Annabel Speech

 

Fellow Scottish Tories, and friends in the media (if the cap fits) it really is a pleasure to speak to you all today.

And already things are looking better than they did at this point last year - this time there is a speech on the lectern!

You know last year we had a cracking conference and this year I think we've surpassed even that. It's been full of buzz, full of fun. I know that on day one we started with a little local difficulty! But as I made clear, at least a document in my party doesn't end up in Scotland Yard. So I thank everyone who has worked so hard to make our conference such a success. There's been a conference committee Chaired by Bill Walker and from Peter Duncan, unbelievably long hours and sheer hard graft from him and his team are dedicated and committed staff at Scottish Central Office. I think we should thank them all.

Let me be frank when I took over as Leader there were challenges. But with teamwork and mutual respect we surmounted them. So firstly I want to thank my colleagues in the Scottish Parliament for their loyalty and support. That is the best service they could have given me. I see at first hand how hard our MSPs and staff at the Parliament work. A lot of what they do is unglamorous, much of it can be in the face of adversity and all of it involves long hours and family sacrifice. They are a credit to you and the party. And so to Murdo, to my Deputy Leader, for his support and to the rest of you a very special thanks. And I would particularly like to mention James Douglas-Hamilton and Phil Gallie who will leave us in May. I think we should show our appreciation of everything they have done.

This party has been a united force. And all of us and I mean all of us share a common goal, a common purpose and we will deliver together........ welcome to Tory Friends ........... Re-United.

You know I remember the legendary comment by Margaret Thatcher that every woman needs a Willie. I don't know about that but I need and have got a rock. He's certainly built like one, our Chairman Peter Duncan. I have seen a few Chairmen in my time, I have been one myself. In terms of job attraction it must feature somewhere on a range between hellish and bleep bleep awful. And Peter Duncan is quite simply one of the very best Chairmen I have known. He has been unstintingly supportive of and helpful to me. His reliability and integrity are total. His commitment to the party is immense, his workload beyond belief and his calm patience and wisdom incomparable. This party owes a huge debt to him, I thank you Peter for all that you do and I think we should all demonstrate our appreciation of his contribution.

Now ladies and gentlemen there is no doubt in my mind that the Scottish Conservatives are being seen in a different light. There is a discipline and professionalism amongst the MSPs, there is a discipline and professionalism in Scottish Conservative Central Office and there is a tangible confidence and optimism in our associations the length and breadth of Scotland.

David Cameron continues to be a beacon of inspiration, encouragement and hope. Listening to him yesterday with his clear sense of vision about where to take Britain was not just stimulating and exciting for us but is the catalyst for uncommitted voters to come into our fold and return our party to government with David as Prime Minister. His commitment to us in Scotland has been and continues to be an absolute priority. We could not ask for more dynamic and vigorous support. We believe in him and he believes in us.

So there is no doubt that there has been change North and South of the border and that is important. Because voters were looking for change and not just a change in how we behave towards each other but a change in our political demeanour. You know, people labelled us as the party of the affluent - saw us as a one trick pony - "you're only ever interested in tax cuts" they said. Now I may think that was a harsh judgement, a caricature of what we think we really are - doesn't matter - that was the perception and perception is all. And it was a perception which led some people to conclude that we were out of touch, detached, living in some parallel plane to mainstream Scotland.

I was determined that we would reassure voters that are in tune with their concerns and demonstrate that we would stand up and fight their corner.

Let me remind you of what I said last year at our conference about the Scottish Conservative Party which I wished to lead -

A party which by its attitude and collective demeanour is a party with which any voter in Scotland can feel at ease.

A party which sits naturally with the rich diversity which is Scottish society in the twenty first century.

A party whose underpinning principle is to provide opportunity to every individual whoever that person is and wherever in Scotland that person lives.

A party whose political purpose is to fight for that freedom and that fairness and to challenge all who seek to obstruct that process and a party in which the people of Scotland can have confidence.

That is why I ensured that our process for developing policy was not just us talking to each other.

