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SALMOND'S FOCUS ON FIRST 100 DAYS
Speaking in his address to the SNP Spring Conference in Dundee,
SNP Leader
Alex Salmond MP said:
"Fellow delegates,
I've found the solution to raising election funds.
As you know we can't just flog a few peerages like the London parties.
However I can report that I am being offered fancy money for my
cowboy hat.
I used to say that I wore tartan troos for devolution but would keep the
kilt for independence. One of the press pack challenged me yesterday on
why I was wearing the kilt before independence.
Heh I'm confident.
I'd seen the latest poll figures on support for independence!
I was in New York promoting a new Robert Burns tartan - my
nomination for
the Scot of the millennium.
And it is Rabbie who best sums up my attitude to publicity.
The mair they talk the better I'm kent.
Friends
We had some fun in America. We also did some good.
However this year for the national movement our campaigns have
been marked
by a great sadness
In Margaret Kelly, Cllr Tom McAlpine, Cllr Danny Coffey and
most recently
Margaret Ewing MSP we have seen the passing of four outstanding
advocates
of the national cause.
Margaret Kelly was one of the great foot soldiers for the
national party,
Tom did so much to make the party credible in the 1970s, Danny
was on the
very cusp of winning his beloved Kilmarnock for the SNP and Margaret was
simply exceptional in everything that she did.
When I was a young MP you may remember I got into a spot of
bother in the
middle of a budget speech. Anyway as I was up protesting about the poll
tax I was aware of a tugging at my jacket.
The day went pretty well and afterwards the entire parliamentary group
(that was the three of us Margaret, Andrew and me) were having a
celebration dinner and I said to Margaret why were you tugging
at my jacket.
She said "I wasn't tugging it I was straightening it. What
would Moira say
if you had been flung out of the Commons in a crumpled suit!"
Margaret led our group of three with grace and distinction -
punching way,
way above our numbers.
She was held in the highest regard by everyone who encountered
her and her
entire political life was a credit to our movement and our cause.
We will all miss her very much indeed.
Apparently the Tory party, the Tory party, are trying to claim her
political legacy in Moray - except that they don't bother to mention the
fact that they are Tories in their thoroughly disreputable literature.
Well let's remind these Tories of the difference
Margaret always fought for our fishing communities; she never sold them
down the river.
She fought against the poll tax. She didn't impose it upon the Scottish
people.
Margaret fought for Scotland all her adult life - she never campaigned
against Scotland.
We - every one of us - knew Margaret Ewing - she was our friend, our
colleague, our inspiration.
Mrs Scanlon you're no Margaret Ewing.
Delegates
Every year politics brings new challenges.
Right now it is dealing with public concerns over bird flu
Let me say outright that I think the general approach being taken is
correct. It is proportionate to the danger.
We should be concerned, and vigilant but not alarmed.
Of course even in a drama there are moments of comedy.
Ross Finnie is known as Captain Mainwaring. Being told don't
panic, don't
panic by Captain Mainwaring is quite something.
Nicola yesterday said that Jack McConnell had said nothing at
all. That is
not quite true. He has been quoted as saying that him coming home would
make matters worse
- well many a true word!
Our job as a responsible opposition is to put the interests of
our people
first.
That we will do.
However when something goes wrong we will say so.
It is not acceptable to have both the First Minister and his deputy in
different time zones and neither in Scotland.
Nor is it acceptable to have an 8 day delay in confirming the
presence of
this dangerous virus.
However we will support the government provided they are honest and
straight with the people.
The way to maintain confidence is to embrace and not to fear the truth.
Oh and just a message to Waitrose.
If you don't want to stock any Scottish produce then just don't bother
applying for any stores in Scotland.
Delegates
I want to tell you a story about a man called Maundy Gregory.
He was an MI6 agent just after the first war and as a sideline he sold
peerages and titles for first Lloyd George and later for the
Tory Stanley
Baldwin.
In 1920 his two jobs came together when he started investigating the
former independent Labour Party MP for Colne Valley, Victor Grayson, for
being a soviet agent.
