Blair promises new general election pledge card
The next general election will see a revival of Labour’s famous 1997 pledge card, the Prime Minister confirmed today.
In his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference Tony Blair, said that an historic third term would be dedicated to making “the change in our country and in our world lasting, irreversible.
“In the last century brief periods of progressive governments were rapidly extinguished. In this century we must ensure that the progressive case once made is maintained, and the periods of conservatism are the punctuation marks not the sentences in which our history is written.”
Highlighting his vision of “power, wealth and opportunity in the hands of the many not the few” he told the conference that: “I want us to win a third term not so that we can go in the history books. But so that we can consign Britain’s failings to the history books.”
He called on the Labour Party to unite behind the plan and what unities them, rather than divides them, and “get out and do it”.
Stressing that Labour has delivered on all of its 1997 pledges, he said that: “A new pledge card is being prepared for insertion into John Prescott’s wallet.
“And then into the hands of everyone of us as we knock on doors, visit the factories, tour the shops, get out and campaign with some fire in our bellies, with some pride in what we have done.”
Tony Blair outlined a ten point plan based around domestic policies for the party to take into the next general election. Firstly, he promised help for first time buyers and “tax relief for the millions of hard-working families not tax cuts for the wealthy few”.
Secondly, a new commitment to vocational skills with free training for all adults up to level two. Also, on education, he promised to give parents choice in secondary schools, but “no return to selection at 11”, give heads new powers against disruptive pupils, and fund modern sports facilities, and a guaranteed number of sporting hours a week.
On the NHS, Tony Blair said that there would be choice for patients on their hospital and time and date of treatment, and a reduction in maximum waiting times “down from 18 months to 18 weeks”.
Fifthly, help for families on childcare, he promised to introduce: “Universal, affordable and flexible childcare for the parents of all 3-14 year-olds who want it from 8am in the morning to 6 at night and a Sure Start Children’s Centre in every community of Britain.”
For the elderly, “security and dignity for everyone in retirement” and “a pension system that has the basic state pension at its core.”
Labour would also invest £1 billion extra into science and technology, and would end the “digital divide” by giving every home in Britain the chance to access broadband by 2008.
On law and order, a “radical extension” of compulsory drug testing for offenders, dedicated policing teams for communities, and action on organised crime so that those “believed to be part of organised crime will have their assets confiscated, their bank accounts opened up and if they intimidate juries, face trial without a jury.”
There was no backing down from Mr Blair either on controversial elements, with a reiteration of the pledge to introduce identity cards and electronic registration of all those who cross the UK’s borders.
Finally, he promised a “fair deal for all at work” and respect for the “millions of hard working low paid families who do the jobs that we all rely on”. Citing examples of office cleaners, dinner ladies and security guards, he said: “For them, we offer not just the respect they deserve, but the guarantee of a decent income, a rising minimum wage, equal pay between men and women, four weeks paid holidays from now on plus bank holidays.”
Turning to the electoral opposition, he said that he could not take the Liberal Democrats seriously. Mr Blair said that though he liked Charles Kennedy, he advised him never to answer the question of what the Lib Dems stand for, saying: “The great advantage of the Lib Dems is precisely that no-one knows what they stand for.”
On the Conservative opposition, “the Tories by contrast, don’t need to ask what they stand for. They know what they stand for. Unfortunately for them, so do the British people.
Two recessions, 10 per cent mortgage rates, the poll tax, 3 million unemployed, opposition to the minimum wage and crime doubled.
“Michael Howard did well at first because people had forgotten him. Now they’ve remembered.”
The Prime Minister said it is “New Labour that now wears the one nation mantle.”
Despite the achievements under a Labour government, Mr Blair said that it is “not yet a Britain in which as our constitution puts it: power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many not the few.
“If you have professional parents you are five times more likely to go to university. If you live in a smart part of town you are half as likely to be the victim of crime. Company directors aren’t the ones losing their pension.
“There is a glass ceiling on opportunity in this country. We have raised the ceiling. We haven’t broken it.”
The third term mission, the Prime Minister said, is to change “Britain for better. For good.”
“Not a society where all succeed equally – that is utopia; but an opportunity society where all have an equal chance to succeed; that could and should be 21st century Britain under a Labour Government.
“Where nothing in your background, whether you’re black or white, a man or a woman, able-bodied or disabled stands in the way of what your merit and hard work can achieve.”
“Don’t tell me that’s not worth fighting for.” He concluded.
