Alexander hopes for a new start - with a new buzz word

WENDY Alexander sought to draw a line under her tumultuous first few months as Scottish Labour leader yesterday, with a new policy document in advance of her party's conference in Aviemore this week.

Much of the 28-page manifesto is devoted to defending the Union, but it also admits changes to the current constitutional arrangement are needed.

However, the Labour leader came under fire from the Scottish Government and the Liberal Democrats for suggesting some powers could be returned to Westminster.

The SNP said she was giving in to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's "control freakery" by returning powers to London.

Ms Alexander has been working on the document, titled "Change is what we do", since she took the top job more than six months ago, according to party chiefs.

In it, she repeatedly vows to listen to voters after Labour's thumping by the SNP in last May's Scottish parliamentary elections. She admits Labour had no "divine right to be elected" and said the party needed to work in "every street, every community" to win back support.

Ms Alexander writes: "Nobody in Scottish Labour should be under any illusion that the 2007 election was just a mistake that will be put right at the next election. I intend that we should be the party of change."

Her policy paper speaks at length about the Scottish Constitutional Commission, set up by Labour, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems to consider the current state of devolution.

Ms Alexander suggests Holyrood could be given more control over areas such as road transport. But she says the boundary could also move in the "opposite direction", by giving Westminster more jurisdiction on issues such as national security.

She hopes to use the paper and her first party conference as leader to move on from her early months in charge, when she was dogged by questions over donations to her leadership campaign.

In a major break with the 2007 election manifesto, Ms Alexander also revealed at the weekend that she is to ditch plans to raise the school-leaving age to 18.

A Labour spokeswoman insisted it was not trying to steal the SNP's "change" mantra that helped win them the election.

She said: "The SNP essentially represent 22 per cent of Scots, maximum. We want to represent the other 78 per cent. The document is not drawing a line under the past – it's trying to go over where we went wrong."

But Keith Brown, an SNP MSP, said: "Her commission and her credibility are now in tatters. The commission started off seeking more powers for Scotland but has now been downgraded by Brown to a working party which would take powers back to London."

He said it was "utter humiliation" for Ms Alexander.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said: "It's nonsense to suggest the debate about powers can be a two-way process. Nobody has proposed a specific power to be returned to Westminster which makes any sense. Scottish people want more powers for the Scottish Parliament – so do the Liberal Democrats."