"HS2 is a huge leap forward for our rail network and will improve connectivity for generations to come.
"Liberal Democrats support HS2 because it will build a stronger economy and a fairer society, creating 40,000 direct and thousands more indirect jobs, as well as bridge the gap between the north and south. And that's before you consider the economic benefits to the wider areas serviced by HS2.
"In assessing the value of HS2 we must look at all the overall benefits, including for passengers by increasing capacity on existing lines and significantly cutting the travel time, and to the environment by reducing our reliance on domestic flights and transferring millions of journeys from road to rail."
"While it is disappointing that overall unemployment is up, it is good news that youth unemployment has fallen as that will be encouraging for young people who are looking for work.
"To build a stronger economy in a fairer society, Liberal Democrats have been focusing on giving young people the skills and experience necessary for a successful career.
"That is why Nick Clegg has introduced the £1bn Youth Contract that will ensure young people have the opportunity to earn or learn and Business Secretary Vince Cable has overseen the creation of more than 1m apprenticeships.
"We will continue to work hard to get more people in employment and build a stronger economy."
Let me first thank the African Diplomatic Corps, African Heads of Mission and Commonwealth Business Council for inviting me to open this business forum and for organising this event.
Today is a chance for all of us to recognise the businesses and jobs being created by African and British entrepreneurs together. And to focus on securing the wealth of investment opportunities available to us in the future. So I'm also pleased to see so many business leaders here with us as well.
It's a fitting tribute, I think, to mark the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union. I want to welcome my old friend Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus - Chairman of the Executive Council of the African Union - as we recognise and celebrate some of the achievements of that partnership.
Five decades ago, the Organisation of African Unity was there to help countries across the region transition from colonial rule. And as the African Union, it is there again now to support the continent as it takes on an increasingly global role.
On a recent visit to Mozambique and Ethiopia, I saw for myself how successful businesses, both large and small, are transforming millions of people's day-to-day lives.
In Ethiopia, for example, I met female entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu. What others saw as scrap, Bethlehem saw as a business opportunity.
Her company Sole Rebels, which turns old car tyres into shoes, now employs around 80 people. It's an enterprise that's transforming the lives not just of Bethlehem and her workers, but also their families and the people they do business with elsewhere.
As a quick aside, Bethlehem would never forgive me if I didn't tell you that you can buy her shoes online, here in the UK. I still wear the fabulously comfortable and very brightly coloured shoes that I got from her myself earlier this year.
Also Vodafone's innovative M-Pesa system. Recently launched in Mozambique, it's a money transfer service enabling people to carry out financial transactions on their mobile phones.
Started first in Kenya, with investment from Vodafone and support from the UK Government, this extends access to vital banking services for millions of people, who would otherwise only be able to trade in cash.
In Kenya alone, there are now 17 million users, with around 10% of Kenya's GDP being processed through the system per year.
What these stories show us is the positive change that success, however big or small, can bring. Seven of the world's fastest growing economies are in Africa.
Recent research shows that almost a quarter of African countries' GDP grew at 7% or higher in 2012. It's estimated that that growth across the continent could rival China in years to come.
Now that's a story worth telling, but one often lost in the customary narrative of conflict and instability in Africa. So it's time to rewrite the script. Africa is being transformed: once perceived by the outside world as merely a continent in distress; now looked to as a great continent of opportunity.
And as Africa's presence on the global stage increases, we need to secure economic success for every country in the region. For the good of Africa, for the good of the UK and for the good of the world.
Everybody, of course, wants growth - the key decision is how you achieve it. More and more African countries face a choice between the economic models of authoritarian capitalism, on the one hand, and liberal democracy, on the other.
In countries like China, authoritarian capitalism argues the case for economic growth ahead of political freedoms. And it's a seductive argument in view of surging growth rates, which have occurred in the absence of political freedom.
But ultimately it is a false promise. My view, the liberal view, is that economic progress and political rights are inseparable. They are parallel tracks, each reinforcing the other.
Fairness, freedom, empowerment, education, the rule of law - these are not so-called Western values. They are the values that will underpin healthy economies across the globe, long into the future.
And in a world of younger populations, growing middle classes and technological innovations that allow relationships and communities to form across traditional state borders, the demand for both economic success and political freedom - will only increase. Lasting stability depends not just on opening up our economies, but creating open societies too.
As nations across Africa continue to grow and prosper, the UK will seek to be an effective partner. First, in terms of the UK's own changing relationship with Africa. And second, how the UK through European and international channels, not least our current G8 presidency, is determined to address the fundamental barriers to further growth and investment in Africa and the rest of the world.
Our focus is more trade; fairer tax; and greater business transparency.
The UK remains a strong partner with Africa. I'm proud that we will honour our commitment to spend 0.7% of this nation's wealth helping the world's poorest countries.
As you may know, legislation to enshrine this commitment in law was not included in last week's Queen's Speech - it's an issue that has proved highly controversial amongst some Conservative MPs - but I'm pleased that the Coalition Government in its deeds and actions will continue to meet our commitments abroad: and our actions show that we will not balance the books on the backs of the world's poorest.
But we also understand that aid must be properly targeted and that longer-term success depends on supporting businesses and trade in new and emerging markets.
UK companies already export more to Africa than they do to Brazil, India and Russia combined. That's good, but we can always do more.
Especially, if we're to compete effectively with companies and governments in Europe and elsewhere, who are making a determined push to seek out their own opportunities in Africa.
In line with Africa's vision for a Continental Free Trade Area and the African Mining Initiative, we also want to explore how the G8 can help to unblock trade corridors across Africa, building on the successful trade facilitation programmes run by the DFID-supported Trademark East Africa.
As well as what Britain can do bilaterally, there is also the question of what Europe can do collectively. We are two great neighbouring continents joined by the Mediterranean.
Yet somehow, I don't feel the EU acts with the coherence and leadership, which Africa deserves.
Other world powers, notably China, have a clear and consistent strategy: China invests big. It invests fast in pursuit of clear economic objectives.
I believe the EU could and should offer an alternative approach - one that can contribute to lasting success in Africa built on economic, political and social reform. Prosperity and stability in Africa and Europe are mutually reinforcing: when Europe fails, Africa is affected; when Africa fails, Europe is affected. So we must work together, continent to continent, so we both succeed.
Through the UK's presidency of the G8, we are also keen to focus the agenda on issues that are fundamental not only to your success, but also, in the long-term, our own and the rest of the world.
Eight years ago at Gleneagles, we secured an agreement to cancel debt for the world's poorest countries and to double aid. That action contributed to strong economic performances across Africa over the last decade.
Working together again now, focused on the 3Ts of Trade, Transparency and Tax, we can achieve even more.
Over the next decade revenues from newly discovered extractive resources in Africa will increase massively, dwarfing aid volumes.
In 2010 exports of oil and minerals from Africa were worth £216 billion - nearly seven times the value of international aid in the same year - £31 billion.
Too often in the past such revenues have bypassed Africans - due to unfair tax systems and opaque business deals. Lining the pockets of the few. Denying investment and jobs for the many. That has to stop.
We want to make sure Africans receive their fair share from the resources they have and the business they do. That demands fairer tax rules and greater transparency around what is being paid for oil, gas and mining resources and where the profits then flow.
We are pushing for more companies to report on the revenues they pay to governments, and for more governments to report on the revenues they receive.
The EU has just agreed legislation that will require all oil, gas and mining companies listed in Europe to publish what they pay to governments, in line with the US. Through the G8, we are pushing for equivalent standards to be applied globally.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative sets a global standard for this. The UK helped establish EITI in 2003 and has been one of its staunchest backers. We're now actively considering whether and how the UK should implement this initiative.
We also want to support greater transparency around land transactions; and to publish more G8 government data, including about aid budgets, in an open and accessible format - so it's of real use to citizens across the world. Information empowers citizens and allows them to take control of their own development. Governments across the world must be accountable to their citizens.
Equally important is ensuring that tax regimes are transparent and efficient. Already, the UK's flagship governance programme in Ethiopia has helped their authorities increase tax revenue from £8.2bn per year in 2002 to £55bn in 2011.
Only in partnership together - developed and developing countries- can we ensure our systems work as they should. These tax revenues are integral to deliver the infrastructure and skills that will drive growth in the future.
The Prime Minister and I will be chairing a high-level G8 event on 15 June to drive forward progress on tax, trade and transparency. We want to discuss with businesses, NGOs and governments how to achieve real progress on the agenda.
So today is about celebrating the next 50 years of Africa's unity. We can't ignore the challenges we face, but we also need to focus on the major, growing commercial opportunities that do exist. Building on our work together through the African Union, EU and G8 and directly with African States, I can see opportunities that benefit both Africa and the UK.
Today's forum is another important step in the right direction. I look forward to hearing the outcome of your discussions. Our relationship with Africa remains strong, but is changing.
We are partners focused on growth, jobs and security. So let's look to the next fifty years of the African Union and the success of our work together in the future.
Fair pensions. Decent care in your old age. A tax cut for small businesses taking on staff. A major new high speed railway. Energy investment to keep lights on and bills affordable. Shared parental leave. Rehabilitation of prisoners to set them back on the straight and narrow.
Just a few highlights from the Government's plans for legislation this year, outlined this Wednesday in the Queen's Speech, designed to build a stronger economy and a fairer society in Britain, enabling everyone to get on in life.
The state opening of Parliament is an eccentric highlight of the year in politics. Pomp and pageantry are not really my thing, but I'll confess to a certain affection for the whole rigmarole: you have probably seen the marching up and down and slamming of doors in people's faces on TV. One thing you might not know is that we had to work to a very strict deadline to finalise Her Majesty's words. That's because the speech has to be written out on goatskin and it takes a few days to dry.
Plus of course, it's rather fun to see my usually austere colleagues Alistair Carmichael and Dick Newby dressed up in robes looking like refugees from Hogwarts or a Gilbert and Sullivan production. One thing's for sure: I'm relieved there aren't any Deputy Prime Minister robes to wear.
What matters most is the substance of course. We made sure all the big measures needed to grow the economy, create jobs, and improve people's quality of life were included. But we also made sure some things - plans for a Snooper's Charter tracking everyone's emails and social networking - were kept out.
It won't have escaped your attention that the mood has changed in the Conservative Party after the local elections, and that changes the rhetoric we're hearing from them - about equal marriage, development aid, and most of all Europe. The lesson for us is clear and simple: it is more important than ever that we stick to our path. Our job is to anchor the Government in the centre ground, stopping others from lurching this way and that and making sure the Government delivers our core objectives: a stronger economy in a fairer society.
That's why major liberal reforms and investment - from childcare to pensions - will remain the core business of this Government. Not endless navel-gazing about when and how a referendum may take place in years to come in circumstances we can't predict. We Liberal Democrats must remain focused on the things people really care about, whatever other parties may say.
Please could you forward this message on to a family member or friend who might be interested?
Nick
PS I hope you noticed the Queen mention the drive for a "stronger economy and a fairer society" in the very first line of her speech. I knew our message was starting to hit home!
With Liberal Democrats in Government this Queen's Speech sets out the Coalition's determination to build a stronger economy in a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. It shows that Liberal Democrats are making a real difference in Government, with bills focused on jobs, growth and fairness, and an agenda that shows the Liberal Democrats are keeping the Government anchored firmly in the centre ground.
Liberal Democrats understand that building a stronger economy is about more than just the important work of cutting the deficit. We need to invest to help businesses grow and create jobs. And we are building a fairer society, helping parents and pensioners, protecting communities and protecting our environment.
Stronger Economy
That's why we are introducing a bill cutting National Insurance Contributions for small businesses.
Our Energy Bill will create green jobs and growth, supporting as many as 250,000 jobs in the private sector.
Legislation for High Speed 2 will bring in the first main line to be built north of London for almost 120 years, creating another 100,000 jobs.
Our bill modernising intellectual property rights will save millions of pounds for some of our most innovative companies.
Fairer Society
Liberal Democrat pensions minister Steve Webb's Pensions Bill will make saving for retirement simpler and fairer.
We are introducing a Care Bill to cap social care costs so that pensioners do not have to sell their homes to fund their long-term care. These are the kind of important long-term reforms that Labour always ducked.
We are helping families with the cost of childcare, supporting people who want to get back to work but feel they cannot afford to.
The Queen's Speech includes measures to reward companies that play by the rules. We will be expanding the General Anti Abuse Rule to cover big firms that try to get out of paying National Insurance, and our Consumer Rights Bill will make it easier for people to ensure they get good value for money.
And because we want Britain to be a place that attracts people who will play by the rules and make a contribution, an Immigration Bill will be brought forward to clamp down on people from overseas who abuse our public services.
We will make sure people feel safer in their own communities. In this session we will introduce a new Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill that will do more to keep our neighbourhoods safe and secure. Our Offender Rehabilitation Bill will also transform the way offenders are dealt with once they leave prison, tackling persistent reoffending.
FULL BILL SUMMARY
Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill: will introduce new powers to tackling anti-social behaviour, giving victims a say in the way their complaints are dealt with; strengthen powers to tackle irresponsible dog ownership; establish the powers of the College of Policing in statute; extend the powers of the Independent Police Complaints Commission; establish an independent review body on police pay and conditions; criminalised forced marriage; and target the use of illegal firearms
Care Bill: will simplify and modernise the framework for care and support; implement the cap on care costs that people will spend in their lifetime; introduce a number of measures in response to the Francis Inquiry, including a ratings system for hospitals and care homes, a single failure regime and a statutory duty of candour.
Consumer Rights Bill (draft): will set out a simple, modern framework of consumer rights to promote growth through competitive markets.
Defence Reform Bill: will improve the way we procure and support defence equipment and enhance the use of the Reserve Forces.
Deregulation Bill (draft): will reduce the burden of excessive or unnecessary regulation on businesses, organisations and individuals
Energy Bill (carry over): reforms the energy market to ensure secure, clean and affordable energy. The Bill was introduced in November 2012 and will continue its passage in the third session
European Union (Approvals) Bill: will provide Parliamentary approval under the European Union Act 2011 for ministers to vote in favour of various proposals in Brussels: Pericles (anti-euro counterfeiting); Europe for Citizens (EU civic integration); and EU Archives (formalising the depositing of EU documents in an archive).
Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill: will extend the scope of the regulatory regime currently governing remote gambling, providing greater consumer protection for people in Great Britain.
High Speed Two Preparation Bill: will provide Parliamentary approval to incur expenditure on preparatory works for HS2 in advance of the planned Hybrid Bill.
High Speed Two Hybrid Bill: will provide powers to construct and operate the London to West Midlands leg of the national High Speed 2 network (known as phase 1)
Immigration Bill: will reform immigration law, including provisions to strengthen our enforcement powers and protect public services.
Intellectual Property Bill: will simplify and strengthen design protection; make the IP system more accessible to SMEs and increase legal certainty and reduce risks in IP intensive markets.
Local Audit and Accountability Bill: will close the Audit Commission, make new arrangements for the audit of local public bodies and increase local accountability by extending the Council Tax referendum lock to other levying bodies and putting the local government publicity code on a statutory footing.
Mesothelioma Bill: will establish a Diffuse Mesothelioma payment Scheme and make related provision; and to make provision about the resolution of certain insurance disputes.
National Insurance Contributions Bill: will extend the General Anti-Abuse Rule to National Insurance Contributions; introduce a National Insurance employment allowance of £2,000, reducing the cost of employment; prevent the use of offshore employment payroll companies to avoid employer National Insurance Contributions; and remove the presumption for self-employment for limited liability partnerships in some circumstances.
Northern Ireland Bill: will give effect to a number of changes which will improve the operation of institutions and politics in Northern Ireland.
Offenders Rehabilitation Bill: will ensure offenders will all be supervised after release and all offenders serving short sentences will have 12 months supervision; create a new rehabilitation requirement for community sentences; and provide incentives to offender management providers to innovate to reduce reoffending.
Pensions Bill: will introduce a single-tier pension system, bring forward the increase in State Pension age to 67 and lay the framework for its regular review. It will also introduce a system for the automatic transfer of small pension pots.
Water Bill: will reform the water industry in England and Wales and will also ensure flood insurance remains available and affordable in areas of high flood risk throughout the United Kingdom.
Welsh Assembly Bill (draft): will move the National Assembly for Wales from four to five year fixed terms; remove the ban on candidates at an Assembly election standing in both a constituency and a region; and ensure that members of the Assembly cannot at the same time be members of the House of Commons.
A massive thank you to everyone who worked hard in this year's local elections. It's been another tough year in our journey from a party of protest to a party of Government, but where it matters most, in our Parliamentary seats, we've stayed strong and even made gains, beating the Conservatives by 5% of the vote.
More than 350 of our colleagues won this week, including some wonderful victories from taking three seats off the Conservatives in Wiltshire to holding a local by-election in my own seat of Sheffield Hallam. Every one of those winners will work hard to help deliver the stronger economy and fairer society Britain needs.
Like Justine Baker, who I spent a day campaigning with in Somerset this week, who won the Bishops Hull & Taunton West division in Jeremy Browne's constituency of Taunton. Like Neil Fawcett, our former Deputy Director of Campaigns, elected in Abingdon South in Oxfordshire, part of Layla Moran's brilliant team working to win back Oxford West and Abingdon in 2015. And like Mr and Mrs Rogerson - proud parents of our MP Dan - both elected county councillors in his North Cornwall constituency.
Of course, not everyone got the result they deserved this week, and some incredibly hard working Lib Dem Councillors and campaigners have lost their seats. It's always hard when this happens. The party owes a huge debt to those people who put themselves forward and I want to say a personal thank you to every single one of them.
Whatever the results in your area, remember this: every individual who voted Lib Dem in this election voted for a party of Government. That proves that significant numbers of people in Britain, especially in our held seats, want the Lib Dems to be a party of Government, locally and nationally, changing Britain for the better.
A year or two ago even if we worked hard we didn't win: now our message is getting a hearing again. We are back in the saddle.
Of course, one big story of Thursday's elections was UKIP. They pose a huge problem for the Conservatives. But whatever the other parties do, we won't be lurching off to the right. The election result shows it is more important than ever that we, Liberal Democrats, anchor the Government in the centre ground.
Britain is going through a huge upheaval at the moment, slowly adjusting to a new economic reality, and that is painful. And they are getting no answers from the people who created these problems in the first place: the Labour party. No wonder people get frustrated and angry waiting for government to get us through the tough times. I expect we are all sometimes impatient about how long and arduous the process of economic recovery is, and wish there was a quick fix.
There isn't. Nigel Farage and his party do not offer a solution to the problems our country faces. In fact if UKIP ever got to deliver their policies, unemployment would soar, the rich would get a massive tax cut, and we'd face swingeing cuts to our schools and hospitals.
Our country's problems are real, but the answer is not easy promises that would have disastrous consequences. The answer is long, steady, hard work to put the public finances back in order, create jobs, help with the cost of living and invest in children and young people. Building a stronger economy in a fairer society. We are doing that painstaking work, in Government, every day, and that's the message we need to work even harder to communicate from now on.
It isn't easy and it isn't always comfortable, but in the end it will change Britain for the better.
Congratulations again to everyone who worked hard in these elections. It's only when we work hard together that our message can get through: so thank you and please keep it up.
Raising the tax-free allowance is the Liberal Democrats' flagship policy and has so far seen Income Tax bills slashed by £600 a year for millions of low and middle income workers compared to what they were paying under Labour. As a result, more than 2m people on low pay have been lifted out of paying Income Tax altogether.
The tax-free allowance will rise again next year to £10,000, fulfilling a commitment from the front page of the Liberal Democrats' 2010 General Election manifesto and resulting in a total tax cut of £700.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander said:
"If you get paid today, take a moment to compare your pay slip to last month's. You'll see that Liberal Democrats have cut your taxes.
"From this month, the Liberal Democrats will have lifted 2m people out of Income Tax and given a tax cut of £600 to more than 20m people.
"It has taken the Liberal Democrats being in Government to deliver the largest programme of tax cuts for working people for a generation.
"The Liberal Democrats are the only party that will radically cut taxes for people on low and middle incomes to build a stronger economy and a fairer society so that everyone can get on in life."
"I am delighted that Nick Clegg has stood up for the British public on this.
"He was right to demand that these proposals be published as a draft, which gave us all a chance to see just how badly thought through the Home Office proposals were. And he is now right to say that what the Home Office propose is unacceptable.
"Spending billions of pounds to keep track of every website we go to and what we do on Facebook or Google, is simply wrong. If we want to actually cut crime then we should spend the extra money on the police."
In three and a half weeks, people up and down the country will elect their local councillors. Each council seat will be fought on different terms. Each neighbourhood has its own, unique needs.
But I bet you that, when all those people are deciding which name to put a cross by on 2 May, ultimately they'll be asking themselves the same question: 'While cuts are being made to public spending, who can I rely on to spend the money that is available on the right things?'
'Which party can I rely on to strike the right balance: taking the difficult decisions to make savings, but doing so the fairest possible way?' These elections are about one thing: priorities.
Difficult decisions will need to be made in local government, just as in national Government, and people understand that. But they - rightly - expect that their representatives should make the fairest possible decisions.
Next month, in wards across the country, people will be confronted with the same choice. Despite all their stated differences, a vote for Labour or the Tories will be a vote for the same thing.
Their record in local government shows that, even when millions of families are feeling the pinch, they'll both squander taxpayers' money on waste, inefficiency and their own vanity projects.
A vote for the Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, is a vote for a party which - wherever we're in power - does it's best to spread the burden of austerity fairly, investing in jobs and help for hard-pressed families. Only the Liberal Democrats will build a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life.
Only the Liberal Democrats have the right priorities in tough times. Just take our tax changes. Today is the first working day of the new tax year. Today, because of Liberal Democrat tax reforms, more of the money you earn will go into your own pocket, and less to the taxman.
That's because we've raised the point at which you start paying income tax, and now over 20 million people will pay £600 less in income tax than they did under Labour.
In households where two people are working, that's an extra £1200 a year. £1200 to cover energy bills, or car insurance, or mortgage repayments, or to go towards a family holiday.
And next April it'll go up again. People won't pay a penny of income tax on the first £10,000 they earn. Millions of the lowest earners won't pay any at all. At the same time we've asked for a bit more from those who can afford it. We've increased capital gains tax; introduced a higher rate of stamp duty and a £12.5bn banking levy; we've closed loopholes and capped tax relief to stop the very rich from gaming the system. And the Liberal Democrats will continue to argue for our mansion tax. The right priorities in tough times.
I know that Labour are trying desperately to gloss over these changes. They want to pretend that the only tax change this week is the reduction of the top rate, from 50p to 45p. But it's the same old selective amnesia we always get from the two Eds about Labour's time in office.
Out of the 13 years they were in power, Labour had the 50p rate in place for just 36 days. For most of the time, Labour's top rate was 40p. Not 45p. Not 50p. 40p - 5p less than now. And under the previous government a cleaner paid a higher rate of tax on their wages than a hedge fund manager selling their shares - a gross unfairness that we have fixed.
The sudden, synthetic fury we're seeing from the Labour party is nothing more than an attempt to distract people from the most important change coming into effect: the tax cut for ordinary working people delivered by the Liberal Democrats.
That policy was on the front page of our manifesto, it's been my priority from the moment we entered the Coalition, and now millions of people will feel the benefits.
In every single year of this Parliament the rich will pay a greater share of our nation's tax revenues than in any one year of the last government. The IFS have confirmed that, as a result of our changes, the wealthiest 10% of people are making the greatest contribution. So I will take no lectures from the Labour party on tax - the Liberal Democrats are making the tax system fair.
And it's not just in Whitehall that we're making the right choices, but in Liberal Democrat Town Halls too. Our councillors, like all councillors, have had to take some controversial decisions - I don't deny that.
But look at our record and it's clear that, wherever we can, Liberal Democrats are spreading the burden fairly, investing in ways that enable everyone to get on in life, not just the well off. That's why, for example, this year the Liberal Democrats haven't closed a single library.
Who have we done that for? For the bright teenager who comes from a chaotic home, but who wants a place to study so they can do well in their exams and go on to something better.
For the ambitious young men and women whose parents can't afford to buy them the books and technology they need, but who want to forge a different path. And, despite money being tight, we're investing in jobs for these young people too.
In Eastbourne and Watford, the Liberal Democrat councils are giving their town centres a boost - supporting thousands of local jobs. In Eastleigh, the Liberal Democrats are revitalising the local cricket ground so that it can host international test matches - that alone will create 500 new jobs. In Bath we're supporting high tech start-ups so that they can grow and take on more staff. In Northumberland we're building new council houses this year, providing homes as well as giving the local construction industry a shot in the arm. The right priorities in tough times.
You won't get that from the Conservatives. In Leicestershire, the former Conservative Council Leader spent £210,000 on his own personal chauffeur. In Somerset, because the Tories have insisted on cutting opening hours for rubbish tips and introducing charges to use them - a "tip tax" - flytipping has rocketed, leaving local residents stuck with the bill for cleaning it up. In the Cotswolds, after announcing nearly one and a half million pounds worth of cuts, how did the Conservative council try to boost staff morale? They hired a motivational magician - costing £19,000.
Here in Cornwall we've even seen the Conservative's waste money hiring taxis to ferry teas and coffees between council buildings - again, while trying to push through an increase in Council tax. A rise Cornish Liberal Democrats successfully stopped. When savings need to be made, you just cannot rely on the Tories to make the fairest decisions. Their instincts drag them in the wrong direction.
And what about Labour? What are their priorities? Today we'll hear from Ed Miliband about why people should vote for his party. Here's what he won't say. He won't say: Labour are sorry they crashed the economy. And he won't present a serious and detailed plan to fix the mess they created. That much we know.
The Labour party continue to be a blank page in British politics: they won't accept for responsibility for what went wrong; they haven't learnt from their mistakes; they have no ideas for the future. Above all, they are incapable of delivering a stronger economy. And it's the same from the leadership all the way down.
Do you know how the Labour council in Derby are choosing to spend residents' money? On emotive street posters passing all the blame for their cuts on to the Coalition Government, costing thousands of pounds - while at the same time they're looking to make drastic cuts to homelessness services.
The Liberal Democrats are different. Only we can deliver a stronger economy and a fairer society - both. Only we have the right priorities in tough times. And we now have a national and local record to prove it. Our party has a strong story to tell - a story not of promises, but of action.
But people won't hear our message unless you tell it to them. I know how hard you're all working. I am grateful for all of the hours you put in. But I need to ask you to work even harder.
If you are fighting an election in your area - deliver more leaflets, canvass more people, make more calls. If you're not fighting a council election - go somewhere that is, or make calls from wherever you are. Every wing of this party now needs to pull together, reminding our opponents that we have a unity, a resolve and a sense of purpose they could never compete with.
When the Liberal Democrats organise, no one campaigns like we do. Labour know it. The Tories know it. And they are going to throw everything at us - they haven't forgotten Eastleigh. But guess what? Nor have we. And when you feel that you've given all you can, I want you to think back to that great victory.
I want you to remember how good it felt to confound our critics; remember how good it felt to win. It's time to do it again, Liberal Democrats. Get out there and win.
The Independent Inquiry follows a series of high profile allegations that the party failed to act on complaints of sexual harassment.
The Independent Inquiry is looking at harassment, including sexual harassment, within the Party, how it has been dealt with in the past and recommendations for the future including as to training. It's remit covers the entire party including staff, elected officials and volunteers.
Helena Morrissey is keen to hear from all those who have relevant experiences and views to help form an accurate picture - whether they are Party members, staff or the public.
The Independent Inquiry will not be making judgements on specific cases or making any assumptions regarding the innocence or guilt of individuals.
Helena Morrissey said:
"While prompted in difficult circumstances, this independent inquiry is a very important step in giving everyone, especially women, a greater confidence in politics and the Liberal Democrats.
