Gordon Brown’s conference speech in full
We can now all see – through climate change, global terror, new epidemics, and the credit crisis that jumped the Atlantic – that there are huge global forces reaching around the world, and making their presence felt in every part, of all of our lives.
And over the last eight months what has taught me the most, has not been the briefings I have received in my office, but the stories people have shared with me in their workplaces, in their living rooms and in their community centres.
And I have heard the worries.
Worries about jobs going overseas, about the sort of jobs our kids will get when they grow up, and about how our communities are changing, and how the British way of life is under pressure.
But a few months ago when I visited the Mini car plant near here at Hams Hall I met a group of technicians who explained to me how in the face of competition from all over the world, they were at the cutting edge of new manufacturing technology – that every single mini they produce – its colour, its electronics, its upholstery – can be tailored to the specifications of each and every individual customer. And that this car business is now so successful that engine manufacturing is coming back here from Brazil – to Britain and, even better, the Midlands.
Stories like this – and today’s announcement of what is being described as the biggest ever order placed by America in Europe, benefitting British jobs – confirm my fundamental optimism for our country.
And there are now thousands of people doing jobs our parents’ generation had never heard of — social entrepreneurs, website designers, software engineers. We all shop in supermarkets stocked with fresh food, brought in every day from all around the world. And of course the technologies all of us use every day have been transformed. Ten years ago only one in six of us had mobiles, and they were as big as my hand.
Now, people update facebook on the bus, call relatives on skype and share their holiday videos on youtube.
And today I want to confirm my profound confidence about what Britain can achieve in the future, to say that these changes, whilst bringing insecurities, also herald the greatest of opportunities. These forces – properly harnessed by a purposeful and progressive government – can mean that Britain will not only survive but thrive in the years ahead.
Each generation is summoned, to create the kind of country that reflects the best of its values.
And I think you know what I believe in ——that it is possible to create a society where what matters most is not where you’ve come from, but what you have it in yourself to become. For I believe that everybody has a talent and everyone should have the opportunity to use that talent.
And I would like to explain to you why what has always been my conviction is now, I believe, also the only future for our country.
The global economy will double in size over the next 25 years, there will be an extra billion skilled jobs, global competition will increasingly not be a race to the bottom, competing on low pay, but be a race to the top, competing on ever higher skills.
The countries that will succeed, and the countries that will win the good jobs, will be the countries that do most to bring out the best in their people and their potential.
And that is an unprecedented opportunity that we as a nation are uniquely well-placed to seize.
Why? Because in Britain, with our international reach, our flexibility, our openness, our scientific creativity, our stability, our language – now the language of the world – our successful membership of the European Union and our long term investments in energy and infrastructure we have the foundations for our future success.
The prize of a new prosperity, of not just full employment, but full and rewarding employment, is so nearly within our grasp. But it can only be secured with a leap of imagination, in how we as a country and a government think about the potential of everyone.
In the old Britain, there was a view that only a minority needed the best education and the best skills, because there was only so much room at the top. But today with so many skilled jobs which are ours for the taking, those old assumptions can be buried forever.
We are the first generation to be able to say that there need be no limit on how far your talent can take you, no cap on what you can do with your potential and no ceiling on how many of us can fulfill our dreams.
So today, the best instincts of our party, the drive for social justice, and the best interests of our country, the need to spread opportunity, converge as never before.
The old way was just to provide a safety net below which nobody could fall. The new way, in this new age of rising ambition, is to provide a platform, from which each individual can rise. And this, is a new common purpose that our generation can forge together, a new meritocracy, a new wave of upward social mobility, that instead of unlocking just some of the talent of some of the people, must in this generation unlock all of the talents, of all of the people.
And to forge this common purpose we must create:
– a new economic policy, that is designed to reward talent, creativity and skills
– a new social and welfare policy of rights and responsibilities that equips people to master change, instead of letting change master them
– a programme of new education reforms that for trusts, specialist and academy schools, focus on excellence for all
– a new politics that places power and the opportunity to change things in the hands of people themselves
– and new personalised public services, tailored to meet our needs and choices so that we can live the lives we all choose, with a pace of reform stepped up not slowed down
A new programme of policies that year on year will meet the challenges of global change by ensuring opportunity and security not just for some, but for all who play by the rules. This is what I mean by fairness to hard-working families.
