The Lib Dem Conference in Bournemouth was the best yet, with a record attendance and great speeches - especially from Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and Chris Huhne. Go to the link to the Liberal Democrats and click on the conference section for more details.

Nick’s speech was the highlight of the Conference. The key points from his speech were: -

‘Labour cannot help people – they are a ‘zombie government’, stumbling around with no idea what to do.

The Conservatives won’t help people - they are a say everything, do nothing party, avoiding any tough policy decisions.

Nick announced the Liberal Democrat Fairer Future economic recovery plan – four steps to a better economic future -

1) Action to stop unjust repossessions

2) New approach to regulating the City - limiting the excesses of the market

3) Put in place the building blocks for future economic stability - interest rates that take house price changes into account, and independent monitoring of our fiscal rules
4) Tax cuts for families who are struggling

The Liberal Democrats are now the only party that can deliver social justice, and the only choice for anyone who wants a fairer Britain.

We will put money back in the pockets of ordinary families - tax is a means to an end and government should not take a penny more than it needs

We will make Britain the first truly green economy in the world - a huge expansion of renewable energy, and energy independence within the EU

We will change politics so that every person counts - with fair votes, an end to big donations and a stronger Parliament

We will make government ‘people shaped’, with benefits shaped around the needs of people and families, not bureaucrats.

Patients should have far more control over the care they get. So people with long term conditions get to be part of designing the care they need.

Children struggling, or falling behind, should be helped with extra support – one-to-one tuition or catch up classes, funded by a “pupil premium” which targets extra cash at deprived children.’

The latest opinion polls show that most people think the Lib Dems are now the Party in tune with ordinary people (Populus for the Times), and is reflected in the immediate change in support for the Party (YouGov for the Daily Telegraph): -

Tory down to 44%,

Labour down to 24%

Liberal Democrats up to 20%.

The Liberal Democrat Youth and Students has become Liberal Youth. Nick Clegg launched the new movement last night at a packed event in East London, promising to turn the small-l liberal values of Britain’ young people into active support for and involvement in the Liberal Democrats. This builds upon the 2005 success of picking up five of the eight constituencies in the country with the highest student populations, as well as a 400% increase in freshers’ fair recruitment over this academic year. 

Young people all over Britain are ready to join a party that shares their values. For core issues that young people care about, we are the only party that stands with them. (Clegg)

Whether in calling for real action rather words on climate change, protection of hard-won civil liberties, an internationalist approach to foreign policy, or closing the gap between the richest and poorest, young people hold liberal values. Britain has a liberal youth. We’ll make it Liberal Democrat. (Mark Gettleson, Chair of Liberal Youth)

County Councillor Derek Deedman has welcomed this great news. Hopefully many young people in the area will take a look at the new Liberal Youth website, which is shown as a useful link, left (Young Liberal Democrats), and decide to join.

The Government has tried to review how elections work from the comfort of their Whitehall desks, without ever actually asking voters about their experiences of elections. The public deserves a real say.  Add your voice to the campaign.  Show your support for a debate.  A full briefing can be read on the Make Votes Count campaign website:

www.makevotescount.org.uk

Everybody can play their part in this. Here’s how:

1. Petition the Prime Minister:  http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/deskbound/
2. Pledge to take part in a Consultation  www.pledgebank.com/votingmatters
3. Write to the MP for Arundel & South Downs: www.makemyvotecount.org.uk/opus26009.html
4. Let the Ministry of Justice know you want your say: www.makemyvotecount.org.uk/opus25967.html
5. Donate to further the success of this campaign: www.makemyvotecount.org.uk/donate.html

It is about time we had a fair electoral system where the number of Members of Parliament more fairly represent the votes cast for each political party at the General Election. Since this is unlikely to result in one party having an overall majority, this would mean much stronger government as parties representing more than 50% of the voters would have to work together to pass laws. So measures such as ID cards which are being imposed by a party supported by only some 35% of voters at the last election would never be introduced.

Some people claim that the Lib Dems support a fairer voting system because they would get many more MPs’. This is true, but the number of such MPs’ would only reflect the actual votes cast for the Lib Dems - not more than their fair share. Currently there are many more Labour MPs’ than their share of the votes cast. In the past, when in power, there have been many more Conservative MPs’ than their share of the votes cast.  And that is why both Labour and the Conservatives want to retain the existing, unfair, ‘first past the post’ voting system. It is wrong and not true democracy.

Find out more about the campaign for fair votes from the link to the Make Vote Count website.

Liberal Democrats in Arundel & South Downs have backed calls to the government to abandon plans to make people carry identity cards. 

