Kennedy returns to campaign trail
Thursday saw the launch of the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto, delayed from Tuesday, following the birth of Charles Kennedy’s son, Donald.
At an early morning press conference, Liberal Democrat leaders unveiled the 16,000 word, tabloid newspaper-format document, “The Real Alternative”.
“It is a positive programme for the governance of Britain as a whole. It is based on fairness, it is based on opportunity”, Mr Kennedy declared.
Naturally, the party’s proposals for replacing Council Tax with a local income tax and for introducing a new 50 per cent Income Tax rate on incomes in excess of £100,000 per annum were the most controversial proposals, but Mr Kennedy insisted that all of this party’s policies could be funded from the two measures.
“99 per cent of people will not pay more tax under this proposal – but the benefits will be for 100 per cent of people in our society”, he argued. (full story)
The Conservatives began the day with a briefing on their education plans, fronted by leader Michael Howard and education spokesperson Tim Collins. They hit out at poor standards of literacy and numeracy, and put this down to Labour’s adherence to ineffective teaching methods. (full story)
They also focused on standards of English amongst minority ethnic children, with Mr Howard criticising local authority policies of producing documents in other languages as a barrier to cultural integration. Mr Howard then headed for Gloucester, followed by Yarm.
Getting their retaliation in against the Lib Dems early, the Conservatives launched a poster accusing the party of being soft on crime.
Tony Blair delivered his first set-piece speech of the campaign at Canary Wharf in London. Echoing Margaret Thatcher, Mr Blair claimed that Labour is today the party of wealth creators and entrepreneurship in front of an audience of business leaders. (full story)
Once again, he focused on Labour’s economic record in government, but he was without Gordon Brown today, he was campaigning in the Medway towns of Kent.
In Croydon in the early afternoon, election co-ordinator Alan Milburn declared that, “If Labour win, the ID Card Bill will be reintroduced before the summer.” (full story)
The Scottish and Welsh Labour parties each launched their manifestos today as well.
As Mr Blair spoke, Veritas leader Robert Kilroy-Silk was launching his party’s manifesto in elsewhere in London.
The MEP hit out at what he called the “liberal fascism” of multiculturalism.
“We do not and we will not, and we will say that openly so that people will have the confidence to know that all cultures are not equal – they are not. There are some that are reprehensible are not entitled to respect and we should say so”, Mr Kilroy-Silk claimed. (full story)
