Gordon Brown's Speech

This is the transcript from this mornings speech by Gordon Brown

This is my reaction to his speech.

The transcript above was taken from the Labour party website

Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, today addressed the Labour Party's Spring Campaign Event.

Gordon Brown said:

You know somebody asked me the other day what my secret weapon was for the election.
I think they were expecting me to say those airbrushed posters – The greatest money Labour never spent.

But do you know what our secret weapon actually is?
A pact with the devil?

Our beliefs, and the policies that flow from them.

Labour's belief of using stealth taxes and wring as much money out of people who work and give it to girls who are basically baby factories only to get a house. Also throwing money at people who have never worked and have no intention of working, who receive more money than people who work their arses off.

Because this election will be won or lost not on who has the best PR but whose values best reflect the aspirations of Britain’s mainstream majority.

My aspiration is for our streets to be safe for my family and friends, and criminals to be punished properly, and to serve all of their sentence.

My aspiration is for my family to get a proper education in schools, that aren't war zones, where they learn about Britain's history (the good and bad), where they can learn to read and write properly.

And the coming contest is a big choice; a choice about who’s best for Britain’s future.

Definitely not Labour. I don't even want to imagine what 5 more years of Labour will do to this country.

And you have to ask yourself, why am I looking forward to this contest more than David Cameron?

Are you really Gordon. What are you looking forward to. Is it people to remind you of what you and the Labour party have done to this country in the last 13 years.

For example;

Huge debt, selling the country's gold reserves for next to nothing, making hospitals a bureaucratic nightmare, a police force that can't police due to so much red tape and all that stupid politically correct bull****, making sure our forces are without proper equipment to fight the wars Labour have sent them into. That is just a few examples there are plenty more.

It’s because only New Labour has a plan for Britain - substantial, costed, practical - how we can realise Britain’s values in a future fair for all.

Is it the same plan for Britain you have used for the last 13 years?

And yes New Labour has a record we can be proud of, that in every community in the country we see new schools, new hospitals, more teachers, more doctors, more nurses, more police, new Children's Centres.

A record to be proud of, yeah right.
New schools - maybe some, but how many schools have become like war zones where discipline in the classrooms are a joke and the pupils who want to learn haven't a chance.
More teachers - no, more teaching assistants actually,
More nurses - no, more agency nurses and care assistants actually, and of the qualified nurses, how many have come from abroad and who don't understand English properly;
see http://militantmedicalnurse.blogspot.com/
More Doctors - yes there maybe more doctors, but how many have come from hospitals around the world, causing a lack of qualified doctors in their own country.
More police - Well maybe, but how many of that number is the PCSOs. Yes there might be more police on the books, but where are they? It is very rare indeed to see any police on the beat, where I live.
See http://pcbloggs.blogspot.com/

That’s the change the Tories never talk about, but that’s the change we see:
- The NHS renewed and lives saved;
More managers employed than nurses, more cases of MRSA, postcode lottery in the NHS, Nurse to patient ratio sometimes 1 nurse to 25 patients. Lives saved, yes but how many have died needlessly.
- Jobs created and families held together and;
How many jobs created have been in government (local and national)? How many jobs have been lost due to lack of government support? How many jobs have been lost overseas?
- Schools built and potential unlocked.
Yes new schools have been built, but potential, how come we have dropped to 24th in the worlds literacy rankings from being 7th?

Yes we can be proud of the Britain we’ve been building together – dreams achieved, ambitions realised, hopes fulfilled and lives changed.
A Britain Labour have been building on a foundation of sand, Dreams of losing Britain's national identity, lives changed for the worse, in my opinion.

We should be proud but never satisfied, because our work is not yet done.
Is Labour proud of what it has done to Britain? How much worse can you make this country?

And elections are not verdicts on the past –they are choices for the future. And we will go in to this election fighting for causes every inch as great and every inch as noble as any a government has fought for before.
Why shouldn't the election be a verdict on what Labour has done in the last 13 years? What causes will Labour be fighting for, more criminals let out only serving half of their sentence (Breaking news 22/02/10, as i right this the government will be scrapping the early release scheme), more uncontrolled immigration, more red tape, more stupid politically correct bull****, Health and safety that goes beyond common sense.

Because we are fighting today for an ideal as visionary as the National Health Service – the dream of a National Care Service to take the fear out of old age.
Death tax, inheritance tax

And we are fighting for a future where for the first time every single young person of this generation has the guarantee of training or a job.
Is that every young person, or every young person who wants to work for a living?

And we are fighting for a future where Britain is not isolated but a leader of Europe, a country that has led the world and will continue to lead the world on protecting our planet and securing justice for its poor.
Does that mean you will be taking us fully into Europe taking us into the Euro, giving up the rest of our sovereignty?

And with the investment we are making we are fighting for a future we have never dared hope for before – one where we beat cancer … in this generation.
Let us hope this is true and not just Labour spin.

And today we are setting out our plan to build a future fair for all:

First, we must secure the recovery, Not put it at risk.
Yes we must secure the recovery, but who put us in the dire circumstances in the first place?

