Liberal Democrats Look To The Future
A speech by the Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg at the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference, Manchester 22 June 2013.
Renewed Opportunity
"It is now less than two years until the General Election. We Liberal Democrats look at 2015 - and every election before and beyond - as an opportunity, a renewed chance to govern.
"The Liberal Democrats must seek to become an acknowledged party of Government. A party that strives to govern at every level - from local council to Number 10 - in order to make Britain a better place.
"It is crucial that we take the right decisions, and that we do so together.
I am here today to ask for your help, so we can accomplish our goals together."
The Purpose of Power
The main points of Nick Clegg's speech in Manchester were:
- Within Coalition Government, Liberal Democrats are now leading Britain through the most profound economic crisis in living memory.
- Taking the difficult decisions on the deficit, but making sure we spread the burden in a way that is fair.
- Laying the foundations for a new, rebalanced economy, built on sound public finances and fuelled not just by the City of London, but every part of the UK.
- Transforming the tax system, so that we begin the process of shifting the burden away from earned income towards unearned wealth.
- Making social mobility the official and overriding aim of all Government social policy.
- Insisting that growth can and must be green - driving forward major reform of the electricity market, the green deal, the Green Investment Bank.
- Standing against those forces that would have Britain pull up the drawbridge and turn away from the rest of the world.
- Providing a liberal defence of hard-won civil liberties.
- Preventing profit making in schools; making sure the reformed planning system will protect rather than threaten our environment; vetoing ideas that would undermine workers' rights.
- And are doing what only liberals will ever do - dispersing power away from the centre.