Meta Comment

Bono’s speech from the Labour Convention is
available target="NewWindow">here…
I think that is all there is to
say.
“Excuse me if I appear a little
nervous.?ä I’m not used to
appearing before crowds of less than 80,000 people…” (more)

Bono’s Speech to
Labour Party Conference
(Transcript)Remarks by Bono to
Labour Party Conference September 29,
2004?ä Brighton, UKThank
you.?äMy name is Bono and I’m a rock
star.?ä Brighton - rock -
star.Excuse me if I appear a little
nervous.?ä I’m not used to appearing
before crowds of less than 80,000
people.I heard the word party -
obviously got the wrong idea.I’ve been
here in Brighton before…?ä March 13,
1983.?ä That time I had the greatest rock
band on the stage behind me, they looked a little different from
you.?ä I think I was climbing the PA
stacks, waving a white flag? and yes, I had a mullet from the
80s.?äWe played a song called ‘Out
of Control’, and yes sometimes I am!It
must have been at that point when a young Tony Blair stroked his chin and said,
‘Someday, when I come to lead this great land, I must have this man address my
party conference.’Well, 20 years later,
here we are.?ä I’ve come because Prime
Minister Blair asked me.He might well
regret it.In the larger sense, I’m here
as part of a journey that began in 1984-85, with BandAid and
LiveAid.?äAnother very talll,
grizzled rock star, my friend Sir Bob Geldof, issued a challenge to ‘feed the
world.’?äIt was a great moment, it
changed my life.That summer, my wife Ali
and I went to Ethiopia, on the quiet, to see
for ourselves what was going on.
?ä We lived there for a month, working at
an orphanage.?ä The locals knew me as ‘Dr Good Morning’.?ä The children
called me?ä ‘The Girl with the Beard.’?ä Don’t
ask.But let me say this - Africa is a
magical place.?ä And anybody who ever gave anything there got a lot more
back.?ä A shining shining continent, with beautiful royal faces?
Ethiopia not just blew my mind, it opened my
mind.On our last day at the orphanage a
man handed me his baby and said:?ä take him with you.?ä He knew in
Ireland his son would live; in Ethiopia his son would
die.?ä I turned him
down.In that moment, I started this
journey.?ä In that moment, I became the
worst thing of all:?ä a rock star with a
cause.Except this isn’t a cause.?ä
6,500 Africans dying a day of treatable, preventable disease-dying for want of
medicines you and I can get at our local chemist-that’s not a cause, that’s an
emergency.That’s why I’m here
today.?äYou know, I could make the
soft argument for action-or I could make the more muscular
one.The soft argument you’ve all heard
before.?ä People are dying over there, needlessly dying, at a ridiculous
rate and for the stupidest of reasons:?ä
money.?äThey’re dying because they
don’t have a pound a day to pay for the drugs that could save their
lives.?äPound or Euro, they really
don’t care.There are hard facts that
make up the soft argument.This soft,
moral case I know you
understand.?äAnd if you’re already
converted, you don’t need me preaching at you.?ä Though I must admit enjoy
it.So let me make the other, more
muscular argument.?äI know you can
take it.?äYou’re Labour, aren’t
you??äYou’re tough.?ä Keir
Hardie was a tough guy, wasn’t he? Down the pits at the age of
11.?äClement Attlee was tough,
right:?ä fought in the Great War, worked in the
slums.?äBlair, Brown, they’re tough
guys.?ä The Labour Party has never been a garden party, has it.?ä?äI
mean the reddest of roses has
thorns.Let’s get real here on a couple
of things - let’s get to some uncomfortable
truths.?äLet’s be clear about what
this problem is and what this problem
isn’t.Firstly, this is not about
charity, it’s about justice.?äLet me
repeat that:This is not about charity,
this is about justice.And that’s too
bad.?äBecause you’re good at
charity.?ä The British, like the Irish, are good at it.?ä Even the
poorest neighbourhoods give more than they can
afford.?äWe like to give, and we
give a lot.?ä But justice is a tougher standard.?ä Africa makes a fool
of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of
equality.?ä It mocks our
pieties, it doubts our
concern, it questions our
commitment.?äBecause there’s no way
we can look at Africa- a continent bursting into flames -and if we’re honest
conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere
else.?ä Anywhere
else.?ä Certainly not
here.?ä In
Europe.?ä Or
America.?ä Or Australia, or
Canada.?äThere’s just no
chance.?äYou see, deep down, if we
really accepted that Africans were equal to us, we would all do more to put the
fire out.?äWe’ve got watering cans;
when what we really need are the fire
brigades.That’s the first tough
truth.?äThe second is that to fight
AIDS, and its root cause, the extreme poverty in which it thrives, it’s not just
development policy.?ä It’s a security
strategy.?äThe war against terror is
bound up in the war against poverty, I didn’t say that, Colin Powell said
that. And when a military man from the right
starts talking like that maybe we should
listen!Because maybe, today, these are
one and the same.People get nervous when
I talk like this.?ä I get nervous when I talk like this.?ä But in these
distressing and disturbing times, surely it’s cheaper, and smarter, to make
