I am disgusted to hear that Labour have put out a leaflet targeting people with cancer.  As a parent who lost his son to cancer to have recieved a leaflet suggesting that access to services would be scrapped under another party would have been painful to say the least.  If my son had still be alive with cancer it would have been soul destroying.  I can fully understand how many if not most of the 250,000 women felt when the leaflet fell through their letterbox.  What worries me is why and how were these quarter of a million women choosen?  Have Labour accessed the NHS database for their own political gain?  For familes blighted by cancer and other long term and terminal illnesses the fear of not getting access to services only adds to the stress or caring for a loved one.  Gordon Brown should publically apologise and who ever was behind the leaflet be sacked.

At a time when everyone is being told and knows that there will be cuts why are Chief executive pay increases more than double the rate of nurses pay last year.  It is a clear slap in the face to NHS staff and unfair.   Norman Lamb said “This is totally unacceptable. There is simply no justification for chief executives to receive pay increases that are far larger than those for frontline nursing staff.”  In this time of economic crisis the fairest way would have been for all staff to get the same real money amount.  If every NHS employee got £500 rise a nurse on £20,000 would get 2.5% whilst the Chief Executive on £150,000 would get 0.33%  but both would have £500 with which to buy their bread, milk or use towards their utility bill.

The NHS is a jewel in the British crown and we have to look after it.  After all a healthy nation is a nation that can work.  A working nation pays taxes, whcih can be used to clear the debts caused by the bankers and Labour.

Is it fair that the richest are paying 20% less in taxes whilist the poorest are paying 20% more?  Clearly not.  Yet this is the situation that has arisen since Labour came to power in 1997.  After 13 years of Labour the poorest people in Britain are paying 20% more in taxation whilst the richest people are paying 20% less.  As a Liberal Democrat I believe in fairness and taxation in this country currently is blatantly not fair.   We need to rebalance Labour’s unfair tax system and put money back into the pockets of hardworking people. The people who keep this country going the teachers, firemen/women, police officers, nurses, factory workers, rubbish collectors, road sweeps, all the unsung hard working people who day in and day out go to work.  For the millions of these people who are on low and middle incomes the Liberal Democrats would do this by raising the personal allowance to £10,000.  This would give £700 a year to the hard working man and woman on the low and middle incomes.  It would be real money into their pockets.  Money they can spend on their families, on themselves, on living.

How would we pay for this?  It would be paid for by closing loopholes that unfairly benefit those at the top, a crackdown on tax avoidance by both individuals and multi national companies, a new mansion tax and higher aviation duties.  So that the richest in society pay more and the poorest pay less proportionally.  This, to me, is fair because a loaf of bread costs the same whether you are very rich or a working family.  There is no reason why those on low and middle incomes should be expected to go without the basics in life.

Labour are going to promise not to increase income tax in their manifesto but will make no similar pledge on VAT.  So again it would be the poorest who would loose out.

The Conservatives tax plans will benefit the richest people so continuing the last 13 years taxation divide and making the working man/woman poorer whilst their rich backers continue to get richer.

Only the Liberal Democrats have said that they will put money into the pockets of those on low and middle incomes – real money – £700.

The modern family comes in all shapes and sizes, I know from my work with families in mental health.  So policies like tax breaks for some married couples are not the right way to support all families.  Millions of families struggle to make ends meet.  The rise in the cost of basic goods affects all families.  The Liberal Democrat tax proposals will make the tax and benefits system fairer, so that all families can afford to get by.  Anyone working and earning less than £10,000 a year will pay no income tax.  Many other workers will see a reduction in their annual tax bill of £700 under the Liberal Democrats.

The only fair way to support families is to ensure all families benefit and not just the chosen few.

A Liberal Democrat Government will ensure that no bank can charge its customers unfairly.  We will outlaw unfair charges.  Bank bosses should return the money they took from customers in unfair charges. 

At the same time the Liberal Democrats have said that they will ensure that high street banks are separated from the ‘casino’ banks of the city.  These banks have cost the people of Sleaford and North Hykeham dear.  The result of their gambling with our money is that we all are now going to pay for years to come.  Locally we lack affordable housing and local small and medium size businesses are struggling to get the finance they need to make their buisnesses grow which would lead to them needing more staff and an increase in revenue to the government coffers.

We are already seeing the effect of the cuts with the loss of the bus service to Doddington.  This will affect young and old alike.

We all are facing rising prices – food, fuel, communications – in our basic daily needs.  Added to this are unaffordable mortgages and escalating debts and we are in real financial trouble. Labour under Gordon Brown as Chancellor and leader has through complacency let house prices crash, inflation rise along with unemployment and they presided over falling growth.  Not since the Conservative recession of the 1990s has the outlook for the UK economy looked so bleak.  The Conservatives want to look after their pals in big business but will not be there for the working man/woman, the small business man/woman or the vulnerable in society.

It is time for a change!

The Liberal Democrats have set out a clear vision for the future.  A vision that will empower people so that they can live better lives, so the country can get out of debt, so we can all enjoy the services that make Britain the country others look to for social ideology.

To do this we will close the tax loop holes abused by the super rich and large companies.  We will ensure that those at the lower end of the pay scale benefit first, with NO income tax on the first £10,000 of your income.  This will give many people an extra £700 a year.  We will get wasteful government spending under control.  We will effectively regulate the banking system to prevent irresponsible lending and business practices.

We all know that there are going to be cuts in spending and that jobs will be a risk, but the Liberal Democrats will ensure that front line staff are not lost, because it would be the most vulnerable in society who would suffer most and that is wrong.

All the pundits agree that of the three men vying to be the next Chancellor only one foretold of the crisis, only one has offered a workable solution and only one has the financial credibility to achieve the goal of sorting out the financial crisis Britain is in today – Vince Cable.

I have said it before, as have many others “If you want Vince Cable to sort out the financial crisis you have to vote Liberal Democrat.”

For the last 65 years British Politics has bounced between Labour supported by the unions and Conservatives supported by the upper class.  Both of these party’s supporters have vested interest in politics and neither of those sets of interests look after the hard working man or woman.  The local person with a mortgage, 2.4 children and ever rising utility bills. 

The Liberal Democrats were born in the 1980s to look after this very family.  Our history goes way back to the time of the formation of the Liberals in 1859.  Though some suggest it goes even further back to the time of John Locke in the 1600s.   In June 1859 Whigs, Peelites and Radicals met to form a new Party “The Liberals”.   122 years later, in March 1981, a gang of four Labour MPs broke away from the tired old Labour Party to for the SDP.   Just over five years later the SDP and Liberals gave birth to the Liberal Democrats.

Historically the Liberal Democrats have always been the local Party, the people’s Party, the reforming Party.  130 years earlier Gladstone, known for his prudent financial innovation – not unlike Vince Cable – started the redistribution of income and established Parliamentary accountability for government spending.  Liberal Democrats reformist values of liberalism and social democracy are what the country needs now.