SNP DEPUTE LEADER NICOLA STURGEON'S ADDRESS TO PARTY SPRING CONFERENCE.

SNP DEPUTE LEADER NICOLA STURGEON'S ADDRESS TO PARTY SPRING CONFERENCE. Speaking in her address to the SNP's Spring conference at the Thistle Hotel conference centre in Glasgow, SNP Depute Leader Nicola Sturgeon said: Fellow nationalists, Just a few days ago Winnie Ewing led the celebrations to mark our party’s 75th anniversary. That milestone was an opportunity to celebrate our progress and our achievements. It was also a moment to pause and remember those friends and colleagues who are no longer with us but whose vision, determination and hard work laid the foundations for the success we enjoy today. Great nationalists like Robert McIntyre, Donnie Stewart, Allan Macartney and Margaret Ewing. And irreplaceable characters like Bashir Ahmad and Neil MacCormick. We owe them all an enormous debt of gratitude. The deaths in recent weeks of Bashir and Neil are hard to bear. They both made a profound and lasting contribution. Bashir, Scotland’s first Asian MSP, was a trailblazer. And though not of Scottish birth, he was without doubt one of the proudest Scottish patriots I have ever known. Neil was one of our country’s finest intellects and most engaging personalities. He was a legal genius and a colossus on the European stage. From their very different backgrounds, Bashir and Neil showed the breadth and depth of support for the independence of our country. We know that neither of them would want us to mourn their loss for too long. They would want us instead to build on the legacies they leave, to redouble our efforts and to keep moving Scotland forward. So let us resolve today, as our heartfelt tribute to these two dedicated nationalists and wonderful human beings, to win the independence for our country that they worked so hard to achieve. Delegates, I am delighted to welcome you all to the great city of Glasgow. The last time we met here in 2007 we were just a few short weeks away from the Scottish election. Back then, we held no first past the post seats at all in this city. But since then, I’m pleased to say, we have won Glasgow Govan…and Glasgow East…which means that we now represent both sides of the Old Firm. That’s what I call progress. And, of course, our progress extends far beyond the city of Glasgow We hold seats in all of Scotland’s cities. We are in council administration in the cities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Perth, Stirling and now, as of just a couple of weeks ago, we run the council in the city of Dundee as well. Let’s congratulate our newest councillor, Craig Melville, and all of our colleagues in Dundee for freeing that great city, at long last, from the dead hand of Labour control. Delegates, Our successes over the past two years have been sensational. But we know the elections that matter most are the ones that lie ahead. In just a few weeks, Scotland will go to the polls to elect our new MEPs. We have a fantastic team of candidates. They are all ambassadors for Scotland. They will always put Scotland first. Because they believe that Scotland’s rightful place in Europe is not in a side room, but at the top table as an equal, independent country. So let us work as hard as we can to win that election for Scotland. Fellow nationalists, We truly are Scotland’s Party. That status is well earned but it carries great responsibility. The responsibility to lead, to stand up for Scotland and to always be on Scotland’s side. Never has that responsibility been greater than it is right now. We live in the toughest of economic times. People are worried about their jobs, their mortgages and their pensions. But let there be no doubt – no doubt at all - that as a country, we’ve got what it takes to get through these tough times. We must reassert our traditional values of probity, thrift and a commitment to hard work. It is to these values – these Scottish values - that we must return and on which we must now build our economic recovery. And delegates, We must prove, in everything we do, that as Scotland’s government, we’ve got what it takes to lead the way. That is our responsibility and we know that the SNP is up to that task. It is our job to use every power and every pound we have available to us to help people cope with the downturn and come out the other side. That is what we have worked hard to do over these last two years and we can be proud of our success. We have frozen the council tax, not once but twice and people all over the country are feeling the benefit. We have reduced or abolished business rates for tens of thousands of small businesses, helping to protect the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on them. We have abolished university tuition fees. Scottish graduates are now more than £2000 better off and we should be proud that, in Scotland, the birthplace of free, comprehensive education, access to university is once again based on the ability to learn, not on the ability to pay. And we have cut prescription charges – again. As they have continued to rise in England, prescription charges in Scotland have continued to fall and, be in no doubt, this SNP government