Second, we must support new industries & future jobs.
What about all the old and traditional industries, the steel industry in Teeside for example, where the owners TERI are mothballing the site in Teeside, but are building one in India.

Third, as we reduce the deficit by half, we must protect and not cut frontline services.
But we can get rid of all the non jobs Labour have created, but how many people would be unemployed if they were out of a job?

And fourth, we must stand up for the many not the few.
Yes, but don't tax the few so much that they leave the country. The few are the ones who create businesses and who create the jobs that the like of me are employed in.

And I want to talk to you today about how I have changed and what I have learned. For me, the lesson of the crisis is that we need to renew our faith in the Britain that believes in hard work, enterprise and responsibility.
So is Labour going to admit responsibility for ruining this country?

It’s the Britain of the family who work hard, pay their way and play their part. Of the business that takes an apprentice although times are tight. Of the communities that stick together even when the going is hard.
Then why have you taxed the working family so much and given so much tax payers money to people who don't want to work, because they get more money on the dole.

And I’ve concluded that the very values that made our country great – the values of fairness and responsibility - are the surest foundations of our future success.
The values that you have ruined since Labour came to power.

Markets are essential. They help us grow as a nation, they give us the resources to fight poverty, ignorance and disease and they serve the cause of freedom and prosperity.
Freedom and prosperity that you have given away to Europe.

But it is now more clear than ever that markets need morals. Without that they go astray and can lead us to focus on the price of things, not the value of things. They can cause people to take reckless risks for which others pay the price.
But didn't Labour change the regulations on banking that helped cause the financial breakdown.

So we need to say anew that markets should serve the public and not the other way around.

So we are ensuring that the public money that was put into the nation's banks is fully repaid.
With interest i hope.

We have raised the tax rate on earnings above £150,000 and set a 50% tax on this year’s bonuses over £25,000.
What about all the stealth taxes you have raised on the working people of this country?

We have restructured our banks and are ensuring they have the capital they need.
Labour have given the capital to the banks but they aren't giving it to businesses that need money to help in the recession.

And we are now discussing with other countries the prospect of a global levy on banks which would help achieve our domestic objectives as well as tackle global poverty and climate change.
Climate change that isn't scientifically proven yet, no matter what other people say.

We are making these changes because Britain needs to rebuild. We need and will renew the economy, renew our infrastructure and renew our industrial base.
We wouldn't have to renew the economy and industries if you looked after it in the first place.

And that is why we have decided that as a nation and a government that we will back British scientists, invest in renewable energy, give priority to biotechnology and advanced manufacturing, encourage digital and creative industries.

It is Labour which has a vision of a new economy, a decade in which Britain can lead and succeed.
What was up with the old one economy, the one you ruined.

We are determined to reduce the deficit that emerged as a consequence of the world recession and that is why we have already announced tax changes.
Yes, there is a world recession, but we have been in a deeper recession than every other developed nation, because of your handling of this countries economy.

And we will take tough action on spending, not just efficiency drives but cuts in some areas. But our bottom line is we will protect the front line… our schools, our hospitals, our police.
Will you protect the managers or the front line police, nurses teachers, etc.

And it is only Labour who are prepared to offer direct support to the business community of a total of one billion pounds so that every family and every business in Britain has access to the newest high speed broadband as we become the world-leading digital economy.
Didn't you say that a few years ago?

Only Labour who have a plan to make Britain a world leader in a four-trillion dollar market for green, clean energy goods and services, opening up the prospects of 400,000 new green jobs for t he British people.
At what cost to other areas of Britain's economy?

And only Labour who is lifting the number of apprenticeships from 65,000 in 1997 to nearly a quarter of a million this year and only Labour who are targeting investment in manufacturing centres around the regions to help UK businesses develop the best-selling products of the future.

And so my message to the people of Britain today is simple.

I know that Labour hasn’t done everything right. And I know – really, I know – that I’m not perfect.
Is there anything Labour has done right?
We all know Gordon, that you are not perfect, you are totally the wrong person to be PM.

But I know where I come from, I know what I stand for, and I know who I came into politics to represent. And if you, like me, are from Britain’s mainstream majority – from an ordinary family that wants to get on and not simply get by, then my message to you today is simple; take a second look at us…and take a long hard look at them.
We have been looking at you for the last 13 years, we don't need a second look. We need a new government that isn't Labour.

Take a second look at how we’re creating jobs – and take a long hard look at how the day after the election their policies would put the recovery and your jobs at risk.
What has Labour's policies done for this country over the last 13 years?

Take a second look at our NHS guarantees and take a long hard look at their plans to cut your right to see a cancer specialist within two weeks, cut your right to see a GP in the evenings and at weekends, cut your right to get your operation in the shortest possible time.
Is this a cast iron guarantee or just spin?

Take a second look at how we will improve the prospects for your children – and a take a long hard look at their plans that hurt middle class families. Plans to cut your Child Tax Credits, cut your child’s trust fund, cut your Children's Centres and cut the budget of your schools.
Labour have taxed the middle classes to death, literally. It may not be income tax that they have raised, but stealth taxes have soared under Labour. What Labour give, they take away 2 fold.

