Because we can only shape the future if we push our way into the centre of power, elected on a mandate for change.
So, I’m asking you today to join with me in making that happen.
Today, Scotland sends twelve first class Liberal Democrats to Westminster.
Six years from now, I want to send twenty four.
It’s a tall order, and it won’t be easy.
But we can get there.
We already have great candidates in winnable seats.
Matthew Duncan in Aberdeen South.
Katy Gordon in Glasgow North.
Kevin Lang in Edinburgh North.
Fred McIntosh in Edinburgh South.
Amy Rodger in East Lothian.
And more besides.
These are young talents with real vigour and fresh ideas.
So let’s win those seats at the next election – whenever it is called.
And then let’s move forward from there to win more Holyrood seats in 2011 and yet more in the Westminster election after that.
We can do this if we want to.
If we work together to find the new ideas that will inspire others to join us and change Scotland’s politics for good.
Scotland’s liberal future is ours for the taking.
Let’s make it happen.
