Anyone see the Chancellors debate on Channel 4 last night? The general sense seems to be:
– The audience: 6 rounds of applause for Cable, 3 for Darling and 1 for Osborne
– The journalists: Audience pretty much unanimous cable won
Here’s Vince’s closing remarks:
Statement from Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable MP:
Today, Britain needed a Budget that gave us honesty in spending and fairness in tax. Alistair Darling has given us neither.
Labour is in denial, while the Conservatives are talking tough to cover up the fact that they only offer more of the same.
You can watch my video response to the Budget here:
Today’s budget wasn’t honest.
The Chancellor is incapable of coming clean about where spending cuts will have to fall. Rather than being honest with people about what the Government can and cannot afford, the Chancellor would rather let others indiscriminately shave departmental budgets.
And the Budget did nothing to make Britain a fairer society.
We’re campaigning for fair taxes, lifting millions of people out of income tax altogether. But today’s Budget, by confirming the freeze in personal allowances, means everyone will see a real increase in their income tax bill.
Rather than forcing the nationalised banks to lend to good British businesses, Labour have chosen to create a feeble quango to arbitrate between bullying banks and their small business clients.
Today’s Budget shows even more clearly that Britain needs real change. Thank you for everything you are doing to make that change happen.
Video’s of Nick Clegg and Vince Cable’s speeches to conference are now available. Well worth taking a look.
Local residents campaigning against turning the St Margaret’s end of Heaton Park into a commercial soccer centre are fearful that a current request for review by the Secretary of State might be the “last chance” to save the park.
Manchester City Council passed the controversial plans for artificial soccer pitches, tennis courts, car parking and a club house which would take up the entire St Margaret’s corner of Heaton Park earlier this year. This was despite more than 10,000 people raising objections in some way to the plans, with letters, petitions and the “Save Heaton Park” Facebook group. Following the decision the campaigners have taken legal advice about the decision, and have asked the Government Office for the North West through Ivan Lewis MP to refer the decision to the Secretary of State for reconsideration.
Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Tim Pickstone, who worked with the campaigners said: “It’s a terrible shame but this really does seem like it’s the last attempt to save the park. Hopefully the powers that be will see sense. There is clearly so much wrong with this decision. How any elected official can ignore so much local opposition continues to amaze me”.
“The campaign group want to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who has been so supportive. The level of support for the campaign has been absolutely brilliant. We will keep people informed on how the referral to the Secretary of State goes.”
Some of us are in Birmingham as Bury Liberal Democrat’s reps to our national conference.
Vince Cable spoke to Conference today. Here’s his statement and a link to his speech:
I have a very simple message for you. We the Liberal Democrats were right about the financial crisis. We warned of the dangers and led the debate when the crisis came. And now we have a clear vision for the future of the British economy.
Now the public wants to know who can guide the country out of the present crisis. Who’s going to deal with the broken, discredited banking system. Who’s going to lead Britian out of the longest recession since the War. And who will deal with the unsustainable level of Government borrowing.
Today in my speech to Liberal Democrat Party Conference I set out the Liberal Democrat answers to these questions. You can read it here.
The challenges are enormous. We have to be frank with people about the difficulties ahead. We have to be fiscally responsible. But the Tories and their cronies want to create a financial panic to frighten people into voting for them on May 6th.
Only the Liberal Democrats have identified £15bn of savings to make from bloated bureaucracy and unaffordable commitments. We will identify our priorities and debate them publically. That’s open, democratic and Liberal.
Only the Liberal Democrats will invest in jobs with a Green New Deal.
Only the Liberal Democrats will change our unfair tax system so that 3.6 million people will no longer pay any income tax at all. Pensioners will be £100 better off and the average person’s income tax bill will be cut by £700.
People are desperate to see the back of this Labour Government. But they don’t want the same old Tories. And make no mistake, the Tories are exactly the same.
Thank you for what you are doing in the Liberal Democrat campaign to change Britain for real.
‘We’ve just returned from Birmingham as one of the delegates from Bury Liberal Democrats to the Party’s national Spring Conference.
There’s a link to Nick Clegg’s speech to Conference below – well worth a read. In a statement Nick said:
I’m not the kingmaker.
45 million voters are the kingmakers.
Today I’ve used my keynote speech to our Spring Conference in Birmingham to make that one very simple, very important point. Some days the papers say our party is doing a deal with Labour. Some days the Conservatives. But they can’t predict the future. I can’t predict the future.
Voters should give politicians their marching orders – not the other way around.
We’ve made it clear how our Party will change Britain.
Under the Liberal Democrats, no-one will pay tax on the first £10,000 they earn. That’s the most fundamental change to the tax system for decades.
We will give every child the fair start they deserve, by reducing class sizes and increasing one to one tuition in our schools.
We’ll rebalance the economy so that Britain is no longer just betting on things, but Britain starts building things again.
And we will build a clean, open, fair politics.
Things don’t have to be the way they are. The coming election is a chance to get fairness and to get change.
Almost 1 in 4 voters chose the Liberal Democrats at the last election. If that increased to 1 in 3, we could lead the next government.
That is what we can achieve together. Thank you for all you are doing to bring it about.
With all best wishes,