Leading the call locally is Local Party Chairman, Derek Deedman. He decided to voice his concerns after Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg MP published figures showing that 37 million pieces of personal information on UK citizens were lost in 2007, mostly by the Government. 

The law bringing in ID cards has already been passed by Labour and soon most citizens will have to pay for an identity card. 

“The expensive identity cards scheme is based on the government storing large amounts of information about each one of us on a central database,” said Derek. 

“But in 2007 the Government stumbled from one data loss crisis to another. The worst example came in November when the Government lost the personal details of all 25 million families with children. That has put the privacy of every family in Arundel & South Downs at risk. 

“The dangers of putting so much information about every citizen in the UK into one central database are clear to everyone except, it seems, the Government. Ministers are in denial when they argue that the information will be safe and people’s privacy will not be undermined. 

“I am very pleased that new Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg is leading the battle to end the ID cards scheme. Liberal Democrats in Arundel & South Downs are right behind him. The plan to make everyone carry a piece of plastic should be buried before it ends up as another expensive government fiasco. 

“The scheme will be a bureaucratic nightmare. It won’t prevent illegal working. It won’t help stop crime or terrorism. If the government really wants to make an impact on crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, the money it has earmarked for this scheme would be far better spent on more police and intelligence officers. That is what the Liberal Democrats would do.”

The Government’s data disaster over child benefit records shows why plans for Identity Cards must be scrapped, say Arundel & South Downs Liberal Democrats.

Following the revelation that the personal details of 25 million parents and children have been lost by the Government’s Revenue and Customs department (HMRC), and may have fallen into the hands of identity fraudsters, Derek Deedman, Chairman of Arundel & South Downs Liberal Democrats, said that the Prime Minister should abandon his plans for a national ID cards scheme and a National Identity Register in which the Government want to store the personal information of everyone in the country.

“The fiasco at HMRC has shown the dangers of the Government holding huge amounts of information about each one of us whilst being slipshod in the way that same information is looked after,” Derek said.

“This whole saga of incompetence has been shocking and families in Arundel & South Downs are now rightly asking whether their personal details are safe.

“The National Identity Register, which the Government are setting up as part of the Identity Card scheme, will hold vastly more information on each and every one of us than Customs and Revenue managed to lose.

“The possibilities for the loss of that information, either accidentally or through illegitimate means must make the Government stop and think again very seriously about their plan to store all the data they can on us on a central register.

“This is a clear illustration of the real dangers of a big brother centralised state. State control of personal identity details is a real threat to our civil liberties. The Government should respond to the anger and now abandon its ID card scheme. It is clear that the Government cannot be trusted to manage effectively mass databases of personal information.

”The Liberal Democrats opposed Identity Cards when the scheme went through Parliament. We said the scheme would be expensive, misguided and insecure. This latest debacle shows just what is at risk.

“That is why Gordon Brown must think again. The Government must end the Identity Card scheme for good in order to ensure that we do not risk a personal data disaster on an even more catastrophic scale.”

Acting Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable boycotted the state visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Dr Cable turned down an invite to a Buckingham Palace banquet in the King’s honour, citing Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record, and the alleged corruption around the regime’s arms deal with the British firm BAE.

Vince Cable said, “I have introduced three debates in Parliament this year expressing serious concerns over the Al-Yamamah contract and the corruption allegedly involved.  I have, in my arguments, also been very critical of members of the Saudi royal family and the Saudi record on human rights including its maltreatment of British citizens. In my opinion, it is quite wrong for the British government to have proposed a state visit at this time. Therefore, it was, I believe, inappropriate for me to participate in a ceremonial state visit against this background.”

Derek Deedman, Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Arundel & South Downs at the 2001 and 2005 General Elections, commented, “I fully support the action taken by Vince Cable. Unlike the other major parties the Liberal Democrats stand by their principles, and will not toady-up to the leaders of other countries where we have been critical of their actions, especially in the sphere of human rights.”

Did you know that in Britain there is one CCTV camera for every 16 people - a higher number than anywhere else in the world?

Or that Britain has the world’s biggest DMA database - holding 3.6 million samples, including the DMA of 140,000 innocent people? Britain is one of the most spied-on nations in the world, and that’sbefore Labour introduce compulsory ID cards.

Labour have dismantled hundreds of years of civil liberties.

This autumn we expect Gordon Brown to extend the period that terror suspects can be extended without trial from 28 days to longer - perhaps 56 or 94 days. We will stand against him.

The Liberal Democrats are the only party brave enough to speak out for civil liberties in Britain today.

That’s because the support of so many members means we’re free to stand up for what we believe in.

Nick Clegg MP