Commenting, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Home Affairs, Justice and Equality, Tom Brake, said:

"The motion we have passed today avoids a knee-jerk response to last month's disturbances. Complex problems require carefully considered solutions not sound bites.

"Liberal Democrats will continue to push for effective evidence-based policies to cut crime and boost rehabilitation. That means tough sentences for serious crimes and tough community sentences for low level offenders."

Commenting, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Culture, Olympics Media and Sport, Don Foster said:

"No longer can we accept a regulator that works for the benefit of the press, rather than the public.

"We have heard enough empty condemnations from politicians who used to be in bed with press barons. Now is the time for reform. Media power must become more transparent, scrutinised, and dispersed.

"Liberal Democrats have made clear that the scandal won't truly be over until there is fundamental change in how the media is run."

Commenting, Co-Chair of the Home Affairs Parliamentary Party Committee, Tom Brake MP said:

"Drugs can have a devastating impact on individuals and families and can fuel organised crime. Evidence shows that our current drug policy is costly, ineffective and it is the poor and marginalised who suffer most.

"Today, Liberal Democrats reaffirmed our support for an evidenced based drugs policy, calling for an independent panel to review current drug laws.

"We want to ensure the Government has a clear focus on prevention and reducing harm by investing in education, treatment and rehabilitation, and moving away from criminalising individuals and vulnerable drug users.

"We need proper regulation and investment if we are to get to the root of the battle with drugs. Liberal Democrats are the only party prepared to debate these issues."

So, well done - you all got past security clearance!

Incidentally I'm very grateful to the police, they've now provided me with all the detailed personal information on party members that I need in order to conduct a Stalinist purge.

Basically anyone who actually passed security clearance without sign of being a subversive will be erased.

Its been a busy six months since Sheffield.

And I'm going to start where I should.

At the bottom.

And Mays elections really were the bottom - at least they flipping well better had be!

Ok, we got 16% of the vote and had some real successes around the country, but let's not fool ourselves.

In much of the country we got slaughtered.

In Scotland, in many of our great cities, in shire districts Liberal Democrats who have served their communities and worked their backsides off for years, got their backsides kicked.

I want to say this to you now, if you lost your seat, I stand with you; I am angry on your behalf; I take the responsibility and I absolutely will not insult you by claiming that this was collateral damage, or an understandable mid term blip.

Frankly, as your President, I owe you an apology.

Politics is full of clichés.

Perhaps the worst, is that bit where you're on telly having to pretend everything's gone swimmingly on a bad election night.

I had that job, and I have to confess that I didn't stick to the script.

I didn't pretend it was alright really.

Cos it wasn't.

I saw the stats piling up, the Lib Dem minus figure getting bigger, you know, I knew these were not statistics, these people are my friends.

People who didn't deserve to lose.

But who lost.

I'm not going to explain them away, shrug and accept their defeat as an inevitable consequence.

Defeat is never inevitable or acceptable.

But sometimes it happens.

I remember 2001 when we should have won Westmorland and Lonsdale and didn't.

The campaigns department sent us a pager during the campaign - cutting edge!

They included us in the messages they sent to sitting MPs.

After the election, they carried on sending us messages - assuming that we'd got elected.

I went back to work at Lancaster University on the Monday after I lost, and I kept getting messages telling me about photo calls for new MPs, swearing in and making maiden speeches.

It was a sickener.

I was pleased for those who'd won, but I was gutted, depressed, I took the whole thing personally.

I'd worked my socks off for 3 years, I'd done everything I thought I could to win, but I still lost by 3,000.

And I have to confess that after 2001 there were a few months where I thought, why don't I just jack it in?

Do a 9-5, dig the garden, get a season ticket at the Rovers, you know, torture myself in a different way.

Then I changed my mind.

There were two things that did it if I recall.

First, England beat Germany 5-1 in Munich; which has no political significance whatsoever, it just massively cheered me up!

A few days later my daughter Gracie was born.

If that doesn't make you take stock, nothing will.

I thought back to what had first politicised me, and if you've heard this one before - well, tough!

I was 14 I saw Cathy come home, it completely broke my heart and my reaction was to do something, to join Shelter and then the Liberals.

Because if homelessness, poverty and inequality are wrong, then not doing something to stop them is equally wrong.

I'd joined this party to make a better a world, and now in the maternity ward in Kendal I had this little ginger thing, someone to make the world better for.

I had no flaming right to walk away.

So I got re-selected and spent 4 years doing everything Hilary Stephenson told me to, and a bit more.

Because you can't change the world if you come second.

That's why I am here rather than watching Rovers put 4 past Arsenal, despite only having 3 shots on goal.