will completely abolish prescription charges by 2011. Delegates These policies are the hallmarks of a government firmly on the side of the Scottish people. But people rightly expect us to do more. And we will. Reducing the financial burden on individuals and families has been the guiding principle of our government over the past two years. Our guiding principle for the next two years must be our determination to protect and create jobs. Like many of you, I grew up in the Thatcher years. I remember only too well the fear and hopelessness of redundancy and unemployment. I remember too the sheer indifference of the Tories to the plight of ordinary folk who lost their jobs. No-one in Scotland wants to return to those days. But through their incompetence, their sleaze and their arrogance Labour have opened the door to another Tory government. That is a betrayal of the people of Scotland and Labour should hang their heads in shame. Delegates, In the months and years ahead, it will be up to us, the SNP, to stand up for Scotland. And with Alex Salmond as our leader, the people of Scotland know they have a First Minister who is on their side. Our job is to give our young people the training and skills they will need to take advantage of the recovery when it starts. And we must focus on those sectors that give Scotland a competitive edge. It was a privilege last week to represent the government at Scotland Week in the United States. The companies I spoke to there see Scotland, rightly, as a world leader in life sciences and in the renewables technologies of today and tomorrow, not in the nuclear technology of yesterday. So we must play to these strengths. But we must invest in our traditional industries as well. Industries like construction where necessity and virtue are two sides of the same coin. The economic imperative of protecting construction jobs and the driving social need for more affordable housing go hand in hand. Quite simply, we need to invest more in building houses. Make no mistake, I am already proud of our record in housing. In the first year of our government, more public sector houses were started than in any year since the early 1990s. This year, we will spend a record £650m on affordable housing. Just last week, our new Housing Minister Alex Neil, announced the first allocations to councils from our £25 million fund to kick start a new generation of council house building. In areas like Stirling and Perth & Kinross that will mean the first council houses being built since 1985. In total, the money will support over 1,000 new council houses. Delegates, I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a lot better than the 6 council houses Labour managed to build in four years. But we can and must do even more. That’s why I can announce today that I intend to double our fund for new council houses. Double it from £25m to £50m. That money – supported by additional resources from local councils across Scotland - will build a total of 2,000 new houses. But it will do more than that. It will also help to secure 3,000 jobs in the Scottish building industry. That’s 3,000 jobs at a time when the construction industry is under the most severe pressure. That’s the kind of real, practical action people want to see from a government on their side. Delegates, The Scottish Government is working together with our partners in local government to build homes and protect jobs. But we must also look to the Westminster Government to play its part.

Gordon Brown said yesterday that next week’s budget will be a budget for jobs. But that’s easy to say. The budget will be judged on the action and the resources it has in it to deliver jobs. That will be the litmus test. So let us, from this conference today, join Shelter and Scotland’s building industry in calling for new investment in Scottish housing of five hundred million pounds. If the Prime Minister can find billions to bail out the bankers, surely it’s about time he found the money to protect jobs and build houses too. Delegates, Let me suggest something else that Gordon Brown should do in the budget next week. He should drop, once and for all, his plans to cut the Scottish budget by £1 billion over the next two years. Labour has called these cuts “efficiency savings”. But we know and Scotland knows that £1 billion is not an efficiency saving. Not in anyone’s language. The truth is that these cuts will hurt the Scottish economy at a time when we should be focussed on recovery. They will cost jobs and damage our public services. So let’s send this message loudly and clearly: Scotland will not accept these Labour cuts. But let us also recognise that belts do need to be tightened. Just as individuals and families are cutting back, so must government. Money borrowed today has to be repaid tomorrow. This is not the time to be spending money on things we don’t need. So I want to be helpful to Gordon Brown. I want to offer the Prime Minister an alternative way to save money. Leave Scottish health and education spending alone and instead scrap your plan to spend £25 billion on a new generation of Trident nuclear weapons. Delegates, We don’t want nuclear