“Ladies and gentlemen, comrades, members of the press. Today I announce my candidacy for the leadership of the Labour Party of Scotland. These are exciting and challenging times. After that crushing defeat in May, it is time to rebuild and renew, to slay sacred cows and chart a new way ahead.
Yes, our disastrous defeat in May was down to poor leadership and a total failure to connect with the people of Scotland. But more than that, we were beaten so comprehensively because of a more fundamental problem, and that is for the past 10 years the Scottish Labour Party has been at least 10 steps behind the ambitions of the Scottish people. We have tried to disparage that ambition, neuter it and hold it back. With me as your leader, we will never be put in that position again. I promise to you to work with the grain of Scotland’s constitutional ambitions.
More than that I want to lead that ambition, to work with its flow, to realise its potential. I want to lead a new Scotland, secure in its own skin dependent on nothing other than the endeavour and the creativity of Scots themselves.
This is why, comrades, that one of the first things I will do, as your leader, will be to review our historic opposition to Scottish independence. As your leader, I want us to consider all constitutional options for the future of our wonderful nation. I pledge to you that I will commission a review of our opposition to independence and full fiscal autonomy and if it finds that this is what our nation requires I will support it wholeheartedly and redefine our party and bring it into line with the aspirations of the Scottish people. It is time, comrades, to put our opposition to independence aside, to look at the national interest, and to work for a new and better future for all the people of Scotland.
Comrades, it is clear that there is a new national consensus in our nation. Scotland wants further, deeper constitutional change and it is time for us to climb aboard. I will continue to oppose the SNP, every government needs effective opposition, but my opposition will be considered. I will lend support in the national interest but question when required. But comrades, the day of the knee jerk ‘SNP bad’ to everything the SNP do must come to an end. We can not define ourselves in respect of others. We must find our own agenda, our own voice.
It was the Labour Party that delivered the Scottish Parliament. It is the Labour Party that has, throughout the decades, championed the values of social justice and equality. Comrades, are we seriously saying that we cannot build on these fine founding principles in an independent Scotland – an independent Scotland that we can shape according to our values? I say no comrades, No… Enough is enough, it is time to get with the national project.
The alternative is continued Tory Government in Westminster, unwanted by the Scottish people and alien to our values. Are we really saying that it is preferable to have a Tory Government running all these reserved responsibilities, rather than having them returned to Scotland and put under the democratic control of the Scottish people in our, in Scotland’s Parliament, in a Labour controlled independent Scottish Parliament?
I will never again allow our once great party to campaign with the Tories, saying no to Scotland, to invent reasons why the Scots aren’t creative enough to make a success of our independence. I will not allow anyone to talk down my fellow Scots any longer.
Comrades, our illogical and pathological hatred of the SNP has blinded us to what is right for the people of Scotland. It is now time for that to come to an end. It is time to be on right side of history, to do the right thing. Comrades, the time is right for Scottish Labour to climb aboard the new Scotland. Vote for me. You know it makes sense…..”
petewishart 
And then we woke up – the speech was all a dream!
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Brilliant in so many ways Pete I am glad to have you as my MP.
What’s in a name eh? Labour ,Tory, Just “Do the right thing party” Well,by happy coincidence we’ve got the SNP or as I like to call it Scotlands National Party or the Do the Right thing Party
It’s about management regardless of anything else
Would anybody employ the Tories to run their company…NO..Why? you’d lose all your staff
Would anybody employ Labour …NO… Why? nothing would ever be decided
Ethics; You decide whether a thing is good or bad and make a decision
No right or left or centre politics of stupidity it’s about what benefits the country, it’s that simple
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few unless the needs of the few are infringed to their detriment. Then the needs of the few are of paramount concern to the many
At last. Someone who will stop all this hatred and listen to the people. BUT!!!!! Don’t go down the Milliband route by saying “comrades” or “friends” at the begining of every sentence. THAT won’t work.
If only. Back in the real world, vote Green on the regional list!
Aye, vote Green on the list as the surest way to risk the loss of a majority SNP government. Bang goes any possibility of indyref2. Don’t let anyone kid you otherwise, the ONLY way to maximise the chances of an SNP majority government in the next parliament is to vote SNP constituency AND list.
Sounds a damn sight more appealing than what Barbie and Ken are offering.
Vote Green? After Harvie backing his English colleague against FFA for Scotland? I was second vote Green, now i am SNP 1 and 2. Greens are obviously not as for Scotlands freedom as they try to make out.
If only! I might take some passing interest in them.
Watch out, Pete – you look like a far better prospect than what’s currently on offer!
And what will we do without you when you win?!
To little to late you
Proud to have you Pete … Fighting for all of us…..
Dear Peter (Comrade!!),
I would suggest that your speech, while obviously meant to be tongue in cheek, is in fact deeply dispiriting. Whilst no one would disagree the Labour Party, both Scottish and National, is in disarray, you show your contempt for the Scottish electorate who voted overwhelmingly to reject Independence; hardly the way to influence hearts and minds.
In addition the ‘SNP bad’ you allude to is much of your own making, by continuing to ignore the views of many independent and respected academics, scholars, and economists, who, by about 6:1 suggest that Scottish Independence is not a good thing.
Whilst we are on the subject of SNP ‘bad’ , do you not take EXACTLY the same approach to the current Conservative government, when the truth is actually far from that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIIuR-HjFho
Not strange that Pete’s outstanding Radio 4 News interview on House of Lord’s and Sewel was not used for the BBC news. Keep going in all other media – people of Scotland. Let Pete’s and all our voices tell everyone here how ‘it really is’.
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