Liberal Democrats - Bolder Braver and Better - speech at Liberal Democrat Party Conference

Speech by Simon Hughes MP, Liberal Democrat Federal Party President on Wed 19th Sep 2007

Conference, after that great innovation to celebrate our party's unsung heroes, I hope you are feeling encouraged and affirmed.

As I know from my own personal experience, and particularly this week, ours is a great and interdependent and supportive party, but it is also a great family of Liberal Democrats which, unlike other parties, consistently treat each other with affection and respect.

Only because they will be waiting for it, I will start, unusually, with a message to our friends in the media.

I am extremely concerned about this ridiculously early start for the next internal election for the leadership of the party.

It really is not fair to the current incumbent that up and coming candidates are positioning themselves so early.

As the President of the party, I have to tell you that I have fifteen further months in office to run. And would-be next Presidents are just going to have to wait.

Just like would-be next leadership candidates.

Ming Campbell was elected, fairly and squarely, for the whole of this parliament and through the general election and beyond. Unlike Tony Blair, when Ming said he was elected for a full term he meant it.

So at the next election whenever it is, unlike Tony Blair who promised to serve a full term and then left less than half way through, our leader keeps his word.

At the coming election, there will therefore be two parties led by substantial and experienced politicians, and one party led by a David-come-lately.

The question people should ask is not 'what age is your leader?', but 'what experience does your leader have?'

When it comes to knowledge and experience of international affairs, security, and matters of war and peace, then between Campbell and Cameron there is no contest.

When it comes to recognising a civil liberty when you see one, between Campbell and Cameron there is no contest.

When it comes to having a consistent record of philosophy and principle, between Campbell and Cameron, there is no contest. Friends, the next election is not the Eurovision Song Contest. It's about substance not singing along to the latest tune. I am confident that the British people clearly know the difference.

But conference, like Ming I never forget that members are as important as leaders.

Keeping existing members and recruiting new members and supporters is as always the precondition to success for our party.

But it is particularly important to recruit young members and student members. And particularly important to recruit them now. This week and next are Freshers' Weeks at colleges and universities up and down the land.

Many young people who join parties for the first time at college or university are those who go on to the most exciting positions of leadership in our party.

When we agreed our new membership fees on Monday, we agreed that youth and students, like other concessionary categories, could join for £6 a year - but that youth and students signed up at special Freshers' events could join for £1. £1 per student per year to become a Liberal Democrat member is about the best bargain in the shop. Go out and sell the product to our students and young people, this week, next week and every possible week. The reward may be the best political investment you'll ever make.

Since we last met, Mr Blair has gone and Mr Brown has come. Credit where credit is due; Gordon Brown has been trying to reach out. In theory, nobody could argue against the idea of a 'government of all the talents'. But if you had been asked seven years ago, at the beginning of the new millennium, to nominate your fantasy team for government, I bet you that the grand coalition between Gordon Brown and Margaret Thatcher would not have been in anybody's wildest imagination!

What a couple, What a shot!

I somehow don't think it's going to be left in the album.

This year marks two very important anniversaries in our party.

First, we are celebrating 40 years since the Association of Liberal Councillors was formed. I bet you that even the youthful Tony Greaves and Gordon Lishman could not have dreamt of its success.

Starter for 10: how many council seats did we win 40 years ago? The answer is that we won 80 county council seats. Today we hold nearly 500 county council seats and over 4400 principal council seats - in England, Scotland and Wales.

In 1973, we took minority control of our first major city, Liverpool, for the first time. Today we run three counties, one unitary council, three London boroughs, four metropolitan boroughs and eighteen districts. We are in minority control in six other places and are part of the government in 38 more.

To the officers and staff of ALC and ALDC over 40 years, we owe a huge debt of gratitude. Join with me, Conference, in saying to Andrew Stunell, Sarah Boad, Tim Pickstone and all of the ALDC team, thank you for fantastic service. May you grow from strength to strength.

And to those of you looking shifty in the third row, if you have not yet joined ALDC please give them the birthday present they want and join today.

