 A MANCHESTER PARLA GORDON BROWN
L'intervento alla Conference del Labour Party
(pagina 3)
... public spending you can't just wave a magic wand to conjure up the money - not even with help from Harry Potter. And so there are tough choices and I have to say that as a result of the events of recent weeks there are going to be tougher choices we will have to make and priorities we will have to choose. And just as families have to make economies to make ends meet, so this government must and will ensure that we get value for money out of every single pound of your money that is spent. But I say to you that we will invest it wisely, continuing our record investment in schools, Sure Start centres, transport and hospitals. And if we make the right decisions to take people through the world downturn fairly we will find that, despite the current troubles, British firms and British workers can reap the rewards of a world economy set to double in size.
With Britain's great assets - our stability, our openness, our scientific genius, our creative industries, and yes our English language - I know that this can be a British century and I'm determined it will be. But my argument today is that the new settlement for the global age must do even more to empower people with new opportunities insure people against new risks and as a result value hard work effort and enterprise. It's the economy that's been making the headlines, but there are other big changes too. People feel their communities are changing before their eyes and it's increasing their anxiety about crime and anti-social behaviour. And so we will be the party of law and order. And for the first time ever we've got more British pensioners than British children - more people living longer on fixed incomes and worried about whether they'll need long term care. And so we will be the party that will ensure security and dignity for pensioners. And there are new pressures on parents - worrying about balancing work and family life but also about advertising aimed straight at their children and what their children are watching or downloading from the internet. And so we will be the party of the family. And so the new settlement for our times show how Britain can meet all these challenges too and its more than about a fair prosperity - it must be about fair chances and fair rules too. You know some people say that there's an inevitable political cycle in this country - as sure as night follows day. I don't agree. The challenge of these new times demands a truly progressive government to help people cope with the new risks and make the most of the new opportunities. That's why I believe that now more than ever - even more than in 1997- this country needs a Labour government. You know to govern is to choose - and it's what a government chooses to do when it's tested that demonstrates its priorities and reveals its heart. It is not the arithmetic of statistics but the fabric of people's lives. When we talk about three million more people in work since 1997 - that's not just a number, that's a life that's been changed - three million times over. That's the young woman laid off in the mid 90's who's now built a booming business of her own. Three million new jobs not by accident, but by our actions. And in the years to come we will demonstrate again that real power of Labour to change lives. And when we talk about the one million small and medium-sized businesses set up in the last eleven years, that's not just a number - that's the entrepreneur who can treat her parents to a summer holiday, and the local businessman who's taken on two local teenagers as apprentices. One million new businesses demonstrating yet again the real power of Labour to change lives. And when we talk about one million people benefiting from new Labour's minimum wage that's not just a number - that's a dad doing security shifts who can now afford a birthday party for his child and it's a mum who doesn't have to go to a loan shark to pay for her kids' Christmas. One million people freed from exploitation- and now the minimum wage rising year on year - that's the real power of Labour to change lives. And when we talk about the 240,000 lives that are saved by the progress Labour's NHS has made in fighting cancer and heart disease, that's not just a number - that's the dad who lives to walk his daughter up the aisle and the gran who is there to clap and cry at her grandson's graduation. 240,000 families still together - and now thousands more with new and better treatments from an expanding NHS -- we're changing the world the only way it can ever really change - one life, one family, one hope at a time. That's the real power of Labour to change lives. And why do we always strive for fairness? Not because it makes good soundbites. Not because it gives good photo opportunities. Not because it makes for good P.R. No. We do it because fairness is in our DNA. It's who we are - and what we're for....
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