Tell me if I've got this wrong, but I think that you want me as President to sell the undiluted Liberal Democrat standpoint.

Not to be an apologist for everything the coalition does.

Committed to the Liberal Democrats in coalition, but more importantly, committed to the Liberal Democrats.

There's wonderful freedom in this role and I'm determined to use it!

Unlike ministerial platform speeches at conference this year, I don't have to show mine to Oliver Letwin in advance!

I didn't have to.

But I sent him a copy anyway just to wind him up.

But there are 18 Liberal Democrats who don't have the luxuries that I do.

They can't just sound off if they don't like government policy or trot through the no lobby on occasions - rare occasions - to demonstrate their disagreement.

They are our ministers.

And while I'm parading my conscience around the TV studios saying the right things, they are busy in their departments doing the right things.

On those very, very rare occasions when Michael Gove says or does something stupid or wrong, Sarah Teather doesn't come out and slag him off. Instead she fixes it.

Free schools for example!

When the Tories showed hesitancy about committing to true and fair banking reforms, Vince Cable laid on the pressure and forced that commitment.

And when George Osborne flew the kite of cutting income tax for the wealthy, Danny Alexander cut the string, and stopped him.

Incidentally, those 20 economists - nearly all of them top rate tax payers by the way - who called for scrapping the 50p tax rate.

They have many supporters in the Conservative party.

But they are utterly wrong.

Are we all in this together?

Well not if we give tax cuts to the rich!

At a time when 90% of the country is struggling to pay the rent or the mortgage,
giving a 10p tax cut to those who need it the least, would not just be economically witless, it would be morally repugnant.

Now of course, all income tax is temporary!

Income tax was introduced as a temporary measure in 1798 during the Napoleonic wars.

So my solemn promise to you is that we will get rid of this temporary measure, as soon as we stopping falling out with the French.

Danny, Vince, Nick and I are absolutely clear - the wealthy will continue to pay the largest share of the cost of our recovery so that we can protect the least well off.

The principle that the rich pay more does not come from a desire to penalise the wealthy, but from a desire to ensure that our recovery must be a fair recovery.

Be absolutely sure of this. Liberal Democrat ministers are the guarantors of fairness in a government that would be an absolute nightmare without them.

And not only this.

Your average Tory minister, bless them, works hard in their department and is rarely seen anywhere near their constituency.

Our ministers are full-on committed constituency MPs as well as being tasked with the small responsibility of running the country.

Their commitment to Liberal Democrat principles and policies is immense and their workrate is phenomenal.

That goes for all our ministers, but goes for Nick in spades.

This summer, Nick hasn't stopped. His schedule racing around the country meeting members, supporters and one or two former supporters, has been staggering.

Thick skinned, warm hearted, quick witted, occasionally paint-splattered, a Liberal to his fingertips - he leads the Lib Dems, runs the country and runs rings around the Tories.

If you listen to Nadine Dorries, Conservative home and the Daily Mail, then Nick Clegg is leading the government; but when it comes to the NHS, the Bankers and fair taxation, Nick seems to be leading the opposition too!

Ed Miliband, are you still on holiday?

Who is taking the Blairite nonsense out of the NHS bill?

Nick Clegg

Who put the bankers back in their boxes over financial restructuring?

Nick Clegg

Who stood up against reactionary Tory drivel after the riots?

Nick Clegg

We are a radical Liberal Party putting radical liberal politics into action and blocking Tory policies every day.

For how many decades have we dreamed of being able to say that?

I have always been proud to be a Liberal Democrat, I was proud of us when we called it right on Kosovo, when we called it right on Iraq, when we called it right on deregulation of the banks.

But I have never been more proud of my party than I am now.

British public opinion is a bit more mixed.

I mean we've endured decades where the public were utterly indifferent to our existence, then for 5 minutes they loved us intensely, followed by a lengthier period where they've actively disliked us.

I had a girlfriend like that once.

But no one can say we don't matter anymore, as Oscar Wilde said there's only one thing worse than being talked about, and that's not being talked about!

Look we had three political options after the 2010 elections: we had to choose between the rather unpleasant, the completely impossible or the utterly appalling; but we only had two economic options between the horrible and the catastrophic.

Now my politics were formed in the 1980s amidst mass unemployment in the north of England.

At times more than half of my class at school were on free school meals, most of us - me included - had parents out of work.

That experience scarred me, and it scarred me all the more because those levels of unemployment in the 80s were avoidable - that government deliberately used unemployment as an economic tool to control spending and the unions.

And we are tackling the deficit today, making horrible decisions to avoid the catastrophic alternative of market meltdown and mass unemployment or, as Ed Balls calls it 'plan B'.

