Gordon Brown’s response to the economic crisis has been too little, too late.

For years I warned him of the oncoming economic problems. Unsustainable levels of personal debt, mostly secured against the illusory ‘wealth’ of rising, vastly inflated property prices. An economy based so heavily on debt was never going to be in a fit state to deal with global shocks like the credit crunch.

And so it has proved. Gordon Brown is now facing the consequences of his years of inaction. The housing bubble has burst. Unemployment is rising fast. Tens of thousands of families are losing their homes.

With people struggling with massive debts and fast rising bills it is now almost inevitable that the UK is heading for recession. Gordon Brown used to boast we were better prepared than our competitors for a downturn. Yet the OECD’s respected economic forecasters now predict we will fare worst among the world’s seven leading economies (G7) in the current crisis.

What Britain needs now, and urgently, is practical action to help people who are struggling – to put money back in their pockets, to cut their energy bills, and help them keep their homes.

Gordon Brown and Labour can’t offer that. They got us into this mess. Now they are veering between complacency and panic. Dithering on key decisions, muddling along on half measures.

David Cameron and the Conservatives won’t offer it. At a time when those on the breadline are struggling more than for a generation, their top priority is tax cuts for millionaires.

It’s not good enough to just keep muddling along and hoping.

We need a serious plan to get Britain’s economy up and running again.

That is why Nick Clegg and I have put together the Liberal Democrat Fairer Future Economic Recovery Plan.

Our plan would:

• Put more money in people’s pockets - tax cuts for people on low and middle incomes,
• Stop unnecessary home repossessions and provide more affordable housing,
• Make energy companies reinvest their windfall profits in cutting bills, and
• Deliver extra help for people in debt or who lose their jobs.

And we will bring the free-wheeling, ‘anything goes’ short-termism of the City to an end. We cannot continue with a culture where bankers pocket big bonuses for taking reckless risks, but when things go wrong government and taxpayers have to step in to pick up the pieces.

Please read the summary of the plan, and share it with other people you know.

There is only one party in Britain today with a serious and credible plan to get Britain’s economy back on its feet – and to provide real help to those struggling in the meantime.

That is the Liberal Democrats.

The Chancellor has performed yet another climb-down from his Pre-Budget tax proposals made in October last year, as a ‘clarification’ of proposals to tax non-domiciles was announced in order to correct previous ‘misunderstandings’.

Following fast on the heels of the Capital Gains Tax debacle, this most recent retreat makes the Government look thoroughly foolish. Once again it is painfully obvious that ministers hadn’t thought through the implications of their own policy plans.

The Liberal Democrats were the first party to highlight serious tax avoidance abuses by non-dom residents, and called for non-dom status to be limited to a specified number of years.  We have argued for some time that non-domiciled status does provide some unjustified tax loopholes. But the flat-rate charge proposed by the Government and the Conservatives is not the way to end this scandal.  A poll tax on non-doms would be prohibitive for the large number of non-domiciles of modest means, but would be a flea bite for the fat cats. The Tories’ charge would probably seem to Mr. Abramovich not much more than a round of drinks at half time at Stamford Bridge.  Even Digby Jones, the Trade Minister, confirmed this week that the Chancellor’s proposals were counter-productive and damaging to the British economy.

The Government has made an unholy mess of this issue.  British taxpayers simply do not understand why they are subject to the 40% top rate whilst non-doms living in Britain should pay little more than Council Tax on houses worth millions.  Super-rich non-domiciles should be allowed their tax-free status for seven years, but after that they should be treated in the same way as other British residents and made to pay their fair share of tax.

Vince Cable is MP for Twickenham and the party’s Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

Tomorrow the Liberal Democrats will table an amendment to the Government’s parliamentary motion proposing the Queen’s Speech. Our amendment calls for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union.

This does not signal a change in our party’s attitude towards the Europe. We remain constructively pro-European, but we see this referendum as an opportunity to have a proper debate about the future of Britain’s relationship with the EU.

Over thirty five years as a member state, we have seen the EU widen both its membership and share sovereignty from Mrs Thatcher’s Single European Act through to a succession of treaties agreed by both Conservative and Labour governments. In truth, the EU has changed beyond recognition from the EEC that Britain originally joined in 1973.

No-one under the age of fifty – including the current Foreign Secretary – has had a say on Britain’s membership of the EU. An in-out referendum would give people a vote on the broad issue rather than a narrower referendum on the Reform Treaty and allow us to promote the positive benefits of membership.

By doing so, we can also draw the poison from the debate about Europe’s future.

The Conservative Party promoted closer European integration – without referendums – while in office. In opposition they have indulged in the worst kind of anti-European populism, calling for referendums on individual treaties to mask their own divisions and the wish of many of their own MPs to leave the European Union altogether.

Similarly, the Labour Party has been less than honest. Since 1997 they too have given away powers, but refused to engage the public in a proper debate about the direction of the EU. Gordon Brown appears scared to make the case for Europe, though we hope that he will accept our challenge to do so.

We are not uncritical supporters of the European Union. We want it to concentrate its energies on genuine cross-border issues like the threat of climate change and promoting of free trade with countries outside its borders, It should also reform many of its own internal policies and practices.

However, the EU has brought a period of unparalleled peace and prosperity to Europe and it has successfully integrated new member states that were once dictatorships in Southern and Eastern Europe. The Liberal Democrats believe that Britain’s best interests will be served by being positive members of the Union, while seeking to improve it.

We are ready to make the positive case for Europe in a proper public debate about our membership, and we trust the people to make a decision about whether we should stay in or get out. We must flush our opponents out of their bunkers and challenge them to make clear their positions on this fundamental issue for the future of our country.

Vince Cable is the Acting Liberal Democrat leader and MP for Twickenham.