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Goldie to focus on child neglect 'We are delivering Tory policies'
(about 13 hours later)
Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie will tell her party's conference that it is time to end the sticking-plaster approach to social problems. Conservative policies are being delivered in Scotland for the first time in more than a decade, Annabel Goldie has declared.
The new threat in Scotland, she will tell the annual gathering in Ayr, is the growing problem of child neglect. The Scottish Tory leader told her party's annual conference in Ayr it had led the debate on justice, education and culture.
Miss Goldie will also reinforce UK leader David Cameron's comments to the conference on Friday that the party stood ready to defend the Union. She said child neglect was an emerging new threat and one which was as "potentially corrosive" as drug abuse.
The Scottish Government plans to stage an independence referendum in 2010. Miss Goldie also made a passionate defence of the Union.
During her conference speech on Saturday, Miss Goldie will point to figures showing that, in 2007, 19,500 youngsters were referred to the children's reporter due to parental neglect. The Tories at Holyrood backed the budget of the SNP minority government, which was formed after last year's Scottish Parliament election.
She will admit to not having all the answers - but will say it is time for politicians to speak out on big issues, instead of hoping they will fix themselves. READ IN FULL class="" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/24_05_08_goldiespeech.pdf">Annabel Goldie's speech to the Scottish Conservative Party's 2008 conference [102KB] Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html">Download the reader here
Miss Goldie will also look back on Scottish Conservative achievements over the last year, saying the party managed to get ministers to boost police recruitment, speed up business rate cuts and bring forward a national drug strategy, expected shortly. Miss Goldie said that the 16 Tory MSPs had had a remarkable record of achievement, telling delegates: "Whether it's abolishing bridge tolls, monitoring sex offenders, protecting rural schools or promoting tartan we have not just influenced that debate - we have led it."
She said her party had won key budget concessions from the Scottish Government on more police, business rate cuts and a national drug strategy.
Miss Goldie went on: "That, is the reality of Scottish politics in 2008 - for the first time in 11 years Conservative policies were delivered here in Scotland."