"I will be talking to people at all levels of the Party to understand where there may have been failings and to help guide any required culture shift and the development of a best practice set of standards for the future of the Party."
Commenting, Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Gordon said:
"Following recent allegations it is clear that we in the Liberal Democrats failed to live up to our political ideals.
"We recognise that we need to adapt how we operate. As a political party which prides itself on equality, we must give everyone confidence they will be treated fairly and equally and that they will be listened to.
"It is vital this review is done independently of the party, in a way which can be frank and can scrutinise thoroughly. I am delighted Helena has agreed to chair the review. She has been a leading light in the development of women in business and breaking barriers, and I am sure that she will make an immensely positive difference to both our party and to politics."
Appeal for witnesses
Helena is keen to hear from all those who have relevant experiences and views to help form an accurate picture, whether they are Party members, staff or the public. This also includes people who are no longer connected to the Liberal Democrats, but who may have information connected to past events. Please pass this appeal for witnesses on to anyone you know might be interested in making a submission.
If you feel you have information which may help or be relevant to the independent review please email it to Helena Morrissey by the (now extended) deadline of 12th April , even if it is just a holding note with further detail to follow.
Do you have examples of specific incidences of complaints about harassment in the Party, what processes were available to deal with these complaints, were they or were they not followed, were there gaps in policies or procedures for dealing with such complaints?
Can you provide examples which illustrate weaknesses in the Party's attitudes and culture - past and present?
Do you have ideas about what needs to change for the Party to look to the future with confidence that any form of harassment within the Party will be properly dealt with?
All submissions will be treated in confidence. Helena Morrissey will follow up with a number of those who submit written evidence where it is needed to explore specific aspects of testimony, either in-person, email or other means. The Independent Review will also be conducting a range of interviews with people inside the party at all levels.
How to get in contact with the Independent Inquiry
Please submit written evidence direct to Helena by Friday 12th April to contact@independentinquiry.org.uk.
Or by post to:
Helena Morrissey
C/O LDHQ
8-10 Great George Street
London
SW1P3AE
A confidential voicemail is also available until 8pm on Friday April 12th on: 0207 340 4998. This phone number is a LibDem HQ number, but it is a voicemail only service which can only be accessed by Helena. Anything sent through the post will go through the standard Royal Mail screening. It and any emails will not be opened by anyone other than Helena.
Review Team
Helena Morrissey CBE, Chief executive officer Newton Investment Management Helena joined Newton in 1994 as a fixed income fund manager and was appointed CEO in 2001. During her time running Newton's bond funds she was twice-winner of Investment Week's Global Bond Fund Manager of the year.
Helena is involved in many aspects of the UK fund management industry and was named the Financial News 'Most Influential Woman in European Asset Management' in 2010. She was the first female director of the UK's Investment Management Association, serving from 2005 till 2012. She represents the investment industry on the FSA's Practitioner Panel, a statutory body providing input to the regulators from practitioners' perspectives . She is a member of the University of Cambridge Endowment Investment Board and chairman of the Eve Appeal, which funds research into gynaecological cancers. Helena is also the Chair of the Corporate Board of the Royal Academy of Arts. In 2010, Helena founded the 30% Club, a cross-business initiative aimed at achieving 30% women on UK corporate boards by 2015 through voluntary, business-led change. She was appointed CBE in the 2012 New Year's Honours list.
A Cambridge philosophy graduate, she began her career as a global bond analyst with Schroders in New York. She is married with nine children.
Helena Morrissey is being assisted by Jane Smithard, who qualified as a barrister and is a former chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidates Association. Jane's role is to advise Helena on the party structure and process and will not be involved in any witness statements.
Witness information
All submissions will be treated in confidence. Helena Morrissey will follow up with a number of those who submit written evidence where a need is felt to explore specific aspects of testimony, either in-person or through other means.
If requested to attend a face to face interview with Helena, witnesses will have their reasonable travel costs covered.
Meetings will be entirely independent of the Party and will not take place within Liberal Democrat associated buildings.
If attending an interview, please feel free to bring a family member or friend with you. Their reasonable travel expenses will also be covered. You are also welcome to bring a legal representative.
Confidential counselling support has also been set up through an independent provider of qualified counsellors. You can access this service at any time. Contact Public Concern at Work on 020 7404 6609 who are acting as the gateway to this service.
Witness support
The Liberal Democrats have sought the assistance of Public Concern at Work, the UK's leading whistle-blowing authority, to ensure that the whistle-blowing arrangements in relation to the allegations against Lord Rennard are sufficiently independent to provide the required support to those wishing to come forward.
Public Concern at Work have agreed to take over the role, previously filled by Kate Parminter, as the main point of contact for anyone wishing to come forward with further allegations or information.
Public Concern at Work are also able to provide witnesses with independent and confidential advice. They are able to provide guidance and help to victims with regard to who they should go to in the context of the reviews and investigations under way. They will assist individuals in contacting investigators, only where the individual wishes to do so.
Those wishing to come forward under this arrangement can do so by calling: 020 7404 6609.
If you have already contacted Kate Parminter, she will continue to support you and pass on information to the two investigations (the Independent Inquiry into Harassment within the Party and the Internal Investigation into specific allegations against Lord Rennard) as instructed by you. There is no need to repeat this process with Public Concern at Work, unless you would like to do so.
Confidential counselling support has also been set up through an independent provider of qualified counsellors. You can access this service at any time. Contact Public Concern at Work (020 7404 6609) who are acting as the gateway to this service.
Criminal investigation
If you have information that may help the police with their inquiries you are strongly encouraged to contact them. You can do so by calling: 0208 721 4601. The initial call will be taken by clerical staff and will then be followed up by specially trained officers.
Internal Party Disciplinary Investigation
The Party has appointed Alistair Webster QC to lead the formal Internal Investigation under the Party's disciplinary rules into specific allegations. However, please note that the internal disciplinary investigation has been put on hold to allow the police to continue with their investigation.
Alistair has prosecuted and defended many prominent cases. He has been a recorder of the Crown Court since 1991 and a QC since 1995. He is a former Chairman of the Liberal Democrat Lawyers Association and practices from chambers in Manchester and London. He is one of the country's most experienced criminal lawyers and is currently the joint head of Lincoln House Chambers. In accordance with the party constitution, internal party disciplinary investigations are conducted by people who hold current membership of the party.
Cutting taxes for working people is our number one priority. It is so important to Liberal Democrats that we put it on the front page of our manifesto, argued for it in the coalition negotiations and are delivering it in government.
From 6 April more than 20m working people will be paying £600 a year less than they were under Labour, as the tax threshold rises to £9,440. Someone earning the minimum wage will have seen their Income Tax bill cut in half.
How would you use and extra £600?
Click on each picture to see what they would do with their extra £600
"For years the UK Border Agency has failed to get control of immigration and asylum. Labour put the whole border control operation at arm's length: they ended exit checks and pushed control of our borders away from the Home Office. But they had a backlog of hundreds of thousands of people - they completely lost control of the system.
"After years of neglect the Coalition Government has recognised the scale of the problem and is getting rid of the failed UK Border Agency. I hope this change will begin to get to grips with the immense backlog we face.
"When the agency responsible for immigration - established by Labour - can't say who is actually in the country, and who should or should not be here, it is no wonder that immigration remains one for the public's biggest concerns. To fix this, Lib Dems have always argued you have to have a proper enforcement agency and exit checks, and that's what the Coalition is doing.
"Building a fairer society means making sure everyone plays by the rules. That means an immigration system that works for those who should be here, and acts against those who shouldn't. Today's announcement is a big step towards that."
Robert Francis QC, who led the inquiry, recommended that there should be a legal duty of candour to ensure that patients and families are informed if treatment or care has caused death or serious injury.
The Coalition Government has also announced there will be a new role of Chief Inspector of Social Care to oversee the care received by elderly and vulnerable people, whether care homes or in their own home, and to improve standards.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb said:
"This is a Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment that we are delivering on in Coalition. Poor care is simply unacceptable and staff at every level have a professional duty to speak up about it - and we will support them in doing so.
"The last Labour Government ignored calls from the Liberal Democrats and campaigners to introduce a duty of candour.
"The new statutory duty of candour sends a very clear message about the importance of transparency and openness in the NHS.
"The Liberal Democrats are building a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. And it's because we want to make society fairer that we have campaigned for rules to prevent cover ups of poor care."
"Dr Beeching's report sent shockwaves through the British rail industry and resulted in the closure of thousands of stations and the loss of thousands of jobs.
"Liberal Democrats recognise the central importance of an easily accessible public transport system to building a stronger economy in a fairer society.
"That's why Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government are making huge investments in projects like High Speed Rail and making £20m available to reopen stations closed following the Beeching report.
"We must continue to build on this work and make public transport, including rail, as widely available as possible and a recognised alternative to journeys by car."
Today I want to talk about immigration. Not asylum; that's an important distinction to make - immigration. The debate is opening up, and that's a good thing.
We've now heard from the Labour party about some of their mistakes in office. And the Prime Minister and I are setting out how the Coalition is correcting those mistakes. Me today, David Cameron on Monday.
The political mainstream has a duty to wrestle this issue away from populists and extremists. A duty to shift what can be a highly polarised debate - particularly in difficult economic times - onto practical and sensible ground. And the Liberal Democrats take that responsibility very seriously.
This morning I will explain why, in order to remain an open and tolerant Britain, we need an immigration system that is zero-tolerant towards abuse. Tolerant Britain, zero-tolerant of abuse. That's the vision the Coalition is working towards.
Before I do, I want to make one thing clear: the Liberal Democrats will never seek to outflank our opponents because we think that's what people want to hear.
Yvette Cooper said, recently, that we must avoid an "arms race of rhetoric" on immigration. I agree. That kind of low populism patronizes the British people and it is an insult to the many migrants who have contributed to our country. British society has been shaped by migrant communities in ways more profound than any cliché about chicken tikka masala, or Notting Hill Carnival, or Polish builders can ever express.
I'm the son of a Dutch mother - she, herself, raised in Indonesia; a half-Russian father; husband to a Spanish wife. Like millions of Brits, if you trace our blood lines back through the generations, you end up travelling around the globe. And I'm a liberal. I'm immensely proud of this nation's wonderful diversity and openness. Those are great British traditions too.
Of course, if you believed every headline, you'd think that when immigrants aren't stealing British jobs. They're all living the high life in 12-bedroom Kensington mansions, courtesy of the state. But that's a complete caricature of the truth.
The majority of people who come here work hard and make a contribution. Many have served - and still serve - in our armed forces. And if every member of an immigrant community suddenly downed tools, countless businesses and services would suffer. The NHS would fall over. And in a globalised economy, where talent is as mobile as capital, no nation can succeed by pulling up the drawbridge.
British firms depend on outside skills and expertise in order to compete. British universities too. The reason this country has a world-beating research base is because we are a magnet for the brightest and the best. That's why, when the Coalition put limits on the number of migrants coming here from outside Europe, it was important to Vince Cable and me that students - genuine students - were excluded from that.
It's why, more recently, the Coalition has rejected proposals to impose a visa regime on visitors from Brazil. Where a minority are abusing the system, we need to deal with that - whatever nationality they are. But a new visa regime would deter Brazilian tourists, discourage Brazilian investors and Brazil would simply do the same to us, hampering the access British companies have to one of the world's fastest growing markets.
So, yes we are bringing immigration under control, and I will explain how. But I want UK firms to be in no doubt. The Coalition's priority continues to be growth and building a stronger economy. I'm clear that well-managed immigration is a key part of that.
The problem is that the system has not been well-managed. It has been grossly mismanaged. I welcome Labour's recent admission that they got it wrong. But the fact that this mea culpa is immediately followed by mud-slinging, by an attempt to blame the Coalition for the problems that remain, suggests to me Labour still don't understand just how wrong they got it.
The previous government left us an immigration system in disarray. I cannot stress enough just how chaotic it was. The first thing they did, after coming into office, was stop checking if people were leaving the country. They got rid of exit checks. They weren't counting people in and they weren't counting people out either.
Seven different immigration Bills; six different Home Secretaries and yet, in the course of a decade, just 114 prosecutions for employing illegal immigrants.
And Labour were completely caught off guard by the impact of their decision to lift transitional controls on new EU member states when other EU countries did not. By the time they finally woke up to the mess they'd created, to the real strain immigration was placing on some communities, it was already too late.
Is it any wonder that there has been a crisis of public confidence in our immigration system? People's anxieties are not, generally-speaking, driven by prejudice or racism. We are, by nature, a tolerant people. But, for too long, British people's legitimate concerns have been downplayed. For too long their worries were met with words but not action.
There's a common allegation that, among the political elite there's been a conspiracy of silence on immigration. But over the years there's been lots of talk, lots of posturing, lots of promises. Plenty's been said. The problem is: not enough's been done.
Where there is resentment towards the immigration system, we must now confront it. For a diverse society like ours to function successfully, for different groups to integrate and co-exist, British citizens must believe that the rules by which migrants come and settle here are reasonable, just, and properly enforced. The immigration system must command public confidence.
Since we came into government, net migration has fallen by a third. We've limited immigration from outside Europe. And within the EU, we have kept the transitional limits on Romania and Bulgaria, until the point where every member state has to remove them.
But it's not just about the overall numbers. People need three basic assurances:
One: that we are getting a grip on who's coming in and who's going out.
Two: that we can deal with people staying here illegally.
Three: that the system as a whole benefits the UK and doesn't put too much pressure on our state - particularly in these straitened times.
Give British citizens those assurances, and you will see this nation's most welcoming side.
The Coalition is creating a system people can be confident in. A system that contributes to both a stronger economy and a fairer society - we need to deliver both. Tolerant Britain, zero-tolerant of abuse.
Assurance number one: that we're getting on top of who's here. The Coalition is building a much clearer picture of who's coming in and going out. We're building up Britain's entry checks, increasing the information we get in advance of people travelling. And we are reintroducing exit checks.