Can they really say they understand the needs of mainstream Britain when they would kick away the ladders of opportunity that guarantee young people training or a job?

Can they really say they understand the needs of mainstream Britain when they think those most in need of a tax cut are the 3000 wealthiest estates?

When they now vote to keep hereditary seats in the House of Lords?
What about Labour's cash for hounours scandle. What about about Labour filling the Lords with Labour supporting peers.

When they think legalising fox-hunting is a priority?
How many hours were wasted in parliment banning fox hunting in the first place? I'm not for hunting, but i'm not against it either. This was a legislating over class.

When they think that Manchester is like the wire?
Has Gordon Brown been to moss side recently?

And when they state that 54%, more than half the girls in Birmingham and Liverpool are pregnant by the time they’re 18?
Mistakes happen, Labour have been one massive mistake Britain may never recover from.

Can they claim they know the aspirations of mainstream Britain when they so clearly understand so little of how we live?
Does Labour?

When it comes to the most vulnerable people in our society, if you put partisan point scoring before a consensus on social care, real families really suffer.

If you frighten people with made up figures on crime, real families really suffer.
The official crime figures are made up.

And if you talk Britain down in the middle of a recession and undermine confidence, real families really suffer.
Does the truth hurt Gordon?

Because government is not a game.

Because when you peel away the veneer and actually look at what their policies mean, what you see is not the new economics of the future, it’s the same old Conservative economics of the 1980s. How can they be the party of change, when they haven’t even changed themselves?
Labour changed to 'New Labour', but when you peel the veneer away from 'New Labour' it is just the same Labour of old.

And it is precisely because they have not changed, that they cannot and will not join the emerging progressive consensus of the British people which is coming together around the big challenges our country must meet and master in this new decade.
Labour put us in this position, where we have a challenge to meet in the next decade.

Just consider climate change – a huge challenge facing humanity on which we agree with the scientists, the green campaigners and the business leaders that urgent action is vital, but which the Tory party high command now says is not even a top ten policy priority.
Climate change, not all scientists agree. Climate change is just another way to tax us.

Or think about our industrial policy and our British jobs of the future. Take one example – high speed rail, a project of vital importance to the future of our country, of vital importance here in the West Midlands – but the Tories have chosen to put short term political calculations ahead of the national interest.

Or take the debate on social care, how can they be the party of change, when yesterday they boycotted the charities and experts and campaign groups trying to find the common ground for the future of social care.
The death tax

Or take the renewal of politics, like reforming the way we elect Parliament, where we made common cause with liberals and reformers– a cause where the big progressive majority was for change –only the Tories ruled out any change at all.
What about the BNP being elected to the EU parliment. Is that the political reform you want. that is what you will have if you reform the way we elect MPs.

All they have done is to change their appearance, to give the appearance of change.
I think this is a classic example of the 'pot calling the kettle black .'

But where the challenges for the future are greatest and the need for change the most urgent, the Conservative Party have become again what their historical role has always been; to set themselves against the change the country needs, the change the British people want to see.
I don't know about all the British people, but i certainly don't want another Labour government.

And so I say today to every progressive in Britain – of every hue and every background – if you believe in a progressive future fair for all, then New Labour is your home.
Then i want to leave home immediatley.

If you believe in - securing the recovery, not putting it at risk – then New Labour is your home.
Packing my bags.

If you believe in - protecting and not cutting frontline services – then New Labour is your home.
Calling a cab.

If you believe in - supporting new industries & future jobs and not simply leaving them to chance – then New Labour is your home,
Getting in the cab.

and If you believe in - standing up for the many, not the few – then New Labour is your home.
I have now left home.

And so to those who are beginning to wonder how to use their vote, ask yourself whether at heart you believe in fairness and individual opportunity. Ask whether you want to keep on the road to economic recovery or to return to the same old social divisions of the Tory years.
At Heart i don't want to see another Labour government.

And so today I issue a call to every progressive to come together to fight for the values we cherish and the country we love.
Come together to make sure Labour doesn't win another election.

This campaign is not going to be won somewhere else by someone else - it’s going to be won street by street, school-gate by school-gate, workplace by workplace – it’s going to be won by you.

If you believe in taking this country forwards not backwards then Labour are the change-makers in this election. And that is why Labour supporters are campaigning with all the fire and fervour of people who’ve got not just candidates but a cause, not just an election to win but a future to fight for.
Labour are the change makers, yes i agree with that, look what they have done in the last 13 years.

So don’t ever stop believing that every single child has worth. That every single person has something to contribute. That a prosperous country can be a fair one too.
A country fair to who? The criminals, the people who get more money on benifits than hard working people who pay for the people who don't want to work. Labour havs caused the unfairness in this country.

And don’t ever stop believing that everything you do in the coming weeks will matter. That you can make the difference.
A new government that isn't Labour

Don’t ever stop believing that a future fair for all is in your hands.
A future without Labour.

Ours to shape.

Ours to build.

And ours to win.