If the Tories created mass unemployment in the 80s out of wickedness, Labour would create mass unemployment today out of witlessness.

This summer, the silly season got serious didn't it?

No one saw the riots coming.

With the possible exception of the Kaiser Chiefs.

And I reckon that was just a lucky guess!

The riots were an outrage against peaceful communities, a tragedy for civil society, an affront to our identity and an absolute gift for every knee-jerk reactionary in the country.

Some who shall remain nameless, but for illustrative purposes lets call them David Starkey, saw the fires of discontent and thought it wise to pour petrol on them by invoking racial stereotypes.

Now David Starkey is one of Kendal's favourite sons, and I know that he is absolutely not a fascist, but I also know that he is absolutely an intelligent person and intelligent enough to know that it is culpably reckless to play into the hands of those who are fascists.

And there's been a hypocrisy in so much of the media - including from the apparently shameless Murdoch press - focusing their ire on what they call a feral underclass with a contempt for society.

Just an observation here:

The super rich don't need to go down Ealing high street nicking tellies in order to demonstrate their contempt for society. They demonstrate their contempt by not paying taxes.

And lets be honest, we are sharing power with a bunch of people who think that this is OK!

If you care about communities, then you are an opponent of all those who undermine them.

That includes the looters. That includes those who benefit from our society but who do not pay the taxes that they should, and that includes politicians and newspaper editors who provide them with cover.

Before the summer recess, I spent June and July away from Parliament too after my wife had an operation.

She's fine by the way, she spent 2 months effectively confined to home, not able to walk or drive so I was granted compassionate leave by the whips - who, lets be honest, didn't owe me any favours!

So I got to look after the kids out of school hours and be a constituency MP the rest of the time.

Rosie meanwhile read lots of crime thrillers, got hooked on online shopping, but absolutely refused to get sucked into daytime TV.

She claims.

Interestingly enough some tickets arrived through the post the other day for a gentle discussion programme called the Jeremy Kyle show.

I assume its a bit like question time.

The title is 'my husband forces me to deliver leaflets even when I'm on crutches'.

Which is intriguing.

I learnt a lot during that time away from Parliament: first, being a Mum is hard work; second being my wife is really hard work; and third, politics looks a heck of a lot different when you are not in the Westminster bubble.

You see I spent almost 2 months getting my news the same way everyone else does.

No briefings or nuanced explanations from ministers.

The Lib Dems achievements on the NHS bill, on reigning in the bankers on keeping profiteers out of our state schools - they either don't get reported, or the Lib Demness of those successes is exquisitely camouflaged.

Think about it, we are the first government party in history that doesn't have a single newspaper telling our side of the story.

But the fact that our excellent message wasn't landing in the minds of the public
highlighted an obvious danger for all of us who hold elected office.

And this is the moment when I could offend just about all of you, but isn't it so often the same old story, you're a brilliant campaigner, you get elected, you get sucked into the council, you go to meetings, you spend lots of time with your very lovely and very bright officers, and you start listening to them intently even though they don't actually care two hoots if you're re-elected.

And your diary gets a bit too full to go out knocking on doors, so not only are you now listening to officials but you have stopped listening to normal people and so you forget what they sound like, what angers them, what impresses them, what they elected you to do in the first place so you make daft decisions and you get slaughtered in the local press and then you lose.

That can happen in Whitehall as well as the town hall!

It can be a slippery slope.

So what's the answer?

I'll tell you what:

A full blooded return to the principles and the practice of community politics.

And it needs to start now.

In many of the mets, with elections in thirds, the same seats that we lost this year, are up again next year.

There may be a sense of inevitability that if we lost this year, we're bound to lose next year too.

Well I am absolutely not having that!

This conference must mark a renewal of the theory and practice of community politics - and a belligerent determination to make our own luck.

I don't underestimate the task ahead, but we have been through far worse and come out smiling on the other side.

The Thorpe scandal, the merger debacle; you know, if our poll rating is currently 13%, I can tell you that that's about 14 times better than it was in 1989.

You know, I reckon if either of the other parties saw their poll ratings dip into single figures, they would implode and cease to be.

They couldn't hack it mentally or emotionally, and the vested interests that they serve would abandon them.

Not with us. We've got nerves of steel. Survival is what we do.

A bit like cockroaches after a nuclear war, just a bit less smelly, we are made of sterner stuff.

And we are not the vehicle of any vested interest.

We are the vehicle for a radical, green, tolerant, internationalist, progressive form of politics and if we did not exist then there's hundreds of people here today who'd rush out and invent us!