Exit checks tell us whether the people who should have left actually have. Britain used to have them, but they were dismantled by previous governments. The process began under the Major government and was carried on by the Blair administration and the Liberal Democrats have been campaigning to bring them back since 2004.
To us it always seemed obvious that exit checks are an essential feature of an efficient and competent immigration system. And so we ensured that this Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment was written into the Coalition agreement. Bit by bit we are filling in the gaping holes Labour left.
Assurance number two: that we can prevent people from staying here illegally. Before I come onto what we are doing in Government, let me say a word on Liberal Democrat party policy.
My party will always advocate immigration policies that respect the rights and dignity of individuals - particularly the vulnerable. It's because of us that children are no longer detained for immigration purposes. It's because of us that the UK no longer deports people to countries where we know they'll be persecuted for their sexuality. Both straight from our manifesto and two of my proudest achievements in government.
But, at the last election we suggested that any illegal immigrant who had been here for 10 years should be able to earn their citizenship. We called it an earned route to citizenship. Our opponents dubbed it an 'amnesty'.
We felt it was an honest and pragmatic solution given the chaos in the Home Office and the obvious failure by Labour to identify where thousands of illegal immigrants were. Better surely, we asked, to get them to pay their taxes and make a proper contribution to our society, than to continue to live in the shadows?
But, despite the policy's aims, it was seen by many people as a reward for those who have broken the law. And so it risked undermining public confidence in the immigration system.
The very public confidence that is essential to a tolerant and open Britain. That is why I am no longer convinced this specific policy should be retained in our manifesto for the next General Election.
So I have asked Andrew Stunell, the former Integration Minister, to lead a review of this and our other immigration policies in the run up to 2015.
In Coalition, the Liberal Democrats are seeking to restore people's faith in the system, confronting illegal activity with a vigour never seen from Labour, and in 2015 people will know that a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for an immigration system they can believe in. A vote for a tolerant Britain that is zero-tolerant towards abuse.
We're clamping down on the most exploited routes into the country: tightening up what's known as the 'tier one route', for example. It was supposedly for highly skilled visa applicants, but was routinely exploited by people who did not have those skills.
The student route was riddled with holes. So we're cracking down on bogus colleges. UKBA officers visited a college which had requested permission to bring in over 200 students. How many did they find studying that day? Two. Since 2010, almost 600 colleges have been removed from the list of registered visa sponsors.
While we have to be realistic about UKBA's enforcement budget in the current climate, we're making sure money is better spent. For instance, reducing the opportunity for long, vexatious and costly appeals by those who have been refused the right to remain in Britain, while still safeguarding the right to a fair hearing.
We're cracking down on the profiteers. I can confirm today that the Coalition will increase the cash penalties for unscrupulous employers who hire illegal immigrants because they're cheaper. Currently, the maximum fine is £10,000 per illegal worker. I've asked the Home Secretary to look into the right amount but personally I'd like to see it double.
Employers need to get the message: they have an inescapable duty to employ people who are working here legally, not to turn a blind eye to those working illegally.
And I'm determined that our police can come down on the criminal gangs who smuggle and traffic people into the country. We're currently reviewing policing cooperation with our European partners. But I'm clear that we must not jeopardise any arrangements that help us tackle this kind of cross-border crime. Criminals go across borders; so must we.
In addition to these crackdowns, I can also confirm we're looking at a powerful new tool to help deal with the problem of people overstaying on their visas.
Visa overstayers make up a major part of UKBA's enforcement caseload - clogging up the system. As early as 2006 we had reports from Select Committees, arguing that visa overstaying would be one of the biggest challenges for our immigration system in the 21st century. As people travel more - for work, for holidays - you have more people coming into the country for temporary periods and so you need to find ways to make sure they leave.
The challenge isn't just stopping people coming into Britain illegally, it's about dealing with individuals who come over legitimately but then become illegal once they're already here.
One idea, which appeals to me, is a system of security bonds. And so I've asked the Home Office to do some work on it with a view to running a pilot before the end of the year.
The basic premise is simple: in certain cases, when a visa applicant is coming from a high risk country, in addition to satisfying the normal criteria, UKBA would be able to request a deposit - a kind of cash guarantee. Once the visitor leaves Britain, the bond will be repaid. Clearly, we need to look into the detail and seek a wide range of views, including from the Home Affairs Select Committee.
The bonds would need to be well-targeted - so that they don't unfairly discriminate against particular groups. The amounts would need to be proportionate - we mustn't penalise legitimate visa applicants who will struggle to get hold of the money. Visiting Britain to celebrate a family birth, or a relative's graduation, or wedding should not become entirely dependant on your ability to pay the security bond.
And I would want a system that is welcomed by legitimate visitors rather than place a great burden on them. Done right, this would speed up the application process, giving UKBA greater confidence about people's intentions, allowing them to make better, faster decisions.
In today's world, illegal immigration happens in different ways - and we need to think innovatively to keep up.
Finally, assurance number three: that immigration as a whole benefits Britain and British citizens.
Migration contributes to the public purse - we mustn't forget that. But it is important, with budgets under strain that as many people as possible contribute to the economy and support themselves. We're asking that of British citizens - it is right that we ask the same of visitors to Britain.
So the Coalition has reformed work visas so that every worker coming here has a proper job offer and a minimum salary. And we've changed family visas to introduce a minimum income for anyone bringing over a partner or spouse.
While it's right that, if businesses can't find the skills they need they can bring people in from outside the UK.
As we tackle unemployment and rebuild our economy, we also need to be asking why that's the case at all. Why aren't our young men and women equipped to do these jobs? So the Coalition is creating record numbers of apprenticeships - over one million since the election. And I want to make sure we have the right plans in place for so-called 'shortage occupations' - the specific professions where we lack skills.
There are 34 currently on the list. Paediatricians, maths teachers, chemical and mechanical engineers, to name a few. And we are now asking employers and their representative bodies, including Sector Skills Councils, to work with the Government on our plans to build up Britain's homegrown skills for each profession: making sure we're on track.
I believe people will have more faith in our immigration system if they see that we are doing everything we can to help young British men and women into work. To that end, the Coalition has also capped unskilled migration from outside the EU. The Government is also looking at the access migrants have to services and benefits. Fairness isn't just about what people put into the system: it's what also about what they take out.
This work is extremely complex. Labour left us a huge, unwieldy welfare state, full of contradiction. In some place the arrangements are already quite strict, in others they are much more loose and opaque. So now we are systematically working through to see where reform is necessary.
No decisions have been taken yet and the PM will be saying more about his views on Monday. But I want to make clear that this is very much a Coalition agenda, with both sides working together. For the Liberal Democrats, it is entirely right that we close loopholes and ensure that the welfare system is not open to abuse.
For social cohesion, as much as anything else. One area where I've asked for further work, for instance is on the translation services available to individuals accessing public services. The Government currently spends tens of millions of pounds on translation services and materials. And, of course, people should get help, if they need it to understand what their doctor is saying, or how to sign their children up for school, or what's going on at a court hearing.
But there's a missed opportunity here to improve people's English so that, in the long term, they don't need those translators and the taxpayer spends less.
We've already raised the level of English required from a number of different groups: skilled workers, the husbands and wives of migrants coming to the UK. But we need to do more to help people who are already here.
In 2011 we introduced powers for Jobcentre advisers to mandate people on job-related benefits to learn English if their level of language skills is stopping them from finding work.
I've asked Iain Duncan Smith to report back to me on how this is being implemented. I want to make sure it's being rolled out effectively across the country.
And where people need a translator to interact with services, I've asked Mark Harper, the Immigration Minister, to look at whether we could refer them onto an English language course. And, if people refuse to stick with those courses, we should consider making them pay for their translation services instead. To a lot of people, that's just common sense.
We'll be saying more about this, and the other areas under review, over the coming weeks and months.
So in conclusion, we are grappling with the difficult challenges in our immigration system.
Brick by brick, we are rebuilding it. Day by day we are making sure, quite simply, that it works. All the British people ask is for a system they can have confidence in. We hear that, and we are delivering it.
I'm determined we lay the foundations for an immigration system that embodies this nation's instincts and its values: our openness and tolerance on one hand; our sense of fair play, on the other.
The Liberal Democrats are at the forefront of that. We want to stay a tolerant Britain, and to that end we will be zero-tolerant of abuse.
This means 24.5m working people will get a further Income Tax cut, bringing the total tax cut to £700 a year since Liberal Democrats joined the Coalition Government.
It also means 2.7m low-paid workers will be lifted out of paying Income Tax altogether.
Cutting taxes by £700 for working people is the Liberal Democrats' top priority. We put it on the front page of our 2010 manifesto, argued for it in the coalition negotiations and are delivering it in Government.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander said:
"Liberal Democrats are building a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. That's why we are cutting taxes for working people.
"When times are as tough as they are now, our focus must be on helping those on low and middle incomes. The right to earn £10,000 income tax free has gone from the front page of our manifesto to the pockets of 27m hardworking people. By keeping this promise we are giving practical help to millions of families.
"It's also why we have scrapped another of Labour's fuel duty rises, so filling up your car will be £7 cheaper than under Labour plans. And why we are cracking down on tax dodgers so that everyone is paying their fair share."
The announcement that the Income Tax Personal Allowance will rise to £10,000, confirmed in the Budget, means the Liberal Democrats' top priority at the 2010 General Election has been delivered in full by the Coalition Government. It means:
· A £700 tax cut for 24.5m working people across the UK since the Liberal Democrats came to power.
· 2.7m low paid workers will no longer pay Income Tax at all.
· For the average family, we have cut the Income Tax bill by a third.
· It is enough for a working couple to pay their council tax or combined gas and electricity bills for a year.
· The Coalition commitment to raise the threshold to £10,000 by 2015 will be achieved a year early, in April 2014.
Letting you keep more of the money you earn is a key part of our plan to build a stronger economy in a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life.
The £700 tax cut comes alongside more help for working families in the Budget, which confirmed a freeze in fuel duty and £1,200 off the cost of childcare for every child.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: "When times are as tough as they are now, our focus must be on helping those on low and middle incomes. That's why we've made delivering on this promise our number one priority in Government.
"It's also why we have scrapped another of Labour's fuel duty rises, so filling up your car will be £7 cheaper than under Labour plans. And why we are cracking down on tax dodgers so that everyone is paying their fair share.
"All of this has been done while sticking to our tough but necessary plan to deal with this country's financial problems. Britain can't afford unfunded giveaways - unlike the last Labour government, we have made sure everything is paid for.
"The success of the Liberal Democrats in delivering fairer taxes is in stark contrast to record of the Labour Party. In Government, Labour increased tax on low income households; in Government the Liberal Democrats have led the largest programme of tax cuts for working people for a generation.
"I'd like us to go further after the election - with the goal that you don't pay Income Tax until you earn more than the minimum wage. That is the sign of a fair tax party. Today we should celebrate the fact that this Budget is getting real help to millions of working people at a time when they need it most."
While today's announced rise in the Personal Allowance to £10,000 comes into effect next year, people on low and middle incomes will see more money in their pay packets next month. This April sees the biggest ever rise in the Personal Allowance - to £9,440. That's a £600 tax cut for working people since the Liberal Democrats came to power, with more to come next year.
The Liberal Democrats are building a stronger economy and a fairer society enabling everyone to get on in life. That's why we believe helping working families is so important. As well as tax-free childcare, Liberal Democrats are helping working parents by cutting their Income Tax bills, by £600 a year as of April, and extending the amount of free early years education available for all children.
Commenting, Nick Clegg said: "I want to help every family to get on in life. Already we have created a million private sector jobs, put money back in people's pockets by cutting Income Tax and extended free childcare entitlements for pre-school children.
"Delivering tax-free childcare is the next step to ensuring all families can work and get on. The rising cost of childcare is one of the biggest challenges parents face and it means many mums and dads simply can't afford to work. This not only hurts them financially, but is bad for the economy too. This announcement of a £1bn investment in childcare will make sure it pays to work.
"An extra £1,200 for each child will make a real difference to families who find themselves constantly worrying about how to juggle their family budget. And extending support for working families on Universal Credit will make sure it is worth working extra hours even if you're on low wages."
The new tax-free childcare scheme will double the amount of support available compared to the current employer supported childcare scheme, opening it to around five times as many families. Once fully up and running, it will be worth up to £1,200 per child. It will be phased in from autumn 2015 and will ultimately be open to around 2.5m families with children under 12.
To be eligible, families will have both parents in work, with each earning less than £150,000 a year, and will not already receive support through tax credits and later, Universal Credit. They will receive 20% - equivalent to the basic rate of tax - of their yearly childcare costs up to £6,000 per child.
The Coalition will also increase the amount of childcare support available through Universal Credit by £200m help improve work incentives and ensure it is worthwhile to work up to full time hours for low and middle income parents.
Mr Speaker, when Lord Justice Leveson published his recommendations, the Liberal Democrats supported them.
I agreed with his basic model of a new, independent self-regulatory body for the press...
With a new recognition body authorised to check, periodically, that the system is working properly.
Given the importance of the relationships between politicians, the public and the press...
I said at the outset that we should not become fixated on the means of change...
But stay focused on the end we all seek:
An independent press watchdog in which people can place their trust.
And my party has been clear from the outset:
The worst outcome in all of this would have been for nothing to happen at all.
A very real possibility at points.
So, throughout this process I have sought to be pragmatic on the details...
While making sure that any reforms satisfy three tests.
One: they must deliver the model of independent self-regulation set out by Lord Justice Leveson.
Two: they must command the widest possible cross-party support, which Lord Justice Leveson also said is critical.
Three: they must strike the right balance between protecting and cherishing the great tradition of a free press in this country...
Whilst also protecting innocent people from unwarranted intimidation and bullying by powerful interests in our media.
Don't forget - the hacking scandal was caused by some of our biggest newspapers, but it was still a minority of newspapers...
Certainly not the local and regional press who mustn't pay the price for a problem they didn't create.
