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.

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,

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.