Enough listening – time for fresh ideas to move forward

ANDY KERR says he bows to no-one in loving his country – as he lays down his vision for the future of Scottish Labour

SCOTTISH Labour is at a crossroads. The seismic plates of Scottish politics have shifted over the last few years and the Labour Party – my party – must decide whether it is going to make a similar shift or fall between the cracks.

It has happened before. The Scottish Tories were once a powerful force in Scottish politics, but they failed to change as Scotland changed and, as a result, they became a political irrelevance.

I believe that it is not just the leadership of Scottish Labour that is at stake in this contest, it is the future survival of the party. We must use the leadership campaign to renew and energise the party.

The last few months have been very difficult for everyone in the Labour family, but I've had enough of the mantra that we are listening to people's problems. It's been repeated all too often after the London mayoral elections, Crewe and Nantwich, and even more depressingly, after Glasgow East. People are fed up hearing that we're listening to them.

What they want from us are the ideas to take them and the country forward.

Too much has been said, also, about the need for the Labour Party to reconnect with our supporters and, more generally, with voters. If we come up with the best ideas, the best policies to take Scotland forward, we will reconnect with voters. That's why this election must be a battle of ideas.

Make no mistake, I want to win this contest; but win, lose or draw, what we need most over the next few weeks is the emergence of new ideas, a genuine debate on their merits and, at the end of the process, a clear direction for the future of Scottish Labour.

I kicked off my campaign with a new policy to tackle the lack of affordable childcare in Scotland, a major headache for many families.

My proposal is to increase the number of hours' free childcare so that each child receives up to 800 hours a year, almost double the current provision, and extend the scheme to two-year-olds. I also want to make the system more flexible so that childcare can be taken up when it suits parents.

At a stroke, it would lift an enormous financial burden from thousands of families and, for many others, it would remove the obstacle that prevents them from returning to work or training. Yes, it costs a lot of money – £360 million on top of the money already spent by the Scottish Government on childcare – but this is one of the biggest issues facing contemporary Scotland and we require an ambitious policy to address it and deliver what families need.

I believe this is the kind of bold, innovative solution that people are crying out for and it is Scottish Labour's duty to deliver.

The nation needs politicians who will look at long-term trends, social structures and the economy and devise policies for a better future.

I want to lead a Scottish Labour Party full of people that will do just that. I want my party to come up with the policies that we will look back on in 20 years' time and say "that made a difference".

Let me give you another example. All three leadership candidates in this contest – Iain Gray, Cathy Jamieson and myself – agree that the government should levy a windfall tax on the excessive profits of energy companies, unlike Alex Salmond, who opposed the petroleum revenue tax. If you have fairness and equality at heart, it's difficult to think otherwise.

But the next question is what to do with the money raised. Again, we should look to the future. Energy prices aren't going to come down, in fact over the next decade they're going to increase to levels that make today's prices look cheap. We can use the money to help with fuel bills this winter, or we use it to help with fuel bills every winter. We must choose the latter.

We should certainly use it to invest in economical central heating and better home insulation, but also, as energy prices rise, the costs of installing micro-renewable technologies – wind turbines, solar panels and heat pumps – look more affordable and the savings these technologies can deliver look less like a futuristic pipe dream and more like economic necessity.

So we should use the money to install micro-renewable technologies to households blighted by fuel poverty.

These are just two examples of the kind of forward-looking, ambitious policies I believe Scotland is looking for and I want to deliver. There will be more over the next few weeks.

We need to move forward as a party on to braver territory and show people that we have the new ideas that will deliver substantial and lasting change for Scotland. Alex Salmond's SNP got into power at Holyrood on a phoney sales pitch that they are more Scottish and more progressive than Scottish Labour.

On the first point, let me assure the First Minister that I am every bit as Scottish as he is, and every bit as proud. I bow to no-one in my love for my country and my desire to see all Scots fulfil their potential.

I do not subscribe to the myth that proud Scots should want to break away from the rest of the UK. In fact, I take pride in being part of a nation that is confident enough to remain in a partnership with neighbours and play a full role in the political, cultural, economic and social life of the whole of the UK.

It's no good telling people that we are more progressive than Nationalists, we have to show them, in our policies and our deeds, that we are on their side. We need to impress people with our ambitions for our country and find new ways to improve their lives.

If we do that, we will be part of a bigger and better future for the party and the country.

That is my message to the Labour family and when I'm taking on Alex Salmond to be First Minister in 2011 – as I sincerely hope I will – that will be my message to Scotland.

• Andy Kerr is MSP for East Kilbride and one of three contenders for the Scottish Labour Party leadership.