A free press is one of the most potent weapons against the abuse of authority in our society, holding the powerful to account.
Equally, however, the media must not abuse their own power at the cost of innocent people.
Mr Speaker, our Royal Charter meets all three tests.
It delivers Leveson.
It commands cross-party support.
It strikes the right balance between the freedom of the press and the rights of individuals.
One of the biggest hurdles we have had to overcome has been the polarisation of this debate.
The idea that you are either for full statute, or fully against statute.
That you are either on the side of the victims, or on the side of the press - when in reality most people are on the side of both.
But we have not succumbed to these false choices.
We have forged a middle way.
A Royal Charter protected by legislation.
A system of independent, self-regulation; a voluntary system, just as Lord Justice Leveson outlined - but with two specific statutory provisions.
First, a legal provision to ensure that - if a newspaper is signed up to the regulatory regime - judges can take that into account when awarding costs and damages in the courts.
Papers will be rewarded for playing by the rules.
That is the strong incentive to sign up to the system that Lord Justice Leveson proposed...
And I very much hope the newspaper groups will now see the logic of this incentive and get behind these reforms.
Second, an entrenchment clause to prevent future governments from chopping and changing the Royal Charter on a whim.
I have been pushing for this legal safeguard consistently, since the Royal Charter model was first proposed.
Without it, the Royal Charter would leave the door open to political meddling by future governments - a risk we must not take.
With these protections, this Royal Charter, represents the best possible outcome.
I would like to pay tribute to the campaigners, the victims, the families - without whom none of this would have happened.
Their ordeals forced us to sit up and take notice.
But it has been their tireless efforts and remarkable determination that has kept the pressure up.
Throughout the - sometimes fraught - political negotiations they have remained steady and consistent, asking simply that we do the right thing.
Finally, I'd like to commend members across this House - and both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition - for working across party lines to get this done.
The truth is: this is not a victory for any one individual or any one team.
It is a victory for working together.
For putting narrow interests to one side.
For sticking with it.
Today we turn a page on the mistakes of the past...
Today we establish, finally, a proper, independent watchdog to serve the British people while protecting our free press.
"Liberal Democrats were the first political party to back a new High Speed Rail Network in the UK. This is a fantastic investment in our infrastructure and will help to build a stronger economy.
"The first phase will support the creation of more than 40,000 jobs, while phase two will support around 100,000 jobs across the country, regenerating areas around the route and bringing new services and amenities for local communities.
"Increasing rail capacity is also good for the environment and is expected to dramatically reduce our reliance on domestic flights and transfer nine million journeys from road to rail. Even those cities not directly on the network after phase two will benefit, with journeys between London and Edinburgh reduced by almost an hour."
Commenting, Co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Work and Pensions, Greg Mulholland said:
"There is a real need to deal with the chronic shortage of social housing. It is therefore important to encourage people who are under-occupying to move in to smaller accommodation to free up desperately needed family homes.
"There has, however, been concern that a number of groups have not been exempt from the plans for the spare room subsidy.
"I am delighted that as a result of Liberal Democrat pressure the Secretary of State has announced that families with severely disabled children who cannot share with a sibling, Armed Forces families and foster carers will now be exempt from the loss of part of their housing benefit."
"With these revised regulations, Liberal Democrats have ensured that competition in the NHS is put back in its box.
"Liberal Democrat peers in the House of Lords worked hard during the debates on the Health and Social Care Act to ensure that patients come first at all times and are never placed second for the sake of unnecessary competition.
"The revised regulations are now turning these assurances into reality. It is now clear that Clinical Commissioning Groups have to decide what is best to serve patients' interests and none should be forced to introduce competition."
Eastleigh. Conference, I have never seen anything like it. Thousands and thousands of activists flooding in from every part of the UK. Young people arriving in their droves. Hitting the pavements, the phones, Facebook, Twitter, email - finding any and every way to drive our message home. I want to thank you all - you were just brilliant.
They said we'd never win it. The same critics who try to write us off time and time again. But, you know what? The naysayers can tear up those political obituaries. Liberal Democrats: you proved them wrong. And you proved what we have always known to be true: where we work, we win. There's no great mystery to it. Mike Thornton, Keith House and their team didn't just stop campaigning after the last General Election. They didn't hang up their boots and say: 'We got the seat, that's it for five years'. They kept at it. Recruiting activists. Taking council seats. Building up their support. And when the time came, they were ready. Mike, Keith, everyone who helped: You ran an exemplary campaign; you have electrified this party - thank you very, very much.
The challenge now, Conference, is building on this momentum. As we approach the upcoming council elections in May. As we prepare for the General Election. We need to be clear on the lesson from Eastleigh: The odds were stacked against us. A fierce campaign, under a national spotlight, dogged by difficult headlines from day one. Extraordinary circumstances. Yet we still won. We beat the Tories. We squeezed Labour - don't forget that bit. We won.
Why? Because, for the first time in a generation we could campaign on our record of local delivery and our record of national delivery too. Every leaflet dropped in the Eastleigh campaign combined both. And, when people took a long, hard look they liked what they saw. We didn't win in Eastleigh in spite of being in power. We won in Eastleigh because we're in power - locally and nationally. It's important that everyone in this room knows that.
It's three years since we took the decision to go into Government. I know some of you have had a quiet fear, ticking away at the back of your minds. The worry that the risk we took was too big. No, Liberal Democrats. It may have been a risk, but we took it for the right reasons: to steer Britain through a time of economic crisis; to govern in the national interest; to govern from the centre ground; to build a stronger economy, in a fairer society, enabling everyone in Britain to get on in life.
And that decision will pay off - for the country, and for us too. There is a myth that governing together, in coalition, diminishes the ability of the smaller party to beat the bigger party. The idea that, in Tory facing seats the Liberal Democrats will find it impossible to distinguish our record, our values, from theirs. But that myth has been utterly confounded. The opposite is true. The longer you stand side-by-side with your opponents, the easier your differences are to see. We don't lose our identity by governing with the Conservatives. The comparison helps the British people understand who we are.
And we are the party that shares the country's priorities: Fair taxes; better schools; jobs. The only party that will deliver a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling every one to get on in life.
In the days after the by-election, even though we won, I was asked how I feel about our party no longer being a magnet for the protest vote. No longer the automatic 'none-of-the-above' choice. And my reply was this: the Liberal Democrats are not a party of protest, we are a party of change. A party that is for things, not simply against things. A successful political party cannot thrive just by picking up the votes that have been lost by its opponents. Our ambition is to reach out to the millions of people in this country who want a party that strikes the right balance between economic credibility and social fairness. We are not some kind of receptacle for people who don't like the world - and don't want to do anything about it. We grapple with the world. We strive to make it better. And the more people who see that, all the better too.
Conference, I don't pretend it's all sunny uplands from here. This journey we are on is not an easy one. As a party: from opposition to government. As a country: from austerity to prosperity. We will be tested more times along the way. And, throughout this journey, our focus will be the country's focus. The economy. Britain's economic recovery has proved more challenging than anyone imagined. The crash in 2008, deeper and more profound than we knew. Just two weeks ago, the uncertain outcome of the Italian election threatened to plunge Europe back into crisis. Suddenly we were reminded of the danger that looms when markets question the ability of governments to live within their means. Countries around the world face the same, hard truth: We must all pay the piper in the end. I want to make one thing clear: We will not flinch on the deficit. But to be unflinching is not to be unthinking. And the idea that the choice is between a cruel and unbending Plan A and a mythical plan B is simply not the case.
Balancing the books is a judgement, not a science. And our plan has always allowed room for manoeuvre. One of the most important things I have learnt in Government is this: in a fluid, fast-moving global economic environment, sticking to a plan requires government to be flexible, as well as resolute. Nimble, as well as determined. When economic circumstances around us deteriorated and UK growth forecasts suffered, voices on the right called for us to respond by cutting further and faster. But instead we took the pragmatic choice to extend the deficit reduction timetable. As tax receipts went down we let the automatic ebb and flow of government borrowing fill the gap. And it is simply not true - as our critics on the left pretend - that we are slashing and burning the state. By the end of this Parliament, public spending will still be 42% of GDP. That's higher than at any time between 1995 and when the banks crashed, in 2008. And most importantly, reducing the deficit is essential, but as a means to an end. And that end is lasting, sustainable growth. Sound public finances are one piece of the jigsaw. But so are better skills, more apprenticeships, smarter regulation, a more competitive tax regime for business. All of which we are delivering.
And, yes, productive investment in our infrastructure too: energy, housing, transport. Creating jobs today and boosting the long-term strength of our economy: the extension of High Speed Rail; the new network of technology centres; the Green Investment Bank; Cross Rail - the biggest construction project in Europe. And, in an unprecedented break from the straitjacket of Treasury orthodoxy, an offer of £50bn worth of guarantees from central government to those people willing to invest in UK's infrastructure and get construction going. No government has offered these kinds of guarantees, on this scale, ever before. And this year, Conference, we are spending more on capital than Labour spent, on average, between 1997 and 2010.
So let no one tell you that this Government isn't straining every sinew to invest every available pound into UK infrastructure. We will and must do more to mobilise investment into our long-term infrastructure needs. I agree with that. Vince agrees with that. Danny agrees with that. But, as we all equally acknowledge, there are no cost-free, risk-free ways of finding such huge sums of money. Not at a time when Labour left the cupboard bare and we still have the second highest deficit in Europe, behind only Greece. Ours is a growth strategy guided by liberal pragmatism from a Coalition government anchored firmly in the centre ground. The deficit down by a quarter. Fixing our banks. A million jobs created in the private sector. Money back in people's pockets. A stronger economy, a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life.
In the middle of the 20 Century, as Britain emerged from the ravages of war, its leaders were forced to think anew - just as we are now. The great liberal, Sir William Beveridge, established the modern welfare state, transforming this country forever. He said 'Liberalism is a faith, not a formula'. And what he meant is that liberalism is a set of timeless principles, married to an unshakeable belief in human progress. That is why liberals never run from change. Our role remains the same today. In this Coalition Government, so much of the radical thinking on economic reform is liberal-led. Not just rebuilding the old economy. Not just repeating the same mistakes of the past. But building an economy that is resilient, sustainable, open, green. Ideas deliberated in this conference hall, now being administered by thousands of civil servants, in order to benefit millions of British citizens. The world's first ever Green Investment Bank. The Business Bank; the bank levy; the Green Deal. Better schools and proper vocational learning. Greater shareholder democracy. Flexible working and shared parental leave. Tax cuts for working families, paid for by higher taxes on unearned wealth. We may be the smaller party, Conference, but we have all the biggest ideas.
And, remember: no one will know what we stand for unless we stand together. As our opponents argue among themselves and turn inwards it is even more important that we build on - rather than squander - the magnificent resolve and unity we have shown over the last three years. That unity is what our enemies most fear. That unity should make us proud.
Most importantly, liberals understand that economic renewal must be accompanied by social renewal. A stronger economy needs a fairer society. That is what this is about. Strong growth creates jobs and opportunities. If citizens are empowered and educated they are better able to grasp those opportunities. Their achievements, in turn, drive prosperity. Yet the Conservative and Labour governments of the past have, together, built a Britain characterised by intense concentrations of power. They allowed opportunity to be hoarded among elites. The untold story of the boom years is a story of lost potential. Previous governments placed unquestioning faith in London's financial sector. And it led them to squander the talents and prospects of dozens of places, and millions of people. GDP may have been rising, but in some of our biggest cities, former industrial powerhouses like Nottingham and Birmingham, the private sector workforces were actually shrinking. One square mile may have been raking in astronomical profits. But we are a country of 100,000 square miles. And across the nation, communities suffered serious neglect.
And just as Labour and the Conservatives allowed our economy to become grossly unbalanced, they ignored deep social divides too. Despite the steps we have taken in Government, Britain remains a place where, for the vast majority of people, the life you are born into still determines the life you lead. It doesn't have to be like that. Yesterday I spoke to someone I've gotten to know over the last few years. A man called Kevin McLoughlin who owns a painting and decorating company in London. Kevin left school at 15. His dad was disabled. His mum was out of work. But he managed to get an apprenticeship. 40 years later and his business is thriving. He now gives the same opportunity to hundreds of youngsters. He told me his main motivation is simply to build a successful, profitable business. These young men and women are an asset to his company. But he also said, the reason he keeps doing it is he doesn't believe for one moment that British youngsters don't want to work - someone just needs to give them a chance. To be a liberal is to know that every man, woman and child is capable of remarkable things. That there is something extraordinary in every person. To be a liberal is to know that when we, as individuals, flourish, we, as a society, become greater than the sum of our parts.
And to be a liberal in government is to help every individual be the best they can be. A fairer society. That's what the Pupil Premium is for. Billions of pounds to stop poor children falling behind. More free childcare. City Deals transferring economic powers from Whitehall to every corner of the UK. The biggest ever cash rise in the state pension; a generous new flat rate pension. And of course, raising the point at which people start paying income tax. So that millions of low earners pay none at all. And, as of April, millions of working people will be £600 better off. Liberal Democrat policies, delivered by Liberal Democrat ministers. Creating a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life.
The Conservatives, on their own, will never deliver the fairer society - it's just not who they are. Take the Mansion tax. Even now, when millions of families are feeling the pinch, they still refuse to ask people who live in multi-million pound homes to chip in a bit more. The Conservative party knows it needs to stay on the centre ground to have any chance of speaking to ordinary people's concerns. At least the leadership seem to. But they just can't manage it, no matter how hard they try. They're like a kind of broken shopping trolley. Every time you try and push them straight ahead they veer off to the right hand side.
Did you notice the bizarre mixed messages from the Conservative party after Eastleigh? An article in one Sunday newspaper, promising: no lurch to the right. Others splashed with the promise to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights. Something only one other European country has done: Belarus. The Conservatives would actively take away rights enjoyed by British citizens just to appease their backbenchers. Yesterday Theresa May made a speech arguing the option of leaving the Convention should remain 'on the table'. Well, I tell you, it won't be on the Cabinet Table so long as I'm sitting round it. Conference, make no mistake, no matter what the issue: Safeguarding the NHS, creating green jobs, stopping profit-making in schools, preventing a return to two tier O Levels, the Liberal Democrats will keep the Coalition firmly anchored in the centre ground.