weapons We don’t need nuclear weapons And we certainly can’t afford nuclear weapons Now is the time to rid this country of the Labour and Tory obsession with weapons of mass destruction. We say no to a new generation of Trident nuclear weapons on the River Clyde. Delegates, Helping people get through tough times will test the mettle of any government. I believe we are up to the challenge. We’ve got what it takes. We will help people directly and do all we can to reflate our economy. But tough times demand even more of government. They demand that we redouble our efforts to protect our public services at the very time people need them most. As Health Secretary, I am very proud of our NHS. Those who work in it do a fantastic job. Delegates, we owe each and every one of them an enormous debt of gratitude. Last week in the US, I was reminded just how lucky we are in our NHS. I visited a hospital in Queens, New York. The doctors and nurses I met there were wonderful. But the hospital was completely over-run. Over there, hospitals are businesses and they can go bust just like any other business. In the last few months alone, the economic downturn has forced two hospitals in Queens to close, leaving the rest to cope with the additional pressure. What I saw in New York was a graphic demonstration of all that’s wrong with a privatised health service and it proved beyond any doubt that our party, our government, is right to stand firm against the privatisation of our NHS. Delegates, I know the NHS is not perfect. I’d be the last person to suggest that it is. But it is a million times better than what I saw last week. So we should never take it for granted. And we should never, ever, undermine the principles on which it is built. But we should work hard to make it even better. And that is what our government has been doing over these past two years. When we took office, services all over Scotland were under threat of closure. The A&E departments at Monklands and Ayr, children’s cancer units in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, three out of four of our neurosurgery centres, maternity units at the Vale of Leven and Inverclyde – all of them facing Labour’s axe. But, today, each and every one of these vital hospital services is safe and secure for the future. Each and every one saved by the SNP. Of course, keeping hospitals open is only part of the challenge. Improving the quality of care that patients get in hospitals is what matters most. Nothing is more important to me personally than driving down the rates of infection in our hospitals. Hospital infections cause pain, distress and suffering for patients and their families. And they undermine confidence in our NHS. That is why beating them is a battle I am determined to win. And we are making progress. MRSA rates are down since we came to office. And I can report to you today that, in the last year, rates of c-difficile have fallen by nearly 20%. That is progress but it is not good enough. We must do even more. Hospital cleanliness is of the utmost importance. Patients have a right to expect the highest standards and let me be clear that, on their behalf, I will not accept anything less. That is why I have set up a new inspectorate, headed by a Chief Inspector, to police standards in our hospitals. And it is why I told you at our last conference that I was banning any further privatisation of hospital cleaning contracts. But I intend to go even further. I can announce today that we will make the resources available to employ an extra six hundred hospital cleaners across the NHS in Scotland. And, delegates, the people of Scotland can rest assured that these will be cleaners working in the NHS, for the NHS, and employed by the NHS. There will be no Labour privatisation of cleaning services by this SNP Government. Delegates, This investment is good for the NHS and good for patients. It will improve even further the standards of hygiene and cleanliness in our hospitals. But it will do more than that. At a time of rising unemployment, it will also provide jobs for six hundred people. More practical action from a government on Scotland’s side. Fellow nationalists, Our government is on Scotland’s side. We will do everything we possibly can with the powers we have to help people through the recession. We will keep pressing for more powers to let us do more. And we will work with anyone and everyone in Scotland’s best interests. We don’t underestimate the scale of the challenges we face. We know that there are those who will use those challenges to try to undermine Scotland’s self confidence. But they won’t prevail. Over the last couple of years, Scotland has seen through those who talk us down for their own narrow self interest. There will be no going back to the bad old days of fears and smears. The Scottish people are too smart for that. Our spirit as a country is strong, our values are sound. We’ve got what it takes to get through the tough times, to prosper again when things get better. And there is no doubt that Scotland has got what it takes to be independent. So let us now prove that we’ve got what it takes to win independence for our country.