Lib Dems present Alternative Queen's Speech

5.01.30pm GMT Tue 23rd Nov 2004

The Liberal Democrats, have launched their alternative to the government's Queen's Speech announced today. It lists six priorities, for what will be a short parliamentary session:

"We would introduce practical measures that would create a fairer society" says Lib Dem spokesman Cllr Duncan Hames.

The Liberal Democrat top priorities for this parliamentary session are:

• Scrap student top-up fees and tuition fees.

• Scrap the unfair Council Tax.

• Introduce a Citizen's Pension uprated in line with average earnings to reverse the mass means-testing of pensioners.

• Introduce free personal care for the elderly.

• Modernise the police force, reduce re-offending rates, and introduce new systems of justice for the victims of crime.

• Ensure that the Environment is put at the heart of public policy-making.

Charles Kennedy said "In this Parliament, the Liberal Democrats have provided the main opposition over the Iraq war and we have opposed measures such as the introduction of student top up fees. The Government is running scared of the Liberal Democrats and is in danger of following its Conservative predecessors in stoking up a climate of fear and eroding civil liberties unnecessarily. We will continue to hold the Government to account over the role of British soldiers in Iraq and its relationship with George W. Bush."

Westbury Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesman, Cllr Duncan Hames added his comments on these alternative agenda for the next six months:

"In Government in Scotland, we have been successful in acting on our priorities: axing up-front tuition fees and providing free personal care. This Lib Dem Alternative Programme for the Queen's Speech establishes our priorities for action at Westminster. We would introduce practical measures that would create a fairer society in which people have their freedoms protected and their fear of crime reduced. Crime and terror would be better addressed with 10,000 more police and the National Border Force, rather than wasting £3 billion on ID cards that didn't protect people in the US or Spain and which would curtail British rights and liberties."

Related Link:

[The Liberal Democrats' alternative programme to the Queen's Speech]