As well as being Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party in the Commons, Malcolm Bruce is also the President of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. His traditional close of conference speech is usually a cracker and this was no exception. It had some blistering attacks, mainly on the SNP and Conservatives, some personal reflections on his 32 years as Gordon’s MPs and a passionate defence of the Liberal Democrat record in government and a strong statement of Liberal Democrat values of internationalism, openness and freedom. This is proper oratory. There are too few in the next generation across politics, Farron being one of them, who can deliver this real heart-tugging, stirring sort of speech. Here it is in full:

Just across the road from this conference centre you are in the Gordon constituency. Indeed about 30 per cent of Gordon voters live within 5 miles of here. If you haven’t taken an hour out from the conference to help the campaign there is still time to do so. If you have, thank you, but you can still do some more!

I have had the honour to represent the people of Gordon for the past 32 years. I want to tell you something about them and the area.

Things have changed enormously since 1983. There were no mobile phones, no emails, no laptop computers. The fanciest piece of kit I had was a golf ball memory typewriter. The House of Commons paid for one member of staff. The local party paid for a part time secretary in the constituency office which they provided rent free. So during my early years as an MP I and the local party subsidised my work.

In that first winter severe storms brought down power lines leaving thousands of people without power, in some cases for weeks. My office became an unofficial helpline and I worked with what was then the Hydro Board to help prioritise re connections – for vulnerable elderly people and young families and farmers facing the loss of livestock.

In the last 32 years the farming community have not had their troubles to seek. The biggest disaster was the BSE crisis which saw more than 1000 people laid off within a week, One young company lost 95 per cent of its business and all but one of its employees. By its own enterprise and some help from the Government it is now one of our most successful companies in the meat industry.

Years later the industry was hit by foot and mouth. The outbreak wasn’t here but the restrictions on movements of animals had severe effects. Then I was grateful for the wise advice of local vet Richard Brown and the sensible response of Ross Finnie.

Of course, throughout my time as the local MP the huge dynamic has been the international oil and gas industry. I made the first forecasts of the likely impact and promoted Aberdeen’s role as the capital of Europe’s offshore industry.

We forecast that the industry could create 5000 jobs with 5000 indirect jobs and were accused of wild exaggeration. Now we are talking ten times that number locally and 100 times across the UK.

Today the industry is facing tough challenges. Cost inflation when the oil price was high has made the industry uncompetitive in the present climate. The industry is tackling that now. Thanks to Liberal Democrat Ministers we have a new Oil and Gas regulator, following the Wood Review commissioned by Ed Davey, and a range of budget measures that will help restore confidence and bring on new exploration and development.

Of course, as a local MP, the background economic situation and demography is what characterises the community but the real work is engaging with and on behalf of local people and organisations.

We are fortunate to have had full employment and I hope and believe we will weather the present economic storm.

But what we need is essential services – health care, schools, road and rail links telecommunications and recreation.

Throughout my time I have never ceased working to improve investment in the North East which is either overlooked or punished for its economic success – never more so than under the Scottish Government today.

The campaigns have been tireless from the re-opening of Dyce station – a huge success, through by passes for Ellon, Bucksburn, Blackburn, Kintore, Inverurie and the new crossing of the Don under construction a few hundred yards from here. New schools have been built across the region and new health centres opened. The campaigning never stops. We should have had a new station at Kintore by now. I am glad to have initiated the successful campaign to secure an Olympic swimming pool for Aberdeen. We now need a new swimming pool at Inverurie, the home of the inspirational Hannah Miley.

Consistent underfunding of our health service has led to a crisis such as we have never faced before. The SNP have made it worse. Even though the coalition government has made more health cash available the SNP have not passed it on.

We have a recruitment crisis in our schools and class sizes are going up. Our transport investment had been far too long delayed. Endless wrangling have damaged Aberdeen’s image and led to major lost opportunities.

Aberdeen is the most underfunded council in Scotland and we no longer have a local police force or fire service.

