Tag: 2016

Below is the text of the speech made by Tim Farron, the Leader of the Liberal Democrat, at the party’s spring conference on 12 March 2016.

When you’re sat in the front row, it’s impossible to miss your cue to get on stage.

But for those of you who were at conference in the autumn, you may have noticed I was a little late to the stage.

I was sitting very happily having a cup of tea in the green room, completely oblivious to what was happening

I didn’t think I was due on for at least 5 more minutes.

So, in my own good time, I wandered on stage, reasonably calm and collected, unaware that panic had set in.

People were dashing around backstage trying desperately to find me.

One member of my team, frantically rushed into the toilets thinking I was stuck inside and broke down a door.

So, not only do I have to apologise to the Bournemouth Arena for the broken door but also to the poor person who was actually sat on the toilet at the time.

Thank you so much to Lauren and all the amazing people who’ve spoken tonight.

With talent and energy like that we know that our future is very bright.

I met Lauren when I went to campaign in her council by-election.

She knew everyone and everything about that community.

I was massively impressed. I said, “Lauren how long have you lived here?”

“18 years she said”. I thought for a second. “How old are you Lauren?” … 18.

Well for Lauren, and anyone here who wants to, I hope that each one of our new members tonight has the best opportunity to become a member of parliament.

And I’m not going to be neutral about this. I am crystal clear that we can make a difference and make that happen by supporting Sunday’s diversity motion, and creating a better chance of getting them there.

I don’t believe in laissez faire economics because it doesn’t create fairness. Surely now we understand that laissez faire doesn’t create fairness when it comes to diversity.

And that’s one of the reasons we’re all here in York, and why we come to conference.

To debate our polices;

debating diversity;

debating cannabis when no other party has the confidence to do so;

and debating the intrusive way the Government wants to gather our most personal data.

Together we are shaping the fightback…

one member one vote, opening our doors and opening our debate to every member, shaping this movement, building our distinctive, radical, Liberal agenda that can transform Britain from the grassroots up.

And there are millions of liberals in this country. Our mission is to turn them into Liberal Democrat members.

As we heard from Saleyha, she joined because she believes in what we believe in.

Of course, Saleyha joined – crucially – because someone asked her.

So, I’m sure you have seen there are two membership forms on every seat.

My challenge to you is to recruit two new members each before the end of this month.

And together we will be part of a growing, exciting team that will make a difference in May, and secure the result we all want in the referendum.

So, the EU referendum. If like me, you were born after 1957, this is the first time you will get to vote on our future in Europe.

This is likely to be the biggest vote you will ever cast.

So it’s important we weigh up all the arguments. And in that spirit you’ll see that there is a stall here for the Leave campaign.

And they are here for 2 reasons.

One, we are lovely liberals who like a debate.

Two, they are giving us cash.

Cash, ladies and gentlemen, we will spending on a campaign, to beat them.

So, this is the biggest campaign you will ever fight.

The biggest stakes, the most to gain, the most to lose.

So the campaign has begun.

Lots of noise and it’s only going to get louder.

People in the UK are waiting for a clear honest case.

Over these last few weeks as I’ve been knocking on doors, more and more people are mentioning Europe.

And most of them, don’t want to tell me their views, they want to know mine.

Now obviously, they’ve come to the right person – trust me, I’m a politician.

So let’s be honest about where we stand.

We believe that Britain is stronger in Europe.

And this vote is so much more important than the tedious internal Tory party soap opera that’s playing out in the news every day,

And more important, indeed, than what the Queen really thinks… about Michael Gove.

I, of course, would not dream of speculating as to Her Majesty’s views on Europe.

All I will say is that she is a shining example… a shining example of European integration and harmony – of how a Greek family and a German family can be united in peace and happiness for 70 years.

Aside from the soap opera, people really want to know the substance.

They want to know what it will mean for their family, for their business, their job, their children’s future, our safety.

So here goes:

200,000 British companies currently export goods to Europe.

Yes we pay in, but the CBI says Britain’s access to the European single market is worth 78 billion pounds.

The car industry, reliant on European trade, employs 700,000 people.

The single market gives us access to 500 million consumers.

British families benefit from cheaper goods and services – everything from phone tariffs to flights – are cheaper because of European cooperation.

So you can fly on holiday for less, and then when you get there post really tedious selfies from the beach at a fraction of the cost.

Thousands of criminals are no longer on our streets because our police can share information.

And hundreds of criminals have been brought back to justice here in Britain.

And British workers have better annual leave, they have better protections from harassment at work, and better maternity leave.

Strength in numbers, clear benefits, common sense.

So there is an enormous net financial, economic and business benefit of being Europe.

That doesn’t stop those who want to exit, constantly talking of the cost of being in Europe.

