PM's speech 'rehashes' failed scare stories

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Posted by 1185403 Fri, 28/03/2008 - 17:54
Gordon Brown’s speech to Labour party conference rehashed the same scare stories as their failed election campaign and showed his ignorance of Scottish elections.
Commenting after the speech SNP Depute leader Nicola Sturgeon said; "Labour have learned nothing from their election defeat last year – the first time they lost in Scotland for half a century.

"Gordon Brown came out with the same old scaremongering nonsense that was wrong about the SNP and Scotland when we were in opposition, and is equally wrong now that we are in government."

Nicola Sturgeon highlighted the SNP's popularity in government and the policies the SNP is delivering that are making a real difference in Scotland.

"The reality is that the SNP Government is hugely popular because of the policies that we are delivering across the board, and the extra investment we are making in public services – restoring free education and investing in schools, skills and training; investing a greater share of the budget in local government services; abolishing prescription charges; freezing the council tax; and cutting business rates to grow the economy. That is why we are now much more trusted than Labour on education, health, the economy, and law & order – a development of huge significance in Scottish politics.

"And that is why the SNP government is 10% ahead of Labour in the polls, and why Alex Salmond is 40 points ahead of Gordon Brown and 75 points ahead of Wendy Alexander in leadership approval ratings.

"I suspect that no-one in Aviemore, including Mr Brown himself, imagines for one second that Wendy Alexander will ever be the head of anything apart from the ineffective Labour group at Holyrood."

Gordon Brown also showed how out of touch with Scotland he is, talking about the next Scottish elections, ‘whenever an election is declared.  Ms Sturgeon added:

"In case Gordon Brown hadn’t noticed, Labour are in a mess and slumping in the polls north and south of the Border. It is his lacklustre and dithering UK government that is holding Scotland back. Over the last 30 years of Labour and Tory London governments, Scotland’s growth rate has averaged just 1.8%, compared to 2.5% for the UK as a whole, and 3.5% in the arc of prosperity small independent nations in Europe.

"It is independence and equality that will give Scotland the powers we need to compete and succeed in the modern world."