The Rt Hon Malcolm Bruce MP

Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference Address

Like others at this conference I have fond associations with this great city of Dundee. Elspeth Attwool has already told you that she studied here. In fact she and I were contemporaries.

Actually, Elspeth was already here when I matriculated and in her second year was already running the Debating Society and what was then called the Bejants' welcome, now the Freshers' Fair.

Although I have a St Andrews degree I spent four happy years at Queen's College Dundee - getting involved in amateur dramatics (good training for politics), political debating with lively and then lefty opponents such as George Robertson, helping edit Aien the university newspaper and becoming President of the Liberal Club.

Years later, as a newly elected MP I was asked by the students to stand for the rectorship of Dundee University in a contest that featured Tam Dalyell, Andrew Welsh and a local publican. I was proud and honoured to serve the university during a crucial three year period when we were fighting the swingeing cuts in university funding being imposed by the Conservative Government.

At one point the students held an entirely justified sit-in to protest at proposals to merge the French Department with - wait for it - the University of Exeter, giving a new meaning to distance learning. They might as well have gone the whole hog and gone to Rennes or the Sorbonne - at least the accents would have been authentic.

In the end commons sense prevailed and the logical link was established with St Andrews.

During my time on the court the centre of gravity shifted and the Principal resigned. I was made chair of the committee to appoint a successor - a real insight into academic politics and processes.

Nor did the end of my term as Rector end my association with the university. In the last few months of my time as Leader of the Scottish Party the Scottish Young Liberal Democrats elected a young female Dundee undergraduate to their chair.

Little did either of us realise when we first met at the party executive that a few years later we would be married and have two delightful young children. Life, politics and academia are full of surprises.

Those young children certainly give me a sharp focus on the world we live in and where it might be heading. I have fought hard for Scottish education: trying to resolve the teachers' dispute in my first Parliament setting out proposals which were eventually adopted by the Conservative Government but only after two damaging and destructive years.

In the North East we campaigned to open nursery schools built by the pre-reformed councils and then frozen by the Conservative administration. Eventually our campaigning success led to the removal of the administration and I am pleased to say thanks to the Liberal Democrats we led the way to universal nursery provision which we have now delivered through the Scottish Parliament to the whole of Scotland.

I know the excellent playgroup and nursery my children attend is in no small way due to the Liberal Democrats. I regret the recent dispute affecting some nursery nurses but I'm glad most councils are moving towards resolution.

When Elspeth and I were students we were a privileged minority. Unlike Tony Blair and his New Labour pals however we have no intention of pulling up the drawbridge for the millions that follow.

That's why we support the Liberal Democrat initiative and especially Nicol Stephens's achievement in securing the abolition of tuition fees in Scotland and were happy to back the demand of students for the restoration of grants. Nicol's work is proof you have to be in Government to work with civil servants in Government to implement your policies.

Tuition fees have been abolished in Scotland. No Scottish based students are paying and grants have been introduced. Meanwhile England sees grants still not available and tuition fees not only imposed but increasing as university education is put on the market like apples and pears. It is those that try to maintain that tuition fees have not been abolished in Scotland who are the liars - ask the students if they prefer the Scottish or the English options.

Of course there would have been no Liberal Democrat achievements in Government if we hadn't insisted on a proportional system for the Scottish parliament. Nor would we have achieved a commitment to PR in local Government and certainly not STV if we had not had Ministers in Government to progress it. Jim Wallace and his team are far more effective initiating policies from the heart of Government than trying to second guess from the sidelines.

I am in favour of a reconstituted constitutional convention. We need to review and extend the powers of the Scottish Parliament. We need sufficient fiscal autonomy to make the Parliament accountable. If we succeed in growing our population, incomes, visitors, trade and investment the benefits should not all go to Gordon Brown's Treasury. Where we are dependent on transfers from Westminster these should be clear and transparent not the subject of endless subjective argument.

As I look at my young children learning new things every day I inevitably wonder what kind of Scotland and what kind of world they will see in their lifetimes.