Going into coalition was absolutely the right thing for the country, but costly for the party.

I'm in no doubt that being in coalition with the Tories has tainted us, our identity is blurred, many who support us are confused. They say: "We thought you were against the Tories, why are you shacked up with them now?"

The picture of the coalition being a marriage is a depressing one isn't it?

It's enough to put you off your tea!

If it's a marriage, well its a good natured one, but I'm afraid its temporary.

We're staying together for the sake of the kids, or the Special Advisors as we call them.

So look, I don't want to upset you and its not going to happen for 3 or 4 years but I'm afraid divorce is inevitable.

So, as your president I took the liberty of seeking some legal advice about how we stand in the event of a divorce.

There's good news and bad news. Good news: we might get half of Ashcroft's money.

Bad news: we have to have Pickles at the weekends!

Well over the last few months, there's been a new spikiness and effectiveness about the Liberal Democrats.

We fought against the bankers, we stood up against the witless kneejerk populism of the Tories after the riots, we've fought against tax cuts for the rich and we came out fighting on the NHS, and I'll tell you what, we will continue the fight for our NHS.

And since then, we've started winning by-elections, including gaining a seat off Labour for the first time since the general election, our membership has risen, donations have increased and our poll ratings have shot up from absolutely diabolical to just slightly depressing.

Now there's one thing I haven't mentioned.

I was sort of thinking of leaving it out but that would be cowardly.

The AV referendum.

That went well didn't it?

Electoral reform was within our grasp for the first time in our lifetimes, but was it for the last time?

Don't even think it.

Two things I have got doggedly used to in the 25 years since I joined this party: one is losing, the other is never, ever flaming giving up!

We have a corrupt electoral system, it needs modernising and transforming.

We will democratise the House of Lords and we will bring in proportional representation for the upper house.

PR for parliament.

Unlike the NHS bill, it is in the coalition agreement, I don't care how many Tories or Lib Dems don't like it, it is not an optional part of the programme. It's a red line.

It's not a sexy doorstep issue, its not going in my focus leaflets, but it is vital if we are to ensure that our democracy emerges from the 19 century.

When we go to the polls in 2015, we must be electing a part of the upper house for the first time ever, by proper PR.

Not a miserable little compromise!

The AV referendum is salutary.

It reminds us what we are up against in general.

A Tory party owned and directed by the impossibly rich, a Labour party which may be led by a progressive but which is owned by the forces of conservatism and a media owned by a handful of powerful individuals with antidemocratic axes that they grind very effectively.

How do we compete against that? Isn't it impossible?

David Penhaligon said "I only got elected because I was too naive to realise it was impossible".

We must fight every day to ensure that we never become part of the establishment, but we should fight hard to prove that we are worthy of power.

David Penhaligon, Roy Jenkins, Jo Grimond and all the legions of others who brought us from the depths for such a time as this.

They'd have killed to see the day we were in government, and they'd have killed us for complaining about it.

There's a true story about President Kennedy visiting a NASA warehouse used for storing fuel cylinders for the Apollo programme.

He met the janitor and asked him 'what do you do?' the janitor replied, 'I'm putting a man on the Moon'. That is the spirit.

As Liberal Democrats, we are all in this together whether you are the Deputy Prime Minister or a Focus deliverer, or indeed both.

No one will sell our story if we don't, no one will believe our message if we don't, no one will fight our battles if we don't.

We've spent years trying to qualify for the premier league of politics, now we are here - lets waste no time looking into the stands for reactions, let's look at each other, look to each other, focus on the goal, tackle our opponents and stuff them.

Get on with it!

Commenting, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Education, Baroness (Joan) Walmsley, said:

"Education is the best engine for social mobility but, with pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds being three times less likely to achieve five good GSCEs than their more well-off peers, we need to support children comprehensively.

"That is why Liberal Democrats have ensured that this Government has extended free early years education and introduced the Pupil Premium, which will reach £2.5bn a year by 2015 to support disadvantaged pupils in our schools.

"To have the biggest impact, we need to support children from early years straight through to secondary school and on to employment. The Education Credit proposed in this motion will ensure that children who need an extra hand will get joined-up support to help them overcome disadvantage and allow them to flourish."

I'd like to tell you about a man who's been a great source of inspiration and guidance to me behind the scenes over the last year.

Gordon.

Although outwardly dour, his finely tuned political antennae and no nonsense style make him the perfect sounding board.

He's not flash - he's just Gordon. Gordon Birtwistle, the Liberal Democrat MP for Burnley. One of the most talented and tenacious of our 2010 intake. I'm privileged he agreed to be my PPS.

Alistair Darling wasn't quite so keen on his Gordon.

