IAIN Gray gave a very passionate speech recently in Oban outlining his values and beliefs.

He set out what Labour will do if we win the Scottish Parliament election in May, announcing ambitious and vitally important plans to drive forward economic growth to support Scotland through troubled economic times.

He told delegates Labour will recruit an army of teachers as part of a drive to eradicate illiteracy in Scotland.

Iain said: “The SNP has thrown 2,900 newly qualified teachers on the scrapheap.

“So we will offer as many of them as possible the chance of training and a contract to join our national literacy and numeracy drive.

“We will send them into our schools, where they should be.” As Labour’s Education spokesman and as MSP for Clydebank, I was delighted to see this commitment being given.

I want every child in our schools to be given the chance to meet their full potential.

I was also very pleased that Iain pledged to focus efforts on early intervention to ensure that no child is left behind.

Labour also announced plans for a Scottish future jobs fund that will give 10,000 young people a job or training to help drive Scotland’s recovery and ensure that we don’t end up with another lost generation of youngsters after the Tories laid waste to Scotland in the 1980s.

We want to see apprenticeships available to all suitably qualified young people so they get the chance to learn a trade.

Other highlights in Iain’s speech included plans to create a National Care Service to stand alongside the National Health Service, guaranteeing that resources are directed to frontline care of our older people.

Labour will end the practice of allocating a mere 15-minute care visit to older people which is totally inadequate for both the service user and the dedicated care-worker.

Scottish Labour also confirmed our plans for a living wage.

When times are tough, we need to protect the worst paid.

Labour will introduce a living wage of at least £7.15 per hour in the whole of the public sector, including councils. And we will use procurement contracts to ensure private sector suppliers are living wage employers too.

A zero tolerance approach will be taken to knife crime and the possession of drugs in Scotland’s jails.

We will ensure prisoners are made to work and study as part of their rehabilitation and those who carry knives will go to jail, rather than be left on the streets as they are under the soft touch approach of the SNP.

We will make sure that police resources are used on the frontline rather than in headquarter buildings, replacing the eight police forces in Scotland with a single force. In the next couple of weeks we will see the SNP budget.

As well as the unwanted referendum on independence, the SNP wants to spend £5m on a new visitor centre at Bannockburn at a time when cash for schools and care for the elderly is being slashed.

As Iain Gray said in his speech, Scotland can see right through Alex Salmond.

Clydebank is suffering the consequences already of his Government having the wrong priorities and the incompetence of the SNP-led administration in West Dunbartonshire. Over the next six months I will be putting forward the arguments for change.

Labour is determined to fight on behalf of local people against the Tory Government at Westminster and their SNP partners in Edinburgh.

The people will give their verdict next May.