Justice Secretary addresses SNP conference

Addressing the SNP Conference in Perth the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill MSP said the Scottish Government was determined to press ahead with its plans to rebalance the nation's relationship with alcohol.

In his speech Mr MacAskill said:

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow delegates. Don't believe everything you read in the papers.  I was on my holidays when I got a message.  I couldn't believe what was being written.  I didn't recognise myself. I was aghast. A Sunday paper had described me as the best dressed front bencher. Well, you ken as well as anybody else that I am the cabinet secretary that needs his collar turned doon, tie straightened and shirt tucked in before he gets oot the hoose never mind let loose on stage.

People say Justice is highly visible and I am never off the telly.  But that's cause there's not just one, there's two of us in the justice department.  I am indebted to Fergus  for all his hard work and efforts. As I like to say " I do polis, he does fire. I do courts , he does charities. I do drink, he does drugs. Not literally of course. But on the question of drugs, can I say he has single handedly driven forward a bold and innovative drugs policy for Scotland.  

Recognising that we cannot park people on methadone for ever and a day, but appreciating that there is no simple or single solution to a major social problem.

Most surprisingly perhaps Fergus is the consensual one of the two of us. Who would have thought it? It must be fatherhood that has mellowed him, as teenage sons have chastened me.

When I had the privilege to address you last year it was in the first flush of an administration seeking to find its way and set Scotland on a new path. Now as we approach 18 months in office it is an opportunity to explain to you not just what we hope and aspire to, but what as Scotland's first Government we are doing and, most importantly, what we have actually delivered. And delivering we are.

We have always maintained that it's a visible police presence - reassuring good citizens and deterring bad ones that – that will make Scotland safer and stronger. And ladies and gentleman we now have a record number of police officers in Scotland. On 30th June 2008, just over a year after we took office, there were 16,339 bobbies, the highest ever recorded. And there are more to come. Forces are on track to recruit over 1600 officers in 2008/2009 – the highest ever level of recruitment and double that of the last year of the previous administration. Delegates, the highest number of officers and the highest level of recruitment. We can take pride in that, as Scotland takes pride in its police.

And a visible police presence is working.  The recorded crime statistics for Scotland for 2007/08 disclosed the lowest level of crime for over a generation –  28 years to be precise.

We are blessed in this country by an excellent police force and prosecution service but we said we would deliver and delivering we are.

That is not to say that there haven't been difficulties. Our prison service is equally excellent as are our police and prosecution services, but they are under great strain. Despite the lowest level of recorded crime in a generation, there is the highest ever level of inmates in Scottish prisons.  There is clearly something wrong. We are not inherently bad people and the number of inmates should not be rising when recorded crime is falling. It was for that reason that we established the McLeish commission.

I am extremely grateful to Henry McLeish and others on the Commission. They have given their time and done their country a great service. They have confirmed, as we always believed, that we do require to have prisons, but they should be for serious and dangerous offenders whom we require to protect our communities from. This Government is committed to building 3 new prisons to ensure that our communities are protected. The first at Addiewell is due to open at the end of this year. All this has been achieved in just 18 months when the Tories, carping from the sidelines, and jeopardising the safety of staff and inmates,  built notone new prison in 18 years.

Delegates, we believe, as the McLeish Commission confirmed, that less serious offenders should pay back the harm they have done through the sweat of their brow. This Government will not entertain a free bed and board culture. We will not compound the injury of the harm caused with the agony of the taxpayer funding them to lie in their bed all day at our expense.  Unlike other parties, we will not pander to prisoners, whilst our pensioners go without.

Regrettably, though, our prisons do hold some sad lassies and daft ladies. Some more to be pitied than punished, treated not trashed, others need a good foot up the backside and a hard days work.  That is better done in the community where they can have their heroin addiction addressed or they can restore the damage they have done.

But it's a funny world do ye ken.   In these turbulent economic times, where billions have disappeared overnight before our very eyes.  I am aye minded of the  great American folk artist Woody Guthrie who sang with the immortal lines " as through this world I've wandered I've met some funny men, there's some will rob you with a six gun and some with a fountain pen." It makes you wonder just who the guilty are - some of the lassies in Cornton Vale or some of the Lords and Ladies.

We are equally committed to the view that those in prison should work.  It doesn't need to be sewing mail bags, but work should be done. It is difficult at present due to over crowding. But as a Government we believe that prisons should seek to rehabilitate, but equally prisoners should be given work to do.

Delegates, I was criticised by Paul Martin, a Labour MSP for suggesting that prisoners should be put to work.  Out building things our communities need and want, not playing pool and darts for their own amusement. He thought this endangered the public. Yet this is the same Mr Martin who wanted to put some of the self same laddies into the army. Call me simplistic, but I would rather test some of these laddies with a trowel before I trusted them with an automatic weapon.

As a Government we have established a Serious Organised Crime Task Force taking on the Mr Bigs and stripping them of their assets.  Equally though we recognise that we need to tackle the underlying causes of crime – the 3 D's that scar our land - drink, drugs and deprivation. That's why the money we take from proceeds of crime is being poured into opportunities for our youngsters.  Millions are going in to give all our kids, and especially those from the most disadvantaged areas. Football, rugby and basketball have all benefited substantially. But its not just sport, but culture and the arts that are being funded and there is more to come.