But I look around our continent, at the scars of the last hundred years, and I see a far more painful cost of a dis-united Europe.

People have different reasons for their stance on Europe.

Business interests, the opportunities for their children, or maybe they just saw an opportunity to gain a bit more attention in their bid to become the next Tory leader.

But for me, one thing stands out above all else.

Countries who once had warheads pointing at each other, today work together in peace.

I don’t remember the last war.

But I remember the cold war.

There’s an odd, stone building in the woods near our village, and I always joke with the kids that it’s the entrance to a nuclear bomb shelter, that there are four men from Kendal still down there, fighting over the last potnoodle thinking the bomb dropped three decades ago.

When I was a teenager, I remember coming down Fishergate Hill in Preston on a Sunday morning.

I did a double take because the old laundrette had changed hands, instead it had become a showroom for nuclear fallout shelters.

I was 14, and I thought: One, nuclear fallout shelters cost a lot of money,

Two, nobody I knew in Preston had any money, Three, here was a shop apparently successfully selling these things anyway,

Four, ergo, the end of the world was imminent.

And that threat might seem laughable now.

But it wasn’t then.

It was 1984, we lived in a divided Europe, we lived in the shadow of the bomb.

Now, as it happens, I drove down Fishergate Hill with my dad a couple of weeks ago and its gone back to being a laundrette.

Over those years, Paranoia and aggression has given way to cooperation and hope.

After decades of brutal conflict, European nations came together.

Countries behind the iron curtain are our allies.

The Warsaw Pact gave way to a unified Europe.

Those who wish to turn their backs on Europe, turn their backs on history.

When we face a dangerous world, I want to stand with my neighbours.

I thank God that today, that our leaders sit around a table with leaders of countries who a generation ago had nuclear weapons on their soil pointed right here.

If that was the only reason to remain, it would be good enough for me.

So, our arguments are powerful, the cause is crucial but the campaign is not going to be easy.

But we will make it even more difficult if we refuse to accept that things aren’t perfect.

Just as we know that Westminster is not perfect. So Europe is not perfect.

Just as we want to change Westminster, we should also want to change the European Union.

And you don’t affect change by storming off in a huff.

As any kid who’s picked up the ball in a sulk and stalked off home will tell you, that’s not the way you make friends.

And it’s definitely not the way to win the match.

Before we can convince the British people that Europe offers a great future for Britain, we should recognise that too often the Union appears out of touch and out of reach.

It needs further renewal and reform to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

By leading, and not leaving, we can maximise our influence to drive renewal and reform of the EU.

This is Britain’s time to lead the way.

Let’s reduce the moments where it has become too burdensome, bureaucratic and bloated, but let’s drive forward the things it does so well, to create opportunity, drive prosperity and open our eyes to the world.

Let’s complete the single market, and drive forward the digital economy.

Let’s give small business much greater representation in Brussels.

And let’s spearhead green growth and sustainability.

Some of the rhetoric in the campaign recently has been unpleasant to put it mildly

Iain Duncan-Smith has said we’d be at greater risk of Paris style terror attacks if we remain, and people on both sides have tried to scare monger about borders, refugees and migrants.

Using desperate people fleeing war and terror, as pawns to score points, is appalling and it is weak.

This campaign needs the opposite.

This campaign needs strength and compassion.

If the leave campaign wish to play nasty, we can’t really affect that.

The same forces who used images of babies in incubators to campaign in the AV referendum can’t wait for a race to the bottom on immigration, migration and refugees.

But Liberal Democrats, I will not stand for it.

There are many people on the leave side who are complaining about something they call ‘project fear’.

Now, as you know, I believe that being in Europe is better for Britain, and I know I can run a campaign that is positive, that is hopeful, optimistic and praises the benefits of our membership.

But, I can’t ignore the fact, that the prospect of leaving scares me.

It’s quite sensible to be afraid of something that is dangerous.

But to use fear of the other, to demonise those who are different to you, that is disgraceful and we will call it out whenever we see it.

And to make matters worse, all this anti-European nationalism is charting the way for Neil Hamilton’s political comeback.

The Hamiltons!

Neil Hamilton is now the top of the list for UKIP in Wales.

What on earth has Wales done to deserve that?

And not only is Neil Hamilton on the list. Mark Reckless, the poor-man’s Douglas Carswell, is also looking to Wales for his comeback.

Two Englishmen who took democracy for granted, assuming that Wales will accept what England has rejected.

Another reason why Kirsty Williams’ leadership is so vital in giving Wales positive politics against the rise of nasty isolationism.

So… the referendum, do you remember AV? That went well.

Do you remember, at the time, there was a newly elected left wing Labour leader who wouldn’t put his back into the campaign?

Sound familiar? History seems to be repeating itself.

