Can I start by thanking everyone for their good wishes at the news that Kirsten and I will be having a baby in July.

It's all good. Tavish Scott MSP

The only down side is that only one of us is now permitted to climb 65ft Perthshire spruce trees for a photo opportunity.

I was going to do a tree-top protest; to force the SNP to support our campaign and stop selling off Scotland's forests.

My mobile went off half-way up. It was the Government's press office.
"Is it urgent," I asked. "Oh yes," they said. "You can come down now. SNP Ministers have given in. The forests are safe; in public hands".
But I thought, what the heck, and went to the top anyway.

So, Nick Clegg is a new dad.

To those who have tried to make stupid political points because he is not here with us in Perth, let me say this;

We agreed as friends and fathers that Nick should put his family first this weekend;

It doesn't happen enough in politics;

It is the right decision;

And it shows how close our values really are;

Politics is vital; but family comes first.

If I can say this about Nick.

On banks and the economy;

On climate change;

On social justice;

On tackling poverty;

He is the most powerful voice for change across Britain; he has shown that Britain needs the principles he stands for; as we bring the fresh ideas to replace the failed governments - Tory and Labour - that have let this country down for too long.

This year is the 21st anniversary of the Liberal Democrats.
I found a photo of winning Liberals from the 1980s at home last weekend.

Actually there are no other kind of Liberals in the Northern Isles.
It features a very young Jim Wallace. Alistair Easton with a full head of hair and an even bigger beard - and Jo.

In Shetland Jo Grimond was just Jo. The election slogan went:
"The Liberal flame must never dim; pass it from Jo to Jim".

It's now more of a challenge.

"Don't let the Liberal Democrat flame dim; "under a fully proportional voting system, on the right hand side of ballot paper, move from Jim to Alistair, Tavish and Liam".

The slogan may change;

But what doesn't is the power of my political roots from the Northern Isles;

Those values I learned growing up in Shetland.

An outward looking approach;

The power of community;

The strength of a caring society.

Where people work together, not because they have to, but because they want to.

Those are my values.

And now is the time to put them into action.

The economy has been brought low.

Do you remember the Holywood film? The one where Michael Douglas plays
the Wall Street banker?

"The point is ladies and gentlemen," he said, ", that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works."

It should have been a warning, a fiction, a parody;

But a few greedy bankers took it as an instruction.

Greed at the savers' expense.

Greed at the pensioner's expense.

Greed at the single mother's expense; as she struggles to pay the bills in a failing economy.

The recession is not an economic theory but a brash reality for every home, business and citizen in Scotland.

As we said last autumn - The best way forward was to save a Scottish Bank - the Bank of Scotland.

Retain its independence - maintain competition on the high street.

Yes, that would have meant nationalising HBOS even with all its toxic debts.

But it would have left Lloyds TSB in private hands - steady, safe and sure.

That's what we argued.

But Gordon Brown thought he knew better when he fixed the take-over at that cocktail party last summer.

Well he got it wrong.

Wrong for that businessman I met in Kelso; whose bank now charges him a fee for not having an overdraft.

Or Inverness, where the building company needs the bank on its side to keep people in work.

Or the business I visited in Galashiels that sees its interest rate go up when the Bank of England takes its rate down.

I have heard what people have told me;

The country knows;

The banking shambles is Labour's shambles;

Gordon Brown's shambles.

And if you thought it couldn't get any worse; Six months too late; We hear a peep out of Harriet Harman.

I'm told she needed an interpreter at the Scottish Labour Conference last weekend. She couldn't understand the questions! From her own party!

I shall speak very slowly so even the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party understands the mess we are in.

Harriet Harman told us that Sir Fred Goodwin was best known - and got his knighthood - for his charity works.

Well, I'll tell you this. Harriet - you don't get a £700,000 pension from selling the Big Issue.

Harriet Harman says that if she can't get Fred Goodwin in a real court, she'll try her luck in what she called "the court of public opinion".

Well, be careful what you wish for. I want to see Harriet and the Labour Party in the court of public opinion too.

So, Gordon Brown, go to the palace, kiss hands and get in the dock.

Let the court of public opinion have their say.

Guilty Labour is going down.

And isn't Labour now a mess?

Have you kept up with the leadership campaigns?

When the party of government becomes obsessed about the life hereafter you know that they're finished. Gone.

And if Harriet Harman doesn't have a clue,

Well this crisis has really shown just how useless George Osborne is;

A man who think a bank crisis is when you forget the pin number on your Coutts gold card.

Nothing has made me angrier than to see the jobs and businesses threatened on such a scale by this banking crisis;

Yet the Tories have nothing to say;

Nothing to offer;

Some may say they don't know;

Some may say they don't care;

So, I say this to the Tories. To be serious as a party of government you can't just can sit there, say nothing and wait for your turn.
But Tory or Labour - it makes no difference.

A choice between the people who messed up this time or the people who messed up last time.

They both make the same mistakes.

