more … ]]> The Liberal Democrats have announced they will fight the General Election on four key principles, designed to make Britain a fairer place.

Martin Tod, Prospective Lib Dem MP for Winchester, has today set out his campaign priorities: fair taxes; a fair start for every child; fair, clean and local politics and a fair, green economy with jobs that last.

Martin Tod said:

“We are going into the election with a clear direction and a manifesto that is short, direct and to the point.

“We will introduce fairer taxes by closing loopholes for the richest, introducing a tax on mansions and tax cuts of up to £700 for everyone else.

“If your child is at school in Winchester, we are promising investment to help reduce class sizes, improve discipline and develop one-to-one tuition.

“We would also give local people the right to sack their MP. The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to real change of our political system, flushing out big money and corrupt donors and reducing the number of MPs by 150.

“And we will rebuild the economy in every part of Britain in a way that promotes green technology and creates lasting jobs. We will put an end to casino banking, bring back competition and support local entrepreneurs to make sure Winchester businesses can find the investment they need.

“The coming months are a crucial time for politics and I will be using them to focus on these four priorities and get real change for Winchester.”

In his speech earlier the same day, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg said:

“David Cameron and Gordon Brown are playing the politics of the airbrush and the focus group.

“One doesn’t know what he believes. The other doesn’t know what to do with the power he clings to so desperately.

“I believe the country wants something different. The Liberal Democrats are different. We offer credibility where it’s needed. And hope for our common future.”

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What an incredibly close result!  After much thought, I’d backed Chris, but it was a close decision.

I’ve worked closely with both Nick and Chris on a range of issues – with Nick on our crime campaign earlier this year – and with Chris on a range of local issues, as well as packaging, the environment and post offices. I saw them at their first hustings in Newbury. I saw them both in successive weeks at the Winchester and Meon Valley Annual Dinners. I watched almost every appearance on TV. And then I chaired a meeting of them both at the Tower Arts Centre in Winchester.

Almost none of this made the final decision easier. If anything, the whole process increased my respect for both of them.

I remain a fan of Chris. His leadership of our environment team has been an inspiration. He has put us miles ahead of the other parties in this area. His boldness, his ability to lead the agenda – to be a rainmaker – is a huge asset to the party and I very much hope that he will be a very close and core member of Nick’s team.

However, the last few weeks, and Nick’s first 24 hours as Leader, have also made me confident that Nick will be a great leader for the Liberal Democrats. I’m excited about his ideas for giving people more power over their lives and the public services that affect them and for finding new ways to connect with voters. I saw his real passion at the candidate meeting in Winchester for social justice, for improving education, for an effective and humane criminal justice system and for tackling the ramshackle and failing British constitution.

And he’s already delivering. I thought he was great on Newsnight (despite an especially fatuous line of questioning from Jeremy Paxman). At a time when Brown is once again in denial (Crises will be forgotten – Brown), Nick’s candour and honesty during the course of today’s interviews has been a breath of fresh air. It’s too soon to know what impact he’s having on voters, but he’s certainly energised me.

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Despite the torrential rain and engineering works on the trains and the relatively short notice, it was standing room only at the Tower on Sunday when Nick and Chris came to Hampshire to ask for local members’ support.

Nick and Chris were on top form – and everyone came out feeling really inspired. Whoever wins, it’s clear we will continue to lead the way on the environment, civil liberties and internationalism, but they also put forward thought-provoking and constructive views on issues like affordable housing and education. They were both so good that I’m not sure that they made it easier for people to choose between them!

Topics covered included:

• Devolution for England and modernising Britain’s constitution
• Affordable housing
• Education for children in local public care and who have special needs
• Nuclear Power
• Prisons & the Justice System
• Foreign policy, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel/Palestine and our relations with the United States
• Policies for students and young people
• Whether they intended to offer each other roles as front bench spokespeople

Chris and Nick also met Tower Arts campaigners and signed the petition backing the Tower Arts Centre.

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Hampshire’s Library Service is currently in serious crisis.

• The books budget has cut by more than £500,000 over the last 2 years. Our libraries now have 20% fewer books than they did 5 years ago.
• 27 out of 60 professional librarian positions are in the process of being cut across the county.
• Hampshire’s library service now spends less than 6% of its funding on books – the lowest level of book purchasing of any county in England.

An urgent scrutiny meeting to review the operation of the library service has been delayed by the Conservative County Council administration for over a year.

In response to the crisis, the librarians organised a ‘read out’ by the Butter Cross to support their opposition to the current round of cuts.

Unfortunately I couldn’t be there due to a previously arranged meeting in London.

However, to try and compensate, I arranged with Mark Oaten and Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson, that we would join the ‘read out‘ in spirit by reading books at the same time as people backing Hampshire’s librarians were supporting them in London.

You can see the results above.

If you’d like to find out more or back the librarians, there are three things that you can do:

1. Sign the petition to the Prime Minister asking for the decision to cut the number of staff by nearly half at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Defend-libraries/.
2. Write to David Lammy MP, Minister of State for the Arts, Department of Culture Media and Sport, Department for Culture Media & Sport, 2-4 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5DH. Your letter should refer specifically to the failure of Hampshire County Council to provide a public library service as required of them under the Act of 1964. The letter should call upon Mr Lammy to obtain such information as is necessary to perform his duty of supervision of the library service and act accordingly.
3. Find out more about the situation of our libraries, by visiting http://www.goodlibraryguide.com and searching for ‘Hampshire’.

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After a meeting with Mark in his Westminster office to discuss our campaign plans, I went on to meet Nick Clegg MP to discuss the crime survey that we are launching in Winchester. We want to hear local people’s experiences with crime and their ideas on how to make our community safer.

The important thing is that we are focusing on sensible, pragmatic and liberal policies that will reduce crime and the fear of crime.

One obvious step would be to reverse Labour’s planned cuts in the number of Police Community Support Officers in Hampshire. We shouldn’t be spending billions of pounds on compulsory ID cards for innocent law abiding citizens when that money could be better spent on front line policing.

The local community should also have more power to close pubs and clubs that cause trouble. People of all ages should feel safe going out after dark in town or city centres.

We’ll have a chance to discuss all this with Nick in more detail later in the year when he speaks at our annual dinner.

more … ]]> As some of you may have seen in the news, earlier today Ming Campbell and Nick Clegg launched our latest campaign – ‘We can cut crime’.

It lays out five Liberal Democrat priorities:

• More police officers on the beat
• Taking back town centres by giving communities more powers to close pubs and clubs that cause trouble
• More honesty and clarity in sentencing
• More work and training in prison – to cut reoffending
• Better compensation for victims – paid for by prison work

You can find out more about the campaign at the campaign website at www.wecancutcrime.com – which you can also sign the party’s online petition.

You can also read or watch a subtitled video of Ming’s introductory speech via his website.