I hope the City Deal – one of our leader’s great ideas – might end the squabbling and finally lead to a united vision of the future for our beautiful and wonderful region.

I hope I have also made clear to you why this Gordon constituency, which, by the way, voted against independence by nearly two to one – will be far better served by having Christine Jardine as its MP, than the presumptuous  Mr Salmond who has diverted resources and decision making away from the North East and whose entire political objective has been roundly rejected by the majority of Gordon voters.

He has just published a book called ‘The dream never dies’. For him it will always be about breaking up the UK anyway he can. Christine and I are determined to ensure that his dreams in Gordon are ended on May 7 and that the people of Gordon are spared the nightmare of Alex Salmond treading the boards of a Westminster parliament he despises and claiming to represent them.

He says he want to shake Westminster to the foundations. Yet, everything he came into politics to achieve has been rejected here in the North East and I believe local people will reject him too. He will be shaken to his foundations. I know for sure Christine will serve the people of Gordon far, far better than he ever could.

It is also good news that Scotland is front runner to be the location for the UK’s Spaceport. This will mean that the SNP will have direct access from Scotland to whatever planet they live on.
By contrast let me say a few things about our leader, Nick Clegg. He has been vilified and castigated in a way that goes beyond anything that can be categorised as the rough and tumble of politics let alone fair political comment.

Yet through it all he has shown resilience, cheerfulness and downright likability.

Liberal Democrats have been caricatured as propping up some right wing conspiracy to oppress the poor and favour the rich. That may be what some right wing Tories and Ukippers may want but because Liberal Democrats have been in this coalition we have tackled the most serious economic crisis in living memory with a streak of Liberalism that runs right through this Government.

Having promoted the policy of raising the tax threshold to £10,000 in our 1997 manifesto, I couldn’t be more delighted that the income tax paid by most standard rate taxpayers has been cut by £800 a year, while increased capital gains tax and reduced tax allowances for high earners have ensured the wealthiest are paying more tax than they did under the City of London prawn cocktail offensive under Labour.

At the same time, we have blocked the snoopers’ charter, ended the draconian attack on civil liberties pursued by Labour, scrapped ID cards and prevented the Tories scrapping employment rights, the Human Rights Act and taking us out of the EU.

Liberal Democrats have shown we are not just a reliable party of Government but can deliver radical, Liberal policies from inside Government. Scotland and the UK are in a far better place than we could or would have been without our place at the heart of a Government.

Which brings me to our contribution to Britain’s place in the world.

For nearly ten years I have had the privilege to chair the international Development Committee. I have seen what our country – the UK – looks like from outside.

One of the aspects of the referendum campaign that was most divisive and offensive and continues to characterise the SNP and their fellow travellers is their relentless hostility and contempt for Britain and the UK.

Some people characterise it as anti Englishness but that lets them off the hook by disassociating Scotland from all the bits of the UK Nationalists dislike.

I have over the years spent time with leaders of the international community, by which I mean the UN, the World Bank, IMF, WTO, the European Commission and with Ministers and Parliamentarians across the developed and developing world.

I can state categorically that the overwhelming view of the UK is that we are a force for good in the world. Nor are we some medium sized declining nation. We are the sixth largest economy on the planet and a significant player in all the global institutions.

Of course, we don’t always get it right. Nobody does. The war in Iraq was a mistake, which Liberal Democrats opposed and whose legacy has produced the chaos and conflict we see today in the Middle East.

Nevertheless, the UK uses our seat on the security council constructively and effectively to try and secure consensus. Our main board directors on the World Bank and the IMF have stood up for the world’s poor and championed the rights of women and girls.

We have helped improve the responsiveness of the United Nations, especially to humanitarian crises – following a trailblazing report from Paddy Ashdown.
Britain is seen as a bastion of freedom and democracy in a troubled world. If it was the terrible place nationalists like to project we would hardly be the haven for asylum seekers, legal migrants, international business and international students that we clearly are.