Then it's the other lots turn.

Or that's what they think.

Blue-Red; Red-Blue;

Enough. Enough.

This is our time.

A liberal time.

Fairness, honesty, transparency.

Never have our values been needed so much;

So in today's world; when so many people - from so many walks of life - are worried about their jobs, keeping a roof over their heads and making ends meet, we have to respond.

This Party will work every hour on the needs of people, businesses and families.

We will work every day to build the practical help for people now, when they need it most.

And Liberal Democrats are ready to rebuild the jobs, homes and hope destroyed by this recession.

The people want their government to be straight with them.

Last year the Finance Minister assured us that Scottish growth was resilient.

Now Fraser of Allander tell us it will fall by 2.6%.

Last year the First Minister said that Scotland was resilient to unemployment.

But since then it has risen by 24,000; and the rate of job loss overtook the rest of the UK.

So that is why all of our focus and all our determination has to be on getting people in Scotland through the recession, generating jobs and promoting prosperity.

That's what we did when we had just six days to build a better Budget for Scotland.

We offered a tax cut of more than £300 for every earner; money back when they needed it most.

But every step of the way, every other party said "no" to money back in people's pockets.

And they will have to answer to the voters for that.

But, when we had just six days to save the Budget, Liberal Democrats had to do more, we had to go further.

So we got the Government to change its mind and to adopt our Economic Rescue Plan.

The Plan will boost jobs now and build for the long term.

The commentators said it was a "milestone".

And it was drafted, developed and won by the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

We wanted school building restarted.

So we got the SNP to change its mind and commit to new funding.

The construction industry was paralysed by the SNP. But now can start building again.

We wanted to protect tens of thousands of high quality financial services jobs.

So we got the SNP to change its mind; It will now bring Government and Industry round a table to find a way to keep Scotland world class.

And we wanted an end to the chaos of the SNP's transport plans.

Scotland needs the powers that can get the new Forth Bridge built without losing every other road and rail project.

That's why we got the SNP to change its mind and agree to work with the Calman Commission.

We need more powers for one prime purpose;

To get Scotland back to work.

Strengthened with new powers.

To create new, green jobs.

To build new industries and new opportunities for people across the nation.

We will use Calman to make that case for a better Scotland.

To win what we have wanted for one hundred years;

A stronger UK and stronger Scotland with a true Home Rule Parliament.

And creating jobs isn't just about statistics or productivity.

It's about creating the opportunity;

Giving people hope, prospects and pounds in their pockets.

I don't want a Scotland in which the focus of attention is point-scoring, back-stabbing and a blame game;

A fight between North and South; Murphy and Salmond - like Itchy and Scratchy.

Aren't the challenges we face far greater than that?

Here is why. In the last five years the Scottish Government has spent six billion pounds on the health service in Glasgow.

And the UK Government has spent another billion on sick benefits in the same city.

But there are still 93,000 people on benefits; tens of thousands out of a job.

And the wake-up call of a United Nations report that shows a man born in Calton will die 28 years earlier than a man born in Lenzie.

That gap is as stark and as cruel as it ever was.

So people in Glasgow want better from their Governments. It is a living monument to the failure of our political system;

When your society is afflicted in this way, when real people are locked out of the real economy;

They lose and we all lose.

Isn't it shameful that all our governments in Scotland and Westminster seem to do is fight with each other?

It's not society that is broken.

It's the attitude of our governments.

We can fix it;

And we can give a new generation of Scots a better start, a healthier beginning and a real opportunity for the future.

And as we turn all our focus to jobs, let me say this to the SNP.

You cannot waste taxpayers' money, Government time and Parliamentary debates on a cause that the country doesn't want and the economy can't bear.

Ditch the referendum.

Forget the spin and politics of the independence panto. Put the needs of Scotland before the interests of the SNP.

The job of any First Minister is to work day and night, non-stop on the real needs of the country.

It's about three things - Jobs, jobs, jobs.

That should be the Government's main focus.

That should be the Government's main task.

That is a Government that I would want to create.

There is one priority for me as leader; that is sorting the economy; and it will be for this Party too.

Yes. These are tough times.

But there are practical things that can be done to help.

Here's another.

People in pubs, taxis and high streets are saying "I want Vince Cable to be our next Chancellor".

You know what? I agree.

And every vote for the Liberal Democrats moves Vince one step closer to Number Eleven.

Vince Cable has led the argument on the economy;

It's not just banks that need a bail out, families and individuals need help, too.

Tens of thousands of people risk losing their homes; but we have a plan to help them.

Labour's V.A.T. cut hasn't worked, but costs £31million every day; Think what it would mean with Liberal Democrats in Government;

Big tax cuts for people on middle and low incomes.

The very richest people paying a fairer share of tax.
95,000 new, green jobs, that tackle climate change and cut energy bills.

Labour's wasteful spending brought to an end;

no to tens of billions on ID cards;

no to more nuclear power;

no to more IT schemes that cost, cost, cost and fail, fail, fail.