I have an admission to share with you. I was born in England in what was then the County of Cheshire. As my name makes clear my Scottish heritage is unchallengeable and I have been able to bequeath to my children something I do not have. They were all born in Scotland.

This great country is our home. It is a beautiful country with a turbulent history but many contributions to philosophy, science, literature and enterprise that have enriched the world.

The Scottish diaspora is reputed to be second only to the Jews. That is no small achievement for a small country.

The only downside, but it is significant, is our apparent inability to sustain or even grow our own population. Our net migration is about balanced; in other words immigrants are balancing emigrants. However, in spite of Rosemary and my best efforts we are not reproducing enough. It is actually true that one of the best contributions you can make to Scotland is a Scottish born baby.

In reality, of course, we need a dynamic economy that can retain more of our own and attract enterprising immigrants. I commend Jack McConnell and the Scottish Executive for recognising this. Nevertheless, as they acknowledge, they will require the support of Westminster. The extended visitors' visas for overseas students graduating from Scottish universities are an interesting initiative but may be challenged by the European Convention of Human Rights.

Gordon Brown is a Scottish MP who could do more to help. On a personal basis I was truly delighted at the happiness he has clearly experienced from the successful birth of a healthy baby.

However, his obsession with ever more impenetrable detail and micro management mean that his child support initiatives are expensive to administer and don't deliver all that's needed. In particular, the Child Trust Fund is a gimmick whose resources would be better directed into supporting child care.

The German constitutional court has identified that children make a positive economic benefit to the economy and instructed the Government to promote more family friendly policies. Quite simply the welfare of older people depends on the contribution of the younger generations.

But the welfare of our young throughout the world depends on the conduct of our generation.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 was hailed almost everywhere as a new dawn. It has given freedom to travel, to exchange ideas, to communicate. To the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe it has restored identity.

But in the Balkans it has led to genocide in the form of ethnic cleansing. It has created a new cauldron for global terrorism and led to an attack on human rights and liberal values in the most advanced of democracies and a poor model for those still aspiring for the basic rights of free and fair elections, freedom of speech and a fair and impartial judicial system.

Liberalism cannot be soft or naïve. We know there are nihilistic terrorists who are prepared to kill and main innocent people, children and even their own. They are prepared to use any technology for maximum damage. Tony Blair is right to say September 11 and Madrid on March 11 show that these terrorists would kill 30,000, 300,000 or 30 million if they could.

We need first class intelligence, international co-operation and occasionally even draconian measures. Yes, there may be occasions when a pre-emptive strike may be necessary. Liberals cannot and do not shirk those tough circumstances.

Yet, for terrorism to be defeated or at least contained requires trust, even handedness and a recognition that upholding Liberal values is crucial to achieving that.

As a member of the Legal Affairs and Human Rights committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe I have been rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan. In that capacity I have negotiated personally with the President of Azerbaijan to persuade him of the necessity of releasing all political prisoners.

Progress is being made with a further release last week, including a former Prime Minister I visited in prison in December.

Against this however we have Russia arresting Yukos officials and denying them their basic rights of access to counsel, to a public hearing, to bail and to other rights. But highlighting this in the House of Commons a couple of weeks ago I got this rave review in the Russian media:

"The Russian people would tear Malcolm Bruce and his co speaker Michael Moore to pieces if they found them. Malcolm Bruce said at the session of the British Parliament on March 10: "If we don't say anything, we will just let the Russian authorities go further. We are guarantors of the European Convention on Human Rights and friends of the Russian people.

We must not let Russia go to a totalitarian regime just because this will give stability and order and because the Russian people are not against it". The article then went on to say it was explained to the Russian people long ago that sympathizers with the YUKOS prisoners and defectors are mercenaries and enemies of the national interests while the Basmanny court is a friend of the national interest. This is the main mistake that Western commentators who, being bourgeois themselves, care about bourgeois."

Of course, the opposition media has effectively been suppressed by President Putin and the Liberal opposition in the Duma has been decimated. Russia may no longer be communist and is not totalitarian but many of the old methods are coming back as KGB trained Mr Putin brings his own KGB associates back into key positions.

