The biggest challenge for the next government will be sorting out public finances. It’s a challenge neither Labour or the Conservatives are fit to take on. Total national debt could hit £1.2 trillion next year – that is £20,000 for every man, woman and child in Sevenoaks and Swanley.

The Lib Dems have already identified big areas where substantial long-term savings can be made. Cutting down Labour’s centralised state to size. Abolishing Labour’s expensive and illiberal ID card scheme. Cutting the cost of politics by changing our electoral system and having 150 fewer MPs. Reforming tax credits so they go to the people who really need them. Spending less on defence procurement by scrapping Trident.

Young people are bearing too much of the burden of this savage recession. So we are making a new promise to young people that they will not be unemployed for longer than 90 days before we find them work or training. We would cancel Labour’s VAT cut and use the money to invest in young people’s futures. We would pay for 10,000 more university places and 50,000 more college places this year. And we would introduce a new Paid Internship scheme to give people real job experience, with an allowance of £55 a week. If it’s between 15 pence off a cinema ticket and a decent future. I know what I would choose.

We currently lose as much as £40 billion a year to tax dodgers. That’s why the Liberal Democrats are going to reinvent the tax system to make it fair. Not changing the amount we raise, but changing who pays. We will raise the income tax threshold to £10,000, funded by closing loopholes that the wealthy exploit. Under a Liberal Democrat government, millions of people will find themselves with an extra £700 in their pocket, and up to four million low earners and pensioners will pay no income tax at all.

After the expenses scandal, people are crying out, rightly, for something different at Westminster. Both Labour and the Conservatives have betrayed them. Only the Liberal Democrats will clean up Westminster, reform expenses, end big donations and elect the Lords. Only the Liberal Democrats will give people the right to sack MPs who are found guilty of serious wrongdoing. And only the Liberal Democrats will secure, once and for all, fair votes for everyone.


The next general election will be the beginning of real change in Britain. That is why I am asking the voters of Sevenoaks and Swanley to choose the Liberal Democrats.


Dr Alan Bullion, Lib Dem PPC for Sevenoaks