Mike Treleaven chosen as the official candidate for the Totnes Liberal Democrats

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 15th Apr 2005

Adrian Sanders MP congratulating Mike following his official adoption

At Mike's adoption meeting Adrian Sanders said: "We Liberal Democrats prize freedom of the individual, underpinned by a safety net for the vulnerable in our society. We are defenders of public services, free at the point of use. We are internationalist in outlook - pro UN, pro-commonwealth and pro engagement with Europe. Our Liberal Background makes us wary of an over-mighty state and dedicated to civil liberties. We are enthusiasts for the green agenda and see ourselves as custodians, not exploiters, of the planet.

The country in which we live is very different from the vision we have and if either of the other two party's are able to dominate the next parliament it will move further away from the agenda we wish to set and which millions of our fellow citizens share.

The fight is on for the kind of country we wish to live in. It is our consistency of principle and our consistency of purpose in a united way that has stood us - the Liberal Democrats - in such good stead throughout the course of the the turbulent and at time tumultuous parliament that has just been dissolved.

We have stood up to this most authoritarian Government time and again, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, while the Conservative opposition has either sat on its hands or jumped in behind Labour on Iraq, on ID cards, on ending the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

And look, as we enter this election, what they are offering.

More of the same with Labour and the same with knobs on with the Tories.

The events of the past few weeks show us what the Conservatives feel makes for an effective campaign. Picking up on issues designed to shore up their core vote - immigration, asylum, and gypsies.

No mention of water charges, Council tax or raising the incomes of poor.

Their new campaign chief refers to their chosen platform as 'dog whistle issues'. I don't call them that. I call them playing and pandering to the politics of fear.

How hard is it to keep our hospitals clean they ask - a lot harder thanks to contracting out.

It's not racist to impose limits on immigration - it is if you don't distinguish between genuine claims for asylum and those who enter the country illegally.

Are you thinking what we're thinking - no, I'm remembering what you choose to forget.

We will have none of this scaremongering and negative campaigning as Liberal Democrats.

What we're going to do over coming weeks is to address with real solutions to the problems that people in our constituencies - face every day of the week.

And everyone of our candidates will be setting out this challenge to the Labour and Conservative parties alike: start giving some realistic answers to the questions that people really are asking.

Take, for example, the issue of our students. Many people here today were fortunate enough to get the opportunity of a full student grant; to emerge from university with a degree; without debt round their necks. And that university opportunity probably led to every other opportunity that has come their way.

We don't just oppose top up and student tuition fees because we disagree with the policy. We oppose them because there is no more nauseating sight than politicians

pulling up the ladder of opportunity behind them. And we're not going to.

What will the others do about the council tax?

It's unfair, it's regressive, it hits the poorest the hardest - especially the vulnerable pensioners. Well, we've got an answer all right: we'll replace it. We'll scrap the council tax and we'll bring in a fair local income tax based on peoples' ability to pay.

6 million pensioners would end up paying no local tax at all. Your typical household would be £450 better off. It's a permanent solution to the problem - not the one-off quick fix being offered by Labour.

What will the others do about pensions?

What will they do to address the scandalous discrimination against women in the operation of our pensions system? Why is it that so many people are being made to retire on poverty levels of pension then made to jump through means-tested hoops to claim the money they are entitled to? Well, as Liberal Democrats, we'll introduce a citizen's pension starting with the over 75s.

We'll base it on residency, not on contributions, so that for the first time never in British society, women will have an automatic entitlement to a full state pension in their own right. And it means an extra £100 each and every month for the pensioner who qualifies under our proposals.

In the NHS we're going to put patients first - scrap the targets that interfere with the hospitals being cleaned. And put an end to the hidden waiting lists, so that when you have an illness you can find out as quickly as possible what's wrong so the treatment

can start as soon as possible.

We'll also ensure a better start in life for our children by reducing the class sizes in infant schools.

And instead of the expensive compulsory identity cards we are going to be arguing out there for 10,000 more police on the streets.

That the people's priority and that's the Liberal Democrat policy at the same time. We're also going to introduce free personal care for the elderly as we've done where we've got Liberal Democrat ministers in Scotland so that those suffering the long term diseases like Alzheimer's - they would at last get help with their dressing, their washing, their feeding.

And all of these policies - they're credible, they're costed. And as a society they're affordable because unlike the other two we've put specific price tags on those policies and we've said outright how we would fund them.

Be straight with people like this in coming weeks. We will raise the top rate of tax for the top 1% of earners. A 50p rate on every pound earned over £100,000 does mean an end to student tuition fees, the introduction of free personal care for the elderly and

holding down local taxes.

And remember where we've costed all that we've kept a margin still built in. All our other tax proposals are revenue neutral - an important point when we come under attack from our opponents.

And with existing government spending we're going to do things differently as well. We're going to switch £5bn a year from current spending on to our priorities - and we believe those are the voters' priorities:

No compulsory ID cards,

None of these ineffective baby bonds;

Fewer government departments.

And the benefits are there for all to see -

better pensions,

lower class sizes,

lower health service charges,

more police.

It all adds up. The Liberal Democrat balance sheet is, indeed, balanced.

And on Iraq - remind people at every opportunity that we are the party arguing now for a phased withdrawal of British troops when the UN mandate runs out at the end of this calendar year.

So as we look back on the last Parliament we can claim rightly to have been the real opposition to the Labour government; over Iraq, over top-up fees, ID cards, the council tax. And the Conservatives on each and every one of these issues have lined up with Labour or flip-flopped on the issue under dispute.

Perhaps most proudly of all - in the Commons and in the Lords - the last major parliamentary legislative engagement as we got to the end of this parliament, our peers and our MPs stood up against Labour's authoritarian instincts and in defense of British fundamental civil liberties.

Be proud of it and proclaim that fact as well. That is why there are no limits to our ambition and there are no no-go areas for the Liberal Democrats.

I believe we will take seats from both Labour and Conservative in each and every region and nation of the country.

You have in Mike Treleaven a worthy champion. Someone who will fight for all of the communities of the Totnes constituency. For town and country, for fishing and tourism, agriculture and retail, for pensioners and parents, for business and public services, for all of the people all of the time.

Don't waste a second between now and polling day, walk that extra mile, climb that extra staircase, make that extra phone call, donate that last fiver.

12 votes is all it took in Torbay in 1997. Three households might have made all the difference to the result. So don't knock off early and don't stop until after the polling stations have closed.

The future of our country is depending on you. Our success is in your hands.