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| Reluctant Hero |
Labour - Front Line Of Defence Against SNPIn his address to the Labour Conference in Aviemore, Brown claimed that Labour were "the front line of defence" against the SNP.He also said
She has got as much chance of being the next First Minister as I have. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7319082.stm PM says 'we'll stand up to SNP' Prime Minister Gordon Brown has billed Labour as "the front line of defence" against the SNP. And he declared that Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander would be the next first minister of Scotland. Mr Brown was addressing the Scottish Labour conference in Aviemore, the first since the party lost power to the SNP in Scotland last May. He also used his speech to reinforce a unified Britain in making the world a better place. Speaking from the stage without notes, the prime minister claimed the Scottish Government had put youngsters' future at risk through cuts in education spending. He declared: "I say we should stand up for the people of Scotland and for the young children of Scotland and we will be the front line of defence for them against those SNP cuts. "Those cuts are not only wrong, they are depriving our country of its best future." Listing various SNP policy decisions in areas such as educational maintenance allowances, Mr Brown declared: "We will be the front line of defence for young people that need that help to get the qualifications. "And we will stand up against the SNP not only because their policy is wrong but they are depriving people of the best chance of a future for Scotland in this new global economy." Mr Brown also paid tribute to Ms Alexander and her warning that Labour had to learn the lessons from its defeat in the Holyrood election. He went on: "And I believe that Wendy Alexander is not only the leader of our party here in Scotland but she will be the next first minister of Scotland whenever an election is declared." The prime minister went on to say that the current generation could be the first to eradicate centuries-old diseases and ensure every child in the world had access to education, if the UK worked with other countries. The prime minister also stressed opportunity in his speech Mr Brown said the SNP's "separatist policies" would not prepare Britain for the future. The Nationalists, he claimed, wanted to "build barriers and erect borders", while the prime minister threw his support behind the new, independent Constitutional Commission, set up to review Scottish devolution 10 years on. Mr Brown spoke of the achievements of Labour in more than a decade in power at Westminster, telling delegates it had created 200,000 jobs across Britain and brought in the national minimum wage. He outlined his desire for a country where there was opportunity for all - announcing an extra £120m to help athletes win medals at the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games - to be held in Glasgow in 2014. The Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP told delegates he was proud to have gone to his local school in Fife and said he was angered by children destined to fail through poverty, or youngsters unable to stay on at school because of parental circumstances. "I believe in a Scotland where everyone should have the chance to rise as far as their talents can take them, where the talents of each of us should contribute to the wellbeing of all," he said, outlining his aspiration to "unlock all the talent of all the people". Mr Brown stressed the rise of India and China - places where it was no longer about the race out of low pay, but the one to better skills, adding: "While those countries produced five million graduates, this country produced just 400,000. "We used to talk about the arms race. Now we have a skills race around the world. "That is why the message that we have always believed in - that social justice is about everybody having the opportunity to make the most of their lives - is the message for the future of our economy as well." |
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| Aventinian |
I think it's essentially the same negative campaigning as before. I don't like it one bit. | ||||
| Red Justice |
Where does Gordon Brown get the idea Labour are the party of social justice who is he kidding? He done nothing for the good of the economy, wants to bring in ID cards, attack the poor and the sick and like Wendy Alexander want to prevent Scotland from having a referendum which Labour know they will loose. Mr Salmond is a clever politician and the SNP will be laughing at the prospect of Alexander as a First Minister.
I doubt it will happen and Eck the Fish must be very happy tonight |
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| macnumpty |
Indeed it is the same-old same-old. Has Brown read Alexander's pamphlet?
Anyway, elections to the Scottish Parliament aren't 'declared'. They happen every four years according to the Scotland Act. Does Brown not know this? 
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| Aventinian |
Oh come on, don't talk rot. For all my criticisms of various political parties, I at least acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of them do what they believe to be best by the country. I disagree with Gordon Brown's politics at almost every level, him being a socialist and all, but I at least acknowledge he is a deeply moral man with a great interest in the wellbeing of the 'poor and sick'. |
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| Red Justice |
I do not see Brown as a socialist. Labour under him and Blair have decimated public service, held back workers rights and trade unionism, implemented heavy taxation on the poorer classes, created a deficit in affordable social housing, increased hospital waiting lists, introduced PFI into hospitals and elsewhere and failed the unemployed. With WMDs, war in Iraq and Afghanistan to support, Labour now turn their attention on the weakest in society the sick and disabled. Announced at the budget a cynical move to cutting numbers on incapacity benefit and move them onto job seekers allowance is about making savings for govt rather than moving people into worthwhile decently paid long term employment.
With Labour's record on contempt for civil liberties or human rights this is if anything, is a Stalinist dictatorial government or party, that is nothing that relates in anyway to either socialism or social justice |
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| Aventinian |
Cynical? I don't think it's anything of the sort. Brown simply happens to be a slightly economically literate socialist. So, pray tell, to what end do you think they're doing this? Do you think Gordon Brown, who has devoted his life to socialism, now sits in his office laughing maniacally as he torments the poor for his own amusement? |
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| Red Justice |
I think you fail to understand Aventinian what New Labour represents.
Labour have a history of opportunism, middle class instincts and have changed a great deal since the days of setting up of the NHS and Welfare state. economically literate socialist? Nice to see the world through Tory spectacles 
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| Rinty |
Gordon Brown is a capitalist as are Labour. He is a capitalist who believes in social reform but far from being a socilaist by any iterpretation of what socialism means. | ||||
| Aventinian |
And when did this change? When they dropped Clause 4? Yes, a great deal has changed. For one, they made themselves electable in the modern world; for another they realised that Socialism without a decent understanding of capitalism usually completely destroys living conditions for the working classes.
Personally I'd interpret Socialism as a doctrine co-existing with a limited degree of Capitalism. To completely exclude Capitalism would be Communism. |
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| Rinty |
Then you would be wrong.
Communism is the theoritical evolution of socialism and a stateless society. Socialism is a controlled economy with the workers having the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution. I think you are getting mixed up by the names of political parties. Socialism is the opposite of capitalism. Any version of capitalism that adopts some social polices or wealth redistribution or some public ownership is still capitalism. |
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| Red Justice |
To me Communism is very much a political philosophy advanced by Lenin for putting into practice the dictatoirship of the proletariat and Anti-imperialism or Socialism taken to it's highest level with state controls to safeguard against the evils of capitalism.
Using capitalist economics or reforms in a socialist society is making that society simply state capitalist NOT socialist |
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