Waveney Liberal Democrats

Leader Nick Clegg and shadow treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, today launched the party’s manifesto with the theme of “Fairness”. To read the manifesto, please log ontothe link below to download and read.

http://network.libdems.org.uk/manifesto2010/libdem_manifesto_2010.pdf

Alan Dean, a lifelong campainer, has been chosen to fight the Waveney Parliamentary seat for the Liberal Democrats.

Alan Dean has been a councillor for over 20 years and he was a member of the East of England Regional Assembly until March 2010.

Alan has campaigned for many years against unnecessary airport expansion and for better bus and train services. He understands about rural life, the problems some people in rural areas have in getting transport to work and the role that councils should play in encouraging more jobs in towns and villages.

He has been a secondary school governor and knows the importance of education in getting a good start in life. He is fully behind the Liberal Democrat plan to target their Pupil Premium to children who need extra support to achieve their best at school.

Alan enjoys long-distant walking. He has walked north of Waveney in Norfolk and to the south along the Suffolk coast as well as in many other parts of the country and abroad.

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.

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.

Good news for students and for everyone who wants a fairer Britain.The Liberal Democrats are pleased to announce they have developed a plan to phase out tuition fees over the course of the next six years, to ensure this vital policy is affordable even at this time of economic crisis.

It’s simply wrong to penalise people who want to make the best of themselves by saddling them with enormous mortgage-style debts from the day they graduate – especially when we know the root of the current economic crisis was too much debt. And it’s clear that people from disadvantaged backgrounds are far more likely to be put off going to university if it costs them tens of thousands of pounds. In a fair society, university admissions should be based on your grades and intelligence, not the wealth of your parents. You should decide whether going to university makes sense for you – and you shouldn’t have to make the decision based on your bank balance.

Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg said “Labour’s recession has made it more difficult to find the money to fund our priorities. That’s why we are right to adapt our plans for big spending commitments and why it is right that our General Election manifesto will focus this time on a smaller number of key commitments. But our message to students is clear: we remain the only party that believes fees are unfair, and the only party with a plan to get rid of them for good.”

Are you one of the voters who turned to new Labour in 1997? Were you excited by the progressive promise? Did you believe that the ideals of fairness, social mobility, sustainability, civil rights and internationalism would finally have their day?

If so, you face a real dilemma. The choice between a fading, exhausted Labour Government and the ideologically barren Conservatives, bereft of any discernible convictions other than a sense of entitlement that it is now their turn to govern, is not a good one.

The Lib Dems want to offer you an alternative. Lib Dems are now making a simple argument: in the same way that Labour eclipsed a tired Liberal Party almost a century ago, the Liberal Democrats now offer a new rallying point for a resurgent progressive movement in Britain.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, launches ‘Liberal Moment’ pamphlet in which he argues that the Liberal Democrats have replaced Labour as the dominant progressive party in Britain.

Click on the link below to read more

http://www.libdems.org.uk/news_detail.aspx?title=Nick_Clegg%2c_Leader_of_the_Liberal_Democrats_launches_%27The_Liberal_Moment%27_&pPK=4b620a53-e2bf-488c-b3dd-baa1d5594080

Suffolk Lib Dems launch manifesto for the 2009 county council elections, setting out their views of a Liberal Democrat Suffolk. Leader Kathy Pollard said, “We want to fix Suffolk.”

The manifesto sets out the aims of a new LIb Dem administration by introducing their “Six to Fix” points.

• Fix 1 To prevent the middle schools closure
• Fix 2 Review all care service fees and make elderly day care free again.
• Fix 3 Cut accidents on our roads and reduce speeding in towns and villages.
• Fix 4 Freeze all council salaries over £50,000 and run services fairly and efficiently.
• Fix 5 cut the 20 million miles travelled by council staff each year.
• Fix 6 Reverse the fall in GCSE results and invest in our children’s future.

A full copy of the manifesto can be downloaded from

http://suffolkcclibdems.org.uk/resources/sites/84.234.17.197-467a87d4adbda7.04186456/Liberal+Democrat+Manifesto+for+Suffolk+2009.pdf

Today Nick Clegg launched the Liberal Democrat Europen election campaign. In his speech he warned that Brtiain must lead within the EU to protect families from crime, climate change and the recession. Nick published the Party’s European manifesto ‘Stronger Together, Poorer Apart’ in central London.

Have you ever listened to a politician on the radio and thought “That sounds good, but what’s the full story?”

Want to shout at the TV with facts and figures instead of incoherent rage?

To be more informed, people ask for that little bit more in-depth knowledge.

The LIberal Democrats have brought together party news, media coverage, policy announcements and party blogs on one website for the first time:

Click on the Lib Dem News link at the side of the page or go straight to it on:

http://blogs.libdems.org.uk

Whether you’re a party supporter or just curious, you can get yourself informed:

• click through to the details behind the press releases and read our policies for yourself
• click through to find out the latest events and meet-ups in your area on FlockTogether
• watch YouTube films from our MPs (and why not respond by posting a video response of your own?)
• talk it all over with fellow liberals on the unofficial blogs at Lib Dem Voice and Lib Dem Blogs – it’s all here, the bad news stories as well as the good!
• get freshly-baked daily liberal news by signing up to our (RSS) news feed or Twitter updates

You’ll stay ahead of the media schedule, read newspapers with a more critical eye and debate with like-minded people. Next time you hear a politician on the radio, the chances are you’ll already know the ins and outs of what they’re talking about.

So now you can shout at the TV like the knowledgeable, media-savvy person you are. Don’t get angry – get informed!

Of all the least favoured options of the Boundary Committe’s local government review, Waveney Lib Dems support the idea of 3 unitaries rather than an “all in” Suffolk or any idea of being linked with Norfolk. We know there is a lot of support among our local communities for three unitaries, listening to the needs of local people and empowering them to take part in decisions about their own local services.

If you like the idea of Lowestoft remaining in Suffolk and still being part of Waveney, you can enter the No.10 petition here and tell the Prime MInister how strongly you feel:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/bestforsuffolk/

Lib Dem plans to help families include tax cuts for low and middle income households, stopping unnecessary repossessions, action to cut energy bills and big cuts in interest rates.

Families are facing a difficult winter. Rising mortgage bills, the fear of unemployment and high heating costs mean that the shockwaves of the financial crisis are being felt in households across Britain.

When the banks were in trouble, they got rescued. Millions of families who are finding themselves in trouble must be helped too.

To find out more go to http://www.libdems.org.uk/news/liberal-democrat-economic-recovery-plan-12693499