Meeting here in the surroundings of the Science Centre and on the banks of the River Clyde I have been thinking about our journey as a nation. About Scotland's future, but also where we have come from. I think of the countless Scots carried away on the Clyde and other ports towards the New World including the ancestors of no fewer than 20 American Presidents. I think about the generations of Irish immigrants stepping off steamers onto the Broomielaw at one point at the rate of a thousand a day. I imagine the great ships that were built in the yards that stood here that traveled to every corner of the earth.

I think about our story. About how we were a beacon to the world in the ages of Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. How Scottish science, engineering, medicine, literature and art have lit the world. But also remember the darker side of the Empire in which we prospered.

As a nation we have proud moments and we have shortcomings. It is what has made us who we are as a people. We have a national character but as Scots we also have our personal stories - 5 million of them in fact. We all come from somewhere and it is these life experiences that have made us who we are.

The media have made much of my story - that I first lived in a 2 bedroom home in which 4 generations including my parents, grandmother and great grandmother all lived; a house in which my brother and me had a drawer each for a bed!

We emigrated to South Africa during apartheid and so the most grotesque politics of active racial supremacy. It was the injustice of growing up poor in Glasgow and then white in South Africa that formed my politics.

The sheer unfairness, I saw all around me; at home the struggles of my family, our friends and neighbours and in South Africa a vile politics that throttled human dignity.

It's why I joined the Labour party to even the odds. To fight for greater fairness in a world that can be perpetually unfair.

I'm sure you did too.

Scotland has her legacy and our political beliefs are part of our stories. They come from who we are. From what our parents taught us. From what we have seen.

It's the same for our opponents including David Cameron and George Osborne. They argue that their extraordinarily privileged upbringings do not matter.

Do you know what? I agree with them.

It's neither here nor there that David Cameron and George Osborne were born into privilege. They didn't choose their inheritance any more than I chose mine, their inheritance chose them. Clem Attlee - one of our greatest leaders - was born into comfort but took our nation on a great journey.

And for me it's not where David Cameron and George Osborne come from that's the problem - it's where they are going.

The issue isn't that they came from privilege; it is that they want to make it their lives work to protect unearned privilege at the expense of good, hardworking people on modest and middle incomes.

Just look at their priority for this country, as we emerge from a deep recession.

Not just a tax cut but an inheritance tax cut for the 3000 richest estates in the country. The 3000 richest estates.

For most Scots living on an estate means working hard, bringing up your family. For Cameron and Co an Estate is a place to go fox hunting with your friends.

It is a tax cut that tells us about their character and what they think: that what matters is not your own hard work and ability - what matters is who your parents were.

You have to admire the brazenness of it.

Out of one side of their mouth the Tories tell us that we will all have to live in an age of austerity; out of the other they plan to give a tax cut to multi-millionaires.

They're out of touch.

Everyone knows that Scotland has changed but the Tories haven't

Cameron's and Osborne's response to the financial crisis revealed their true colours.

At this election Scotland is being asked to put its faith in the Two Davids - David Cameron and David Whatsisname .... otherwise known as David Mundell.

Normally when you mention Scotland's top Tory at a Labour Conference there is the odd boo - I remember mentions of Michael Forsyth and Iain Lang being met with a chorus of jeers. But instead the only noise I hear is the sound of the collective scratching of heads.

David Mundell;

Scotland's only Tory MP.

The loneliest job in politics.

Isn't it remarkable that he doesn't stand out from the crowd even though he is the crowd; I don't know how much of Lord Ashcroft's money went to electing David Mundell. It would have been better for our country if he had paid his taxes to build schools and hospitals instead of paying it to the Tories to elect David Mundell.

And the second David - David Cameron

With a name like Cameron he sounds like he could be from Scotland. In truth he doesn't understand Scotland.

I'm not into the cultural conceit of a politics that brands an opponent as un-Scottish as if patriotism was the property of one Party. The reason we warn against the Tories are that they are
Untested
Unfair
Unchanged
And Unrepentant

Scotland will never forget and won't forgive them for what they did last time.

In politics you can't prevent every world event but it's how you respond in a crisis that is the test.

We were tested by the global down-turn and our Prime Minister and our Chancellor made the right call. They led Europe - and they led the world - in securing a co-ordinated stimulus package to boost the global economy. And in the face of demands from the Tory Party to cut spending, they helped stopped recession turning into depression.

But these are still tough times for many Scottish families. For some their recession is only beginning as they lose their jobs.

And I remain convinced that the bankers have a moral responsibility to the unemployed. They caused the financial mess but other people have to live with it.

The billions that poured in from the taxpayer carry not only a financial debt but also a moral one. It's wrong for the banking system to think it doesn't owe the public a change in its behaviour and Scottish bankers owe more than anyone else.