His Gordon racked up a record deficit fuelled by irresponsible and unsustainable spending.

His Gordon denied any responsibility for the economic woes caused by his own policies.

His Gordon "unleashed the forces of hell" simply for sharing his views on the severity of the economic crisis.

Who was feeding Gordon Brown such advice? Was it Mandy? Or McBride? I think it's pretty obvious - it was all Balls.

Unlike Labour, our party has never shied away from telling difficult truths on the economy:

Vince Cable led the way in warning of the dangers that were building.

And we made a historic decision last Spring. When we signed up to coalition government, we knew our country's economic stability depended on it.

Returning our country to lasting prosperity is the founding purpose of this Government - the overwhelming national interest that motivated two very different political parties to take responsibility together for a full 5 years.

We resolved to act in the national interest and put our country first. That is what we're doing.
"In government, on your side" doesn't mean telling people there's an easy answer to the horrendous problems Labour left.

It means telling it straight.

To get things right for the long term, we must stick to our guns now.

And we shouldn't forget the impact of our unity and our resolve.

Concern about both sovereign debt and economic growth is at the heart of the current market turbulence.

Turbulence fuelled by uncertainty about the ability of political leaders across the globe to take the decisive action their countries need.

Since we came into office, our coalition Government has taken the difficult, and sometimes unpopular decisions necessary to fix our economy.

This decisive action has made an immediate impact.
Interest rates have stayed low, keeping workers in their jobs and families in their homes.

Fellow Liberal Democrats, we played a decisive role in securing our country's financial credibility. This should make us proud.

We have built a strong shelter, but the storm is still raging.

Elsewhere in Europe, the struggle to establish credible deficit reduction plans goes on. In the US, political deadlock brought a historic downgrade of the country's credit rating.

Yet despite all the evidence, the party that put us in this hole just want to keep digging.

Labour say our motivation is dogmatic. They're wrong. It's practical.

Financial discipline is necessary for effective government. It would be completely wrong to leave the bills for past mistakes to be paid for by our children. The economic case is indisputable - that's what so many of you have done in local government, and that's what we must continue to do in central government. We must stick to our plans and we will.

We'll be straight with people: about how long this will take; how hard it will be, and what we will do to get it right.

A huge deficit, an unbalanced economy, our trading partners in real difficultly.

These are very big problems. Solving them will take years, and every one of us has a role to play. To support growth, to help families under pressure.

As Liberal Democrats, our judgements about what needs to be done should be driven by the liberal economy we want to build.

A liberal economy shaped by free and open competition,

A liberal economy built on long-term investment, not debt and waste.

A liberal economy where growth is shared across the country

A liberal economy where taxation delivers fairness.

Sustainable, balanced, competitive, fair. To get the kind of growth we want, we must break down the vested interests - the enemies of growth that stand in the way of future prosperity.

We are prepared to take them on. We will name and shame those standing in the way of that central national purpose.

TRADE

Free trade has been a liberal rallying call for centuries. Offering gains to countries around the world and especially for Britain, with our quality exports and trading history.

Today our trade policy is being brilliantly led by Ed Davey.

The inception of the European single market a quarter of a century ago helped create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

Astonishingly, the single market is not yet complete. Huge areas of the European economy are still not fully open to British firms - especially in the services and energy sectors.

Completing this work will support growth, jobs and competitiveness not just in Britain but across the whole of Europe.

There's an opportunity for Britain to lead this agenda right now - as we did so successfully in the 1980s.

As the Eurozone seeks to deepen its integration - and we need it to do so more quickly - they will need our support. And they will get it.

Sadly, eurosceptics on left and right still fail to understand Winston Churchill's insight that sharing sovereignty strengthens our influence and isolation weakens us. Scottish

Nationalists make the same mistake.

We'll never let the anti-European isolationists or nationalists frustrate our national interest.

They are enemies of growth.

Fortunately, coalition ministers are united in pursuing a policy of practical, pragmatic engagement in the EU.

Nick Clegg and I are working with David Cameron and George Osborne to make deepening, strengthening, and deregulating the single market a central aim of Britain's European policy - because it will bring jobs and growth.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Too many businesses are being held back by congested roads, slow railways, inadequate broadband.

At the spending review last year, we looked at infrastructure spending in the round, picking only the most economically valuable projects from across government for funding.

And as a result, we're investing more in the transport network over these 4 years than Labour managed in the last 4. The redevelopment of New Street Station here in Birmingham, the Mersey gateway bridge, Crossrail in London, and a national high speed rail network.

And we have prioritised the money to invest to make sure that high speed broadband gets to every part of the country.