Jeremy Corbyn, please do not let your own internal party chaos get in the way of winning this campaign.

I know you may have wanted to leave in the past, but we treat your conversion as genuine and so I ask you to show the zeal of the convert and get on board.

If ever there was a time you needed to show your party, and the country, that you can lead, now is that time.

Shall we cross party lines, put our party interests aside for the good of our country?

Because if you won’t, I’ll make a direct appeal to those Labour party members now.

The Liberal Democrats are a united force.

We are Britain’s internationalist party.

We believe in international cooperation, that Britain stands tall in the world because we stand tall in Europe, that British business is more successful, that our streets are safer, and we are better equipped for those challenges that don’t stop at borders.

If your party leadership remains blinkered to the risk, then your party is sleepwalking to the exit.

So, come with us, share a platform, and let’s make the positive, unified case that we all believe in.

In together, let’s make Britain’s future better, by making Britain’s future one that is in Europe.

Recently, Nicola Sturgeon gave a big speech, on why we should remain in Europe.

It was a strong pro-European speech. She made this important speech in London, which is not in Scotland.

Perhaps she didn’t want the Scottish people to hear it.

She called for a positive case to be made for Britain to stay in Europe…

And then focussed her entire attention on threatening the rest of the UK with a leave campaign of her own.

In fact Nicola has spent the last month talking about what’s going to happen if we lose the referendum, rather than working with others to try and win it.

We know that the EU referendum is just another opportunity for nationalists to pursue their single minded, destructive goal of separation at all costs.

They are lining up to tell us that a vote to leave would inevitably lead to a second referendum on independence for Scotland.

That will not help persuade a single wavering voter.

What Nicola Sturgeon is doing is blowing a dog whistle giving permission to separatists to vote to leave the EU so that Scotland can then leave the UK.

The EU referendum is too important to be treated as an excuse to hark back to the independence debate.

When we look to Scotland we should remember how the referendum there was won.

Charles Kennedy, Michael Moore, Jo Swinson, Willie Rennie – they were out on the streets with campaigners from all parties and none. Making the positive, liberal case.

They shunned the aggression and nastiness of the online battles, and offered hands of friendship and cooperation.

I am a patriot, and patriots love their country. Nationalists hate their neighbours.

We will campaign as patriots, as liberals, we will campaign together.

In Britain we have a menu of parties in this debate:

Those that are resolutely anti Europe – UKIP

Those split down the middle – Tories and Greens

Those who are half hearted with ulterior motives – the nationalists

Or the half-hearted and just a bit rubbish – Labour.

And then there’s the party, the only party, passionate about a reforming Britain, in a reforming Europe.

A prosperous Britain in a prosperous Europe, a green Britain in a green Europe, a secure Britain in a secure Europe.

There are millions of people in Britain who know that this is the biggest choice for our country in their lifetimes, and that just as Britain is stronger together with others, so are we as individuals stronger when we join those of like mind to achieve what is right.

The Liberal Democrats offer you the chance to work with those who think like you about our future in Europe.

We need you, you need us – join us today, join the party that is united in the shared belief that Britain’s position in Europe is vital to the country’s future security and prosperity.

And this campaign will be a major focus as we rebuild our party.

In together we will fight for a stronger and more prosperous nation, creating opportunity for future generations, respected all over the world.

The global issues that we face can only be overcome by international cooperation.

Those who believe we can be stronger alone are turning their backs on the real world, a modern world, lost in a sepia tinted view of memories and false nostalgia.

We could once separate our politics between domestic and international.

But not anymore.

The questions is not whether Britain can survive alone,

it is whether Britain can better thrive with others

When we face the world together, there is no doubt in my mind that for our future prosperity and safety, we should vote to remain.

There is no doubt in my mind that to work alongside those countries who share our interests and share our values, we need to remain.

And there is no doubt in my mind that to be the beacon of hope and freedom, in a turbulent and dangerous world, we must vote to remain.

We are a proud nation that stands tall in the world.

We are home to freedom, ingenuity, creativity.

In these next 14 short weeks, the post-war European project of peace, co-operation and prosperity lies in Britain’s hands.

Europe looks to us.

We are clear.

Britain must not leave.

Britain must lead.

Below is the text of the speech made by Tim Farron, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, to the party’s Spring Conference on 13 March 2016.

You will be unsurprised to hear that I was recently interviewed by Stylist magazine.

They asked me lots of exciting questions regarding my colossal sense of glamour.

They also wanted me to write about a woman who had been my hero.

I wanted to be completely honest, and pick the woman who was indeed my hero.

Neva Orrell.

She was a local councillor in Leyland when I first joined the Liberals… but Stylist magazine said that they wanted me to pick someone a bit more well known.

So I tried Shirley Williams – they said no.