And opportunity for all that must start at birth: by giving all young children the best springboard from which to soar.
So we will now create for every community in England a children’s centre, 3,500 by 2010; over the next decade we will rebuild or refurbish not some but all secondary schools; and why should just 10% of children whose parents pay for their education have one to one tuition. For all who need it we will extend this one-to-one tuition from private schools to all schools – offering by 2010 – 300 thousand pupils one to one tuition in English and 300 thousand tuition in maths.
That’s what Labour values in action look like: using the opportunity of power, to unleash the power of opportunity.
And let us equip every young person for the new global economy, so we will give a guarantee, for every teenager who qualifies the right to an apprenticeship.
And for the first time we will give every adult, who missed out first time round a second chance – the right whatever your age to learn basic skills free of charge.
And let us be clear where the stakes are highest. Child poverty is the scar that demeans Britain. When we allow just one life to be degraded or derailed by early poverty, it represents a cost that can never be fully counted. What difference could that child have made? What song will not be written; what flourishing business will not be founded; what classroom will miss out on a teacher who can awaken aspiration? Because just one child’s life wasted haunts us with the thoughts of what might have been, this government must end child poverty in this generation and in the next few weeks we will move further towards our goal.
And because good health gives us the chance to make the most of our lives, we will move ahead with radical reforms to create a 21st century NHS personal to people’s needs.
And the best way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS is to give to all patients what 10% in the private sector can buy: to guarantee that the time you have to wait for a hospital appointment will be the shortest since the NHS was established;
To promise that by next year at least half our GP surgeries will be open for at least one evening or weekend session every week;
And to promise to remove the anxieties of patients fearing cancer or disease, by starting to offer regular check ups and every year increasing the numbers of cancer screenings – rising over four years to 7 million a year.
And because everyone deserves dignity in retirement, let me say today that we will link pensions, once again, not to prices but to earnings. And our task ahead is to provide a wider range of social care, services tailored to elderly people’s needs and provided direct to people where they want them. And this summer when our carers’ commission reports we will offer new entitlements to Britain’s 6 million dedicated carers.
Creating and sustaining a strong economy will always be our starting point so that everyone can plan safely for the future. Let us all be proud that this month, in the eleventh year of a New Labour government, Alistair Darling has been able to announce that Britain has more men and women in work than at any time in the history of our country.
The Conservatives said a minimum wage would cost 2 million jobs, but we have created and then every year raised the minimum wage and at the same time created 3 million jobs.
And so my pledge to the British people is that we will at all times seek to keep inflation and mortgage rates low. With our programme for 3 million more homes, thousands of them in eco-towns, we will enable thousands more young people to buy a home of their own.
And we will insist that all who can work, must work, in fairness to all of us who do. Between now and 2010, we will give people new hope by helping another 100,000 people move from welfare to work.
And because I too worry about workers left vulnerable, agency workers denied fair treatment and women denied equality in the workplace, we will honour our promises to stop good employers being undercut by the bad: dignity and fairness for all at work.
Security for all means not just more secure jobs but communities that are safer places to live. This government has already cut crime by 32% but we know that what people want is visible local policing. So in 2 month’s time every community in England will have its own dedicated neighbourhood police team patrolling the streets, contactable by mobile phone, and in touch with local people.
And we will move ahead with our new deal for earned citizenship: welcoming those who make a contribution but insisting all learn English, uphold British values and play by the rules.
And let us leave people in no doubt – we are taking all necessary steps for security against terrorism and let me thank our police and our armed forces for the contribution they make in Iraq, Afghanistan and round the world and the continued dedication they show keeping us all safe and secure.
From welfare to crime, from health to education, from housing to the environment, this is our common purpose, our agenda for change, our ambition for this new age. This is the New Labour promise of opportunity and security, not just for some but for all.
And because your concerns are my passions and personal priorities, I will work tirelessly to deliver for you.
And let us work not just to make Britain fairer, but to bring more justice in the world.