Now more than ever, we need to get on with this work.
But there's a major vested interest in the way. Bureaucracy, rules and red tape that mean it takes years to get things done. A planning system that can take more than a decade to allow even modest developments to go forward.

It has to change. And under the coalition it will.

I know there are concerns about our planning reforms. So it's important to understand what we're really doing. The presumption of sustainable development is right because it establishes the right balance.

Local communities in the driving seat, local protections in place and yes more local homes and local jobs.

So while it is politically contentious - we will reform planning.

As Chief Secretary, I set the rules that control public spending. Mostly, that's about making sure we stick within our budget, which I'm sure you can imagine doesn't always make me very popular.

On infrastructure, I'm pressing departments to make sure they deliver their plans on schedule.

And we need to do more. More to help support jobs and growth in our communities.

Because growth can't be imposed from the centre - it must be driven by businesses, communities and local authorities.

They are critical to delivering the jobs and homes that our communities need.

So I'd like to tell you about the next steps in our Plan for Growth.

To support local growth, I can today announce my decision to reduce the interest rate offered to local authorities by the Public Works Loan Board to finance the £13bn of debt needed to leave the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system.

I've listened to local authority concerns that this is a one-off transaction within the public sector and should be financed as such.

Let me put it simply - an extra £100m every year that councils can then reinvest in housing.

And I want to take a further step to support local growth.

Across the country, projects are being held back by tough market conditions, difficult cash flow and a lack of confidence. Projects where people could be working but aren't.

That is why I'm announcing today the creation of a new Growing Places Fund.

Half a billion pounds that will kick start developments that are currently stalled.

Half a billion pounds that will deliver key infrastructure and create jobs.

Putting local areas in the driving seat, to boost the local economy and get people into work.

Providing flexibility to local areas to recycle funding for other projects once development is completed.

In South Gloucestershire, £300 million of private investment, 3,000 jobs and 2,200 homes is being unlocked with £6 million of public money to build a link road. Just think what we will be able to do with £500 million.

Unlocking local growth by freeing businesses to grow, creating jobs, and freeing councils to build housing. Liberal Democrats in government, on your side.

BANKS

We're on your side when it comes to the banks too.

Delivering on our promise to protect the taxpayer from the cost of future bailouts. Never again should bankers go to the casino with their stakes guaranteed by the rest of us.

That's why we commissioned the Vickers report

It's why we welcomed his recommendations on ring-fencing.

It's why we welcomed his call to extend competition in the banking sector.

And it's why we will legislate to protect future taxpayers in this Parliament.

TAX

Of course, our main tool to help low and middle income families with the pressures they are facing is the tax system.

Thanks to Liberal Democrats there is genuine progress.

And I'm not just talking about fuel duty cuts for our remotest communities, though I expect we will have that in place next year.

This year, the average worker is paying £200 less income tax than last year. Next year, the bill will come down by another £120. By the end of this Parliament, most working people will be paying £700 less income tax a year.

Conference, an income tax threshold of £10,000 was the first priority in our manifesto. Now it's the first tax priority of the government. We should be proud that in government our ideas are making a real difference to every working family in Britain.

But we shouldn't rest on our laurels. In the next Parliament, I want us to go further; our aspiration should be that someone working full time on the minimum wage should pay no income tax at all.

An income tax threshold of £12,500 - think what that would do to work incentives, think what it would mean for basic fairness.

Let's put that on the front page of our next manifesto.

Some people have argued that we should change our tax priorities and focus our limited resources on cutting taxes for the wealthiest instead.

At a time of austerity, this argument simply beggars belief. If we are all in this together, those with the broadest shoulders must bear the greatest burden.

Fair taxation of the wealthiest is key to our deficit reduction plan. Of course, if a better way can be found to raise the money from this group, I will be willing to consider it.

But right now we must focus relentlessly on those who are struggling.

And we need to make sure tax owed is tax paid.

Last year, I announced a package of investment to strengthen our fight against tax evasion, as well as tax avoidance.

Let me tell you how we're getting on.

This year, an additional 2,250 HMRC staff will move into new anti-evasion and avoidance jobs.

This month, over 1,000 of these jobs are being advertised.

And already this package is bearing fruit.

I promised you we'd collect an extra £7bn a year by the end of the Parliament;

And I can tell you we're already on track to raise £2bn this year.

It took 12 years for the previous Government to take action against the wealthiest 5,000 people some of who weren't paying their fair share of tax.

We can do better than that.

In less than a month's time, a new 'affluent team' will be place. This team will look specifically at the next 350,000 wealthiest taxpayers.