I tried Elizabeth Warren. Nope.

So in the end, they asked me to write about that well known woman. Bill Clinton.

***

So, Neva Orrell.

First off, she was actually a woman.

But also, Neva was a teacher.

She was a local councillor in our area when I first joined the Liberals.

She was four-foot-ten, had a tangerine rinse and – to the best of my knowledge – was the only person Tony Greaves was scared of.

Neva had lived through the war.

She’d lost loved ones, witnessed the devastation, the grief and the tragedy of war – and she became convinced that we must work together to build a world where hatred and war might be overcome.

She wanted to join a movement that would fight for tolerance, peace and freedom, for the things that would make a repeat of that war least likely.

In 1949 she joined the Liberals. Neva spent the next 53 years of her life being the greatest servant that her community in Leyland had ever known.

Getting people rehoused, improving roads, cleaning up the environment, meeting the needs of individuals throughout the town.

Maybe some would be dismissive about this; A great internationalist, a great liberal? Who then spent her time on pavement politics?

But that is how it should be.

Because if you are a liberal then you will walk the walk, committed to your community.

Your community.

The place you live

The experiences and identities you share

The people with whom you feel you belong

Community is what you make it, and where we – where you – make a difference.

We say we care about people, and we prove it by serving people, empowering people, getting things done.

And it is what makes us liberals.

We stand for election not to be something, but because we want to do something.

We campaign not to be grand, but to do grand things – make a difference.

It is what makes us different.

I joined the Liberal Party at 16.

Now, you may be surprised to discover this, but this was not a carefully calculated career move.

Not a career move, but not a cop-out either.

I didn’t join a pressure group. I joined a movement.

Determined to use power to make a difference – and give people opportunities.

Because every family, every small business, everyone in Britain deserves a clear path to fulfil their own ambition.

***

Now, as well as stylist, I’ve also made the hallowed feature pages of Autocar magazine.

They had heard that my car had been written off in the floods.

They were impressed by my dedication and commitment to something so battered and beaten up…

They also wanted to know about my Volvo…

It was early December and I had agreed to do an interview with BBC News about the floods.

Half an hour before I was on air, I was in the car with my kids and the river wall in front of me broke.

In two seconds flat the car had filled up to our waists…

We had to bail out and do it quickly.

We were a few miles from the nearest village, stranded, and completely soaked by the side of the road… and then the phone went, it was the BBC.

So, John Simpson style, me and the kids reported live from the scene while my Volvo, and a very large number of precious prefab sprout CDs disappeared from view.

Now, we lost a car. That’s nothing.

I lost my beloved pre-fab sprout CDs. Even they can be replaced,

But friends of mine lost their homes, their businesses.

***

And here in York more than six hundred homes and businesses, some just a couple of hundred yards from where we are today, were under water.

Many are yet to recover.

And yet, when I look around York, as I did on Friday, I see the same tremendous spirit I see at home in Cumbria – testament to the determination of people who come together and support one another.

When a community is tested, you see it’s true character.

And as we can see by being here for Conference, York is open for business – Cumbria, the Scottish borders, the north, we’re all open for business.

Even when this Government is barely lifting a finger to help, the spirit of the people is the real northern powerhouse.

***

Within a few weeks of my birth in 1970, two disastrous things happened.

1. England got knocked out of the world cup by West Germany

2. The Liberals had an electoral disaster that made last May look quite good by comparison.

We almost disappeared altogether.

But we fought back. Not by accident, but by careful design.

And we fought back by making a virtue of the fact that there is more to life than Westminster.

Young Liberals led the rebuild of our party by taking our philosophy and our ideals into their communities and putting them into practice.

They got their hands well and truly dirty, turning a belief in the individual into action, galvanising communities, winning change, challenging the self-satisfied power of the town hall and Whitehall.

In 2016 let us choose that path back to power.

Community politics is what we are for.

The establishment is increasingly out of reach and out of touch, locally and nationally, it is down to us to make the difference.

In every community I want us to be the antidote to the kind of politics that makes people go off politics altogether.

***

In 1997 The Liberal Democrats made a tremendous leap forward, securing 46 MPs.

One of those MPs was our excellent Chief Whip Tom Brake.

I recently found out that Tom has also been a magazine star.

It was an interview that had originally been offered to me, but without me knowing, my team decided Tom was much better suited for such a challenge.

So you all have the press office to thank for the fact that last April’s centrefold in Men’s Health magazine, was not this gut on stage before you, but the rather more toned one of the chief whip.

The feature involved posing without a shirt on, exercising every day for seven weeks, and eating healthily.

Alistair was devastated not to have been asked.

In 2001 and 2005 our numbers increased to 52 and 62.

We got to 63 when Willie won Dunfermline.

