Brown promises prosperity and justice for all
In a passionate keynote address to the Labour Party conference, the Chancellor Gordon Brown has promised to ensure there is “prosperity and justice for all”.
In what was a wide-ranging and policy heavy speech, Mr Brown promised to introduce a minimum wage for all from the age of 16, expand the provision of affordable housing, give all adults without basic skills a real second chance and fund skill education.
Highlighting Labour’s achievements on investment in public services and workplace rights, he said that “we have not yet done enough” and called for all in the party to reach out to those beyond the party to “unite the country behind our vision”.
“Our achievements are just the beginning, we have much more to do.”
He stated that the “true purpose of politics is to serve the country”, he urged the creation of a “progressive consensus” across the country as the whole around a vision of “prosperity and justice” for Britain.
“All of us must do whatever we can to ensure we build the unity of purpose.”
He promised to work with the unions to “do what it takes” to tackle the problem of those workers who have lost their pensions “through no fault of their own”. All workers he said in future will have “security and dignity in retirement”.
In the global economy, Mr Brown said that Britain would not compete with countries like India by lowering wages or standards, but by innovation, and technological excellence, stating that the “modern route to prosperity is not exploitation in the workforce”.
Britain, he said, would prove that economic success can be linked to social justice, unlike America which has great economic power but many people are without health care, and Europe where there is social cohesion but large numbers of unemployed.
The Chancellor promised to expand the 10 year science plan and expand research and development tax credits, so that new British inventions would be turned into exports and products “and new British manufacturing jobs” so that “we will build a Britain of modern manufacturing strength”.
On affordable housing, he promised to implement the Barker review into housing, and expand their policy of help for key public sector workers.
Mr Brown pledged more polices to help working families and to advance to the goal of halving child poverty by 2010. This generations responsibility, he said was to ensure a consensus that every child should have the best start in life and that “no child in Britain is ever left behind”. The ultimate goal is still the eradication of child poverty for good.
In a particularly impassioned section of the speech, he said that he will go to Washington and make the case for action on the reduction of world poverty, honour the timetable to reach 0.7 per cent of GDP in aid and provide funding to act on health and education in the third world.
Evangelising on public services, he said that Britain must show that public services, excellent and free for all at the point of use, not private insurance, is the way forward and that such services are the “collective pride of the nation.” If we can show this works, then “what a difference this country can make to the rest of the world” he argued.
Policies have to “win not just votes but hearts and minds”, he said.
Britain, he said, was advancing further and faster to full employment and he argued that the Labour Party is “winning the argument” on its economic policy. Looking to the future, he pledged that there will be “no short-termism, no irresponsible pre-election promises” and that he would never be complacent about the stability of the economy.