These are the people who pay or should pay the 50p rate of tax. And my message to the small minority who don't pay what they owe is simple, I agree with the Chancellor. "We will find you and your money" and you will pay your fair share.

CONCLUSION

Economic credibility comes from doing the right thing - that's why Labour lost it.

At the next election, we can make sure there will be only one party that people trust to
both handle the economy and deliver fairness - the Liberal Democrats.

We'll win that trust by sticking to our guns, especially when times are tough.

We'll do that by levelling with people about the scale of the challenge we face, not offering false promises as Labour did.

By delivering our aspiration to rebuild a more sustainable and balanced economy.

By showing that we understand the fears and the pressures on the people of this country, and share their ambition for a better Britain.

Most of all, we will do that by building a shared sense of national economic purpose so that we are working alongside every person in this country to restore our prosperity.

Do you remember how Gordon Brown liked to conclude his speeches?

Long lists - did you find them annoying? I know I used to.

But not now, with so many Lib Dem achievements already in place, I can't resist:

A clear plan to deal with the deficit, removing barriers to business growth, investing in infrastructure, promoting free trade and competition, sorting out the banks,
tackling tax avoidance, and cutting taxes for those who need it most.

That is the economic policy of the Liberal Democrats in government and it is a record to be proud of.

Thank you

Commenting, Baroness (Sal) Brinton said:

"Part-time students make up almost half of all students. The Government's higher education policy means that for the first time since fees were introduced, they won't pay a penny up front.

"Without a doubt, this will encourage people who wouldn't otherwise have been able to afford it, to come back to education.

"But we can still go further. Today Liberal Democrats supported calls to ensure both part-time and full-time students are eligible to begin repayments at the same time.

"This will ensure part-time students are treated fairly, create a level playing field and promote wider participation in our universities."

Good morning conference.

"Education… beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery."

The quote is from Horace Mann, the great 19th century American reformer. But it speaks to the instincts of liberals here with as much resonance as then.

The scandal is that though it should be true, it isn't.

Commenting, Nick Clegg said:

"I am very proud to be joined today by some outstanding candidates who are the first of many people to take part in the Leadership Programme.

"Increasing the diversity of our elected representatives is an absolute priority for me and the Liberal Democrats. To best represent Britain, we need to have candidates from all walks of life and all backgrounds.

"The Leadership Programme will be key to ending the too male and too pale image of our party and I am immensely looking forward to working with them over the next few years."

Welcome to Birmingham, a city with a great, outspoken liberal tradition. The home of Joe Chamberlain, where Gladstone called for Home Rule in one of the most rousing speeches of his life, and where Lloyd George nearly lost his life when he spoke out against the Boer War. Now it's the home of those great modern day, outspoken liberals - John Hemming and Lorely Burt.

I have spent the last few weeks criss-crossing the country, speaking to as many of you as possible, hearing your concerns and answering your questions. We did what Lib Dems do: discussed, debated, argued - honestly and respectfully. There has never been a gathering of Liberal Democrats in our history that hasn't seen some sort of disagreement. These meetings were no different, but they reminded me that above all else the Liberal Democrats are a family. We all felt that in May when good friends and dedicated colleagues lost their seats. And I think we all felt it this summer when we heard the tragic news of the untimely death of Andrew Reeves. No one embodied the passion, the dedication, and the warmth, of the Liberal Democrats like Andrew. And I thought it was particularly fitting, given his passion for social media, that so many people paid tribute to him on Twitter that he became one of the top trending topics in the country. To say that Andrew will be greatly missed is a huge understatement. He was there in good times and bad, one of us, one of the family.

Like all families, we have our faults too. That's why it was great to hear Chris Lucas speak so eloquently earlier about putting one of them right. I stood before you at the rally in Sheffield and said that we are too male and too pale, that if we want to represent all of the country then we must have all of the country represented in us. I look forward to formally launching our Leadership Programme tonight and helping to deliver a party that better reflects our country.

I'd also like to pay tribute to another member of our family - Chris Fox - who is standing down as Chief Executive in the next few months. Chris has done a fantastic job since he took over in 2009. He has modernised and professionalised our party operation, culminating in the move from Cowley Street to the new headquarters in Great George Street this summer. His legacy is a finely tuned political operation that is ready and able to take us on to bigger and better things. Chris has been Chief Executive at a really challenging time for our Party and we all owe you Chris a really heartfelt thanks.

So, The Liberal Democrats are a family. There are those who wish to drive a wedge between us - our opponents, the vested interests in politics and the media who want to put us back in our place. They won't succeed. Because whether you consider yourself more of a social democrat or a classical liberal, whether your hero is Gladstone or Keynes, Paddy Ashdown or Shirley Williams, we are all, to one degree or another, all of the above. We share the same inheritance. We are cut from the same cloth. We are Liberal Democrats.