That is why I appointed an independent, external policy advisory group.

And that is why we spoke extensively to non Conservative voters all over Scotland to hear what they thought of us and to learn what for them were the important issues.

After 8 years of failure from the Lib/Lab pact, the answers were not surprising. Drugs abuse and crime, health, affordable housing and education.

These answers are a remarkable indictment of the Lib/Lab pact at Holyrood. For eight years this dodgy duo has presided over devolved Scotland. To what effect? I'll tell you -

Centralised control of the health service, closures of A & E departments and maternity facilities, and the creation of NHS 24, a poor substitute for local G.P. cover.

Escalating drug crime - methadone prescriptions soaring.

A plague of vandalism, graffiti and anti-social behaviour.

3 out of 4 crimes never reported.

A policeman or woman in our local streets about as rare as the snow leopard.

An attack on a member of staff in our schools every 12 minutes.

Unacceptably low levels of numeracy and literacy.

More ad more young people stuck at home with mum and dad, unable to afford to buy a property.

The public sector now accounting for about 53% of Scotland's GDP. - a truly staggering figure.

A growth industry in Lib/Lab pact special advisers.

A dearth of NHS dentists.

I can see from your expressions you're not able to take much more!

I don't blame you - how do you think the rest of Scotland feels?

I'll tell you - fed up to the back teeth and dismayed. How could Labour and the so-called nice Lib Dems make such a mess? And make no mistake they're in this together. Well I know how, I've watched them for 8 years.

Labour in 1999 thought they had a born right to rule. The Lib Dems on the other hand had no born right to anything but their desire for power was everything. So this unholy alliance got their heads together and found they had so much in common.

A joint enthusiasm for automatic early release and for emptying our jails.

A shared love of government direction and control.

A natural indifference to business and the economy.

An entrenched belief in the centralisation of the Health Service.

A positive passion for quangos and the expansion of state employment.

So that's why we're in the mess we're in. More and more power being sucked into government bankrolled by taxpayers, and less and less power to taxpayers. Quite a remarkable proposition really - there's probably some complicated mathematical formula to describe it.

Or you could just say what a Lib/Lab disaster.

So of course we need change - everyone except Labour and the Lib Dems agrees on that.

Mr Salmond says he's that change. Here he is kitted out in his tartan jodhpurs astride a white charger called Independence galloping to the rescue.

Just to remind you this is the same Mr Salmond who entered the Scottish Parliament in 1999, got bored, fed up, lost interest, whatever left in 2001 and now he says he'll come back part time. Big of him. Of course because he's not been in the Scottish Parliament he hasn't much of a clue about what's been going on. If he had he would know that in the Scottish Parliament Labour and the Lib Dems have had a little helper - a little helper called the Scottish National Party which has in 8 years only opposed 8 Lib/Lab Bills. That's not opposition that's craven complicity.

But then after all they're led by a man who wants to be elected in Gordon but as we all know and the voters now know, it's not about Gordon it's all about Alex.

Alex Salmond's not interested in change, he's interested in power, power to enable him to tear Scotland out of the United Kingdom, leave us marginalised in Europe and voiceless in the wider world.

So who is going to deliver this change. There is only one party which can. It is our party the Scottish Conservatives and we will deliver that change and let me spell out what our mission is.

There are two games in town devolution or isolation. The best in fact the only antidote to independence is for the Scottish Parliament to actually deliver. Labour can't do that, Labour isn't listening, Labour hasn't learnt, Labour's blown it. Lets face it, eight years of failure can't be spun away in eight weeks of campaigning. The Lib Dems can't do it - look at Nicol Stephen, he's their leader by the way. He doesn't know whether he's in coalition or opposition. He doesn't know whether to cuddle up to McConnell or cosy up to Sturgeon. Is it vote Lib get Lab or vote Nicol get Nicola. He's got more partners than a progressive barn dance.