What's the only thing as unlikely as the Tories delivering a fairer society? Labour delivering a stronger economy. Let's recap. First they destroy the economy. They spend all the money. They leave us with nothing. Then they oppose every single saving the Coalition has been forced to make with not a single suggestion for how to raise money instead. Then they finally do come up with an idea. And it's brilliant. But it's the Mansion Tax - and we came up with it first. Labour are embracing opposition in the worst possible way. All they are interested in is striking poses and playing parliamentary games. They try to lecture us about taxing the rich. Even though taxes on the richest are now higher than they were every year under thirteen years of Labour. They conspired with Tory rebels to scupper Lords Reform, even though it was in their manifesto. By now I expected a re-energised Labour party, re-focused. The whole point of opposition parties is that they come up with ideas. But they haven't. Under Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, Labour remain a blank page in British politics. These people were in the government that crashed the economy before. They've given us no apology. No solutions. No plans. No sign that they even understand what they did. The truth is, left to their own devices, they'd do it again. And, I'm sorry, but you do not stand tall for one nation when you still bow to the union barons.
You can't trust Labour to build a strong economy. You can't trust the Tories to build a fair society. Only the Liberal Democrats can deliver a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. Get used to those words, Conference. Get used to saying them. That's the message I need you to deliver across the country. I need you to explain it to people each and every day, from now, for the next two years and beyond. Tell them that only the Liberal Democrats have the values and ideas to build a better future. Tell them that only we can deliver the stronger economy and fairer society Britain needs.
Conference, we are on the eve of an important anniversary: It is ten years since the invasion of Iraq. Ten years since we opposed that war. Standing on our own within Parliament but with the people, outside of it. As I look back I am reminded of all of the times that the Liberal Democrats have led, rather than followed. Whether under Paddy Ashdown, as early converts in the fight against climate change. Whether as a lone voice warning against corporate recklessness and greed. Whether as a pioneer for equal rights, irrespective of colour, gender and creed. Regardless of whether you are old or young; rich or poor; gay or straight. Those memories are proud memories. But there's a big difference between now and then. In the past we may have been right - but we couldn't do anything about it. Now we can. Think of equal marriage. Not just an idea in this hall, but the law of the land because of us.
We know that change is not always possible overnight. We know that reform is always met with anger by those who cling to the status quo. But we also know that, if you have the argument on your side. If you have the courage of your convictions, change is only a matter of time. Liberal Democrats, I have spent nearly three years asking you to hold firm. Three years urging you to remain steady under fire. And you have.
But today, Liberal Democrats, I have a different message for you: Win. Get back out there. Tell our side of the story. And we will win again. On the door step, in town halls, in government. Keep fighting for what we believe in. Keep winning. Building a stronger economy, a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat BIS spokesperson, Gordon Birtwistle said:
"Liberal Democrats having been working hard in government to deliver a strong manufacturing sector in a stronger economy.
"Under the last Labour government the competitive concerns of this vital part of our economy were ignored.
"Vince Cable has made a vital start to help revitalise manufacturing, but we must not stop there. The Government must take an active role in supporting manufacturing. We need further rounds of the regional growth fund to help create a more geographically sustainable economy. And we need a renewed commitment to ensure new workers have the skills necessary to support a strong manufacturing sector."
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson, Stephen Williams said:
"In passing my corporate tax avoidance motion, the Liberal Democrats have again shown that we are the fiercest political opponents of tax dodging.
"The Coalition Government can go into the G8 with a strong mandate for real change.
"Supporters of Action Aid, Christian Aid and many more charities have chosen this important issue as their 2013 campaign and I am proud that the Liberal Democrats will stand side by side with them in making this the year of tax justice."
Conference I want to put an idea to you. An idea that is often obscured by figures, balance sheets and talk of AAA credit ratings. The idea is this: that the economy is about people
A few months ago, a woman came to one of my surgeries. She'd heard about my 'Get East Dunbartonshire Working' campaign to find 100 work or training opportunities in 100 days. She wanted to know what advice I could give to her son. He was just about to turn 18 and looking for a chance to gain skills and work experience, and she was worried about his future prospects.
I was able to tell her about the investment this Government has made - from delivering more apprenticeships than ever before to giving half a million young people the chance to earn or learn through Nick Clegg's Youth Contract. I put her in touch with local training schemes and the companies that signed up to my initiative.
And what was the result of 'Get East Dunbartonshire Working'? Well, we exceeded our target of 100 opportunities in 100 days, with 31 people gaining work experience, 9 people starting apprenticeships and 69 people going into new jobs. Real action making a real difference to people's lives.
And it was to help people in our local communities that's why we got involved in politics in the first place. Why I stood to become an MP and why as a Party we entered this Coalition.
We Liberal Democrats have our own story to tell on the economy: a story made up of millions of people not just millions of figures. We want to create jobs and cut the deficit not just so numbers balance on a spreadsheet but to build a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling every individual to get on in life.
Now conference I don't mean to say that the financial numbers don't matter. Of course they do. They matter because of how they affect the lives of people up and down the country. People who are looking for training and opportunities to get on in life, people finding work, and finding that work pays, people who want to know that while they work hard and pay their taxes, the super rich don't opt out. So yes the figures do matter.
And they were horrendous when we first came into Government. We were left with an alarming financial situation by a Labour Party that simply can't be trusted to manage the economy.
You know the difficult job we've been tasked with when it comes to the economy - Steve Webb put the key challenge brilliantly yesterday "How do you create a fairer society when the country's broke?"
Labour's outgoing Treasury Minister put it more bluntly in his infamous welcome note: "There's no money left". Ed Balls used to brag about Labour's light touch approach to banking regulation - which put bankers before the ordinary people who use banks and trust them with their savings. Pyjama parties with media bosses, cosy relationships with union barons, doubling the 10p tax rate hitting low paid workers hard: that's Labour's record.
And now what are their plans? How will they right these wrongs? Ed Miliband recently said Labour would reintroduce the 10p rate. I wonder if he's heard of what Danny Alexander calls the 0p rate? Raising the income tax threshold to £10,000.
And now Labour also want to steal Vince's plans for a mansion tax. If only they'd listened to Vince when they were in Government, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now.
And what of the Conservatives? Well we know we can't trust them to build a fair society. Until we got into Government no one could stop the Tories from looking after the super rich who fund their party while ignoring the needs of ordinary people who struggle to make ends meet.
The Tories wanted to cut inheritance tax for millionaires - we said no. The Tories wanted to take housing benefit away from under 25s - we said no. The Tories wanted to implement the crazy Beecroft plan to hire and fire at will - and we said no.
And there's so much more we could do, would do if we weren't in coalition with the Conservatives and saddled with enormous economic challenges. But as Liberal Democrats we are making a real difference to people's lives right now.
And today I want to focus on some of the fantastic things we are doing to build a stronger economy in a fairer society: making our tax system fairer; standing up to economic vested interests and challenging concentrations of power; harnessing the potential of everyone in the UK through a modern workplace revolution and creating opportunities for people with a million new jobs and a million new apprenticeships.
Conference let's return to an idea I touched on earlier. Thanks to Liberal Democrats people now know that work pays. It's not an earth shattering idea, but it is an important one. Work should pay and delivering on our manifesto commitment for a fair tax system means that it now does. It's not fair to ask low-paid workers to pay hundreds of pounds in income tax - as they did under Labour
So we're putting £600 back in the pockets of 24 million people on low and middle incomes, as of next month. And you know we're not going to stop there: in the next two years we're going to increase this tax cut to £700, so that no one pays any income tax on the first £10,000 they earn.
And as Danny has said, we should go even further so that people working full-time on the minimum wage don't pay any income tax at all. Helping hard-pressed workers struggling with the rising cost of living and putting more money back into the economy.
That's one end of the scale - but the system needs rebalancing at both ends. So we're taxing private jets, we've increased Capital Gains Tax and for those who think a tax return is the place to show their creative side, we're cracking down on tax avoidance and clawing back money from those playing hide and seek with HMRC by closing loopholes and catching tax dodgers we'll bring in £9bn more each year - £9bn pounds.
With that, you could insulate nearly a million homes. Build nearly 1000 primary schools or host one magnificent Olympics - every year, wouldn't that be nice? By radically rebalancing our tax system we're putting money back in the pockets of low paid workers instead of the Swiss bank accounts of hedge fund managers.
Building a stronger economy in a fairer society means shining a light on corporate greed. Holding vested interests to account so people know the odds aren't stacked in favour of one group.
Liberals have a long history of curbing executive power and patronage, from widening the franchise throughout the nineteenth century to pioneering the use of free trade. So how do we apply this Liberal principle today?
Over the last decade, directors' pay has quadrupled with no clear link to company performance. Under Labour, executive pay rose from being 47 times that of that average worker, to 120 times. What does that say about our society? About what we value? About who we value?
Last year the shareholder spring saw a backlash against excessive pay. Thanks to Liberal Democrats in Government, we're now forcing companies to have binding votes on executive pay, curbing greed and stopping reward for failure. A radical reform to the balance of power in the economy.
But as Vince has been saying - long before it was fashionable - we also need to change the balance of power between banks and their customers. People need to be able to trust the banks again to look after their hard-earned cash and savings.
So we're putting a clear ring-fence between risky investment banking activities and day-to-day high street banking because banking should be safe for ordinary people. And now during the UK Presidency of the G8, we're driving the agenda of openness and accountability around the world.
The Government's commitment to transparency for the extractive industries is absolutely crucial. We already know that a wealth of natural resources can be a blessing - or a curse. Resources are worth billions and managed well, they can make a major contribution to a country's economy and transform people's lives.
However much of the developing world has unfortunately seen the ugly side of resource extraction, with pockets of wealth amid crippling poverty, waste and corruption.
I'm delighted to build on the work of my predecessors Norman Lamb and Ed Davey to champion strong EU rules so that extractive companies have to publish what they pay to foreign Governments.
We've also taken the lead in creating a new global standard for transparency in these industries - to empower citizens around the world to hold their Governments to account.
Holding those in positions of power to account is not only fair, but is vital to building a stronger economy.
Conference, as a woman in politics, I have always been passionate about breaking down the barriers that stop women from participating fully - whether in politics or business. When Nick invited me to join the Government as a Minister in the Department for Business, I immediately asked "Do I get shared parental leave?"
Luckily, Nick said yes, and right now, I'm taking the Bill through Parliament to make it happen. Giving dads and mums the freedom to choose how they share time off after having a baby. Replacing rigid rules based on the outdated stereotype that assumes that men are the breadwinners and the role of women is to stay at home and look after children.
As every parent knows, having children brings both joy and plenty of challenges. Our changes will let families get on with sharing the care responsibilities in whatever way works for them.
A better working life also means better access to childcare so we've made childcare a priority. Two thirds of women with young children say they'd work, or work more, if they had access to more childcare.
We've listened: we've extended free early years education for 3 and 4 years olds to 15 hours a week and for the first time we'll provide this to 40% of 2 year olds, from the most hard-pressed homes. And there will be more help on childcare to come.
Hand-in-hand with quality childcare should be the freedom for parents to manage their time. But not just parents, everyone, every single employee, which is why we're also extending the right to request flexible working to all employees. A modern workforce is a flexible workforce too
And a modern workforce should take into account the full potential of our older workers. We know that many older workers will value the chance to work flexibly and there's no reason why those who want to keep working should be forced out on the grounds of their age. We've put an end to all that by abolishing the default retirement age.
Taken together, these changes mean that those who want to work can do so whether the new mum who wants to continue her career, the stay-at-home dad who wants to work flexibly, the thriving 65-year-old who loves their job: encouraging and supporting them at work can only boost our economy.
Jobs and a stronger economy go hand in hand. Every person who has benefitted from the one million new private sector jobs we've created since coming into Government has a story to tell.
Vince told me about a letter he received from a father who had been worried for a long time about the future of the Vauxhall Plant at Ellesmere Port. Imagine for a moment that we'd received that letter 3 years ago - what could we as Liberal Democrats have done to help?
Well, we could have written a letter to the Secretary of State or tabled a few questions in Parliament. But because we are in Government, because Vince is the Secretary of State for Business, we managed to save 2,100 jobs and create 700 more atEllesmere Port last year. And that father who was writing to Vince was doing so to say: "thank you for doing whatever you did to save it."
That is why we entered this Coalition, not to balance the numbers on a spreadsheet but to help everyday people find work and get on: the mother in my constituency surgery who wanted help for her son, the father who feared for the jobs at Ellesmere Port and the young people given the chance to get on through Nick Clegg's Youth Contract.
There are more people in work than ever before, youth unemployment is lower than when Labour left office and 1 million people have started an apprenticeship since the election
So conference yes the economy is about people. People who know that it pays to work because the tax system is fairer. People who have the power to challenge vested interests. People who can achieve their full potential in workplaces better suited to modern lives. People starting new jobs and new apprenticeships so they can get on in life. That's what a stronger economy in a fairer society is about.
And it's what Liberal Democrats are delivering in Government
Commenting, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Work and Pensions, Greg Mulholland said:
"Liberal Democrats are committed to creating a fairer society. We want to ensure that those people who need help through the benefit system receive proper support and, if things go wrong, have access to justice.
"That is why Liberal Democrats in Government have been fighting hard to ensure that the Government accepted the recommendations of the independent review of Employment and Support Allowance. These changes are already meaning that more disability benefit decisions are being got right first time.
"There is of course more to do, and we also need to make sure that the difficult decisions we are taking to cut the deficit, including changes to legal aid, do not have an adverse effect on disabled people. It is vital the Government continues to monitor these changes and to protect vulnerable people."