Like all families, we have our share of rows - I'm sure we'll have one or two
this week - but they are rows for a reason. To get NHS reform right, to keep fair taxes as our priority, to keep the government green. But after we've had our debates we get out there together and fight for it, even when it is uncomfortable or even unfashionable. Telling hard truths. Asking what Jo Grimond called the 'prickly questions' of politics. And when we've set ourselves to something we don't give up, no matter how long it takes. We never oppose for the sake of opposition but we never shrink from telling it like it s and fighting for what is right. If that makes us a bit awkward, a bit challenging, a bit difficult, so be it. We are prepared to be awkward. It's the same quality that makes Liberal Democrat ministers fight tooth and nail in their departments for the things we believe in. In government, it means sometimes we have to be awkward. As our Coalition partners are finding out on a daily basis, we are not here to make things easy. We're here to put things right.

What you told me is that we're not getting across clearly enough what we are achieving in government. You have heard tonight how we are delivering in government - fair taxes, a fair start for children, building a new green economy and fixing our broken politics. These are the things we put on the front page of our manifesto and now we are delivering them for our country. And more than that - whether it's the environment, civil liberties, Europe, localism, pensions, ending child detention, boosting apprenticeships - the list goes on. This government has Liberal Democrat written through it like a stick of Brighton Rock.

We didn't win the election so we can't do everything we want to, but we are doing a remarkable amount. Make no mistake - we are punching above our weight. The BBC recently reported research showing that three quarters of our manifesto is being delivered in government - more than the Conservative manifesto. Not bad given we have just eight percent of the MPs in Westminster. And our liberal voice is loud and clear.

On the NHS - your vote at spring conference in Sheffield were carried into the corridors of Whitehall, resulting in real change. On Rupert Murdoch - Liberal Democrats have been in the lead, taking on the vested interests in the media. On human rights - I am proud to stand up for one of the absolute cornerstones of our free, liberal society. This Coalition government has a distinct Liberal Democrat voice and you will hear it.

But we can't have all our fights in public. While times are hard, while people are struggling, the last thing people want is to see the nation's leaders squabbling and point scoring. That's why I can't tell you about every debate we have behind closed doors. But rest assured, we are fighting for Liberal values every day.

I'm also proud that we are proving that we can do things differently. That politicians of different parties can come together and put the country first. Remember before the General Election when we were being told a hung parliament would lead to chaos, that government would grind to a halt and the economy would fall off a cliff. Well it didn't. We have proved the doubters wrong. We are proving, every day, that coalition politics works. As someone who has always believed in electoral reform, in pluralism, in the idea that people are better served if we look for common ground instead of tribal division, that makes me very proud.

We may not agree with everything our coalition partners say - they certainly don't agree with everything I say - but that's the point. We have not become the same and we never will. We are putting our differences aside and putting the country first.

These are tough times. If we had been able to choose when to enter government for the first time in nearly 70 years I doubt many of us would choose to do so in the hardest economic conditions in our lifetimes. But we can also be proud of what we are proving about ourselves.

We could have bottled it. We could have taken the easy way out, washed our hands of any responsibility and let the Conservatives deal with the mess on their own. We could have stood on the sidelines and watched a government that couldn't even command a majority in the House of Commons try to tackle an economy teetering on the edge of a cliff. That would have been cowardly and it would have confirmed so many people's worst suspicion about us - that when push comes to shove we'd prefer to shout from the sidelines than take responsibility. We didn't do that. We did the right thing. We rose to the challenge. And we did it knowing it meant working with our political enemies and almost certain short-term unpopularity.

People can no longer claim we're not up to the job. They can no longer say we don't have it in us to put our necks on the line for the good of the country. We are proving every day that we are no longer a luxury vote or a protest vote or, worst of all, a wasted vote. We are proving that we can be trusted to govern - from the centre, for the people, for the whole nation. We are the only party that can honestly claim to represent the entire country - from Land's End to John O'Groats - and we are proving we can put the whole country's interests first. Taking the difficult decisions but making a positive difference to people's lives too. Cutting taxes, not for the rich but for millions of people on low and middle incomes. Helping pensioners by restoring the earnings link. Creating a quarter of a million new apprenticeships. A political family doing this together, showing we have the courage of our convictions and creating a better country for our children.

In difficult times you need to know two things about your government: that it has the strength to take the decisions needed to fix the big problems; and that there are people in that government who are looking out for you. Those people are there. They're in government and on your side. They're called Liberal Democrats.