When yesterday 72 million primary aged children did not go to school, we cannot stand by and do nothing.
And tomorrow, on Mother’s Day, let us remember that in some countries one mother in seven dies while giving birth to her baby. We cannot turn our heads and pretend we do not know. These are truths too shameful to ignore. They call us not to mourning but to action.
So let me set two simple objectives for the coming years.
Our aim is nothing less than that every child in every continent can go to school, education for all.
And our ambition is nothing less than to end the avoidable suffering of 10 million dying unnecessarily from diseases we know we can cure and so we will work to eradicate from the face of the earth TB polio diptheria and yes malaria too.
And I say today, as a government, we will not rest until we bring hope to the bleakest corners of the world, so we will continue to work with our European colleagues for justice for the people of Darfur and in Burma, democracy and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
And to shoulder the responsibilities we all share for our planet, a few weeks from now we will be the first government in the world to pass a law that sets legally binding limits on our emissions, a historic step but only the first step in our ambition to lead the world by example in triumphing over climate change.
And the question is, who in this fast changing world will make it possible not just for some but for all to benefit from the new opportunities before us?
So let me explain why only the Labour Party has the seriousness of purpose, the hunger for change, the passion for spreading opportunity, the mission of justice for all that can meet the rising ambitions of this new age.
Why? Because the Conservative Party have already confessed 10 billion pounds worth of tax cuts, tax cuts that we can demonstrate beyond doubt, disproportionately favour the wealthiest in society.
And whilst New Labour will always get the right balance between public service investment, affordable tax cuts, and economic stability, the country has learnt only this week, the truth from the Conservative front bench, that their billions of pounds of tax cuts, will be paid for by billions of pounds of spending cuts, in our vital public services.
But don’t just listen to what they say, or what I say, look at what they do. I don’t need to tell anybody here that round the country, Tory councillors are cutting the very services upon which we all depend.
And this is the difference between the two parties, at the very time when to meet the challenge of change we need more opportunity not less:
We will deliver educational maintenance allowances for one quarter of a million teenagers can stay on at school, the Conservatives will cut them.
We will double apprenticeships even when the Conservatives oppose this.
We will provide free education to 18 even when the Conservatives don’t support it.
And we want half of young people to have the chance of university, while the Conservatives believe more means worse.
In truth it’s photo opportunities for themselves the Conservatives seek; it’s opportunities for the people of Britain that we seek.
And I am determined that more people have more opportunities because I seen the power of opportunity to change lives and I know that for me the power of opportunity has changed my life.
Because people before me had decided education should be free for every child, I had the best of education in my local primary and secondary school so close to my home I could walk to or take the bus there every day. And the best education I had myself and I want for my children I want to be there on offer for every child in Britain.
And I can only see your faces today because after a rugby accident, labour’s national health service saved my sight with treatment my parents could never have paid for because people I have never met – whose names I don’t even know – pooled resources in their generation to provide services to be used by everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.
And the best healthcare I received I want for my children and I want for every family in Britain.
So I am only standing here today because a previous generation fought for education for all, demanded an NHS for all, dared to stand up for a common purpose, opportunity for all, and in their generation, unleashed the power of opportunity to change lives.
So generations don’t just have soundtracks, fashions and icons.
The generations history remembers have ideals that inspire them to action and dreams that drive them forward.
And people don’t write great new chapters of history when they stand frozen by fear in time and place – but when they come together in common purpose, emboldened by hope.
And now it is our turn– and what we will be remembered for?
I want our children and their children to say that in the first decades of the 21st century there lived a generation that built a Britain, where the talent you had mattered more than the title you held.
Imagine if together we build a Britain where counts is not how high up you start, but how high you can reach.
A Britain where every parent of every child born today can watch them as they sleep and dare to believe that nothing is beyond them realising their potential.
And imagine if together we create a Britain where, for all of us, the future is not a fate we can’t escape but a common purpose we create.
The Britain of security and opportunity for all is within our grasp.
So with the courage of our convictions, with pride in our common purpose.
Let us go out with confidence to meet the world to come, let us embrace this new age of ambition, and let us build the Britain of our dreams.