Indeed we reached that peak at a point when we didn’t even have a leader…Don’t go getting any ideas.

In 2010, you know the story, we did the right thing, but paid a heavy price.

We put country before party and I am dead proud that we did.

But were the seeds of our setback in May sown many years before?

Because Westminster can be a beguiling place.

When you are there, there’s constant temptation to try and be like everyone else.

We’ve had a full shadow cabinet. We’ve had junior spokespeople.

We’ve even had enough for some troublesome backbenchers.

Mind you, even with 8 we still have some of those.

But, we must always ask ourselves, when we are a Westminster force, is it too tempting to get obsessed with Parliament that we forget the community politics that put us there?

Westminster’s rules are laid down by parties that have an opposite agenda to ours – with powerful vested interests to protect, not people to liberate.

For the establishment parties it is the best Old Boys’ Club in town, and they have stacked the rules to protect it.

We arrive in the big league on our terms. But we too often attempt to remain on theirs.

When we ran the biggest councils in this country, Liverpool and Newcastle, Bristol and Cardiff, Edinburgh and Sheffield. We did so because of who we were.

We were never the council’s representatives to the people, we were the people’s representatives to the council.

And as we rebuild we will – and must – continue to be the people’s representatives in Parliament too.

We must return to our roots.

No matter the office, always remaining true to our instincts.

It’s time to focus not on parliamentary games, but on real life.

It’s time we got back to community politics.

***

In 2008 I started a campaign to bring a chemotherapy unit to my local hospital.

We walked the 44-mile journey to the nearest unit to highlight our case, gathered 10 thousand signatures, and 600 people wrote personal stories to the local trust.

We campaigned, we lobbied and we stood up for our community. In 2011, we got it.

Shortly afterwards, an elderly couple called me over in the street and the lady told me that they had decided she wasn’t going to go through with treatment for her cancer because she couldn’t cope with the vast round trip…

But when the new unit opened, she changed her mind.

It’s about making a difference to people’s lives.

In Bradford, Jeanette Sunderland saw that a library was closing. She pulled together local businesses and not only saved the library, but raised £1.4million to turn it into an enterprise centre, creating jobs and new businesses.

It was Simon Hughes, who heard the plight of a gay Iranian man. He was facing deportation to a country that had killed his boyfriend. To this day he says that Simon’s action saved his life.

In Sutton, the Liberal Democrats have just secured funding for the second largest cancer centre in the world, that will create 13,000 jobs, and develop two new cancer drugs every five years.

Here in in York, Keith Aspden passed a budget protecting frontline services and have increased investment in community-based mental health care.

And it was Michael Moore who secured a commitment from the Government to spend 0.7% commitment on international aid. Our commitment to the international community. Money which is currently saving hundreds of thousands of lives across the world.

Community politics at every level.

Lives across the country and across the globe are better because of the work we do.

The work that you do.

***

“The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the sunrise of their life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life—the sick, the needy and the disabled.”

Those are the words of Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson’s Vice-President.

There is no doubt.

Hubert Humphrey would mark this Conservative Government an abject failure.

Just this week they voted through plans to cut £30 a week from the benefits of sick and disabled people.

They are pushing ahead with cuts to Universal Credit, so low income working families will lose on average £1000 a year.

And they still plan to exclude youngsters from being able to claim housing benefit, leaving vulnerable young people with nowhere else to go.

Their benefit cuts are a calculated political choice – hurting millions of people.

And their latest move is to cut Personal Independence Payments, by more than £1billion.

640,000 people with disabilities are set to lose vital support that helps them live truly independent lives.

As is his style, this Chancellor uses smoke and mirrors to distort the truth.

His clever accounting and theatrical budgets mask the true scale of what he has planned.

His agenda isn’t just a parliamentary game, it strikes right at the heart of the communities we represent.

And we will not stand for it.

***

We start, not with politics but with people, with communities.

But the chancellor is currently placing the very foundations of a happy and healthy community – under threat.

Our schools, our homes, our environment, even our health.

The basic building blocks for life that can have the biggest impact.

On housing…

A decent home isn’t just a roof over someone’s head; it’s an opportunity to get a job, it’s an opportunity for security and peace of mind.

So tackling the housing crisis must be the first priority for any community politician.

Build more affordable homes… Invest in house-building… set up local housing companies by councils…create a Housing Investment Bank to bring in private capital… and allow councils to borrow to build.

On education…

The pupil premium not just a few pounds chucked into the pot; It’s tailored support to help a child thrive.

Education is what creates the level playing field so that every individual can play a full part in their community.

We will defend the pupil premium we fought to introduce, fight short-sighted cuts to school budgets, and challenge political interference.

On the environment…

Climate change isn’t just a fashionable campaign, it is a battle for the future of our planet.