But a lot more of; holding bankers to account,

Making regulators regulate; and putting money back into people's pockets.

And our plan at Holyrood and at Westminster is what we already do in local government.

I went to Fife House to hear how Elizabeth Riches has ended generations of Labour control.

Her priorities - the Fife economy and better transport links;

Turning RAF houses into affordable homes to rent;

And now the most improved education authority in the country.

Look at Edinburgh.

The City Council is led by Jenny Dawe.

Her Budget includes new money to bring 3000 people into sustainable jobs;

And here in Perth our Liberal Democrat councillors have agreed a Business Survival Package and have transformed housing;

Peter Barrett has delivered new affordable homes with more new council houses to come; and has secured hundreds of local construction jobs in the process.

Strong Liberal Democrats in local government fighting the recession.

But tackling the economy, creating jobs is nothing new for Liberals!
101 years ago the great Lloyd George said "Let Liberalism proceed with its glorious work of building up the temple of liberty in this country. But let it also bear in mind that the worshippers at that shrine also have to live."

So he created his Liberal People's Budget - pensions and benefits.

The beginning of a caring welfare system.

And eighty years ago, Britain faced economic calamity; It was Liberals again who provided the inspiration and the practical plans to build a better future for British industry.

"We can conquer unemployment" said the Liberal plan. Reflate the economy; invest in public infrastructure - transport and energy.
Today, there are millions more people facing the same challenge; to survive an economic collapse.

This is the biggest recession for generations;

So, once again, it is our party's biggest challenge;

And it deserves our biggest response;

We Liberal Democrats will focus all our energies, in Holyrood, Westminster, Europe and in every Council we run, on a real plan of action;

A route out of recession.

Building a better future.

But if, for whatever reason the Prime Minister chooses not to go to the country this year; abject fear for instance;

the next election will be for the European Parliament.

Why should, why would Scotland want a Labour MEP at the European elections this June? What's the point?

And the Tories? The Tories want us to be isolated. They won't work with anyone, even if it costs Scottish business dear.

Just this week they went to Brussels to say that they won't even work with the Tories from other countries.

And here's some surprising news for you. The fishing industry has fallen out of love with the SNP.

It's a funny thing. Fishermen are telling me they're worse than the last lot!

A west coast fisherman said to me the other day, "come back Ross Finnie, all is forgiven!"

Remarkable times. So, I have told our European team to change their approach for the election in June.

George Lyon and Euan Robson will make sure we have a practical plan that supports Scottish business and cuts the cost of living.

And for that we need Liberal Democrat MEPs elected from Scotland in June.

Bringing the banks under control;

Getting small business the money it needs;

And creating a new generation of green collar jobs.

We must, working together, make sure that happens.

But, as politics is the economy; there is something else. Something vital.

A reason for being in politics and in government.

We have never had to question our reasons, our political DNA, or our values:

Our vision is to create a liberal and democratic society.

You don't have to look far to see why we are needed.

Does anyone really imagine that even this illiberal Labour Government could have got away with imposing ID cards on Britain without the Iraq War?

And then have the nerve to charge us £6 billion for them?

Well, we warned the country about Iraq; and we were right;

We warned them about the recession; and we were right;

Now we warn them about ID cards and liberty;

It's bad enough bailing out the greedy bankers;

It's even worse making us pay through the nose to lose our own freedoms.

Values in politics have never been more needed.

Labour, the Tories and the SNP stand for managerial politics.

They're in it to look good.

We're in it to do good.

And we can do no better than to defend the most vulnerable in our midst.

The tragic story of Brandon Muir shocked us all. No Government can be indifferent to a 23 month old boy left by his mother at a drug crazed party; sick and dying; while she works the street as a prostitute.

To earn money, not for that small life but to feed her heroin habit.

Thousands of young Scottish children grow up in drug fuelled families.

We need to do better. A society, a caring Scotland; a Scotland where local people do ask, do care, who don't ignore. A Scotland where those young lives, our country's future are first in our thoughts and actions.

And a Scotland where those children are given a new beginning.

A drug fuelled start to life is no start. That must change.

The caring society; that's what I believe in; and that is what we should make as we rebuild from this recession; not just economic recovery but a social recovery too.

As Liberal Democrats we have the track-record; the practical plan and the vision for the future.

We are on the side of real people facing the uncertainties of today and tomorrow.

When banks bosses were ripping us off and lining their pockets - we were on your side;

When small business was being hit on interest rates - we were on your side;

When parents couldn't get their school built - we were on your side;
And when you want the generations ahead to live in freedom; with good jobs; in a strong, united country; with an environment treasured;
Which has shaken off the inequality and mistakes of the Tory and Labour years.

We will be there.

On your side.

Building a better future.

Liberal Democrats are the party of change in this changing world.

A party of real hope.

A party that believes in our people.

A party with ambition;

That is a party I want to lead

That is the better future we will build.