So it's up to us, the Scottish Conservatives to do it and we will and the evidence is there. We have taken the lead on many of the big issues. After all in the Scottish Parliament we've led the debate on drugs abuse and we've led the debate on ending automatic early release, we've led the debate on driving business rates down, we've led the debate on getting Scottish Water out of the public sector and reforming Scottish Enterprise. And we have led the debate on double jeopardy and we have led the opposition to the Lib/Lab plans for road tolls. Because unlike the S.N.P we have regularly voted against the Lib/Lab pact. We are worthy of the name of opposition, we have earned our spurs because we, the Scottish Conservatives stand up for what we believe. And we are now seeing that where we lead, others then follow.

So our mission is to lift Scotland out of the mess in which Labour and the Liberal Democrats have dumped us. Our mission is to ward off the reckless isolationism of the Nationalists and our mission is to say to the people of Scotland you can trust us, the Scottish Conservatives, with devolution. You can depend on us to make our Parliament finally deliver. We will give you that change and it will be change without risk.

Remember who we are - we are the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. At our heart is our commitment to the United Kingdom. At our heart is our belief in the United Kingdom. We won't play fast and loose with the Union. Others might - we won't. Murdo Fraser eloquently explained these attributes yesterday and we'll defend them to the last.

Now McConnell and Salmond can scrap like ferrets in a sack and Nicol Stephen can wonder which one of them will let him in the back door to Bute House. But we, the Scottish Conservatives, we'll be talking about the problems actually confronting Scotland here and now, the bread and butter issues that people really care about. We will spend every hour of every day over the next eight weeks talking about these issues that really matter.

That's drugs and crime, health and housing, education and enterprise.

So when people express their horror at escalating drugs abuse we'll tell them we'll spend an extra £100 million a year on rehabilitation.

So when people say we are fed up with crime in our communities I pledge today that I'll give them an extra 1500 police officers for their communities fighting crime.

So when people say there isn't enough affordable housing, I will bring forward very soon new ideas, fresh funding more opportunity.

When business says we've been hammered on business rates we'll point to our rates relief scheme for medium and small business.

When patients and doctors and nurses are at their wits end because of closures and targets and centralisation - we will be on their side.

When the ends of justice demand more prison space - we'll build it.

And when our older pensioners are frightened by their council tax bills, we'll cut these bills in half.

We talk delivery - we don't talk divorce.

We talk change - we don't talk risk.

And unlike our opponents we talk about the issues - they talk about themselves.

And do you know what, more and more people in Scotland are coming to know that.

Let's look at the facts:-

More campaigning by you.

More members joining you.

And our party polling stronger than at this point four years ago.

So this party is champing at the bit to fight these elections. We are on the march, we have a tremendous array of talented candidates for both the Scottish Parliament and our local councils and I pay tribute to all the dogged, determined hard work which you have all been doing.

It is your unrelenting campaigning in these recent months which is taking our message of hope and encouragement to the voters. It is you who on the cold days and the dark nights have been taking our policies to the people. And it is you who have been the face of the change which we offer. And it is because of you that campaigning has reached its current amazing levels. And on behalf of the whole party I thank you for that unstinting work. Go on clap yourselves.

But now the good news you've only just begun. There is an exiting and inviting prospect in front of us. There is a lively vibrant campaign planned.

Scotland will be in no doubt that the Scottish Conservatives are back on the map. Our call to the despairing, the weary, the disillusioned and the apathetic is come with us.

We are your friend, we are your support. Come with us on our journey to put common sense back into politics, to put sensible policies back into the Scottish Parliament. With your help we can make a difference.

The difference between a proud confident devolved Parliament and the precarious uncertainty of isolation.

The difference between politics driven by politicians for themselves and politics delivering for our people.

The difference between a past with so little hope and a future with so much.

That has to be worth fighting for, so come with us and we will deliver.

And that is what all of us in this hall today whether activist, candidate, member, supporter or valued employee of the party must remain focussed on and committed to.

As we leave here today we leave united, determined and enthusiastic to take our party forward so that on May 3rd we can take our country forward.

I pledge to lead you in that endeavour and let me make this very clear

nothing

and no-one

will deflect me from that aim.