Following another year’s Federal Autumn Conference, it is important to reflect on the position of the party. This is especially the case given that we may be only 12 months away from a general election campaign. We may finally have an opportunity to help to get rid of this dreadful Conservative government, and in the process, get many new Liberal Democrat MPs elected.

Britain cannot withstand five more years of the Conservatives. Nowhere is this clearer than with our National Health Service. The NHS is in turmoil. Years of Tory mismanagement and underfunding have led to our precious NHS struggling to cope. The morale of doctors, nurses and other NHS staff is at a severe low. While the number of vacancies in the NHS is at a “staggering” high. This is a time when the NHS funding gap continues to be wide and NHS dentistry has become dysfunctional, with people having to pull out their own teeth.

The NHS is of immense importance to us Liberal Democrats, not just because it is a vital public service in helping to advance individual freedom and social justice, but because we had a hand in its creation. The great Liberal social reformer, William Beveridge invented the idea of the NHS in his report into social services in 1942. The Beveridge Report became the blueprint for the post-war welfare state. A blueprint that was largely enacted by the post-war Labour government of Clement Attlee. While it was a socialist, Labour’s radical Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan who introduced an established the NHS in 1948, the original idea was that of a Liberal.

The NHS, health and social care have become of central importance for Liberal Democrats once again. It was incredibly moving to listen to Ed Davey, during his leader’s speech on Tuesday, talk about how he had to care for his mother while she was dying of cancer. Health and social care have become a hallmark of Ed Davey’s leadership, inspired by his personal experience of being a carer himself. Earlier in the Conference, our Deputy Leader and Health and Social Care Spokesperson, Daisy Cooper spoke passionately about the need to address the crisis in mental health provision.

This renewed policy focus has once again led to the party walking in the great footsteps of Beveridge. I am in awe at how good and how progressive our current policy offering on health and social care is. Amongst our current health and social care policies are the following:

• A GP Guarantee – Getting a GP appointment within a week or within 24 hours if it is urgent.
• Free Personal Care for the Elderly (a welcome return to a Charles Kennedy-era policy).
• A Dental Healthcare Rescue Plan to resolve the crisis in NHS dentistry.
• Mental Health “MOT” Checks – Mental health appointments at important stages of life.
• A two-month Cancer Treatment Guarantee.

These are just a few of the impressive array of health and social care policies that the party is currently championing. Even an editorial for the Guardian has speculated on the party being “the party of the NHS”. It is evident when we go into the next general election in the next few months, that the NHS, health and social care will be front and centre of our general election campaign. This makes me immensely proud to be a Liberal Democrat.

We should be emphatic that we are the party of the NHS! We should say so loudly and proudly. After all, it was originally devised by a Liberal and it matters to tens of millions of people across our country. We Liberal Democrats have the vital progressive policies needed to resolve the crisis in our NHS.

What is extraordinary is that this would have been unthinkable even a couple of years ago. For so long, Labour have positioned themselves as the party of the NHS. Now we Liberal Democrats are rightly reclaiming that mantle. But this does not come after a decade of a Labour government or even with a weak Labour Opposition that looks likely to lose the next election. This comes as Labour has a significant lead in the opinion polls and appears likely to win the next general election. This speaks volumes of the policy shifts within Labour, as the Labour Party appears somewhat gripped by small-c conservative policy timidity.

While the Conservatives seek to undermine our NHS through their negligence and mismanagement, and while Labour are too timid to embrace the necessary progressive policies, it is up to us Liberal Democrats to save the NHS we hold so dear. We invented the idea of the NHS. We are the party of the NHS. And most importantly of all, we are the party to save the NHS, both now and for future generations!

* Paul Hindley is a Liberal Democrat activist and a supporter of the Radical Association from Blackpool. He is the co-editor of When We Speak of Freedom: Radical Liberalism in an Age of Crisis, which was published earlier this year.