But it takes Liberals to point this out. The Establishment in the UK and USA need Putin's acquiescence in Iraq and are strangely quiet.

It is Liberals too who have highlighted the ironic injustice that characterises Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay.

Those British prisoners recently released from there have given accounts of appalling mistreatment, which is difficult to challenge given the limited access to the camp given to independent observers.

Despite being cross examined by British security agents they were released without charge immediately on their return after languishing for two years.

Yet their fate is fortunate compared with those still held. In defiance of international law which they hold in increasing contempt the US administration is denying them all the rights US citizens would enjoy. This means they can be tried in secret, sentenced to death without any right of appeal. Yet the UK has agreed that it would extradite people into this jurisdiction.

In turn the UK has also exempted itself from Article 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights so locking up non UK citizens indefinitely without trial - the only European country to do so.

You know it is a matter of astonishment to me that right wing Conservatives and their media backers foam at the mouth at European cooperation in all its forms.

It seems for them when the UK is an engaged partner in a Europe working to build economic cohesion and civilised civic and political values it is a betrayal of national sovereignty.

By contrast signing up to an American foreign policy we have no direct input into, which lacks popular support among the British electorate and serves an agenda at odds with Europe, is hailed as an act of patriotism. As Scottish writer Ian Banks summed up:

"Last time I checked I did have an MEP to whom I could complain about any abuses within the European system, and who I could, along with my fellow voters, remove from office: I am yet to be informed of the identity of my Congressional representative."

Amen to that. Let us say too that European Liberal Democrats work hard for our interests, amending, modifying, improving and occasionally blocking European Commission and Council of Ministers proposals. Europhobes who are absent half the time and only rant and wreck ultimately betray our interests, that's why Scotland needs Liberal Democrats in Europe.

As the world move to its polarities Liberalism must become stronger and more assertive. We must stand out against blatant abuses wherever they occur. We do not deny states the right to protect themselves and their citizens - of course we don't - but we insist they do it with due respect to their own laws and international treaties, laws and conventions.

At the centre of this seething cauldron of threats, suspicions, uncertainty and escalating violence is the poison of the Middle East.

We all weep tears of blood for the children, the mothers and fathers, the young people on the brink of hope who are blown to pieces or maimed by the evil malice of suicide bombers and those who sustain them.

But state sponsored revenge in defiance of all natural justice when all dialogue is silenced must surely alienate the sympathy and support for the Government of Israel by those who embrace a future based on peace and human rights - and a dignified homeland for the dispossessed.

It is not weakness to condemn injustice wherever it is perpetrated. It is neither folly nor bias to expose the flaws in a great power's actions.

Richard Clarke, a career civil servant has claimed the Bush administration was obsessed with Iraq from the outset and overlooked the threat of Al Q'aida.

The case for invading Iraq and the manner in which it was brought about no longer centres on whether it was justified. The real issues now are can we trust our leaders.

In troubled times perfect trust may be too much to ask for but there is a minimum on which co-operation and success depends, we have dropped below that minimum and nothing less than a change of leadership is required.

We must assert that Liberals are needed more than ever within the leadership. Charles Kennedy has proved his worth as a principled and effective leader. He led a united party into the lobby against the war. He rightly refused to join the Butler Inquiry.

Charles backed his instincts and stood his ground and has been vindicated. His record and his leadership will take us to new heights in the next election.

Liberalism is on the advance. We have Liberals showing the way in Canada and Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia, Slovenia and many other countries.

As the world rushes to arms and rushes to fundamentalist extremes we need the voice of reason, of fairness of freedom and justice - a Liberal voice for human rights the rule of law and a bridge between rich and poor, creed and colour.

Compromise and understanding are essential to taking the world back from the brink. What cannot be compromised are the fundamental values on which civilised society depends - respect for life and for due and fair process.

Charles spoke of tough Liberalism and he was right. The easy option is to return to the Old Testament and seek vengeance. The tough option is to fight for reason, fairness, dialogue and justice - "Breathe through the earthquake wind and fire O Still, small voice of calm."

That voice is a Liberal voice. Our objective is to make it a big loud clear voice - the voice of hope - the voice of Liberalism.