Good afternoon Conference.
Our country is hurting right now.
One hundred and twenty-five thousand lives have been taken by this cruel virus.
One hundred and twenty-five thousand mums and dads. Brothers and sisters. Sons and daughters.
One hundred and twenty-five thousand empty chairs at our kitchen tables.
So many families, mourning the loss of a loved one.
Even those who have been spared the agony of bereavement…
Even they are suffering enormous hardships.
Families kept apart by lockdown.
Parents who haven’t seen their children for over a year.
Grandparents who’ve missed out on the joy of holding the new baby.
Businesses closed. Jobs lost. Savings destroyed.
A whole year of isolation. Fear. Grief.
Government Failures
All compounded tragically by the failures of this Conservative Government. Poorly prepared. Slow to act. Ignoring expert advice.
Boris Johnson’s indecision and incompetence has failed our nation.
Leaving the most vulnerable – elderly people, disabled people – to be attacked by the virus in their care homes, where they should have been safe.
Leaving our country with a shockingly high death rate – one of the worst in the world.
This Government must be held to account. Britain’s bereaved families deserve answers.
So Liberal Democrats will continue to lead that charge.
Boris Johnson must set up now the independent inquiry he promised me in the House of Commons last June.
No more excuses. No more delays.
Sarah Everard and protests
And after all the pain inflicted by Covid, last week we were forced to confront another national anguish.
The shocking, tragic killing of Sarah Everard.
And the violence perpetrated by far too many men against far too many women.
The abuse, the harassment and the fear women face every day, walking down their own streets.
And then, those awful scenes from Clapham Common.
Women, wrestled to the ground by police officers.
Handcuffed and dragged away, simply for holding a peaceful vigil in Sarah’s memory.
Simply for saying enough is enough.
We have to do better as a country.
We must do better at tackling violence against women.
Believing survivors. Making clear that misogyny in any form is unacceptable.
And we have to do better as men.
Listening to women. Calling out other men. Never turning a blind eye.
Just as with the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, this pandemic makes these issues more urgent – not less.
And this Government – these Conservatives, who talk so much about their freedoms and their free speech –
Must stop their assault on everyone else’s freedoms.
Our fundamental rights to peaceful assembly and protest.
Rights that have always been so crucial to our democratic society.
Rights crucial to the struggle over decades to advance equality and end discrimination.
The recovery we need
After so much hurt, we need hope.
And that is what our wonderful NHS staff and volunteers are injecting into our lives as they work tirelessly delivering vaccines.
Hope, so we can finally look forward.
And as we do, we must put recovery first.
The recovery of our health, our freedoms and our communities.
The recovery of business, the economy and jobs.
A recovery that is fair.
Fair for the doctors and nurses, care workers, teachers, and countless more on the frontline who have gone to work every day – putting themselves at risk to keep the rest of us safe.
Fair for the people who have stepped up heroically to look after their loved ones.
The unpaid carers so often forgotten.
The parents who have somehow juggled home-working with home-schooling.
Fair for the small businesses who have adapted and innovated and sweated their way through this crisis.
All of you – together – have pulled our country through.
Thank you.
So we need a recovery that does justice to the sacrifices you have made.
A fairer, greener, more caring country
A recovery that delivers on our vision of a fairer, greener, more caring country.
Fairer…
Where everyone can have a good job and real opportunity, no matter where they were born or what school they go to.
Where small businesses and the self-employed can thrive, creating secure jobs with good pay.
Where every person’s rights and dignity are respected.
And fairer: where women no longer have to fear harassment, abuse and violence from men.
Greener…
Where we invest in exciting new technologies and insulate every home – to create secure, well-paid, green jobs in every part of the UK.
Where we work together with other nations to tackle the global climate emergency.
Where we clean our air and protect green spaces, and so improve people’s mental and physical health.
And more caring…
Where we look after one another, and finally recognise the true value of care.
Where we stand up for carers and give them the support they deserve.
Where people with mental ill health get quality care, quickly – not least children and young people.
And where we pay our nurses and care workers properly.
How dare Boris Johnson say all he can afford is a one per cent pay rise for nurses and other NHS staff?
How can he find billions for contracts for his Tory cronies, but not for the amazing people who have put their lives on the line for us?
How dare he boast about the vaccine rollout they are delivering so brilliantly, while he treats them so disgracefully?
Prime Minister: pay NHS and care staff properly. Do it now.
Put recovery first
Friends, that’s the recovery our nation needs.
That’s the fairer, greener, more caring country that lies ahead of us.
I know the British people can get there. But it will take the Liberal Democrats to lead the way.
Just as Liberal Democrats have already led the way towards a fairer, greener, more caring country –
With the progress we have delivered in Parliaments and councils across the UK –
Wherever and whenever we win elections.
And we can do it again now.
Because we will put recovery first.
If only the others would.
But the Conservatives won’t.
They have put Brexit ahead of the national interest, with their disastrous trade deal.
The Conservatives have put enriching their wealthy friends ahead of fair pay for nurses or support for small businesses.
And they are putting their right-wing, shrink-the-state ideology ahead of working with industry, even junking the very idea of an industrial strategy. Just when we need a recovery.
And the Nationalists in Scotland certainly won’t put recovery first.
Because they put their obsession with independence ahead of everything else.
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