Where have we got to? What are the parties offering the ordinary Macclesfield citizen?
The Conservative manifesto talks loudly about 'people power'. Pull the other one. The Tory concept of government is that, once they're in power, they make the decisions, and everyone else does as they're told. That's what they did in Margaret Thatcher and John Major's time, and that's what they do where they have power today – we don't have to look any further than Cheshire East Council, where the select few in the 'Cabinet' call the shots, and no-one else, not even the Scrutiny Committees, has any say in the matter. When they extol 'individual freedom' they mean the freedom of the rich to make as much money as possible without being hampered by any concern for the less fortunate – which is why they get so many donations from big business and big businessmen .
And the Labour Party. Oh dear. In their 13 years in power the country has become still more unequal – now the poorest 20% pay a higher fraction of their income in tax than the richest 20% They bailed out the banks with our money, but they still can't (or won't) stop the bankers paying themselves obscene bonuses. They set excellent and ambitious targets, for example to reduce child poverty, and to cut carbon emissions, and then failed to meet them.
We offer a third way. Reduce tax for the least well off at the expense of those who can afford it. Tame the banks and the bankers. Restore the earnings link for pensions. Axe expensive prestige projects like ID cards, biometric passports, like-for-like Trident replacement and more Eurofighters, while making sure our troops have the equipment they really need. Clean up parliament and get rid of sleaze. Reduce central bureaucracy and control for schools and hospitals (saving money, too). Set unused shipyards to building wind turbines. Invest in rail. Phase out tuition fees as soon as possible. Put serious money into education, going directly to schools. Bring down the budget deficit without killing the recovery.
All the parties are promising change. But the Liberal Democrats promise real change, change in our rotten political system, change in our unfair tax regime, change in our wasteful energy use. Change to make a better Britain, not just for us but for our children and grandchildren.