But the success of ALDC, of their publications, their training, their advice and their practical help is not just about winning elections, it is about reminding us how to serve people and serve people well, once we are elected.

In many ways, being elected is the easy part. Doing the casework, attending the community meetings, leading the campaigns, being available week in, week out, is much more demanding.

But when we serve the community well, the community rewards us well. In the old phrase: 'Where we work, we win'.

That's why I urge you all to respond to Ming's community canvassing challenge in the coming week.

I hope to be canvassing on every weekday next week - five days out of five. And then regularly every week after that.

Wherever humanly possible, I want you to do the same.

I'll let you into a secret: most people quite like having one of us on their doorstep!

The second commemoration this year is the tenth anniversary of another great Liberal Democrat step forward. 10 years ago, in 1997, as Mr ACL Blair took the keys to Number 10; we also gained 20 new parliamentary colleagues. The class of '97 produced our greatest ever recent advance. I pay tribute to them all. From north to south, they have done us proud.

Since last year, we have continued to build the party organisation. We have now got more part-time and full-time staff than ever before. Every year, their skills are increased and their expertise widened. In addition we have now formally adopted new policies to ensure our diversity and we have appointed a national diversity adviser, Issan Ghazni, who we most warmly welcome.

I want to thank all our staff, particularly our campaigns team and those around the country who are our agents and organisers.

All the team is important, from Chris Rennard, Sarah Morris and Kate Heywood to the tea boy. Although now I think about it, Chris Rennard is also often the tea boy!

Sandi Toksvig asked Ming, of course in her own, inimitable way, a very old question: Why are there Liberal Democrats?

The answer is that if you support us and vote for us, you get a party which is bolder and braver and in huge numbers of ways, objectively better.

In our coming general election manifesto, which Steve Webb is in charge of drafting, the public will see that bravery and boldness of policy which the other parties just don't have.

Labour and Conservatives voted together to invade Iraq. We voted against the illegal invasion.

They both support nuclear power. We oppose it.

They both presided over the growing gap between rich and poor. We will reverse it.

They both voted to keep the present level of nuclear deterrent. We will start by halving it.

They both support tuition fees and are responsible for the crippling level of debt which has accumulated in nearly every household in the country. We have opposed them.

I have a few questions to Mr Brown and his deputy, Harriet Harman.

(In parenthesis, on the Labour deputy leadership - never have so many people, saying so much the same thing, spent so much effort seeking to be elected to a job that was downgraded within minutes of the winner being announced.)

My questions to Mr Brown after 10 years in government are these:

When we were speaking up for the environment over the years, where were you?

When we were standing up for freedoms, defending jury trial and opposing identity cards, where were you?

When we were opposing restrictions on freedom of information to exempt the Commons and the Lords, where were you?

When we were calling for more affordable housing, where were you?

You were there alright. With Tony Blair. On the other side.

Resisting environmental taxation, agreeing with ID cards, not opposing restrictions to Freedom of Information, not providing the houses even though you control the purse strings.

You have to accept your responsibilities. Liberal Democrats will not allow the British public to forget.

Every year has its highs and lows. The lows of this year have included the deaths of those hugely valued activists to whom I paid tribute earlier. Conference and by-elections will never be the same without people like Hugh Warren. Our party would never have made such progress without people like Sally Hannon.

We rely for our success not just on those who are willing to stand for public election, but for those who always choose not personal preferment, but to make sure all the other jobs are done - and done well. In addition to the tribute paid earlier to party members who are no longer with us, I want to pay tribute to Anita Roddick. She was a friend and ally. She was an inspiration in all her campaigning. We all ought to aim to be like her.

I want to thank all those who have joined me campaigning when I have visited during the past year. We achieve much together.

In Edinburgh, in the winter, ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections - stereotypically cold.

In south and west Wales, in the spring - stereotypically beautiful.

In Birmingham, just the other day in the summer - well, stereotypically straight talking.

