CHANGE THAT WORKS FOR YOU

THE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT MANIFESTO

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This is a manifesto you can trust. We have stripped our priorities back to the essential, fundamental changes that Britain needs to make it fair:

  • Fair taxes that put money back in your pocket
  • A fair chance for every child
  • A fair future, creating jobs by making Britain greener
  • And a fair deal by cleaning up politics

These are deliverable, practical plans to make your life better, and they are right there on the front cover of our manifesto. Instead of rhetoric and razzmatazz, we are saying what we will do and how we will pay for it.

Elections should be a competition of ideas, not marketing budgets. They may have the bigger budgets but we have the bigger ideas.And you can trust us to deliver because unlike the other parties, we have spelt out, line by line in the manifesto how every single policy is paid for, and how we will reduce the deficit.

We have set out £15bn of details spending cuts and just £5bn a year of new spending, meaning £10bn for the deficit every year. We are the first party to put detailed spending plans into a manifesto.

Four key pledges

  1. Fair taxes: We will ensure no-one pays income tax on the first £10,000 they earn. Most taxpayers will get a tax cut of £700 a year. We’ll pay for it by closing loopholes that unfairly benefit the rich, a new tax on mansions worth over £2m, a crack down on tax avoidance and higher aviation duty.
  2. A fair start for all our children: We will get every child the individual attention they need by cutting class sizes. We will spend an extra £2.5bn on schools, targeted at children who need the most help. The average primary school could cut class sizes to 20. An average secondary school could see classes of just 16.
  3. A fair future: a rebalanced, green economy: We will break up the banks and rebalance the economy away from unsustainable financial speculation. We will be honest about where savings must be made in government spending to balance the books and protect our children’s future. And we will create new jobs with a £3.1bn green stimulus and job creation plan in our first year in office, fully funded by cut backs elsewhere.
  4. A fair deal from politicians: We will introduce a fair voting system. We will ensure corrupt MPs can be sacked by their constituents and stop non-doms from donating to parties or sitting in Parliament. We will take power from Westminster and give it to communities, with local power over police and the NHS, and introduce a freedom bill to protect and restore civil liberties.

We also have the following commitments:

  • Protect front line NHS services. We will help the NHS work better with the money it has and protect front line services by re-investing the savings we find back into healthcare
  • Recruit 3,000 more police officers to keep our streets safe and scrapping ID cards
  • Scrap student tuition fees to reduce the burden of student debt immediately and eliminate fee debt altogether over 6 years
  • A pay rise for our brave service men and women together with cut backs of bureaucrats and top brass officers in the Ministry of Defence
  • Uprate the basic state pension in line with earnings immediately so that pensioners do not fall further behind when the economy starts to grow again

YOU CAN READ NICK CLEGGS MANIFESTO LAUNCH SPEECH HERE

YOU CAN READ OR DOWNLOAD A COPY OF OUR MANIFESTO HERE: libdem_manifesto_2010.pdf

ALTERNATIVELY YOU CAN VIEW OUR MANIFESTO IN FULL OR SECTIONS ON OUR WEBSITE HERE

Bury Liberal Democrats launch General Election campaign

Bury Liberal Democrats have launched their campaign for the General Election on 6th May.

Long-serving local Councillor Vic D’Albert will be the party’s candidate in Bury South. Vic has been a Prestwich resident all his adult life, and has served as a Bury Councillor for Holyrood ward since 1991.

In Bury North, Cllr Richard Baum will be the Lib Dem candidate in the General Election. Richard represents St Mary’s ward on Bury Council and is the only candidate in the election to already be serving the people of Bury on the Council.

There are also local elections on May 6th, with the Liberal Democrats hoping for gains with candidates in every ward in Bury.

The Lib Dems promise fairer taxes by making the first £10,000 you earn free of income tax. We promise a fair start for children with a £2.5bn investment in schools. And we want to clean up politics with a new voting system and a reduction in the number of MPs.

If you’d like to get involved in helping the Lib Dem election campaign in Bury, please get in touch using the contact details on this website.

Vince on the Budget

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.

Vince Cable’s speech to Party Conference

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.

Nick Clegg – “I am not the Kingmaker”

‘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,

Bury Lib Dems Quiz Night this Friday

The Bury Liberal Democrats will be holding a fun quiz night on Friday 26th February.

The Grant Arms Hotel in Ramsbottom will be hosting us as we test to see if your brain has managed to defrost after the freezing winter! Entry cost is £15 per team,(max 6 per team) but if you can’t form a team, bring yourself along and we’ll make up some groupings on the night.

Start time is 7:30pm. 

We really hope to see you there – if you’d like more details, please get in touch.

Childrens Play at risk from dog mess

Children’s Outdoor play groups in the area are warning that dog fouling is threatening their future, making it unsafe for children to play outside. Local Liberal Democrat Councillors in Prestwich have called for the Council to fine offending dog owners and ask dog owners to be more responsible.
 
Cllr Andrew Garner, Sedgley ward Councillor, said “At a recent surgery we were told that a popular local children’s play group at St Mary’s Park is considering its future because the dog mess problem is so bad. Not only is it obviously unsightly, but it is a health hazard and children’s health are being put at risk. It’s very disappointing that beautiful parks are being spoiled like this, and that our children are suffering as a result.”
 
Local Councillors are calling on dog owners to take care that their pets don’t foul footpaths and park areas, and to clean up when this happens. There is growing anger that the Council are not doing enough to help residents with the problem and growing anger against selfish dog owners who don’t clean up after their pets.


A long-standing campaigner for Prestwich is Liberal Democrat Councillor for St Mary’s ward Donal O’Hanlon. He said “The Council have to do more to help us. Recently we discovered that Prestwich has significantly fewer dog waste bins than any other part of Bury. The Conservatives who run the town hall are neglecting Prestwich and it has to change. Where are our dog bins? Where are the dog wardens? Where are the clean up teams? This neglect of Prestwich from the Conservatives who run the Council is just not good enough, and now it’s harming our children.”

ENDS

A Fair Start for Children

Today at a speech to Barnado’s Nick Clegg announced one of our four key policies for the General Election campaign ahead – A Fair Start for Every Child.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg today pledged to give every child a fair start in life by investing an extra £2.5bn in schools which could be used to cut class sizes, offer one-on-one tuition and provide catch-up classes.

In a speech to Barnardo’s this morning, Nick Clegg set out the Liberal Democrat manifesto pledge to introduce a Pupil Premium which would raise the poorest children’s school funding to private school levels.

Commenting, Nick Clegg said:

“One of the biggest challenges we face as a country is breaking this link between financial deprivation at home and educational under-achievement in the classroom.

“Despite all the money that has been spent by Labour, schools taking disadvantaged children aren’t getting the money they need to break this link by cutting class sizes and providing them with extra support.

“As we work our way out of this recession and rebuild a country which is fairer, we must ensure our school system gives every child a chance to fulfil their potential irrespective of their background and where they live.”

View a full copy of the speech here.

Read the rest of this entry.