Tim Farron has been writing today in the Huffington Post.
The simple fact is that nearly half of the cuts George Osborne will make aren’t necessary to get spending under control. Instead that are motivated by an ideological drive to shrink the state. That’s a big departure from the decisions Liberal Democrats took in Coalition.
He outlines the five things that he would like to see in the review:
- £250million of additional spending on mental health – to help ensure parity between mental and physical health, and support young people, who disproportionately suffer from mental health problems.
- Stopping the Tax Credit cuts – which will hit millions of hard working low income families. While Labour has said they would accept some transitional protection, to help those worst affected, we don’t believe this is not enough- we want to see the changes stopped entirely.
- Investment in enterprise – we want to see guaranteed funding for innovative ‘Catapult Centres’, that help businesses develop their products, for at least five years.
- A real commitment to investment in new infrastructure – with money allocated for new housing, ensuing everyone has access to high quality broadband and support renewable energy technology to help boost the renewables industry and combat climate change.
- Proper analysis of the impact – The books shouldn’t be balanced on the backs of the poor. In the first budget without the Liberal Democrats the Tories refused to set out who was made worse off by the choices they made. This time we need a real analysis.
Let’s see if any of that is delivered – but don’t hold your breath.
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One Comment
I am writing to say how deeply deeply dissapointed i am with the seemingly unconditional support that the Lib dems have given to bomb Syria with no thought whatsoever for any concequences .
How far they have fallen since the days when Charles Kennedy opposed the Iraq war
I decided to join the Lib dems in may because I thought they were different from other parties. Different certainly from the conservatives
I thought they would speak out.but it seems now we’re just backing David Cameron without question
I do still want to be part of the party
Maybe i,v missundstood things but having watched news programmes they all seem to show the Lib dems just giving its support for War on Syria . Is this the case or have i totally missed the point
Regards
David