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What are Liberal Democrats about ?
April 26, 2005 1:00 PM
By David Goodall in Southampton Itchen College and Southampton University
By David Goodall in Southampton Itchen College and Southampton University
Hello I am David Goodall the Liberal Democrats Candidate from Southampton Itchen. I was born in Southampton and started my school days at Glenfield Infants. It would appear that I have not moved very far as I am now at Townhill Infants, as a Governor.
Now just for the record, the stats :-
- I am 42,
- I have been married for 15 years,
- and we have two boys who attend Townhill Junior School.
So what are Liberal Democrats about, well :-
- we prize the freedom of the individual.
- we fully support the principle of public services free at the point of use.
- we have an international outlook, so we are pro UN, pro Commonwealth, pro Europe.
- we are very wary of an over-mighty and over centralised state and fully support the principle of making decisions at the lowest possible level.
- we are very enthusiastic for the green agenda.
These principles are what drives Liberal Democrat policy at the start of the 21st Century. So we have made difficult choices to produce the polices for the election.
We have chosen to introduce a new 50% tax band for the 1% of the population earning over £100,000 this will :-
- scrap tuition and top-up fees for students
- introduce free personal care for the elderly and disabled people
- keep down the rate of local taxation.
We have chosen to scrap the £1.5 billion Child Trust fund, so that :-
- we can reduce class sizes in the primary sector to 20 for infants and 25 for juniors.
We have chosen to scrap I.D. cards and have 10,000 more police on the streets instead.
We choose not to ignore the problem of climate change, but instead we chose to :-
- cut pollution
- cut congestion by boosting public transport
- boost renewable energy
On the economy we choose :-
- fairer and simpler taxes.
- to work with our partners in Europe and not against them.
So our choice is to scrap the council tax and replace it with a fair local income tax.
Our choice too, is to have referendums on both the euro and European constitution and then argue strongly for both.
These are just some of choices we have made to give the people of Britain a real alternative at this election.
The alternative is not one of the old left or right of the last century, but one of the Liberal and ill-Liberal and increasing people, especially younger people, are turning to the Liberal Democrats not just as the alternative party but as their first choice party.
Together I believe the British public with the Liberal Democrats can build a better future for all and I hope that you do to.
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