Colleagues, coming back to Birmingham reminds me of the years I served on the West Midlands County Council in the early 1980s, battling against Mrs Thatcher's policies, trying to bring hope to a devastated region. I am proud of what we managed to achieve. We had our successes. That was why she abolished us.
I learnt then that local action can only take you so far. It needs to be supported by national action. That is why it was so important to get a Labour Government in 1997. All around us in Birmingham we can see the benefits that that victory has brought.
Today the challenges facing families are even more complex than those they faced twenty-five years ago. Globalisation has brought with it huge benefits but it has also brought new challenges and threats - global warming, international crime, energy shortages, international financial instability.
Just as in the 1980s I realised that local action was not enough, in today's modern world I know that local and national action is not enough. We need European and even global action as well. We need strategies that pull together all those levels of governance working to support each other so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Take fighting crime. Action by West Midlands Police to fight gun crime will only be really effective if there is a tough government policy backing it up. In turn their efforts will be undermined unless European police forces work together to stop the trade in guns.
Local councils work hard to create and keep jobs in their area. For that to thrive it needs a national policy of stability and financial prudence which Labour maintained. It also needs European action to create a competitive European economy, to guarantee opportunities for our companies in the world market, to take collective action against financial instability, to drive forward research and development.
Only this week the Labour MP for Gloucester Parmjit Dhanda spoke to the European Parliament about the efforts made by local Councils and the Government to recover from the horrific floods we suffered last year. Those efforts will now be supported by more than 160 million Euros from the EU's special solidarity fund.
Three levels of governance working together to help our communities.
The world that our children and grand-children inherit from us depends on the actions we take now to combat climate change. Global warming is the greatest challenge facing us all. We need action individually, locally, nationally and at European level.
I am proud that Labour MEPs and the Labour Government are taking the lead in setting tough targets on greenhouse gas emissions and switching to low carbon energy. By taking such a stance, it is forcing the rest of the world to follow suit.
Of course the EU can only do what the member states agree unanimously it can do. That is why the Lisbon Treaty is important. It makes modest improvements to decision making, big improvements on democratic accountability and gives us the tools to act internationally in areas like energy security and climate change.
Many people are shocked to discover that the EU treaties cover animal rights but not children rights. Labour MEPs have campaigned so that at last the Lisbon Treaty, if ratified, will ensure that all future EU policies will have to take into account children rights. So child protection policies at a local and national level will have support in European policies.
To thrive in a modern world we need to build a society which is dynamic, adaptable, forward looking. A diverse society built on the talents of all, a society which is outward looking ready to seize the opportunities that globalisation brings.
We know that but do the other parties? The Tories still long for isolationism, still can't make their mind up on the environment or development policies, still are opposed to basic rights for workers, still only have one female MEP and she is retiring, still cannot find anybody but the headbangers to join with them in a political group. In fact in the Council of Europe they sit with the Russian members of Vladimir Putin's party. That tells you all you need to know about the modern day Tory Party.
Mind you one of the Tories is a Liberal defector. Two of the Liberals are former Tories. It is getting harder to tell the two parties apart, especially when they vote together to weaken environmental and social legislation. They are the Tweedledums and Tweedledees of the European Parliament
Only Labour has the policies for Britain in the modern world. Only Labour works together at local, national and European level to benefit working families by building a better quality of life through better jobs, a better deal for consumers and a cleaner, healthier environment; by building a strong competitive economy and by making people more secure from crime and terrorism.
That is our message for this year's local elections and next year's European Elections and for the General Election whenever it comes. And it is one I am proud of.
Thank you, colleagues.
