Translator: Michele Gianella
Reviewer: Denise RQ On September, 23, 2013, in London, a man named Michael O'Sullivan
killed himself. That would be a tragic event
in any circumstances, but what was most shocking about his death
is that the coroner's report listed the DWP,
the Department of Work and Pensions, as a contributing factor to his death. Michael had been summoned in
to attend a fitness-for-work interview, which, despite his many
physical and mental problems he had faced over many years, deemed him fit to return to work, regardless of the impact
that it might have on him, and left him in a position where he felt that taking his own life
was his only way out. Last year, at a football
tournament in England, a group of kids who had reached
the semi-final stage had to drop out of the tournament right at the stage where they had
a chance of winning this entire thing. The reason? They couldn't keep playing;
they hadn't eaten properly in days. They literally did not have the energy to finish something
that was fun and exciting for them. This was despite the fact that for most of them,
their parents were working, and actually, their parents
had been going without food to try and keep them fed. But the lack of access to food
during school holidays meant that these children
were going hungry in a country like ours, which is one
of the biggest economies in the world. Here in Glasgow, just earlier this year, Matthew Bloomer was found dead
in the center of Glasgow. He'd been living homeless,
and he died in a cold Glasgow night. On average, four homeless people
are dying in this city, a month, despite everything we have access to. This should be a source
of national shame and national outrage; and yet, it ends up
looking like statistics. These are only the tip of the iceberg, only a few of many, many stories
happening around us. How have we got to this stage? The problem is that we created
our welfare state in the post-war period. The country came together
at a time when we'd experience devastating loss of life,
of property, of resources, and made the decision across party lines,
across social boundaries that actually, we had
the responsibility to each other, that people should be protected
from the cradle to the grave, when they were at their weakest. Yet, we see now a system where that right to protect you
and get you a house didn't help Matthew
and those others dying. The right to work
should count, should matter, should be able to allow you to live, but it doesn't help those families
going without food despite having jobs. The idea of protecting people
from cradle to grave, when they're at their weakest, didn't support Michael
when he needed it most. The welfare state, which is
a source of pride and joy for us, was created to try
and deal with five giants, five evils that we felt plagued society. The problem is those giants still exist: but they've changed, they've evolved, they've adapted and taking on
new characteristics and new impacts. But our system hasn't evolved with them. We live in a world that is changing
at an exponential pace: previously, societal change
that would have taken decades is now taking years, and as we move into the future,
will be taking months. We have to learn how to adapt with that,
we have to start to have a space where the challenges
and opportunities we face through globalization, climate change, artificial intelligence, robotics,
and so many other areas can help us to grow, to open up opportunities
for creative lives for our citizens, and not keep us trapped where we are. The theme of today
has been about "lead or follow," and that's exactly
what we're faced with now. We look at these looming changes, and we can choose to wait,
we can choose to hope that maybe, enough of us
can just about manage it, can just about get through, that we can cope with the ever-increasing
concentration of wealth and resources into a smaller and smaller focus
of society as sustainable, that we can cope
with the environmental challenges, and hopefully, not too many people
will be lost during that process. Or we can choose to lead, we can choose to find
a new social contract, a new approach to society that actually lets us
take those opportunities and flourish with them. And I believe, here in Scotland, we have that chance
to take that leadership, and I think it will be routed through the introduction
of a basic income. Basic income - the idea that every citizen
receives a payment every month from the state,
directly into their account isn't a new idea;
it's been around for centuries. But it's an idea that fits the world we're in
and that we're moving into. It has three core components: it's universal; it's unconditional; and it's secure. Security means that you know every month
that that money will be in your account to cover your basic needs. It allows you to start
to plan for the future. When so many people are living
and working through jobs where they are not sure how long their employments
are going to last for, with zero-hour contracts
or short-term employment, this gives security to look to the future. It's universal. This is a right for every citizen:
man, woman, and child. This isn't on the basis of whether we feel you have
to have it at a certain point, or in the basis of your economic activity,
or the levels of money you make, or the resources you own. This is your right. This reminds us that we have a responsibility to each other
and a relationship as a society. And it's unconditional. We've got to a stage
where we have a system that is based on conditions,
on sanctions, on punishments, on presuming the worst of people. Basic income is the idea
that actually we believe in people. We believe that by giving people their access to this money,
to this security, they will choose and have the opportunity
to live creative, fuller lives. It's a positive affirmation
of where we can go. And it's not free money,
it's not money for nothing, it's not the idea
of giving people nothing for we all share or should share
the benefits of society around us. Because is true: no man,
woman, or child is an island. All of us rely upon
the structures of the state, of international relationships, and of what has been done for the generations that have led
to where we are today. Just stop for a minute and think about
the worst job you've ever had. Most of us probably
can think of it pretty quickly; sadly, some people
will still probably be in it. The kind of job that doesn't give you
space for growth, that doesn't give you the opportunities
to push yourself, to challenge yourself, to go in new directions. In many of those cases,
we had those jobs because we had to: we have to pay the bills,
we have to survive. Imagine access to a secure form
of payment, every month, that allowed you to make new decisions. It doesn't mean
you won't work in that job, but you may choose to work less in it, and do something else
with your other time. You may have the confidence
and the security to challenge
some of the working processes. It gives you the space
to make decisions for yourself. Think about ideas that you might have had, or friends or family might have had
for new businesses, products, charities. How often are these ideas held back
because of the risks attached to them? We have responsibilities, we have bills to pay,
mortgages and rent to cover; children, loved ones to look after. And these can stop us from having the opportunity
to explore, to take a risk. How many world-changing ideas
potentially get lost through that, which access to a secure form of payment
would allow us to start to consider? Think of how many people
have caring responsibilities for loved ones,
elderly relatives, children, who contribute to their communities
through volunteering, through working
in different organizations. We treat that as a luxury,
or as an expectation, as a freebie that comes to society, despite the fact that caring alone
is probably worth about 20% of our GDP. Imagine actually valuing that, giving people a payment
that allowed them to choose to have those opportunities
in their lives. They could choose
to give back to their communities, to care for people that needed it. I don't want to imagine that; today is about leadership,
it's about changing the world, and here, we have a chance to do that. Scotland and Glasgow have a history
of innovation, of enterprise, of charity, and of caring for society. And this is our time to do that again. In Scotland, and here in Glasgow, we're exploring experiments about
how we can test this out in practice, how we can start to get the evidence that will show the impact
that this can genuinely have for people. They can start
to change that relationship, take us away from
the sanctions-based system we have now to one that is fit for a purpose, for the future that we face
and the way that we can work within that. We created our welfare state in the ruins, and after the horrors
of the Second World War. If we could create that new society,
in that kind of context, we need to ask ourselves:
what's stopping us now? (Applause)
