Speech of the Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan to the Labour Party conference, Bournemouth, 23 September 2007
Conference, this is the seventh time I have come to this rostrum as First Minister and Leader of the Labour Party in Wales – and if seven is a lucky number, then there has never been anyone who feels luckier than I do to be here with you again today, after my all too well publicised heart problems on 7/7/7.
At least now I am one of the very few political leaders who have photographic evidence to prove that I have actually got a heart.
So I am a walking talking tribute to the brilliant quality of care you get from NHS Wales.
Personally and politically 2007 has been a challenging year.
But we’ve faced that challenge, survived the crisis and are here again – fighting fit and still in charge.
[Yes, there are two government administrations in the UK where Labour is in charge.
Gordon and his big tent and me and my tent so big it is actually called a coalition with Plaid Cymru.]
And that is my main message this afternoon. Whatever else you may have heard:
Labour remains at the helm in Wales, with a
Labour First Minister
A Labour Minister in charge of our health service;
A Labour Minister in charge of our education services;
A Labour Minister in charge of local government and social justice;
A Labour Minister in charge of the environment; and
A Labour Minister in charge of our finance and public services.
Of course, in those difficult days after May's elections, a very different outcome was possible.
If we had not held our nerve and stuck to our political guns, then yes, believe it or not, the Tories would have been back in office in Wales.
And, make no mistake, in the big picture, it is the Tories who remain the historic enemy of working people in this country:
the historic enemy of fairness,
fundamentally averse to good public services
and wholly out of touch with the values of the people of Wales.
Conference, how could anyone who has watched Calamity Cameron at work this summer, since Gordon Brown became our Leader and Prime Minister, fail to conclude that while Gordon already well on his way to becoming a great Prime Minister, the other is already on his way to the Job Centre?
That special Job centre for failed ex-Tory leaders, to join the queue of John Major, William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard and shortly David Cameron.
Yes, Conference, Calamity Cameron will soon become Dole Queue Dave!
That is why we were so determined earlier this summer not to allow Tory Ministers back into power through the back door.
The price of that determination is sharing power with another Party in the Assembly Government.
And here, too, Conference, we were clear that the being willing to share power at the Assembly was not about holding office, but about being able to put our programme into action.
Labour Assembly Ministers are now at work:
Regenerating our deprived communities,
tackling child poverty,
putting action on climate change at the heart of government policy,
implementing the most radical reform of our early years education and
removing the last vestiges of the internal market in the Welsh health service.
Over the next four years, we will make maximum use of the Assembly's new powers – thanks to the Government of Wales Act 2006, agreed at party conference 2004, the 2005 General Election victory, and the Labour team at Westminster magnificently led by Peter Hain.
And we are able to do all this, Conference, because of the ten year project which has been this Party’s dedication to devolution.
Devolution is quite simply the best of both worlds for our people.
It puts power in Welsh hands to deal with our domestic affairs while retaining all our shared British values.
It gives us the advantages of being part of the fourth largest economy in the world and one of the big member states of the EU.
Wales has changed for the better in so many ways since devolution in 1999.
Dole queues down to 40,000 and falling.
Jobs up by 146,000.
Fastest rise in household income of any part of the UK.
Infant mortality now the lowest in the UK.
But looking back over the last eight and a half years is not what Welsh Labour is all about.
It's about the next eight and a half years
- of creating a full employment society, with another 146,000 extra jobs, to double the number we've already created.
It's about a high-skill knowledge economy
- yes we now have outstanding international companies like IBM, Motorola, General Dynamics, EADS, GE Healthcare developing intellectual property in Wales
- there were no such names in Wales 10 years ago.
- Child poverty elimination
- workless households reduction
- catching up on household income levels
Wales has had to come from behind in all three areas.
But we are catching up fast.
That's what Welsh Labour is for:
working with the UK Government in that Labour-led partnership to deliver the Defence Training Academy in South Wales and the A350 XWB in North Wales, the pillars of an even more successful economy.
And, now we have the early approval of our European Structural Funds programmes, we will go on to to deliver the £3 billion investment involved over the next seven years.
That's what Welsh Labour is for.
Now, it is not for me to speculate on when a General Election might come.
But whenever that might be, we will be straining every sinew to make sure that we get the biggest possible squad of Welsh Labour MPs returned to the House of Commons to represent the hardworking people of Wales.
That's what Welsh Labour is for.
The deal which devolution delivers is a strong partnership between Labour in Wales and Labour in Westminster.
We know that Labour's mission is not yet complete.
We've all got work to do ahead - but that's why we are here, if you can forgive the pun, right at the heart of this Party.
So, when that starting pistol is fired, we know our job, my job and your job, is to ensure that Wales plays its full part in delivering another term, a full term for Gordon and his team.
That's what Welsh Labour is for.
And, personally, fighting fit and ready for the fray, I can hardly wait for it to happen.