Fair trade for British farmers, through a more transparent market and further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy
A sustainable rural jobs fund
Commenting, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Food, Rural Affairs and the Environment, Roger Williams said:
"Rural communities can and should be thriving and vibrant places but in reality, that's not the case everywhere. Our rural communities face many issues from unemployment to high housing and energy prices.
"Liberal Democrats want to support these communities because they add to the diversity of Britain and form a vital part of our society. The Coalition Government has already done much to support them, such as ending the Council Tax discount for second homes and the Grocery Code Adjudicator.
"We want to do more to build sustainable rural communities with strong local economies, where everyone can get on. Through investing in broadband, reforming European agricultural policies, joined-up local transport policies and creating more affordable housing, Liberal Democrat Conference has endorsed a clear vision for the future of rural communities."
All teachers, including those in academies and free schools, to have appropriate qualifications
More freedom and autonomy for teachers backed up by strong accountability
Clear guidance for schools on performance management
Commenting, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Education, Dan Rogerson said:
"Every child should be taught by a qualified teacher, or someone working towards a teaching qualification. Parents quite rightly want to see high standards and professional staff in all schools, including academies and free schools.
"Excellent teaching is the best way to make sure all children achieve their full potential. We are lucky to have many outstanding teachers. I want us to celebrate the best teachers, while urgently helping the small minority of underperforming teachers to improve.
"Supporting qualified teachers, while giving more freedom in the classroom to tailor lessons to individual children, sends a clear signal that Liberal Democrats want to raise the prestige of the teaching profession. This will help attract more of the brightest graduates and most inspirational people into the classroom."
I vividly recall how activists trekked to Fife, finding the experience of pounding the pavements and listening to voters unexpectedly therapeutic.
And over the last 3 weeks, as we have pulled together as a party, pouring our energy into Eastleigh has had a similar effect.
But no doubt many of you have been shocked at the revelations on Channel 4 News.
And whilst I've had numerous invitations to talk to the media about this, conference, I wanted to speak to you directly.
When a friend, Alison Smith, told me she had experienced unwanted advances I was shocked and concerned. When it was suggested that this was not an isolated incident I was deeply troubled, and sought advice.
I think it's fair to say that back then our party processes for dealing with this kind of situation were lacking. So it was a case of trying to deal with it in the best way possible - while recognising that great sensitivity was needed and the important liberal principle that you are innocent until proven guilty.
A number of women confided in me about similar experiences. We shared the objective of preventing other women from experiencing this kind of behaviour - they wanted to make it stop.
The women also had an entirely understandable wish for privacy which I was careful to respect - so of course I didn't name names when I spoke to people in the leader's office to express these concerns.
I made sure that further action was taken, and as you know Danny Alexander made clear that any such behaviour was unacceptable and had to stop.
I told the women who had confided in me what I had done, and encouraged them to let me know if they became aware of any subsequent incidents. If there were fresh reports of this kind of behaviour, I would have insisted on further action.
Let me be clear, to this day, I have not heard any account of inappropriate behaviour subsequent to the action Danny and I took.
Liberal Democrats, I'm sure we have lessons to learn. And the best way to learn those lessons is a thorough, independent, considered review that can gather all the facts, both from people who are willing to speak publicly, and from those who are not.
The findings will rightly be published. Transparency is important to give the whole of our party confidence that the Liberal Democrats have recognised our duty of care, reflected on our past shortcomings and that we are resolute in our determination to put things right for the future.
I wanted to tell you about what had happened directly. As you know, there is now a police investigation and two party investigations. The allegations have been made and they have also been denied. That is for the police and the investigations to resolve.
Conference, you know I have spent more than a decade campaigning for women to be respected for who they are and against their sexual objectification.
Contrary to some comments in the press I most certainly do not believe that women should ever have to put up with unwanted sexual advances to be successful in politics - or any walk of life for that matter. This has never been my view.
Anyone who knows me will immediately realise this would never have been said by me.
Conference, there has been intense scrutiny on the experiences of women in the Liberal Democrats.
But let's be clear, this is not just a "Liberal Democrat" problem
It's not even just a problem in politics
Or in business
Or the media
It's part and parcel of a wider problem. The year is 2013, but society is stuck in the past.
One in four women experience domestic violence
One in three girls have experienced unwanted sexual touching at school
In less than a year, the Everyday Sexism project has been overwhelmed by 20,000 women posting their experiences:
- A 12 year old schoolgirl catcalled by grown men on her way home
- Baby t-shirts for sale online with the slogan "Where's my bottle, bitch?"
- Countless women sharing shocking stories using the hashtag #followed
Anyone who thinks the battle for equality has already been won is sadly mistaken.
We will only build a stronger economy if women play a full part in the boardroom, in the newsroom and in the Cabinet room.
We will only build a fairer society if we challenge the casual culture where men are dominant by default.
That's why we should resolve today, on International Women's Day, to keep fighting for fairness.
As citizens in our communities, as activists in our party, and as Liberal Democrats in our government.
Conference, we have made great strides in government - with shared parental leave, flexible working and getting more women on boards.
I know it is unusual for me to speak at the start of the rally but there's an issue I want to address head on.
Today is International Women's Day. It is right that we come together as a party to celebrate the life changing advances in women's rights both at home and around the world. Advances that Liberal Democrats championed in opposition and are delivering in Government.
But it is also right that - following the events of recent weeks - we take a long, hard look in the mirror. No doubt you will be aware of the recent allegations that have been made about sexual harassment in our party. I won't talk about the specific allegations. They will be investigated thoroughly and independently and we must respect due process. And we must remember that due process is for the accused as well as the accusers.
But I do want to talk about the other side of this. The fact that the women involved feel let down. They deserved to have their concerns and allegations examined thoroughly and properly dealt with. But clearly, that has not always been the case.
When concerns were brought to the attention of members of my team we acted to address them. But this should not have just been the responsibility of a few individuals acting with the best of intentions. It must be the responsibility of the party as a whole to make sure we have the processes and support structures in place now and in the future.
We didn't, and as a result we let people down. Liberal Democrats, that is not acceptable to me.
For a party that cherishes equality and women's rights, we have no excuse for failing to live up to the highest standards in the treatment of women. The standards we - rightly - expect of others.
I joined this party because I believe in empowerment; freedom; dignity. I believe that, where an individual feels that they have been badly treated, or that power has been abused, they must have confidence that those concerns will be properly addressed.
That's why we have set up two inquiries. The first to look at the allegations that have been made, led by Alistair Webster QC. And the second, independent inquiry, to look at our party's procedures, organisational culture and how allegations made in the past have been handled.
We announced earlier today that this will be led by Helena Morrissey - who is known for her unmatched expertise in pushing equality and diversity at the top of the corporate world. And I will personally put in place whatever additional safeguards are needed.
In the meantime, we have set up a whistle-blower hotline, run by Public Concern at Work, for those who have information to come forward and to receive confidential advice. We have made counselling services available for those in need of support. And we will of course co-operate with the police if and when appropriate.
I will drive whatever changes are necessary to stop this ever happening again.
From now on, if you feel you have been a victim of harassment, it will be easy and straightforward to report it. And if you report it, it will be investigated fully and acted on effectively.
But the lessons we must learn are not just about the rules and processes we must put in place. This is about something bigger than that. It is about the way we conduct ourselves. It's about treating one another with respect.
Sexism must have no place in the Liberal Democrats. Harassment must have no place in the Liberal Democrats. Abuse of power and position must have no place in the Liberal Democrats.
I won't tolerate it. Our party should be better than that.
It is often said that Westminster is an old boy's club. It is. Parliament is stuffed full, in both the Commons and Lords, of hundreds and hundreds of men and precious few women. Men outnumber women by nearly four to one.
Too often, barriers are put in front of talented and committed women to stop them progressing. It's a male world, made by men for men, occupied for centuries by men and designed to work to the advantage of men. And Westminster is far from the only boy's club in our country.
In business, in the legal profession, in journalism and in countless workplaces up and down the country, men dominate and men make the rules. Where the man at the next desk does the same job as you but gets paid more. Where you're in a meeting full of men and you're treated like your voice doesn't count. Where you want to progress in your career but know that starting a family will make it impossible to get ahead.
In 21st century Britain there are glass ceilings for women everywhere you look. The loss of talent is immense. Our economy, and more importantly our entire society, misses out.
We need a culture change, in Westminster and beyond. If we want to lead that change then we have to set an example.
I am proud of what the Liberal Democrats are doing to make our country and our world a place where all women can have the same opportunities as men. The Liberal Democrats are building a stronger economy. To do that we need to harness the talents of women across the country.
And we are building a fairer society - where women are free to realise their potential.
Modern empowerment is about creating choices and spreading opportunity. This April, we will have cut taxes for millions of working people by £600, by raising the point at which you start paying Income Tax.
And because women are disproportionately in part-time work and low-paid jobs, it is women who benefit the most: as of this April, 1.3m women on low pay will no longer pay Income Tax at all.
We are levelling the playing field by introducing shared parental leave and flexible working - policies Liberal Democrats have campaigned on for years.
And they can be transformative. Right now, if a young couple are expecting a baby and they sit down to discuss how they will balance work and home. A life changing experience boils down to basic sums: How will we manage our income? How much will bills cost? How many hours do we need to work and where does childcare fit in?
And it's an equation where the answer is so often rigged because, whichever way you look at it, the solution ends up being the mother doing more of the caring, and the father doing more of the earning - even if that isn't what the young couple wants.
She gets the year-long maternity leave; after that, the expectation is she'll continue to be the primary carer - so she's the one who goes part-time. Lower pay, fewer shots at promotion. Work less, earn less.
It's heartbreaking to watch women who feel forced to lower their ambitions for themselves. And it's heartbreaking to see fathers missing out on being with their children.
As a father, I find the outdated assumption that men should go out and work and women should stay at home and look after the children frankly absurd.
So we are giving mothers and fathers more choice to decide for themselves how to balance their families and their careers. And we're helping parents with childcare, with more free early years education for all three and four-year-olds and for two-year-olds from lower income families.
That's not all we're doing.
At the top of our biggest companies, Vince Cable is pushing for greater and greater female representation in the boardroom. And he's getting results - there are now only seven FTSE 100 companies with all-male boards, down from 21 in 2010.
That's important progress, but we have to keep up momentum. There was some worrying evidence reported today, which warns this may have stalled. And Lord Davies is right to say that, if we don't make sufficient progress in the future, we may need to move to a more direct approach, like quotas.
For those whose working life is over we are levelling the playing field too. A generous new flat rate pension - designed and delivered by Steve Webb - means that women will no longer be punished in retirement for taking time out of their working lives to raise children or care for relatives.
We are creating a safer society for women, with measures to tackle domestic violence, forced marriage and stalking. And tonight, you'll hear from Lynne Featherstone how we have put lifting women and girls out of poverty at the heart of our international aid policy.
Lynne and I recently visited a dusty, old school in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, to see how an aid scheme to fund girls' education that I announced in 2011 - the biggest of its kind ever - was being put into practice. The children travelled from miles and miles around to get to the school.
And despite the poverty, despite the conditions, the young girls we met there dreamed big. Every single one of them wanted to be an engineer, or a doctor, or a lawyer. One even said she wanted to be Prime Minister. I said I had no doubt she could achieve it.
To think that girls like those Lynne and I met in Ethiopia might have their ambitions crushed just because they are girls - that they might die younger and live their lives in poverty and servitude - is devastating.
In Ethiopia, fewer than one in six girls go to secondary school. And we know the difference education can make to their lives. Girls who are educated will earn more. They are more likely to marry later. They are more likely to get themselves and their babies immunised against fatal diseases and those who have a secondary education are three times less likely to be HIV positive.
To meet them, to hear their stories and their ambitions, brings home the difference we - the Liberal Democrats - can make to their lives. At home and abroad, the Liberal Democrats are helping women take more control over their careers, their money and their lives.
But there is one area where we have not provided enough opportunity for women - in our own ranks. We need more female councillors, assembly members, MSPs and MEPs. And we need more women Liberal Democrats MPs.
I'm proud that we've already selected Julia Cambridge in Chesterfield, Claire Thomas in Hull, and Judith Bunting in Newbury. I'm proud that Layla Moran, who spoke so passionately and eloquently at our last conference rally in Brighton, was the first of our Leadership Programme candidates to be selected in Oxford West and Abingdon.
And you'll hear from another of our fantastic female Leadership Programme candidates, Sarah Yong, this evening. I know she'll be hugely impressive on stage tonight. But she'll be even more impressive when she's in Parliament.
Our job now is to get these women, and those we select in the coming months, elected. And my challenge to you - in every selection committee you sit on, with every candidate you support and every vote you cast - is to consider how you can help us change for the better.
When I speak to our leadership programme candidates I know that the future of our party is bright. When I saw the huge numbers of young people pile through the doors of our HQ in Eastleigh, I could see that the future of our party is bright.
We must be a more diverse party. And we will be a better party for it.
It now gives me great pleasure to introduce someone who has smashed more glass ceilings and done more for women in our politics and our party than just about anyone - Shirley Williams.
Last weekend we passed a milestone for our party - our 25th anniversary. A quarter of a century since the Liberal Party and the SDP merged and the Liberal Democrats were created. We have come a very long way.
So many times in those two and a half decades we have been written off. But every time we confounded our critics. The history of the Liberal Democrats is marked with elections we were not supposed to win: Eastbourne; Ribble Valley; Kincardine and Deeside; Newbury; Christchurch; Eastleigh (the first time); Littleborough and Saddleworth; Winchester; Romsey; Brent East; Leicester South; Dunfermline and West Fife.
So how better to mark that milestone - to celebrate our birthday - than by doing what we have done over and over when the chips were down: win a crucial by-election.
What we did eight days ago was remarkable. People said that by joining the Coalition we would lose our identity, our soul. That it would make it impossible to win elections in our own right. Some said that we were finished.
We proved, once again, you should never write off the Liberal Democrats. But it wasn't just about last Thursday.