We have made a huge contribution to tackling the scourge of malaria, HIV/Aids, polio, pneumonia, TB and other diseases. We are working to rebuild post conflict countries from Afghanistan to Somalia and delivering key goals on education, health, maternal and child mortality.

We are helping to shape the agenda for the next 15 years – identifying how we can end absolute poverty and leave no-one behind. Liberal Democrats are leading a global campaign to confront violence against women and girls and bring to an end child marriage, and female genital mutilation that blights so many young lives. We are prioritising the needs of disabled people to be addressed in humanitarian crises and to be included in economic development.

We are working with our sister parties across Africa to bring Liberal values into African politics.

Thanks to Michael Moore, the UK’s commitment to maintain its contribution of 0.7% of our National Income to international development is enshrined in law. We are the first G20 country to achieve this – or even come close and we are one of only six countries in the world. Much of this will be delivered from DFID’s Scottish headquarters in East Kilbride.

Yet at home and abroad forces are at work to undermine or destroy this achievement. Of course UKIP and the Tory right want to scrap the aid budget. They sound more and more like the political wing of Jeremy Clarkson.

But nationalists by denigrating and seeking to divide the UK also undermine our capacity to maintain this. They all, along with the Greens, threaten our economic recovery, attack our open, inclusive and tolerant society with rhetoric charged with blame, division and resentment.

Two weeks ago I attended the EU conference on the Common Foreign and Security Policy in Riga. I can assure you the people of the Baltic States, having suffered under Soviet occupation do not share these nationalist views. Nor would they welcome the UK weakening the EU by leaving it.

Liberal Democrats know that membership of the EU continues to offer hope, democracy and security to the former Soviet satellites that now share membership of the community. I am delighted that our sister party, Reform, has once again been elected as Estonia’s largest party.

It is absurd to suggest that Scotland can succeed at the expense of the rest of the UK or that the UK’s prosperity will be enhanced by leaving the EU.

Nicola Sturgeon wants a Scottish opt out from the EU Referendum, which of course would make it no little more than another independence referendum. But what she misses is that the most important single market for Scotland is the UK and that for Scotland to be in the EU and the rest of the UK to be outside would create huge obstacles to Scotland’s economic opportunities. It would require border posts.

Leaving the EU would raise huge uncertainties about future investment and would not necessarily end immigration. People are coming here because there are opportunities. The EU does not allow people to move just to collect benefits and member states can restrict that as this Government is doing.

We can reform the UK without destroying it, which is precisely what Liberal Democrats are best at. We helped deliver the Scottish Parliament, further tax powers and, for that matter, a legal referendum binding for a generation.

We can reform the EU without leaving it and as major players there is more the UK can achieve as a committed partner than by threatening to leave.

Liberal Democrats offer the voice of reason, reform and responsibility – against the forces of division, despair and defeatism.

Neither Labour nor the Conservatives have earned the right to govern on their own. The Liberal Democrats whose MPs represent, urban, rural and island constituencies from the Scillies to Shetland have shown themselves competent and effective as a party of Government.

If you want the next Parliament to be focused on division and uncertainty you can vote SNP, UKIP or Green. If you want the next Parliament to sustain a stable Government based on sound public finances, fair taxes, low inflation, growth and jobs – a Parliament that will present a United Kingdom delivering opportunity for all while offering a beacon of democratic resilience to the world then that Parliament needs strong, Liberal Democrat representation.

Liberal Democrat Ministers have delivered for Scotland. It has been of enormous benefit to Scotland that Scottish Liberal Democrats have played a key role in Government. The outcome of this election may be uncertain but the one thing the people of Scotland know is that Liberal Democrats won’t make their priority to disrupt Westminster. Liberal Democrats want to go on delivering for Scotland. That is why Scotland needs Liberal Democrats to win every seat we currently hold – and some.

The stronger economy and fairer society we have built offers opportunity for everyone in Scotland. To secure that Scotland needs Liberal Democrats. It is our job to win through for Scotland, for Britain and for Europe. I know we can do it. Let’s get on with it.

Photo by Liberal Democrats