Brown's speech at the British Labour Party Conference:
The British Labour Party was "best when we are boldest, best when we are united, best when we are Labour", the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, said in his keynote address to the party's conference yesterday.
This is an edited extract of his comments.
"My message to this conference today is that where we have succeeded in our first six years of government, where we have built a bond of trust with the British people, and where we will succeed in the future, it is by demonstrating the strength to take the long-term decisions, it is by being honest with the British people about the direction and challenges ahead, and it is by taking the Labour road often the hard road being true to our Labour values . . .
"By continuing this discipline as a Labour Chancellor, the next spending round will not only lock in the higher spending we have been delivering, meeting our commitments to all the public services from policing to transport, meeting our fiscal rules but do more: with further increases in spending and investment for our priorities in the years to come . . .
"Sometimes when things look difficult, times seem hard, pressures are great, when some may feel that complacency has crept in, momentum has been lost, or the vision dimmed, then take inspiration from the unyielding determination of our pioneers: tough times did not diminish their idealism but made them even more determined that to transform lives you have to transform society.
Mr Brown said the government wanted to encourage the public to take a more positive approach to Europe, and to relations with the USA.
"Rather than allowing Europe and America to look inwards and stand apart, we will promote a new trans-Atlantic economic partnership as we seek a strong pro-European, pro-Atlantic consensus in Britain . . .
"And we will demonstrate to the public the benefits of the euro if we can achieve sustainable and durable convergence with the euro area and as we campaign on Europe throughout Britain we will take on Tory anti-European myths and prejudices.
"The British national economic interest is best advanced as active partners in Europe . . . promoting economic reform in opposition to tax harmonisation and reform in the Stability Pact," he said.
"And most urgently, following the bitter disappointment at Cancun [the collapse of the latest World Trade Organisation talks\] . . . we must do more for world trade and for the developing countries to tackle the waste of the Common Agricultural Policy, the scandal of agricultural protectionism around the world."
He gave his backing to Mr Blair over Iraq.
"Just as it is right to back our leader Tony Blair in his efforts today to bring security and reconstruction in Iraq . . . and to bring a settlement that ensures peace and justice in the Middle East; so it is right to seek international agreement as Tony Blair and John Prescott are doing to tackle climate change and global environmental damage."
- (PA)