The environment is local. Home insulation, solar panels, flood protection. The world around us, the air we breathe and the land we rely on to survive, are under threat.

And on health…

Parity of esteem between mental and physical health isn’t just technical jargon.

We will stand alongside Norman Lamb as he leads our battle to make sure someone with a life-threatening eating disorder has the same right to treatment for their condition as a patient with cancer.

Housing. Education. Environment. Health.

Essential for our communities. Essentials in life.

All relying on Britain’s incredible public sector, and the people who work in it.

***

And at a time when they should be focussing on improving public services, this Government is locked in a dispute with junior doctors.

Instead of taking action to safeguard the future of the NHS – the Conservative government is running it into the ground.

In Coalition the Conservatives had to be dragged kicking and screaming just to fund the very basics.

Norman refused to back down when they tried to diminish our health service, and now on their own, the Tories are hoping we won’t notice what’s happening.

Instead of working to strengthen and protect the NHS, Jeremy Hunt is jeopardising it.

Junior Doctors are working tirelessly for the good of the British people and they have people’s lives in their hands – yet as we heard on Friday from Dr Saleyha Assan, they feel under attack.

We should be working with them to save the NHS. They are the future of healthcare.

Jeremy Hunt, enough is enough.

You have mishandled this dispute with junior doctors.

You have lost their confidence.

You have lost the confidence of NHS staff.

You have lost the confidence of the British people.

You have proved that the NHS is at risk in Tory hands.

The battle with junior doctors is the tip of the iceberg.

The scale of this crisis is too big.

It’s time for a full cross party commission.

As Norman said, we need a new Beveridge deal for the 21st century.

We cannot allow our NHS to wither because of the shameful politics of short termist politicians.

***

Talking of which… George Osborne.

This week he will come forward with his budget.

We have already heard that more cuts are coming our way.

George Osborne’s approach to the budget is political theatre. It’s about politics, headlines and calculated positioning.

Not a long term economic plan, but a short term political scam.

Our focus is 100% on people. How will this budget impact the lives of those around us?

Osborne asks how will this play in the Daily Mail.

We ask, how will this play in daily life?

Thanks to the tough choices we took, the structural deficit will be abolished by next year.

So, the UK now stands at a crossroads.

Osborne is taking an unnecessary political choice to cut further.

If the Chancellor really wanted to help the economy, he should invest in, and help our local communities.

Because its time to give public sector workers the pay rise they deserve

It is time to be active and ambitious by investing in capital spending on housing, broadband and public transport.

It’s time to support the skills people want and need for the future.

It’s time to make the tax system work for small businesses.

***

Communities thrive when enterprise and small business can thrive.

But far too often the cards are stacked against them.

Google and Facebook can negotiate with the tax office for months, yet small businesses can’t even get through on the phone.

So. We all know the system favours the big multinationals.

well, it’s time we transformed the way we treat small business in this country.

Instead of Government fawning over the multi-nationals, how about putting small business at the centre of our business economy?

And we need to ensure our taxation system is fit for the future.

It will be the new micro breweries, the community hubs, the app developers, the new firms in our communities who will make the difference.

Some small businesses are small for good, the backbone of our economy.

Some small businesses are small for now. If we back them they will build our future.

We need a system that works for all small businesses, the small for good, and the small for now.

Ensuring the tax system is a level playing field will take some work.

But that is why I am delighted to announce that Vince Cable has agreed to chair an expert panel for me to look at how we radically reform the way we tax businesses.

Over the next year, Vince’s team will come forward with a new approach, that’s fit for the future

Because when the system is broken, we Liberal Democrats will not defend it, we should fix it.

***

We are a proud to be Britain’s internationalist party.

We believe that Britain should lead a response to the refugee crisis, not bury our heads in the sand.

We believe Britain thrives when we lead amongst our neighbours in Europe, and will be diminished when we walk away from of the most important group of nations on the planet.

And that’s why it is deeply humiliating for Britain when Barack Obama criticised the Prime Minister for having a ‘free ride’ on defence.

Nowhere is it more plainly seen than in this government’s dismal treatment of the Afghan interpreters.

For thirteen years we relied on the skills of these brave and loyal individuals to keep our troops safe in a brutal, bloody conflict.

Yet our Government is sending them back to Afghanistan to live at the mercy of the Taliban, or is leaving them in refugee camps as they desperately try to reach the UK, the country they served.

David Cameron; your treatment of the Afghan interpreters is a disgrace.

Britain is better than a ‘free ride’ at the expense of those who laid their lives on the line for us.

Show the world that we value those who show the ultimate loyalty to our country and bring them back to Britain without delay.

It’s hard to miss the inflammatory rhetoric creeping into politics. Rather than looking for solutions, people look for someone to blame.