Grayson replied by making a series of speeches claiming that a "monocled
dandy with offices in Whitehall" was selling peerages and said that "one
day I will name that man"
He didn't get the chance. He disappeared without trace and many years
later an investigation established that the last place he was seen alive
was entering a London house owned by one Maundy Gregory.
With Grayson out of the way Maundy continued on his merry way selling
baubles until in 1933 he finally came across that rarest of creatures in
London politics - an honest man.
Lt Commander Billyard-Leake reported him to the met for trying
to sell him
a knighthood for £10,000 and Maundy was prosecuted under the 1925
legislation Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act"
Maundy threatened to reveal all - and I mean all - but was finally
persuaded to plead guilty. He was sentenced to three months and a £50
fine.
When he left prison he was whisked off to the boat train crossed the
channel and lived out the rest of his days on a £2,000 pension
- provided
by Conservative Party backers.
I tell you this little bit of history for two reasons.
Firstly so that young Angus MacNeil keeps his wits about him in London -
Angus we don't want you disappearing without trace down the Thames.
Secondly and more seriously to emphasise this fact - the selling of
honours is not a joke or a giggle. Nor is it simply an act of dubious
morality.
It is criminality, pure and simple, and the fact that it is an
open secret
that the London parties have been doing it for generations
doesn't make it
any less of a crime.
Lloyd George sold 36 peerages. He was a mere amateur compared
to this lot.
Blair has appointed 292 members of the House of Lords!
Before the loans scandal - before the loans scandal - 80p out of every
pound of individual donations to the labour party came from people who
were subsequently honoured or knighted.
The impact is not just to sully the reputation of politics. It is to
financially gerrymander the democratic process.
How they must have laughed - Tories and labour -last year when
they spent
the best part of £20 million on the election campaign - 100
times what we
were able to spend.
In fact their money was soiled and tainted. They subsidise
their Scottish
appendages with the same dirty money.
The London Tories gave their Scottish puppets £1 million to spend and
elected one solitary MP.
We raised £200,000, honestly, and elected six.
So next year let us determine to make it a fair contest - in
Govan speak a
square go
We have nothing to sell, nothing to trade, no advantage to
confer, just an
idea to proclaim, but it is a great idea, independence, freedom,
self-respect.
If we can raise £1 million then we will not be outspent.
The cash tap will be turned off for Labour and Tory in Scotland as their
London bosses struggle to pay off their secret loans with no
more peerages
to sell.
This latest Whitehall farce indicates how wise this party has
been to give
the House of Lords a wide berth.
Not until democracy has swept out Tony's cronies and shut down Labour's
cashpoint should we even countenance seats in a second chamber.
And always remember we are in London not to settle down but to settle up
for Scotland.
We are a year out from the election
We are already neck and neck with Labour and believe me their support is
not going to go up any time soon.
We need to win 20 new seats to win the election. In my estimation we are
already half way to that objective.
20 seats sounds a lot. In fact it represents only a switch of
26,000 votes
across Scotland compared with the last elections.
Or to put it another way if every member of this party influenced just 3
voters in these seats then we would win with something to spare.
And make no mistake. We are the challengers. Labour hold 40 first passed
the post seats in Scotland. We are second in 36 of these seats!
In contrast the Liberals are in sixth place in as many Scottish seats as
they are in 2nd place - not so much winning here as last here.
And they are in fifth place in more seats than they hold - not so much
winning here as losing here.
Everything the liberals touch turns to dust.
They hold the transport portfolio but are making a total botch of the
Aberdeen peripheral road and the tolls on the Tay and the Forth.
We are meeting in Dundee. Is there a single person in this city
who thinks
it is fair to abolish the tolls on everywhere but the Tay and the Forth?
And Jim Wallace the man who calls for a public enquiry into rendition
flights but opposes it in the Shirley McKie scandal.
Might that be something to do with the fact that he was the Justice
minister who failed in his duty to justice?
The Liberal Party - the party which puts the moan into sanctimony.