friends out of potential enemies than it is to defend yourself against
them.?äCan I just say that
again?Surely it’s cheaper, and smarter,
to make friends out of potential enemies than it is to defend yourself against
them.?äAfrica is not the frontline
on the war against terror. But it could be
soon. Justice is the surest way to get to
peace.So how are we doing, on this other
war, that will affect so many many more lives than the war I read about every
day.Well, I’m going to tell you what I
think, but you’re probably better off asking an
economist.?ä An
NGO.?ä An African
farmer.?äIn fact, anyone but a rock
star.?ä I mean, get yourself a source you can trust-one who, say when he
hears the word ‘drugs,’ probably thinks ‘life-saving,’ rather than
‘mind-altering.’?äLet’s just say
that when the government sends a fact-finding mission somewhere in the world,
there’s probably a good reason they don’t send a delegation of rock
stars.?äBut actually, I can see
through these goggles.?ä I know progress
when I see it.?ä And I know forward
momentum when I feel it.?äAnd I do
feel it.?äThere is?ä a lot for
Britain to get excited about.And with
that in mind, I want to say a few words about two remarkable
men.Like a lot of great partners, they
didn’t always get along as the years passed.?ä They didn’t always
agree.?ä They drifted apart.?ä They did incredible things on their own,
as individuals.?ä But they did their best work as a pair. I love them
both:?ä John Lennon? and?ä Paul
McCartney.I’m also fond of Tony Blair
and Gordon Brown.?ä They are kind of the John and Paul of the global
development stage, in my opinion.?ä But the point is, Lennon and McCartney
changed my interior world - Blair and Brown can change the Real
World.?äAnd that’s why I’m
here.?äYou know as transcendent as
I’d like to think a U2 show can be, it isn’t life or death.?ä This is.?ä
And I’ve met people whose lives will depend on the decisions taken by these two
great men.?ä They have great ideas.?ä And the promises they have already
made will save hundreds of thousands of lives — if they follow through, and you
don’t let them forget who they
are.?äDon’t let them forget who they
are, promise me that, conference.Growing
up in Dublin in the Seventies, I didn’t think much of politics, and I thought
even less of politicians.?ä I had no idea
they worked as hard as they do.?ä I had no
idea what it takes to make good on your
ideals.?äHillary Benn is doing a
great job, with big shoes to fill.?ä I’d
like to thank Clare Short, for letting me
in.?äThe Chancellor’s spending
review showed me this is a serious moment in
time.?äAnd the IFF, what a brilliant
idea.The Prime Minister’s Africa
Commission.?ä This can be a radical
landmark - like the Brandt report - certainly if Bob Geldof has his way, and
it’s hard not to give him his way.?ä The Irish don’t you love
them. ?ä
Anyway, what I’m telling you is 2005,?ä when Britain takes the reins of the
G-8 and EU, this is it.?ä And if we don’t
get there in 2005 — if we don’t get?ä there in 2005 — I know where these
people park their cars.?äListen,
this is a real moment coming up, this could be real history, this could be
something that your children, your childrens children, that our whole
generation, will be remembered for at the beginning of the 21st
century.?äPutting right a
relationship that has been so very wrong for so very
long.?äThe North, the South, the
Have Nots, the have yachts.Britain is in
a unique position here.?ä I know you’ve got a chequered past.?ä I’m
Irish, let’s not go there.?ä Forget the plundering of Empire, I wont even
bring it up?.?äYou have real
relationships in these places - real relationships-right across the developing
world.?äYou could be the interface -
there’s a 21st century thought for you, -
interface - as opposed to just-in-your-face -between the worlds of the haves and
the-have-nothing-at alls.?äBut
Empire aside, we have to accept that even people with short memories are not
sure they like the look of us.?äIn
certain quarters of the world, Brand UK, Brand EU not to mention Brand USA-are
not their shiniest.?äThey’re in real
trouble.The neon sign is fizzing and
crackling a bit, isn’t it??äThe
storefront’s a little grubby.?ä Our
regional branch managers are getting
nervous.Let’s cut the
crap.?äThe problems facing the
developing world afford us in the developed world a chance to redescribe
ourselves in very dangerous
times.?äThis is not just heart -
it’s smart.Onerous debt
burdens, decreasing aid
levels, duplicitious trade
rules, no wonder people are pissed off with
us.Listen, I know what this looks like,
rock star standing up here, shouting imperatives others have to fulfill.?ä
But that’s what we do, rock stars.?ä Rock stars get to wave flags, shout at
the barricades, and escape to the South of France. We’re
unaccountable. We behave
accordingly.?ä But not
you.?ä You
can’t.?ä You can’t do
that.?äSee, we’re actually counting
on you.?äPoliticians have to make
the fight, do the work, and get judged by the
results.The weight of expectation is a
heavy burden.?ä Hang it on a rock band and
that’s usually when they make a crap
album.?äThe weight of history is so
heavy.?ä It’s a huge responsibility to be
the repository of people’s dreams, to be their hope for the
future.?äSo Tony?
