 A MANCHESTER PARLA GORDON BROWN
L'intervento alla Conference del Labour Party
(pagina 4)
... It's why Labour exists. It's our first instinct, the soul of our party. It's why when things get tough, we get tougher. We stand up, we fight hard - for fairness. We don't give in, and we never will. For me fairness is treating others how we would be treated ourselves. So it isn't levelling down but empowering people to aspire and reach ever higher. And to take advantage of all the opportunities of the global economy I want to unleash a new wave of rising social mobility across our country. For too long we've developed only some of the talents of some people - but the modern route to social mobility is developing all the talents of all the people....helping those who are working their way up from very little and lifting up those in the middle who want to get on. It means supporting what really matters - hard work and effort and enterprise.
This is not just the new economic necessity, it is the modern test of social justice and the radical centre ground we occupy and will expand. And fairness is why Harriet is introducing the first ever equalities bill. And let me thank her for her tireless work as deputy party leader. Fairness is why Ed Miliband is ensuring that community and third sector organisations can play their proper part in every neighbourhood. And it is why our whole party is leading the fight against the British National Party. Fairness is why John Denham is extending university access, why Ruth Kelly has introduced for the first time free bus travel for pensioners and why John Hutton and our Labour Members of the European Parliament but are fighting to free agency workers from the scourge of exploitation. But fairness for the future also means a big change that I want to explain today. We have always stood for public services that are universal, available to all. Now we must stand for public services that are not only available to all, but personal to each. For me, the fairer future starts with putting children first - with the biggest investment in children this country has ever seen. It means delivering the best possible start in life with services tailored to the needs of every single precious child. In 1997 there were no Sure Start centres and nursery education for only the few. Today, thanks to the work of Beverley Hughes there are children's centres opening in every community to serve 3 million children who a few years ago had nothing, and free nursery education for every three and four year old. But our ambitions must be greater still. I want Britain to take its place among the leading nations in pre-school services, and so I pledge here today in Manchester starting in over 30 communities, and then over 60, we will, stage by stage, extend free nursery places for two year olds for every parent who wants them in every part of the country backed by high quality, affordable childcare for all. That's the fairness parents want - and that's the fairness every Labour party member will go out and fight for. And because child poverty demeans Britain, we have committed our party to tackle and to end it. The measures we have taken this year alone will help lift two hundred and fifty thousand children out of poverty. The economic times are tough of course that makes things harder- but we are in this for the long haul - the complete elimination of child poverty by 2020. And so today I announce my intention to introduce ground-breaking legislation to enshrine in law Labour's pledge to end child poverty. And Ed Balls and I will never excuse, explain away or tolerate low standards in education. So we will keep up the pace of reform: more academies, trust and specialist schools, more of the brightest and best graduates becoming teachers, more investment in building schools for the future - state of the art schools for world class schooling. Fairness demands nothing less than excellence in every school, for every child. So today I guarantee to parents two fundamental rights: Because every child should leave primary school able to read, write and count, any child who falls behind will not be left behind - but will now have a new guaranteed right to personal catch up tuition. And because all parents should see their children taught in schools which achieve good results at GCSE, our pledge today is that any parents whose local state school falls below the expected standard will have the right to see that school transformed under wholly new leadership, or closed and new school places provided. And we want to enable all families to use the internet to link back to their children's school - and so Jim Knight is announcing that we will fund over a million extra families to get online, on the way to our ambition of Britain leading the world with more of our people than any other major economy able to access the internet and broadband. And now as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS let me on beh...
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