I came back to the front line of Scottish politics to challenge to be
first minister of Scotland and to change Scotland for good.
I'm not sure if Mr McConnell has had time to notice - amid all of his
international travels - but there is a beam hanging over the Scottish
parliament.
Labour have plunged pensions into chaos and the roof is coming down.
The health service is closing local hospitals and the roof is
coming down.
The Scottish economy is struggling and the roof is coming down.
Nicola knocks Mr McConnell around the chamber every week at first
minister's questions.
Indeed there is a theory that he unfastened the bracket himself just to
get out of the chamber.
Yesterday Nicola displayed a hitherto unexpected talent when
she surveyed
the Grand National field and looked for a horse that summed up
the present
first minister.
She came up with iznogoud.
I just happened to be glancing - as one does - at the form
descriptions of
the horses in the Independent newspaper
Iznogoud was described in the following terms.
"In and out performer who hasn't won for more than two years and this
season's efforts have been anything but encouraging. Probably best
watched."
Well for McConnell watchers the question is what exactly has
been achieved
in seven long years of Labour-Liberal coalition in Scotland - and the
answer is precious little, at least on the things that really matter.
And the question for the SNP is how do we demonstrate that our
administration - a Scottish government - would be different.
We have just commissioned the largest survey of Scottish
opinion for 5 years.
The results are encouraging - our central policy of independence for our
country is popular and our route of achieving it - by a
referendum of the
Scottish people - is almost universally accepted as right and proper.
We are the preferred government of Scotland. But there are also lessons
for us in the findings.
People want to know more about what we intend to achieve for Scotland
And so today let me spell out just seven of the things which I intend to
do in the first 100 days of being First Minister.
We will introduce legislation to abolish the council tax and replace it
with a fair local income tax. (And we will genuinely deliver on the
parliament's commitment to free personal care for the elderly).
We will introduce our Patients' Rights Act - with patients
given a legally
binding waiting time guarantee.
We will cut the rates burden for small and medium sized business in
Scotland - as a signal of our determination to make the country
competitive.
We will set in train the process to replace the private finance
initiative
with a Scottish futures trust to mobilize public investment in
the future
of our country.
We will establish a council of economic advisers to chart a process of
recovery for the Scottish economy out of the Labour - Liberal slump.
We will publish the referendum bill signalling our intention to give the
opportunity for our people to vote on independence in the course of the
first term of office.
We will establish St Andrew's day as a national holiday so that
all of our
people can celebrate our national day just like normal nations.
Seven targets for delivery in 2007.
People may look at that early programme and question whether it can be
achieved.
More likely they will look at us and say - at last political leadership
for Scotland.
No more playing second fiddle to the interests of elsewhere.
No more orders handed down from London and quietly accepted.
No more making do or making excuses.
It is about leadership, ambition and ideas.
It means putting Scotland first so together we can build a
better life for
today and for the future.
Things must get better and after nine years of labour they
certainly can't
get worse.
We today have published our detailed economic strategy for
Scotland - let
Scotland Flourish - a strategy which is light years in advance
of anything
produced by the London based parties in Scotland.
A national strategy which will be matched at local level by every SNP
candidate. The first of these when our outstanding candidate Richard
Lochhead publishes Let Moray Flourish next week.
It points the way to how we can jolt the economy out of slow managed
decline into fast track but sustainable growth.
No more leaving Scotland for the best jobs and the best life chances. No
more of the second best or second rate for Scotland.
Friends
There is a song by the Corries called "Scotland will flourish"
It goes
"Scotland will flourish when we reap our own harvest and ring
Our own tills
Scotland will flourish by the sweat of our labour, the strength of our
heart and the force of our minds.
Scotland will flourish with an eye to the future and a heart to forgive.
And let us be rid of these bigots and fools who will not let
Scotland live
and let live."
We have a clear target - 20 additional seats.
We have the best programme - the only Scottish programme.
We know the timescale - one year to the election.
Let us go forth and get the job done."
ENDS.
Author : SNP Press Office
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