An HR Manifesto?

"Once our struggle was to secure minimum standards, then to extend opportunity. But we need to be honest: today the rising aspirations of the British people summon us to set a new direction.

Talent management: In Britain today too many still cannot rise as far as their talents can take them. Yet this is the century where our country cannot afford to waste the talents of anyone. Up against the competition of two billion people in China and India, we need to unlock all the talent we have. In the last century the question was can we afford to do this? In the face of economic challenge, I say: in this century we cannot afford not to. And the country that brings out the best in all its people will be the great success story of the global age.

Diversity: How many young people fail to develop the potential they have?How many women still come up against a glass ceiling that blocks their advance? How many men and women who hope to move up the ladder in mid career are deprived of the chance to upgrade their skills and jobs? How much talent that could flourish is lost through a poverty of aspiration: wasted not because young talents fail to reach the stars but because they grow up with no stars to reach for? So this is the next chapter in our progress. The next stage of our country’s long journey to build the strong and fair society.

I want a Britain where there is no longer any ceiling on where your talents and hard work can take you. Where what counts is not what where you come from and who you know, but what you aspire to and have it in yourself to become."

From Gordon Brown's first speech to the Labour Party Conference (See also here and here).