Conference, it is a tremendous
honour for me to address you for the first time as the leader of our Scottish
party.
I’m conscious that today I am
addressing some of my political heroes.
I cannot overstate the sense of
responsibility I feel to the great Scottish Liberals on whose shoulders I
stand, and whose legacy I inherit, among them friends and mentors like Jim
Wallace, Jo Swinson and Charles Kennedy.
But I would not be standing here,
I would not have a seat in the building behind me were it not for Willie
Rennie.
With the most recognisable smile
in Scottish politics, Willie has silenced any talk of our extinction in
Scotland and with record breaking majorities in our constituencies he
has redefined the meaning of the word fortress.
Willie, you are one of my best
friends and we will never be able to repay the debt we owe you.
Bobby Kennedy once said:
“Fear not the path of truth for
the lack of people walking on it.”
In recent times it’s felt like
we’ve been walking a lonely road as Liberals in this country. We’ve suffered
many setbacks and have had to work hard to regain trust and belief.
But the one thing that has
sustained us on that journey is the one thing our country is now crying out
for.
And that’s hope.
After everything we’ve been
through, Scotland needs new hope right now.
As a party we deal in hope
because it sustains us. Because we see the best in things, in the people we
live among and in the communities we serve.
As a party we deal in hope
because it sustains us. Because we see the best in things, in the people we
live among and in the communities we serve"
I got into politics because people
matter to me. Like everyone in our party, I am inspired and thrilled by the
idea of community.
When Covid hit, people didn’t
hunker down and padlock their doors.
They came forward in their
thousands to volunteer at test centres, in key worker hubs and to help
those in need around them.
Our movement is
rooted in hope and the belief
for what the word community can mean.
Neighbours looking out for
neighbours, sharing with each other and caring for each other.
That is as important in our
streets and towns as it is in the global village.
Everywhere I look there is a
sense that people are remembering that about us.
Understanding when they put trust
and belief in the Liberal Democrats they get a return on that investment for
them and for their communities.
when they put trust and belief in
the Liberal Democrats they get a return on that investment for them and for their
communities"
We prove time and again door by
door and street by street that a thousand seemingly tiny acts of public
service can move a mountain of public opinion.
Whisper it, but there’s something
in the air about our party, a growing sense of optimism and of confidence, in
opinion polls and in by election results.
From Chesham and Amersham to Wick
in the northern-most tip of Scotland we are winning again and we are
winning against the odds.
we are winning again and we are
winning against the odds"
It should give us all such hope
and my goodness doesn’t the country need a bit of that.
After two of the hardest years
any of us have known, people are crying out for the hint of new possibility,
that as we come out of the pandemic, we could do things differently.
And we need to do things
differently, because we cannot limit our ambition to going back to the
way things were.
Long before we’d heard of
Covid-19, things were bad in Scotland.
There were warning lights
blinking across the dashboard of public policy, they remain unattended to:
There were warning lights
blinking across the dashboard of public policy, they remain unattended to"
On the educational attainment
gap, missed climate targets and record mental health waits.
On GRA reform.
On the threadbare state of our
police force.
The measure of
effective government is in the delivery of public services.
That is never more true than in a
time of national crisis.
The pandemic demanded every ounce
of the government’s attention.
It also allowed
ministers to set aside the hard stuff.
Patients in pain, sent letters
telling them their treatment would start in 12 weeks, when in fact, they
wouldn’t be seen in 50.
All of these were matters of
policy that presented a problem for the SNP and so it used the Covid emergency
to deflect and defer action on them.
And yet, despite all that, on the
eve of a deadly second wave, the First Minister found time and space for a bill
about another independence referendum.
on the eve of a deadly second
wave, the First Minister found time and space for a bill about another
independence referendum"
Conference, there is a muscle
memory to the politics of Scotland.
Every election, we are told that
each vote cast is either a mandate for another referendum or the only way to
stop it.
This has become the full extent
of public debate in our country.
People are suffering
because of it.
Progress is stifled by a clash of nationalisms, the Scottish
Nationalism of the SNP, but also the Brexit nationalism of Boris Johnson’s
Conservative party.
We are trapped between flags.
Between politicians
who mythologise and pine for ancient nations and borders, when the world has
moved on and demands international co-operation.
If this boils down to a choice
between those two nationalisms, then everybody loses.
So, I say enough.
People ask me why, as Liberals
and as Democrats we continue to oppose another independence referendum.
I’ll tell you why. Two reasons.