In south Wales, I very nearly canvassed Kylie Minogue - well her grandparents anyway. The only problem was, they too had moved to Australia. I had to put them down as not voting.

But ask the people in Lewisham, who won a difficult by-election last week, canvassing on its own is not sufficient. We must always do good canvassing, good voter identification, and effective collection of information and communication of messages. The better we canvass and campaign, the better the results will be. When new and enthusiastic people join, remember, we want a combination of raw talent plus good training.

Never talk us down. Never underestimate the enthusiasm of others for our beliefs and our cause.

We must always try to produce good quality literature. Literature which cries out 'stop me and read one'. Leaflets which are informative, frequent and easy to read. But we also now need to remember even more modern means of communication than Caxton. You can overdo it, but the website, e-mail and text messaging are now the campaign tools of the present and future. We are leading the way and we always need to be smarter than our opponents.

I want to thank all those involved in organising our Scottish and Welsh campaigns this year and pay tribute to all our candidates. Our special thanks go to those who fought an excellent fight but at the last, were overcome. Like Nora Radcliffe in Gordon. We will bounce back.

I want to thank all of those who stood for us in council elections in May and by-elections all year round. Particular thanks to those who stood down this year. For your service, thank you.

Particular congratulations to those who took control this year. In Caradon and in Eastbourne; in Hinckley and Bosworth and Hull; in Northampton and Rochdale. And in Solihull, Taunton and Westmoreland and Lonsdale, for significant progress against the Tories.

And then we had the by-elections in Ealing Southall and Sedgefield. All those who went to help will testify to the excellence of the campaigns. Our strong second in both places gave the Tories a wonderful shock and two surprises from which they still have not recovered.

Thank you, Nigel and Greg, you did us proud.

I shall never forget how run down the outside of the health centre and library were in the main town of Sedgefield, Newton Aycliffe, where they had had no less than the Prime Minister as MP for over two decades.

Mr Blair, if Newton Aycliffe health centre is your legacy, on your doorstep, every week, then you should be ashamed.

One of our great opportunities still remains the derelict seat, where our opponents for years have taken elections for granted.

If you want a role model for success, talk to Stuart Bray, our East Midlands agent, about the campaign which saw Jason Zadrozny win a county council seat in March, and within 3 months, not only be elected to the local district council, as one of ten and then, 3 weeks later, find himself chosen as council leader - and all below the age of 27! And he is doing great. Ashfield, capital of British young leadership success, here we come!

So what about the next election?

First, I have to say, this 'will he, won't he' is a really stupid system. There are disadvantages, of course, in fixed term parliaments. But certainty in the political cycle is as important as certainty in the financial markets. People need to know where they stand.

Second, we are not afraid of an early general election - indeed, just the opposite.

After the training candidates receive these days, we have an increasingly mighty army. So my words to our Labour and Conservative opponents are: 'Be afraid. Be very afraid.' We are after your seats and we are determined to win them.

There will be more women standing as Liberal Democrat candidates. We have strong and well-regarded minority ethnic candidates in key seats in the North of England, the West Midlands, and the South.

But we still have huge progress to make to achieve the gender balance and background mix that a healthy and representative British democracy needs.

So if you know anyone who shares our convictions and might make a good councillor or parliamentarian, bring them on.

Good campaigners encourage and inspire the next generation. We must all do our bit.

And don't spend your time looking for people like needles in the equivalent of the old-fashioned haystack. Go where the voters are - outside the school gates, the supermarkets, by the bus stops and railway stations, outside the library and in the town square. And always have some up-to-date, good campaigning literature to give them.

Liberal Democrats are a party of consistent principle and practice.

We are and always have been a party of international and environmental responsibility.

We will always defend individual liberties as well as national security.

We will not allow ourselves to be pushed off course.

We will go onwards and upwards.

Britain needs liberal democracy now as much as ever.

We are ready for an election whenever it comes.

But if you want leadership that is bolder and braver.

If you want policies that are radical and relevant.

If you want Liberal Democracy, only if you vote Liberal Democrat do you get the real thing.