None of this is more apparent or scary than in the United States.

Now, I confess, I am conflicted about Donald Trump.

He can’t be all bad – he has a cameo role in one of the greatest films of all time, Home Alone 2, and his only line is to give McAuley Culkin’s character directions to the hotel reception desk.

And, ladies and gentlemen, they are accurate directions.

Mind you, McCauley Culkin then goes to the reception desk and commits credit card fraud to pay for ridiculous luxuries that he could not otherwise afford.

This was a popular and influential film, and frankly it’s a short hop from this kind of short-sighted consumer credit greed to the subprime market scandal, the fall of the banking system and a world-wide recession.

For which, on second thoughts, I now hold Trump personally responsible.

Is he a joke or is he terrifying?

Well, we see that building walls and splitting communities, spouting hatred and venom, and attacking the vulnerable and voiceless, now constitutes a political movement. And I think that is terrifying.

But don’t scoff at our cousins across the water, thinking ‘only in America, it couldn’t happen here!’

Because across British politics there are the flag waving nationalists, those who demonise the other.

But this party is the polar opposite of all that.

We will be the beacon of tolerance and acceptance.

Standing for what unites us, not the differences that divide us.

As we see the tension at Trump rallies rise, I want to be absolutely clear:

No matter where you’re from, who you are, the colour of your skin, your faith or who you love, we stand by your side.

***

When you are a new leader, you fight to get attention, to make a mark.

A journalist said to me the other day ‘all I know about you is that you’re that bloke who keeps banging on about refugees’.

He meant it as a rebuke.

I took it as badge of honour.

The biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe for 70 years, with no sign of this tragedy coming to an end.

190,000 refugees entered Europe in 2014, a post war record.

Last year that number increased to 1 million.

This year, the UN thinks there could be 3 million.

And most refugees aren’t even coming to Europe.

There’s a million in Lebanon, 700,000 in Jordan, 2.7million in Turkey.

So many facts and figures.

Such big numbers.

Every one of them an individual, a person.

In Calais, Cologne, Lesbos and in refugee centres here in the UK I’ve only met a hundred or so of them. But they are meetings I cannot forget. I will not forget.

I confess that I am personally affected by every one of them.

And so I feel personally ashamed by our government’s response to this crisis.

A crisis right on our doorstep, yet our government chooses to look the other way.

All those desperate people and the Prime Minister will not take a single one of them.

Not the orphaned 11 year old in Calais.

Not the shivering 85 year old woman I met in Lesbos.

Not the family sleeping rough in Macedonia.

Now, I heard one conservative columnist this week say that ‘the Prime Minister is bound by public opinion, and that will of course limit his room to act on the refugee crisis’.

Well, do you know what, maybe it’s time politicians stopped following and had the guts to lead.

Now is the time to say that when thousands of innocent kids are stranded cold and alone in camps in Europe, we don’t give a monkeys what the focus groups say.

Now is the time to turn and face this crisis, to choose to play our part.

Now is the time to take a stand, to lead.

Because this is not about statistics.

This is about people just like you and me.

This is about dignity and decency.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

On the morning of October 27th last year, I stood on the beach on the island of Lesbos and I met a couple in their thirties: a carpenter and a nursery teacher from the Daesh occupied region of Iraq.

With them, still in their flimsy life jackets, they had their two little girls, aged three and five.

To distract them from the terror of the journey over the sea to Europe they’d sung songs to the girls and told them stories for hours and hours.

Why did they put them through this?

They love their children as much as I love mine yet they risked their daughters’ lives…why? Because the bigger risk was to stay and not to flee.

And the Britain I believe in, offers that family sanctuary, hope and a future.

David Cameron has gone through Calais plenty of times recently on his way to Brussels.

But he’s never got off the train there.

He’s never seen for himself the heartbreak of those who have had to leave everything, to flee towards a country and a continent that you thought represented peace and security but got there only to be treated like dirt.

He’s refused to meet the proud people, broken by the wickedness of those who sought to kill them at home, and broken again by the callous indifference of those to whom they looked for sanctuary.

Being 12 and alone in a camp thousands of miles from home.

Being in a boat tossed to and fro as you sought land in the darkness, hearing the screams of the people in the neighbouring vessel as it went down.

Having to leave your town at night, the town you grew up in, the only home you ever knew.

Seeing children as young as you slaughtered by Daesh.

Their stories stay with me, they motivate me.

No one should have to live as they have lived.

But we don’t have to allow these stories to end with desperation and tragedy.

They can be about hope and opportunity.

Three weeks ago I went to Cologne.

I met newly arrived refugees from Syria who were being integrated into German culture.

I sat a dozen young Syrian men who were being taught intensive German.

