Kennedy: Lib Dems are the genuine opposition
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has called on disaffected Labour and Conservative supporters to back the Liberal Democrats.
In a speech in London outlining his party’s key general election themes, Mr Kennedy said that the Lib Dems have been the only “genuine opposition party” in the last parliament.
Highlighting his party’s opposition to the war in Iraq, tuition and top up fees and ID cards, Mr Kennedy promised policies of “hope not fear”.
Claiming that the Conservatives are “fading away” as a political force and that Labour “has used up the trust and the good will of the people”, he said there would be “no limit” to the Liberal Democrats’ ambitions in the next general election.
By contrast, Mr Kennedy said the Lib Dems were “growing in strength and growing in support” having “conducted ourselves on a united basis” and “been positive about bringing forward our message”.
Those that opposed the Government on controversial policies such as the war in Iraq, ID cards, council tax and university top-up fees and tuition fees only had one party to vote for at the next election – the Lib Dems. As on “so many of these big definitive divisive issue” there has been “little to chose” between the Government and the Conservatives, Mr Kennedy claimed.
Slamming the Conservatives’ claims that they could cut taxes and increase spending at the same time as “highly implausible”, Mr Kennedy said that the Lib Dems would cut waste, but not by cutting the numbers of civil servants.
Money would be redirected from “low priority” projects to high priorities such as health and education. The party would scrap Child Trust Funds, ID cards and the last stage of the Eurofighter project, Mr Kennedy said.
And, there would be a tax rise for those earning over £100,000 a year to pay for the abolition of tuition fees and top up fees, and free personal care for the elderly.
The Lib Dems would work to restore the UK’s “tarnished” international reputation, Mr Kennedy said and indicated that the Lib Dems would take a positive stance on Europe and the environment
While it was crucial to protect the public from terrorism and crime, this should “never be at the expense of civil liberties”, Mr Kennedy said. He dubbed the Government’s stance on a number of issues as “illiberal”.
He promised a “tough liberal approach” on crime, with 10,000 extra police on the streets and action to tackle the causes of crime.
Mr Kennedy concluded saying that there was now real three party politics in the UK. He said: “We are united, and we are principled, and we are certainly ambitious as a third party”.
