Dave Raval

In my previous post, I said that I don't often quote speeches by other people, but here I am again! This one is by Lib Dem President Tim Farron, giving a good retrospective of our decision to join the Coalition Government:

"We are unapologetic for what we have achieved since joining the coalition. There is so much to be proud of: we’ve taken 880,000 of the poorest paid out of paying income tax; restored the earnings link for pensioners; provided extra cash to schools with children from disadvantaged backgrounds; scrapped ID cards; clamped down on tax avoidance and ending child detention. Yet despite all of this, the story remains the same and the press seem determined to focus more on the cuts we have had to make, thanks to the mess Labour left us in.

"However, when we are out campaigning, let’s not forget what life would have been like if things had been a little different last May. In scenario (a) we chose to go into opposition and allow the Tories to form a minority administration. The Tories would then have been able to control the entire Government agenda, including the date of the next General Election. I am pretty sure that this would have meant a popularist five months of Cameron in power, an orchestrated spat with the Lib Dems in September and then a General Election in October, which the Conservatives would have won comfortably (on the simple narrative, “See, we told you that hung parliaments are chaos, the economy is in a mess and we need strong single party government”). The cuts we are experiencing now are a picnic compared to what we would have had in that case.

"In scenario (b) we chose not to tackle the huge deficit that Labour left behind. I wish it wasn’t the case that levels of unemployment and inflation are so affected by international financiers, but unfortunately they are. Without the government’s deficit reduction programme instilling much needed interational confidence into our economy, interest rates would be through the roof and unemployment and inflation would be far beyond the horrors we experienced in the 1980s.

"As someone who grew up in 1980s Lancashire amidst the worst of Thatcherism, I have a desperate desire to avoid reliving the mass misery that engulfed the country back then. For those of us who have Labour friends attending ‘anti-cuts’ rallies, it is worth reminding them that it would have been much more useful for them to show their concerns back in 1997 when Blair came to power, not with a new plan for government, but with a recycled version of Thatcherism. This involved deregulating the banks and being far too reliant on financial services, the South East and a carbon economy. We are now reaping a dismal harvest of Labour’s decision to out Thatcher the Thatcherites.

"This is a tough time for our party and somewhat new territory for the Lib Dems. We must be unwavering in reminding everyone of our distinctiveness as a party. We also be clear that we have very different motives for reducing the deficit to the Conservatives. While the Tories may believe that the state is over bloated and must be cut back, we don’t agree with them. We simply acknowledge that we can’t afford the current levels of expenditure. There are many public sector programmes that we must currently shelve but as Liberal Democrats we are determined to bring those programmes back as soon as the economy is back on track and we can afford them.

"So when you are out on the doorstep, be proud that we didn’t sit back and let the Tories have it all their own way, but were strong enough to take on the responsibility and make the hard decisions, and that we are now in a position where we are really making a positive impact upon people’s lives.

I don't often quote speeches by other people, but this one from Hackney Lib Dem Councillor Dawood Akhoon on legal aid and civil liberties is a great - the best from this week's council meeting. The usual rowdy Labour councillors were left stoney-faced and silent:

Yes we believe in access to Justice for all, we believe that everyone has the right to be treated fairly under the law, and by the state, no matter who they are, or how much money they have, or where they live. And we deplore the coalition government’s proposals to cut legal aid.   That is why we will be supporting this motion and asking the government to think again.

But let’s not forget the steady chipping away of legal aid by the 12 years of labour rule that has commentators describing the current legal aid scheme as the walking wounded.

If you look at Labour’s last Manifesto “A future fair for all” It’s particularly telling that Labour would not have considered access to justice, for those who cannot afford it, to be a “frontline service”.  I quote from the Labour Manifesto “To help protect frontline services, Labour will find greater savings in legal aid and the court system – increasing the use of successful “Virtual Courts” which move from arrest, to trial to sentencing in hours, rather than weeks or months”  Frightening isn’t it?

And this was systematic of the previous government’s simple disregard of basic human rights and its trampling of civil liberties.

This created a country where half a million people came under some kind of official surveillance every year, where emergency terror laws have become part of the normal policing arsenal, jury trial was under attack, total surveillance of communications was proposed, and secret courts met to decide house arrest, without people ever being told what the evidence was against them:

The astonishing truth was that this was Britain under Labour.  It was a Labour Government that had lost all its moral values to civil liberties and the justice system, and it had labour ministers falling over each other to pander to the right wing gutter press. Labour in its own manifesto declares itself “Proud” of its record on civil liberties!  

But tell me, how can anyone be proud of locking up innocent children because their parents are illegal immigrants?  Nick Clegg called this state sponsored Child Cruelty, I call it Child Abuse.  Tell me how can anyone justify a regime that allowed the illegal kidnap, rendition, torture and imprisonment of UK residents and nationals?

Tell me how can anyone be proud of national ID cards that would have cost millions on the false premise that it would combat fraud and terrorism?  The word “proud” in the Labour Manifesto should be replaced with the word “ashamed”.

Thankfully the Libdems in coalition government are redressing the balance to civil liberties.  The ID card, next generation biometric passports and the ContactPoint Database have been abolished saving the tax payers millions.  Gone are the abhorrent control orders. Pre charge detention in terrorism cases has been reduced from 28 to 14 days.   And it doesn’t stop there.   A schedule has been drawn up to end the abhorrent practice of detaining children in immigration detention centres. A new method of processing families through immigration will be in place, which priorities the well being of children, and by the 11^th May there will be more child detention centres. There is still so much work to be done to redress the balance and to restore the rights and civil liberties of individuals which were damaged under Labour.