They had vital skills and were on the path to a career, on the path to being a massive asset to the country that had given them a second chance.

And then a week ago I met 6 young people from Eritrea and South Sudan – refugees from persecution.

They’d got their way to England, to Gravesend.

They spend their days sat in a hostel with little to do.

The UK authorities would not even provide them with basic English language lessons.

One of these six had got herself onto a nursing course from September, but the rest were being left to rot.

Their clear cases for asylum were being kicked off into the long grass.

Bored, scared, directionless, young people overflowing with talent and denied opportunity by a government that is deliberately blind to their potential.

Refugees in Germany, welcomed, trained, empowered – transformed into enthusiastic, tax-paying Germans.

Refugees in Britain, held in contempt, trapped, their talents wasted, and let down by people who act in our name.

Britain is better than that.

And so I will continue bang on about it.

To speak for British values, for common sense, for action to help the desperate, for fear to give way to opportunity.

***

But we can be sure that the UK has no chance of exercising any kind of leadership if it opts for isolation and irrelevance.

And in just over fourteen weeks, we will face a vote on Britain’s future in Europe.

By the way, when I came in this morning, the leave stand was closed. They had indeed left.

They did clearly did feel, it was better off out.

So, it is exactly 25 years ago this very week – in what is a quite spooky coincidence – since my second favourite band, the Clash, had their one and only number one hit.

‘Should I stay or should I go’.

The lyrics are, ‘if I stay there will be trouble, if I go it will be double’- project fear there from Strummer and Jones…

Whether David Cameron’s renegotiation impresses you or not, this is so much bigger than Cameron’s deal.

Here are the questions that we must all answer:

We belong to the biggest most successful market on the planet. Are we more prosperous staying in, or getting out?

We live in dangerous times. Are we safer alongside our friends and neighbours, or isolated.

We face vast international challenges: climate change, the refugee crisis, a global economy. Do we best tackle these together or on our own?

They are the big questions, and the answers to me are crystal clear.

We are stronger together.

We are stronger in.

For our prosperity, our security, our relevance, Britain must remain.

***

And our national security is being challenged by more than the referendum.

Right now the Government are using it as an excuse to extend snooping powers.

Theresa May won’t just have access to your Facebook messages, but to everything from your medical records to your child’s baby monitor.

And it’s not just MI5 and MI6 – your local council will be able to know where you’ve been and who you’ve spoken to, as will the tax office.

Not even the Home Office can pretend that this is purely about keeping people safe.

Trying to fight terrorism by gathering more and more irrelevant information is illiberal and totally counterproductive.

The haystacks of information will become so huge that finding the needle will be near impossible.

No matter what the government calls it, don’t make any mistake – this is the Snoopers’ Charter back again and we won’t have it.

***

This is what we’ve come to expect from the Conservative Government.

Here’s a party which took office, backed by just 36% of British voters.

They cling to a tiny majority of just 12, yet govern with a care-free arrogance, decimating social housing, demolishing green energy, and demonising refugees.

And they are taking their chance to change the rules in their favour.. attacking public funding for the opposition to hold them to account, opposing Lords reform, gerrymandering boundaries and undermining the independence of the BBC.

Even if you are a hardened Tory, you should be appalled by what this government is doing to our democracy.

***

And you know what? It makes me unbelievably angry…. With Labour.

Let me be clear about this.

I’m not angry because Labour is now run by the kind of people who used to try and sell me tedious newspapers outside the Students’ Union. That’s their funeral.

I am angry with Labour because their internal chaos is letting this government off the hook.

The Corbyn agenda is about taking over the Labour party, not rescuing Britain.

***

I will not stand by while the Tories dig in for a generation.

We can be, we must be, what stands in their way.

We have to build that force.

Ward by ward, house by house, issue by issue.

Pick a ward and win it.

This May, next May, all year round.

We can win anywhere, you can win anywhere if you immerse yourself in your community.

You keep in touch, you get things done.

We know, that no matter where you’re from, your parents’ wealth, the colour of your skin, your gender, your faith, or who you love, you must have every opportunity to succeed. And you have a home with us.

Together we can show a liberal vision for Britain that isn’t obsessed with self interest, or the here and now, but the long term future of our country.

With strategic capital investment.

Strong, local public services.

And a well paid public sector.

Where enterprise is encouraged.

Where clean energy creates jobs.

And where everyone has the right to a decent home.

And where desperate people fleeing war and persecution are not demonised, they are welcomed.

We are the opposition that will talk to our country about our country.

A champion for communities when they need it.

The voice for junior doctors.

Standing by our teachers.

Backing innovation.

A movement.

We can be the voice that Britain needs, and become the movement to make that difference.

Find your community, and make that difference.

Liberal Democrats. This is our vision for Britain.

Thank you.