For the three weeks beforehand, hundreds and hundreds of you turned out day after day, rain or shine, to make sure we won. We smashed our own by-election records left, right and centre:
- More volunteers through the door every day than ever before;
- More phone calls, from all over the country, than ever before;
- More donations from individuals than ever before.
What was especially exciting was how many young people took part in the campaign - many of whom were not even born 25 years ago. Everyone who came to Eastleigh saw the enthusiasm, the energy and the vibrancy of our campaign.
I want to thank every single one of you for all your effort and commitment. I want to thank Keith House and his formidable Eastleigh team. Victoria Marsom, our superb campaign manager, and Hilary Stephenson, our deputy chief executive. Two brilliant women who masterminded our by-election campaign. And, of course, our new MP for Eastleigh - Mike Thornton.
The unspoken story of the last year has been that Liberal Democrats are winning again. In council by-elections in every corner of the country, Conservative-facing and Labour-facing, we have been making gain after gain after gain.
Last year, contrary to the impression you'd get from the media, we actually made an overall gain at council by-elections. And then came Eastleigh.
It was not a campaign we wanted to have to fight. The circumstances that caused it were not ones we would ever have wished for. But we dusted ourselves off and we said bring it on. Our opponents threw everything they had at us. Controversy dominated the headlines. And yet, despite all that, we won.
Now no one can be in any doubt: the Liberal Democrats are winning again. And we won't stop here.
This May, we have county council elections across England. Many, once again, in areas where our principle rivals are the Conservatives. We showed in Eastleigh what we have always known - where we work we win.
So take nothing for granted. Work, work and work some more. If you do, we can and will win. In Eastleigh we showed something else too. We have a fantastic record locally - cutting council tax, creating jobs and protecting green spaces.
And we have a fantastic record nationally - cutting people's taxes, boosting the state pension, more money for schools, and creating more apprenticeships than ever before.
In Eastleigh, we didn't shy away from being in government, we embraced it and we campaigned on it with confidence. Every leaflet had a local message and a national message.
We won not in spite of being in power, we won because we are in power - locally and nationally.
I heard, shortly after the result, the Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps explaining that the Conservatives lost Eastleigh because governing parties don't win mid-term by-elections. I know denial can be a powerful thing, but he seemed to have missed entirely what happened.
Well, Grant Shapps I've got news for you. The Conservatives might not be able to win by-elections when they're in government. But the Liberal Democrats can. So when you speak to people ahead of May's elections, tell them what you are doing for them and their community locally.
And tell them what we are doing nationally. Tell them how we are building a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. Tell them what we are doing and they will respond.
And when our opponents tell us we are finished, remember Eastleigh. Remember what we did, together, for three weeks in February. Remember the buzz, and the enthusiasm. Remember how it felt when the result was announced.
When people tell you we don't have a chance, tell them: The Liberal Democrats are winning again.
The review will also look at attitudes towards women in the party, as well as the employment relationship between staff, elected officials and volunteers; training; and how to lead a wider change in Westminster.
Commenting, Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Gordon said:
"Following recent allegations it is clear that we in the Liberal Democrats failed to live up to our political ideals.
"We recognise that we need to adapt how we operate. As a political party which prides itself on equality, we must give everyone confidence they will be treated fairly and equally and that they will be listened to.
"It is vital this review is done independently of the party, in a way which can be frank and can scrutinise thoroughly. I am delighted Helena has agreed to chair the review. She has been a leading light in the development of women and breaking barriers, and I am sure that she will make an immensely positive difference to both our party and to politics."
Commenting further, Helena Morrissey said:
"Too much of our society has operated in old-boys' networks. It leads to an atmosphere where women don't feel valued or listened to. We can only make changes in society when those at the top in business and politics lead by example.
"While prompted in difficult circumstances, this review is a very important step in giving everyone, especially women, a greater confidence in politics and the Liberal Democrats.
"I will be talking to people at all levels of the party to recognise where there have been failings to help guide a culture shift and develop a much more equal and trusting set of standards.
"As I embark on my independent inquiry I would like to set out the structure of the review and how I am going to gather input. The review will cover three overlapping areas:
Processes (and what did and did not happen)
Attitudes and culture within the Party
A blueprint for the future
"I am keen to hear from all those who have relevant experiences and views to help me form an accurate picture (whether Party members, staff or public).
"This is a Call for Written Evidence for three questions around the areas outlined above:
Do you have examples of specific incidences where processes around complaints were not followed or where there appeared to be gaps in policies or procedures for dealing with such complaints?
Can you provide examples which illustrate weaknesses in the Party's attitudes and culture - past and present?
Do you have ideas about what needs to change for the Party to look to the future with confidence that any form of harassment within the Party will be properly dealt with?
"All submissions will be treated in confidence. I will follow up with a number of those who submit written evidence where I need to explore specific aspects of your testimony, either in-person or via other means. I will also be gathering all the formal policies and how these have evolved and will be interviewing a range of individuals, both within the Party and those who may have since moved on but whose voices should be heard.
"For the avoidance of doubt, I will not be making judgements on specific cases or making any assumptions regarding the innocence or guilt of individuals.
"I will be structuring and preparing the review over the remainder of this month, along with conducting some key early interviews. The bulk of witness interviews will be conducted in April and I aim to write the report in May with a view to a June publication date. I will be supported in the work by Jane Smithard and an administrative assistant.
"Please submit all written evidence by Friday 5th April to contact@independentinquiry.org.uk. Thank you."
This campaign has been a fantastic sign of our strength and a huge testament to the hundreds of volunteers who gave their time and effort for us throughout the campaign. There have been huge levels of enthusiasm shown by our activists throughout the campaign.
Our focus throughout the campaign was to knock on as many doors and speak to as many people as possible to tell them about our excellent local candidate, Mike Thornton, and the Liberal Democrats' strong local and national record delivering for people in Eastleigh.
We fought this campaign on the issues that matter to local people: jobs; growth; protecting green spaces; cutting taxes; and more money for pensioners and schools.
"It is important that people with information have the confidence to come forward and that their information is dealt with sensitively and appropriately.
"We are working closely with the police to help establish if any criminal activity has taken place.
"We would encourage anyone with information to contact the police and speak to specially trained officers on 0208 721 4601.
"While we establish if criminal activity has taken place we will continue with the two inquiries set up by the Party."
The representatives from the Liberal Democrats were led by the Chief Executive, Tim Gordon.
"The two Eds are rather late to the party, wanting to cut taxes for those on low and middle incomes.
"After 13 years in Government, the only action Ed Balls took was to raise the amount of tax those on low incomes paid by abolishing the 10p rate. It was the biggest tax mistake they ever made and it has taken them until now to realise their error.
"The best way to cut taxes for those on low incomes is take them out of tax altogether. That is why Liberal Democrats in Government are raising the Personal Allowance. From April, nearly 25m people will get a further Income Tax cut so they will be £600 a year better off than under Labour.
"Labour had 13 years in Government to make property taxes fairer by introducing the Liberal Democrat policy of a Mansion Tax. With the Liberal Democrats in Government the wealthy are paying more in each year of this Parliament compared to any under Labour."
"In order to build a stronger economy and a fairer society we have to make sure everyone obeys the rules, especially those who are charged with enforcing them.
"From the case of Ian Tomlinson through to the hacking scandal, Liberal Democrats have always been clear that the public must have a transparent way to hold the police to account. That is why Liberal Democrat Conference voted to reform the IPCC and called for new ways to professionalise the police service.
"I'm delighted that the Home Secretary agrees and that the Coalition Government is now opening up the police service to greater accountability by giving the IPCC new powers and resources.
"It is also great news that the coverage of the IPCC will be expanded to include private contractors. Liberal Democrats have long said that if they act like police, they should be accountable like the police."
Mike is a popular local borough councillor, who has lived locally for 19 years, and has kept council tax bills down, while protecting front line local services.
He has led local opposition to Conservative County Council cuts to libraries, children's centres, buses and youth centres.
As Eastleigh MP, Mike Thornton will -
Fight to protect green spaces from Tory development and gravel extraction
Work to bring more jobs and investment to our area - the 500 jobs and £60m a year into the local economy at the Lib Dem Council backed Ageas Bowl are a good start
Campaign to cut income tax for local workers - that's on top the £600 a year tax cut that the Lib Dems have already won
Voting Liberal Democrat will give Eastleigh residents an excellent local MP who will work to deliver a stronger economy in a fairer society, allowing everyone to get on in life.
Mike Thornton, a business and development manager and has been a parish and borough councillor since 2007. He is involved with the annual Bishopstoke Carnival and is an active member of the local church.
Mike lives with his wife and daughter in Bishopstoke. In his spare time, Mike enjoys playing squash and tennis.
The move follows concerns that some people, who can only walk short distances, would have failed to qualify for the higher rate PIP which is due to be introduced in April.
But following concerns raised by Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Lloyd and Baroness Celia Thomas the Coalition Government has now amended the definition to include people who can only walk short distances, infrequently and in great pain.
This effectively means people who were anxious about losing their Motability vehicles in the future can now rest easy.
Commenting, Co-chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Work and Pension, Greg Mulholland said:
"These changes, fought for by Liberal Democrats in Parliament, will bring clarity and peace of mind to thousands of disabled people and deliver the right support for people who need it most.
"This adds to other Liberal Democrat victories on PIP, including our call to ensure the Motability component remains for those living in residential care, which was accepted by the Government.
"Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government are delivering a fairer society to ensure those with disabilities are protected and receive the support they need."
"These encouraging figures demonstrate that students understand today more than ever that a university degree is an important investment for the rest of their lives.
"University is also a vital engine of social mobility so it is important that students from poorer backgrounds are not put off from applying. Today's figures - an all time high- clearly show they are not. Government is increasing funding for the National Scholarship programme, which Institutions can use to provide benefits including bursaries and grants, from £50m in this academic year to £150m in 2014-15.
"Thanks to this government's reforms, most new students will now not pay anything upfront, there is more financial support for those from poorer families and everyone will make lower loan repayments once they are in well paid jobs."
"The Liberal Democrats are building a stronger economy in a fairer society, and crucial to that is equal rights for all.
"Equal marriage will strengthen the important tradition of marriage in our society, ensuring it remains a vibrant institution well into the 21st century and beyond.
"Previous governments have shied away from taking action on equal marriage, but the Liberal Democrats are tackling the inequalities faced by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community head on.
"The state should not bar a couple who want to marry just because of their gender and the state should not bar a religious body that wishes to do so from conducting same-sex marriages."
"Today Parliament made history by supporting my motion to give 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote.
"The debate was followed by young people up and down the country - I believe my twitter account nearly crashed with messages of support from all sections of society.
"We must now see action from the Government: the House of Commons has expressed its view and it must be heard. I have introduced a bill to put this motion into law and I call on the Government to give it a fair hearing."
"Liberal Democrats want to build a fairer society, which is why I believe the time has come for a vital step in the renewal of Britain's democracy.
"Giving the right to vote to 16 and 17-year-olds now has widespread support across the political spectrum.
"These young people can already vote in many elections in the UK. The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey have already lowered their voting age. Scottish young people will have the chance to decide the future of their nation next year.
"Several of the world's largest democracies also give this right to their young people. I hope that MPs will vote with me today and put our 16 and 17-year-olds on the same footing as their peers."
Gordon Birtwistle introduced a Ten-Minute Rule Bill on the issue last year and is hoping to secure a backbench debate in Parliament shortly.
Commenting on the report, Gordon Birtwistle said:
"To build a stronger economy and a fairer society, we need to give young people the skills and advice to get on in life and find the right jobs.
"It's not rocket science. We need real, face-to-face careers advice for children from the age of 12, delivered in schools by experienced professionals.
"We have this in Burnley, where I've been working closely with an independent careers advice service called the Positive Footprints Network. That's what I want to see in every school."
"For too long, the balance of power in the grocery market has been in favour of large supermarkets. This has seen many farmers and suppliers receive unfair prices, year on year, with many struggling to stay in business.
"The Grocery Code Adjudicator will ensure farmers and suppliers get a fair deal. It is an important part of the Liberal Democrat commitment to building a stronger economy in a fairer society.
"Christine Tacon has a wide range of experience in the food, retail and farming industry and her appointment is a real milestone. Her knowledge of the sector will be of huge benefit and help rural communities who deserve a fair deal for their hard work."
"We fully support the Prime Minister's calm and measured response to this crisis and join him in expressing sympathy for all those affected and in particular the family of the one confirmed British casualty.
These events underline the importance of international co-operation to build resilience against terrorists groups like Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The European Union's military training mission in Somalia is a successful example of this kind of co-operation, as we hope the planned EU training mission to Mali will also be. We need to increase resilience to attack and increase the chances for local forces to resolve crises like this with minimum loss of life."
"Problem gambling can do a huge amount of damage to people's lives, and people are rightly concerned about the new, highly addictive betting machines that are appearing like a rash all over our High Streets.
"Liberal Democrats have ensured there is no question of raising the £100 stake. It is right and fair that the coalition government are instead asking whether the maximum amount people can play on these machines should be reduced."
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson, Julian Huppert said:
"Section 5 is a major constraint on free speech. It is simply wrong that someone can be threatened with prosecution simply for using language deemed to be insulting.
"Liberal Democrats have long campaigned to change this so we can build a fairer society, where everyone can speak their mind freely.
"I am delighted that the Coalition Government has now agreed with us and will bring an end to the current law. Abusive or threatening behaviour is still correctly illegal, but people should be able to say what they think."
If you are a resident of the Sutton and Cheam constituency and are writing to discuss any issue that Parliament or government is responsible for, you must provide your home address as MPs are generally only permitted to act on behalf of constituents.
If you are not a constituent, you do not need to provide your address, but the matters we can deal with are more limited and you may wish to contact your local MP in the first instance.
This campaign has been a fantastic sign of our strength and a huge testament to the hundreds of volunteers who gave their time and effort for us throughout the campaign. There have been huge levels of enthusiasm shown by our activists throughout the campaign.
Mike is a popular local borough councillor, who has lived locally for 19 years, and has kept council tax bills down, while protecting front line local services.