Gordon? I don’t envy
you.?äBecause there’s a lot of work
to do.There is progress, but it’s
incremental.?ä History never notices that,
and the lives that are depending on it don’t deserve the
wait.?äYou know we made a promise to
half poverty by the year 2015 - a big millennium promise - but we’re not even
going to make it by 2115.It’s not enough
to describe Everest, we’ve got climb it and we’ve got to bring everyone else
along.?ä George,
Jacques,
Silvio,
Gerhardt,
Paul, Junichiro - they’ve all got to come up
the hill.?äBecause this is the big
year, 2005.?ä All of you have to double
aid, double it’s effectiveness, and double trouble for corrupt
leaders.?äThe G8 - people look at
these meetings and wonder whether they ever achieve
anything.?äI stood in Cologne, with
how many thousands of people.?ä We got
that announcement on debt cancellation which now means that three times as many
children in Uganda are going to
school.?äFinish what you started in
Cologne. Thank you for last weekend,
Gordon.?äAnd
trade.?ä Our badge of
shame.?ä We in the rich countries shuffle
the poorest into a backroom, tie their hands and feet with our conditionalities
and then use our subsidies to deliver the final
blow.We have to reform the CAP, and we
have to let democratically elected governments — not the IMF, not the World
Bank, not the WTO, not the EU — decide what policies work
best.We can’t fix every problem, but the
ones we can we must.But it’s going to
cost you. Justice, equality, these ideas aren’t
cheap.They’re expensive - I know
that.And while I’m sure you care about
education in Africa, I know you also care about schools at
home.?ä You care about AIDS clinics in
Africa, but there’s a hospital right down the road you’re not sure you can get
in.?äThese are hard
choices.And I’m probably the wrong
person to ask you to make them.And I
know that on certain issues this room is already divided.?ä I know many
people - and I include myself - were very unhappy about the war in
Iraq.?ä Still
are. But ending extreme poverty, disease and
despair- this is one thing everybody can agree
on.?äThese efforts can be a force
not only for progress but for unity - not only in Labour but around the
world.Can you take this from a
rockstar, ‘All You Need is Love’ when all you
need are groceries.?äNow you know
why Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are really excited that U2’s got a new album
coming out - why??äBecause I’ll be
away on tour next year.But even from a
tour bus I can be a pain in the arse. That’s my job.?ä And I’ve got some
very interesting friends, there’s as many of them in mothers unions as trade
unions.?äIt’s not just purple
Mohawks we’ve got going, it’s blue
rinses.?äIt’s the Temperance League
of Tunbridge Wells.The Wigan Bowling
Society.?äThe Chipping Camden Ladies
Cricket Club.OK, I ?ämade those
up.?ä But don’t mess with us.As I
say, next year, 2005,?ä Great Britain is?ä on the door at the EU and
G-8.?ä So this is the time to unlock something really big.?ä
Excuses?
Horseshit.?äEarlier I described the
deaths of 6,500 Africans a day from a preventable treatable disease like
aids:?ä I watched people queuing up to die, three in a bed in
Malawi.?äThat’s Africa’s
crisis.?ä But the fact that we in Europe
or America are not treating it like an emergency-and the fact that its not every
day on the news, well that is our
crisis.?äAnd that’s not horseshit,
that’s something much worse, I don’t even know what that says about
us. There will be books
written.Think about
it.?ä Think about who you are, who you’ve
been, who you want to be.I don’t care if
you are Old Labour or New Labour, what is your party about if it’s not about
this - if it’s not about equality, about justice, the right to make a living,
the right to go on living?Simply
agreeing with us is not enough.?äIf
Britain can’t turn its values into action against extreme, stupid poverty?
if this rich country, with the reins in its hands, can’t lead other countries
along this path to equality, then the critics tomorrow will be
right:?äI am Tony Blair’s
apologist.?ä The rock star pulled out of
the hat at the Labour Party
Conference.?äI’ve more faith in the
room than that.?ä I’ve more faith in your leaders than
that.?ä I don’t need to
have.?ä I’m an Irish
rockstar.?ä It looks much better on me to
slag you off.?äBut let me say this
again.?ä For the last
time.?äWe’re serious, this is
gigantic. This stuff is the real reason to be
in politics, to go door to door, to organise and demonstrate and take bold
action.?ä It’s every bit as noble as your grandparents fighting the
Nazis.?äThis is not about ‘doing our
best.’?ä It’s win or
lose.?ä Life or
death.?ä Literally
so.If I could ask you to think a hundred
years ahead, to imagine what we, and our times, will be remembered for, I would
venture three things:?ä the
Internet, the war on
terror, and the fate of the continent of
Africa.We are the first generation that
can look extreme and stupid poverty in the eye, look across the water to Africa
and elsewhere and say this and mean it:?ä
we have the cash, we have the
drugs, we have the science — but do we have
the will??äDo we have the will to
make poverty history?Some say we can’t
afford to.?ä I say we can’t afford not
to.Thanks for
listening. Transcript Via target="NewWindow">DATA.