Click here to watch Paul Murphy speak at the Labour party Conference in Manchester on Sunday 21 September 2008.

"Conference, in presenting the Welsh report to you, I want to apologise for First Minister Rhodri Morgan’s absence. As well as promoting Welsh interests in the USA, he is being ‘handed the baton’ for when Wales hosts the Ryder Cup in 2010, an event which is going to bring huge opportunities for our economy and for tourism.

As Rhodri would no doubt tell you if he were here, this is a great time for Welsh sport. A Grand Slam victory for Wales in rugby earlier this year. A world champion boxer in Joe Calzaghe.  Success in football for both Cardiff and Swansea.

And how pleased Rhodri and I both were to stand on the steps of the Assembly in Cardiff Bay last month and welcome home the Welsh members of our magificent medal-winning British Olympic team. They and their colleagues in the Paralympic team, did us proud. Now all of us are committed to making London 2012 a success for Wales and for Britain.

Rhodri has decided to stand down some twelve months from now as Leader of the Welsh Assembly, and I pay enormous tribute to an old friend who has been the architect and the socialist inspiration behind Welsh devolution.

Devolution, and the partnership that has been forged between the Labour Government, and the Labour-led Assembly Government has been a great success.

But, like all of you, we have had our difficulties and challenges. We lost many fine Councillors in our local elections this year. We govern in coalition with Plaid Cymru, because of disappointing Assembly election results in 2007. I understand how our Labour Party members felt as the results came in.

But there were positive signs as well. In Bridgend, we took control of the Council, and in Aberavon, we gained seats from the opposition.

Building on these examples of how to campaign and how to organise, Welsh Labour is rightly embarking on the biggest reorganisation of our Party in a generation, so that we can campaign all year round, and reach out to members and supporters in every part of Wales.

Conference, worldwide economic problems have hit us hard, and we must listen to peoples’ concerns over housing, energy prices and rising living costs.

When I became an MP over twenty years ago, after eight years of a Conservative government, unemployment was in the millions, inflation had been well into double figures and house repossessions were at a record high.

Yet memories fade; new generations arise who never knew what the Tories were really like. In many ways, we have taken our recent prosperity for granted.

It’s our job, Conference, to remind our people that our socialist values – put into reality by Labour Governments – have meant that we live in a more decent, a fairer, a more enlightened and a more wholesome society, than ever before.

In Wales, where a Labour-led Assembly works hand in hand with our British Labour Government, our hospitals, our schools, our universities and our police forces have never before received such public investment.

More nurses and doctors helping to cut waiting times for treatment, more teachers helping to raise standards in schools, and more police officers helping to cut crime.

Our democracy has been transformed. Remember, it wasn’t Welsh or Scottish nationalists who delivered devolution – it was Labour.

Who brought in a minimum wage, with 50,000 workers in  Wales benefiting from the latest uprating?  Who reduced child and pensioner poverty?

Did the transformation in our Welsh economy happen by chance, with 145,000 more people in employment, and unemployment cut by over 30%?

No – these things are the result of us putting our values into practice – Labour in the Assembly and in Westminster working together to make a real difference.

Look at Airbus, at Broughton in North Wales, less than fifty miles from here. Labour, in Cardiff and Westminster, have invested millions of pounds in the biggest industrial plant in the United Kingdom, employing, directly and indirectly, nearly 10,000 people, and providing opportunities for nearly 600 young apprentices to learn new skills.

Our partnership reflects our belief that we achieve far more by working together than by pulling apart as some of our opponents in Wales would want to do.

Working together to deal with affordable housing and the needs of first-time buyers, working together to help individuals and businesses deal with their energy costs, working together to help people in Wales who are affected by these global economic difficulties.

Our country – all parts of it – can stand proud in the knowledge that our economy can withstand the current economic challenges better than many others. Skilful management of our economy by Gordon Brown for over a decade has meant that the UK is better placed to weather this global economic storm than it was in the 1970’s, 80s or early 90s.

That is not to be complacent – we do not under-estimate the challenges being faced  in Wales and across Britain.  But the problems we now face will not knock us off our course.

We will expand our democracy; we will train our young people for a better world; we will fight for fairness in our country in a way that the Tories, with a hundred Camerons or Osbornes, could never do.

Our values are as right now as they were when our party was founded. Our policies are as relevant to our people, and our leader as determined and purposeful, as any that we have had.

My friend and predecessor as MP for Torfaen, Leo Abse, died last month aged 91. His socialist values and legislation improved the lives of millions of our people – whether they were gay, or adopted, or illegitimate, or divorced. Our party is the only one which can produce such values, such vision and such hope.

This year, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of our National Helath Service, the fulfilment of the vision of another great Welsh Labour politician, Aneurin Bevan, that all should have access to good healthcare, regardless of wealth.

Our task is to continue to apply these enduring values, which motivated our predecessors, to the challenges we face today.

To quote a great American president, Franklin D . Roosevelt “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

So yes, we must listen to peoples’ concerns. But we must not shy away from taking our central message to the country – that it is only a Labour Government and a Labour Party which can enlarge, enrich and safeguard the lives of people in Wales, and in the United Kingdom.