We are determined to change bankers' behaviour. The UK Government has led the way on remuneration and reforming the wider sector.

I'm proud that the 50% tax on excessive bonuses will help finance the Young Person's Guarantee. I believe that this is a bonus for us all.

And while I believe that the last two years have been tough for Scotland, there remain grounds for canny optimism about our future. In financial services, in modern manufacturing, above all in the low-carbon economy we remain a location of choice for those who want to grow. Thousands more green energy jobs are in the pipeline for Scotland, ranging from construction to research. That's why the £2bn Green Investment Bank announced by Alistair in the Budget is such an opportunity for us.

Through these hard times Labour is investing for growth and supporting people who have list their jobs to get back into work.

In contrast, we remember the Tory recessions. We remember last time: the 15% mortgage rates. The repossessions, families with their possessions thrown out into the street.

This time, things were still tough, but this time we had a Labour government that didn't just stand by and watch banks collapse and people lose everything as George Osborne wanted us to do.

Last time we had the queues snaking around dole offices. Unemployment took 19 years to recover. There was the gnawing hurt of not being able to support yourself and your family. And knowing that the government of that day thought you were just a small part of a big price worth paying.

This time when people lost their job they had a government that spent billions to try to give them the help they needed, the help they had earned while they were working. 50,000 Scottish jobs were saved. George Osborne said leave them to it, don't spend that money.

Last time it was the poll tax that afflicted families. This time we have tax credits to support families, the minimum wage.

George Osborne wants tax cuts for the richest few of the richest few.

Today in Scotland we can see the signs of a fragile recovery.

We still have a long way to go, but we should proud that even after the worst downturn in the world economy since the 30s Scotland's unemployment is lower now than it was on the first of May 1997.

The Tory plans to cut public spending within 50 days of the election would risk all that. World-renowned economist Professor David Blanchflower has warned that Tory plans would plunge the UK back into recession. He says they are economically illiterate. George Osborne says it's just a matter of opinion.

Well here's my opinion. Scotland can't afford a double dip recession. We can't afford the risk of Kamikaze Cameron and his co-pilot Osborne.

Now, the SNP often complain that I never mention them in these speeches.

There Ive done it. One less thing for them to complain about.

The reason I don't mention them is that the election is about a Labour v Tory contest and not an SNP sideshow.

My friend George Robertson the former Secretary of State once said that the Scottish Parliament would kill nationalism stone dead. That hasn't happened.

In truth it's the SNP that will stop separatism in its tracks.

They are a novelty that has worn off and the longer that they are in power the lower the support for breaking up Britain.

They always put their Party before our Country, they are always the Nationalists, never the Patriots.

All at sea on the economy. They've had a world tour of economic excuses. Ireland, Iceland, Falklands, the State of Maryland, Isle of Man. Their Arc of Prosperity has collided with the Isle of Scilly somewhere off the coast of England.

And above all else in this general election Scotland knows that this is a two horse race and that there are two ways to get a Tory government. The straightforward way is to vote Tory. The backdoor way is to vote SNP.

And the Tories and SNP are organising their first coalition talks next week. It’s the first footsie of a budding romance.

Scotland's message to the SNP is clear - you don't speak for Scotland anymore when you are willing to get into bed with the Tories.

By contrast Labour enters the election with a mixture of respect and pride.

Respect, in that while economists say the recession is officially over there are too many families who are still struggling particularly those who have lost their jobs or are on shorter working time. Some small businesses unable to get finance from banks who will now be helped by the new plans from the Budget.

So as well as respect we also have pride. Pride in Scotland and pride in what Scotland and Labour have achieved together.

Not that we haven't made mistakes along the road.

But pride in the work that we have started but in a job not yet finished:

Tax credits for Mums and Dads.

The New Deal and even in recession 250,000 more people in work.

The biggest extension of civil rights for disabled people in history.

Pension credits and free pensioner bus travel.

Doubling of the international aid budget saving the lives of thousands of the poorest children overseas.

Thousands employed in shipbuilding again.

Tax breaks for the games industry in Dundee and record investment in green jobs.

And much more.

I want to thank Scotland for helping to make all this possible because we did it together; the Labour Party and the hundreds of thousands of Scots who backed us.  Scotland and Scottish Labour have changed for the Better.

After the by-election defeat in Glasgow East we knew how to lose. After Glenrothes and Glasgow North East by-elections we know how to win again. Margaret Curran will be a brilliant fighter for the east End of Glasgow.

In Scotland we enter this election with all the momentum and none of the arrogance.

We have the candidates, ideas and energy to win.  New team of candidates who understand a younger generation of a Scotland without artificial frontiers, that is outward looking, confident and fresh.

A set of new ideas which will ensure a Fairer future for All.

We should be proud of our achievements.

Contrite about our Mistakes.

Confident about our Future.

So together let's go out and win.