Whatever activity turns the light on and gets them on the straight and narrow is to be welcomed.   Sadly, there are those such as Mr Martin who never knowingly praise a bairn. This Government knows though that the overwhelming majority of Scots kids are good kids, a credit to their families, their communities and themselves.  We're committed to letting them be all they can be.  We know that the devil finds time for idle hands.  That's why cheap drink must not be a right, but sports, arts and leisure must never be a luxury.

Which brings us onto alcohol ladies and gentlemen. A matter we have already been discussing.  We make no apology as a Government for seeking to tackle this most major of social issues in our land.  If it causes some controversy – so be it. If it takes on vested interests – so it must be. The statistics are stark. The facts are frightening.  The situation is intolerable.

Let me remind you that over 40% of those murdered or murdering are under the influence of alcohol.  Almost 60% of youngsters in custody said that alcohol was the root cause. Knives and drink remain a lethal cocktail in this land of ours.

But, its not just criminal justice that's afflicted. It costs us as a society over 2.25 billion pounds per annum.  Our Health Service is being over run and our economy undermined. It's not just costing us , it's killing us. Alcohol related deaths have doubled in a decade.

As we have said before, it is not the drink but how we are drinking. We're proud of our malts and brews.  Pubs are great social gatherings, not just at this Conference, but in our communities. I like a pint or two as much as the next man – but we can't go on as we are.

Some say "do you not worry about stigmatisation"? Yes I do. But I am concerned not about the stigmatisation of a generation, but that of an entire Nation.

A few years ago when the new Parliament building had just opened and the furore over its cost was at its height, I remember meeting a young Scots lassie in Chicago.  This was at a time where if somebody asked you where you worked you mumbled and hoped to avoid saying that you worked in that building.  But, she told me when I met her how proud she was not just of the building, but of her country. For the first time in her life she had seen her nation depicted not with heilan coo, a Scottie dog or a drunken Scotsman. She fair burst with pride and was able to say "that is where I come from, that is the land I call home."

Ladies and Gentlemen I want people, around the world when they think of Scotland, to have an image that we can proud of.    Whether it's of our magnificent scenery or our great contributions to arts, engineering or medicine. Whether as the land of Rabbie Burns or the birthplace of Alexander Fleming.

I don't want them to see us as a nation of bevviers and swalliers. Where the image that first comes to mind of Scotland is of drunkenness and violence. I don't want our land and people constantly portrayed and seen almost as synonymous with drink and aggression.

We get annoyed as to how Scotland and the Scots are characterised and stigmatised around the globe. From adverts in Germany to see you Jimmy images at home.  But we have to ask ourselves why?

Why does the world see us in that light and what do we need to do to change it?

That's why we remain committed to changing Scotland's unhealthy relationship with alcohol.  Other parties have carped about our Consultation – not one of them has contributed, unlike the YSI members we heard from earlier, who have responded and have had the courage to set out their case in the proper way.

All of the opposition parties complain about the problems alcohol brings. None provide any solutions to the problems we face.

There is something perverse in our land when a 2 litre bottle of high strength cider costs less than a bottle of water. Those who peddle it need to be regulated. Selling alcohol is not a right. It carries a responsibility.

This Government will not shirk from its responsibility to get Scotland back on an even keel with the drink. Irresponsible promotion and irresponsible pricing of alcohol is simply unacceptable.

But it's not just in criminal justice but in civil justice that progress has been made.  We have delivered a Judiciary Bill, enshrining the separation of powers between legislature executive and judiciary so fundamental to any democracy.

Pivotal to that and to so much of the work of the entire Government has been Professor Sir Neil MacCormack.  I first met Sir Neil 30 years ago when I was a young law student and he was my jurisprudence lecturer.  A kind hearted soul then, as now, he even found his way to giving me a merit.

A colossus in legal academia, and a giant on the nationalist stage.  He cannot be with us for health reasons, as you well know. But from the ranks of the Scottish Cabinet to the rank and file of Scotland's party, from the heart of Scotland here in Perthshire and from the heart and soul of everyone who holds Scotland true, I just want to say Neil …… We salute you.

He won't be able to join us in Glenrothes, as he has in past by-elections. But he is well aware of their importance. Of how after every election and by-election victory the seas of independence lap further up the shores of Scotland.  He can't be here to say it, so I will say it for him - "there's doors to be knocked and phone calls to be made, there's leaflets to be delivered and posters to be distributed. It won't be easy, but it can be won. He can't join us on this campaign. So it's up to us to do it for him.

We can give him our thanks, as we have, but what he really wants is for us to deliver his dream.  A dream held too not just by him but by his father and countless others before them. A dream held through 300 years of an incorporating Union.  A dream not simply of the restoration of a devolved Scottish Parliament, but the re-establishment of an independent Scottish nation.

It is our duty delegates to make his dream our destiny.  We owe him no less.

Get up, get out and get into Glenrothes.