Two major new pieces from Nick Clegg in the media. First, in the New Statesman on his liberal vision:

Because of our commitment to freedom, openness and tolerance we are the only party that uses its conference to let the members decide the policies. The debate isn’t confined to the conference hall. It starts over breakfast and – as anyone who has ever visited the conference hotel bar will know – goes on well into the night. You hear it in the streets and up and down the beach, and at fringe events on subjects that range from care to conflict to carbon. I’m proud to be the leader of a party that takes its conference seriously and trusts its members

Real families are worried about the struggles they are facing every day: putting petrol in their cars, heating their homes, and meeting their mortgage payments each month. This needs to be central to today’s political debates. Make no mistake – it will be at the heart of our conference this week…

The Liberal Democrats are the only party with a blueprint for a Britain that is fair and free. We understand the hardship facing by real people right now, and over the next week we’ll show that only we can deliver the solutions they need.

You can read the full piece here.

And over in The Independent, Nick Clegg writes about tax saying, “Liberal Democrats will cancel £20bn of failing government programmes and allocate the money to our spending priorities as well as tax cuts.” The key part of the article says:

I want a fair Britain, where no one is held back by excessive tax bills, and no one gets away with paying peanuts because they can afford expensive accountants. That is why the Liberal Democrats will create a truly fair, progressive tax system, which helps those at the bottom and ensures everyone pays their fair share.

Last year the Liberal Democrats committed to cut the basic rate of income tax by 4p in the pound by upping taxes on polluters, and ending multi billion pound tax breaks for the wealthy…

But since we agreed our tax plans, the economy’s gone into meltdown. Poor families are struggling with rising bills, rising prices, and wages are falling in real terms. Those families need help and our current plans are an excellent start. But I am determined we must go even further to redistribute money to those who need it, by being much more creative with the tax cuts we offer. And the evidence shows that tax cuts for people who really need help stimulates demand at a time of looming recession in a way Tory-style tax cuts for the wealthy do not.

Funding those tax cuts responsibly is challenging, but do-able if you take tough decisions. Liberal Democrats are planning to close loopholes abused by the wealthiest and increase tax on pollution – difficult decisions Labour shrinks from and the Conservatives won’t even consider. The responsible way to return even more tax pounds to the poorest is to scale back unnecessary and unjustified government spending. That means trimming total public expenditure.

Government spending has doubled since Labour came to power, from £300bn to £600bn, and yet inequality has worsened. It’s clear government spending does not, in and of itself, make our country more fair. No wonder, when so much has been wasted, from £2bn spent on IT projects that were cancelled before they were implemented, to the billions spent fighting an illegal war in Iraq. Liberal Democrats will cancel £20bn of failing government programmes and allocate the money to our spending priorities as well as tax cuts.

Front-line services must be protected, of course. Schools and hospitals would not lose a penny under a Liberal Democrat government. We would channel more money to them, funding a pupil premium to improve the education of the poorest children, a personal care guarantee for elderly people, and more support for housing. But if there’s money spare from our £20bn fund after we’ve met our spending priorities, we will channel it into extending our tax cuts, to offer the most radical and progressive package for ordinary people in living memory. Our tax cuts will be targeted at people on low and average incomes. The wealthy should no longer profit from loopholes, and no one should be able to get away with tax avoidance.

You can read the full piece here.