Torridge and West Devon Liberal Democrats
PeopleLiberal Democrats Representatives and Prospective Candidates at all levels of government. Adam Symons
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Local NewsLiberal Democrats AchievementsOur Success in the CoalitionThursday 23 September 2011 And if we had won the election? “The Liberal Democrat Conference in Birmingham was serious and impressive” John Farand Rogers, Chairman of the Torridge & West Devon Liberal Democrats told a meeting in Meavy. “I was very impressed by something that Lynn Featherstone, one of our Government ministers, said. The Lib Dems did not win the general election last year. Nobody had an overall majority. But if we had won, what would we have done? We would have raised the starting rate for paying income tax, and taken 900,000 people on medium and low incomes out of paying it altogether. We would have increased taxes on the richest people in our society We would have increased pensions for the retired. We would have created a pupil premium – extra money – targeted on the most disadvantaged children in our schools. We would have kicked Trident into the long grass. We would have rolled back the authoritarian state set up by the last government. The amazing thing is that, despite not winning, we have done all of that . . . Because we are in government. The Conservatives by themselves would not have done any of that. And Labour certainly didn’t do it, despite being in office for thirteen years. So Lib Dems, in government, are making real the manifesto that we fought on in 2010. It has been calculated that 75% of the Lib Dem manifesto is now being implemented – compared with only 60% of the Conservative one – and none at all of the Labour one, of course.” Note: For more on why Liberal Democrats
should be proud of what they have achieved in Government, see
Liberal Democrats: Our
manifesto in practice.
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