Firstly, just as with Vote Leave
and the prospectus for Brexit where the sum total of the offer was written on
the side of a bus, the SNP are asking people to write a blank cheque, to take a
leap in the dark.
Nobody will tell us what currency
we’ll use, who will pay our pensions or the nature of the border at Berwick.
Above all, we oppose it, because
the relentless constitutional drumbeat drowns everything else out. It
holds us back.
In Scotland today, if your
daughter fell off her bike and broke her arm you could reasonably expect her to
be in plaster by the end of the day.
If she came to you self-harming
then she will join the longest queue in the NHS.
Conference, at this precise
moment, well over 1500 children are waiting more than a year for mental
health treatment. It is a national outrage.
Those statistics tarnish the
record of the government. But what absolutely ruins it is the drug deaths
emergency.
Scotland has the
worst drug mortality in the developed world. It is nearly 4 times the rate of England and Wales.
Time and again, the SNP
government have shown themselves unequal to the task of reducing this
devastating problem in Scotland.
In fact 5 years ago, with rates
rising and records already mounting, Nicola Sturgeon saw fit to cut
budgets to drug services by 22%, sending organisations to the wall and
severing support.
Last year we posted a new grim
record on drug deaths, triggering a ministerial reshuffle and the introduction
of a dedicated post reporting directly to the First Minister.
On her appointment, the new
minister made it clear that first and foremost we just need to stop people
dying.
She had both my agreement and
support for that ambition.
But nine months later people
continue to die at the same rate as before.
New statistics indicate that last
year’s terrible record will be matched.
The SNP claim that these deaths
are a result of UK Government policy.
That is a fallacy.
If this were the fault of
reserved powers or austerity, we would see the same rates of people dying on
the streets of London as we see in Glasgow.
We don’t. Glasgow is 10
times worse.
Conference this is a particularly
Scottish problem, which now demands international attention.
That is why this morning I have
written to the Director General of the World Health Organisation, asking him to
mobilise and send a task force of global experts on drug mortality to Scotland
to help get this public health disaster under control.
Conference, there is a new
SNP/Green coalition in Scotland.
Their very first act was an
illiberal one.
Scotland is the first and
possibly the only corner of these islands to undermine the basic right
to medical privacy with the introduction of vaccine ID cards.
But make no mistake, this new
coalition is about one thing, and it's not the environment.
Its central mission is a
constitutional one, threatening to utterly consume the precious little time
left before our planet is irreparably damaged.
Its central mission is a
constitutional one, threatening to utterly consume the precious little time
left before our planet is irreparably damaged"
So conference, it’s up to
Scottish Liberal Democrats to provide hope for the climate emergency.
We’ve won some of the toughest
climate targets in the world.
Those targets need to be met.
But that’s something the
Scottish Government has failed to do year after year.
It’s not hard to see why.
Take transport where emissions
haven’t budged in thirty years.
You can practically taste it in
the air outside my constituency office, sitting as it does on one of the most
polluted roads in the entire country.
I hear people say they would
drive an electric car if they could trust the charging network.
So let’s give government a real
stake in making those chargers available and keeping them running.
Let’s insist new public
sector vehicles are electric.
I hear people say cost is a
barrier.
Let’s spread those costs so they
are affordable, with longer government-backed interest free loans.
That could be worth more than
£100 a month to household budgets.
And people need to trust that an
EV can get them from A to B.
So there should be a new
entitlement to show what is possible.
Take an EV for a spin for a
weekend and the Government will pick up the tab.
Take one for a trip and folk
won’t look back.
That’s just the start, there’s so
much more to come, because we need new hope for the climate emergency.
In the run up to COP26 I’ll be
laying out a range of measures Liberals want to see.
Conference, Scotland is a
beautiful and dynamic place to live.
Our people are proud and our
history is magnificent.
But we have been subdued.
By the collapse of industry, by
failing health and by ministerial disinterest.
That is why Scotland is in such
need of hope right now.
It’s time to show the
people of this country what we can do for them.
Because, I’m tired of winning
elections based on who we’re not.
So let me set out what we’re for.
If you want a party that
will fight the climate emergency with ferocity but without the
baggage of nationalism, come with us.
If you want to live in a country
which offers the best education in the world, which values
its carers and those they care for, then come with us.
If you want a party that stands
unwaveringly for human rights at home and abroad, one that will stand
up to state intrusion in your lives come with us.
If you’re affected by the national
mental health crisis then come with us.
Come with us and I promise you
that Liberal Democrats in the villages and towns of Scotland will show you the
meaning of the word hope once again.
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