Party conferences aren’t all speeches to big exhibition halls. For those of us in political parties, they are a chance to see friends, catch up with colleagues and share ideas.
But inevitably the leader’s speech ends up being the lynchpin moment – a chance to prove the doubters wrong or confirm what the pundits have already decided. For politicians it’s also an important chance to try to focus the political debate on our values. Today, Nicola Sturgeon will take to the stage in Aberdeen.
Last week, Liz Truss gave her first speech to a Tory conference as Prime Minister. Their values and visions are very different but both are leaders running out of road as the consequences of their failures catch up with them.
In Birmingham Liz Truss’s speech confirmed what was painfully obvious – she now leads a lame duck government that is running down the clock. It’s clear that today’s Tories are just a Thatcher tribute act.
Even members of the Prime Minister’s own Cabinet are breaking ranks and demanding that the government raises benefits in line with inflation. This is an incompetent and immoral government in complete disarray.
We also saw in her speech a dangerous right-wing radical who, in the face of the greatest cost-of-living crisis in memory, prefers to lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses than properly support those in need. Throughout the speech she preferred to create imaginary enemies rather than face up to her own failures – as bills spiral and families struggle to make ends meet.
Nicola Sturgeon has a different problem. She leads a party that has run out of ideas. After 15 years in power at Holyrood, it is clear to many Scots that this is a government surrounded by inertia and with nothing to offer the people of Scotland.
Rather than owning up to its failures, time and time again the SNP simply hide behind the Tories. This is not good enough. We know what 15 years of SNP rule has meant. Our NHS has been left in tatters – with lives being risked day in and day out. One in seven Scots is on an NHS waiting list.
Our education system is in disarray with pupils failed during the pandemic and Scotland sliding down league tables. Drug deaths remain Scotland’s shame with death rates among the highest in Europe. They can’t blame the Tories for this – the blame lies with the SNP.
During the Scottish Parliament election, Nicola Sturgeon pledged to focus on recovery from the pandemic and the priorities of the people of Scotland. But, shamefully, her party has returned to the politics of division and grievance – the politics of the past. And their big idea to transform Scotland?
Well, if we look at what they’ve said so far it’s a YouTube channel for people who agree with them. Another echo chamber in a country whose politics has been divided for too long.
The people of Scotland deserve better than the callous Tories at Westminster and the distracted SNP at Holyrood. There is another way. We can come together and replace the Tories at Westminster with a Labour government. Focused on delivering for you – not on division.
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