20/09/2016 - Live Afternoon Session Liberal Democrats Conference

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the leader of the Liberal Democrats,

Tim Farron. Well, thank you very much. You may

have worked this out for yourselves, but I'm now the longest serving

leader of a UK wide political party. I've seen off all the heavyweights,

David Cameron, Nigel Farage, Natalie Bennett, Roy Hodgson, Mel and Sue.

Liberal Democrats are good at lots of things but the thing we are best

that is confounding expectations. APPLAUSE. We were expected to shy

away from taking power but we stepped up and we made a difference.

We were expected to disappear after the 2015 election but we bounced

back. We are almost twice the size we were then. We've gained more than

twice as many council seats as the other parties. I've been doing a bit

of confounding expectations myself. You see, I am away northern

working-class middle-aged bloke. According to the experts, I should

have voted leave. May I assure you I did not. But friends of mine did.

People in my family did. I've spent most of my adult life, working and

raising a family in Westmorland. I'm massively protocol at my home. But I

grew up in Preston, where I learned my values and was raised in a loving

family, where there was not much money around at a time when it

appeared that the Thatcher government seemed utterly determined

to put every adult I knew out of work and on the scrapheap. But our

people and community were not for breaking. The great city of Preston

is. It is proud of its. Ambitious about the future. It is the

birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the police were Cromwell

one the most important battle in the Civil War. Which links rather neatly

to the referendum. Preston voted 53% to leave. In some parts of

Lancashire, two thirds of people voted to leave. I respect those

people and if you will forgive me, they are my people. I am still

utterly convinced that Britain should remain in Europe. I was

convinced on the 21st of June. I will continue to be not because I'm

a starry eyed pro-European with order to joy as my ringtone. Because

I am patriarch and I believe it is in our national interest to be in.

For jobs, to stop terrorism, to catch criminals, to be a good

neighbour, to stand tall, to Stanhope Road, tomato. Above all

because I believe Britain is an open, tolerant and United country,

the opposite of the bleak vision of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.

Britain did not become Great Britain on fear, division and isolation and

there is no country called Little Britain. There is nothing so

dangerous as nationalism and cheap identity politics. But there is

nothing wrong with identity. I am very proud of my identity. I am a

Lancastrian, I am a northerner, I am English, I am British, I am

European, I am all of those things, none of them contradict one another

and no campaign of lies, hate and fear will rob me of Will.I.Am.

-- Rob me of who I am. But we lost. We lost, didn't we. I was born in

Preston but the football mad half of my family is from Blackburn, so I am

Blackburn Rovers fan. It's cheap and disappointment is in my blood. So

those who say I'm a bad loser are quite wrong. I am a great loser.

I've had loads of practice. But the referendum result was like a

bereavement. I was devastated, I am devastated. The Liberal Democrats

worked harder than anybody else in that campaign, we put blood, sweat

and tears into it. Cameron and Osborne churned out statistics. It

is easy to say after such an narrow result that we are a divided country

but in many ways we are, and a split is just a manifestation of that

division. Britain today is far too unequal. There is too much access

and too much poverty. Too much wealth in some parts of the country

and too little in others. A couple of weeks after the referendum I went

back to Preston and we were at the church hall for a public meeting.

When my office booked the place they had no idea that it actually meant

something quite deeply to me personally because the last time I'd

been in that church, I was therefore my Nan's funeral. The last time I

walked out of it was as a pall bearer for her. I was in a

reflective mood when I began the meeting. There were perhaps 70 or 80

people there and most of them had voted to leave. Most of them fitted

my demographic. They were not diehards mostly. I reckon three

quarters of them could have been persuaded to vote remain up until

two weeks before. One guy said the clincher was George Osborne's

punishment budget. When he said that, pretty much the whole room

agreed with him. There was near universal acknowledgement that this

had been the pivotal moment. Here was this guy who they did not really

like and who they felt did not really like them appearing on the

TV, bullying them into doing something they were not sure they

wanted to do and they reacted. If you base your political strategy on

divide and rule do not be surprised if the people you have divided

decide to give you a kicking. I don't blame the people in that

church hall for their anger, I share it, I am angry, and I am angry at

the calculating forces of darkness who care nothing for the working

people of this country, nothing to the NHS, nothing for those who

struggle to get by, and who exploited that anger to exit from

Europe with a move that will hurt the poorest hardest. The people in

that church hall in Preston voted differently to me but I thought we

are on the same side here. We see a Westminster and Whitehall centric

approach from politicians and the media, treating the provinces as

curiosities. Those people see a divide between those who win and

lose. When the country is looming they do not see the benefit and when

the country is in decline the first to be hit. At that meeting they

spoke about low wages, add housing, strains on hospitals and schools.

The problems were not caused by the European Union, they were caused by

powerful people who took them for granted, by politicians who spent

decades chasing cheap headlines and short-term success for their own

political careers and never acting in the long-term interest of the

whole country. Those people in that room wanted to give the powerful

kicking so they did. I wanted Britain to remain in the European

Union and I still do but we've got to listen and understand why

millions of people thought it to leave. So I want to do two things. I

want to persuade those who voted leave that we understand and respect

their reasons but we are determined to take head-on the things about

written the things that have left so many people feeling ignored and I

want to give them their say over what comes next.

So, Theresa May says Brexit means Brexit. Thanks for clearing that up.

Absolute genius. Nearly three months since the referendum and we have a

government with new departments, new titles, a new Prime Minister but no

plan, no vision, no clue and no leadership. She did so little in the

remain campaign that she actually made it look like Jeremy Corbyn pool

the shift. Today, the be scens of leadership

from the Prime Minister is astonishing. The be scens of clarity

as to what will happen to our country is a disgrace. Three months

on, it is not good enough to have brain storming sessions at Chequers

will investment and jobs steadily bleed away, while our standing and

relevance in the world diminishes to the direct proportion to the number

of foreign visits by Boris Johnson, while British industry is crying out

for direction, for certainty for any idea what lies ahead, make no

mistake, the Conservative Party has now lost the right to call itself

the party of business. It has lost the right to call itself the party

of the free market. APPLAUSE

The Conservative Party no longer supports business, no longer

understands the need for calm, economic pragmatism, but instead

pursues a Nationalist, protectionist fantasies of the Brexit

fundamentalists who have won the day indeed. My message to business in

this country - if you are backing today the Conservative Party, you

are funding your own funeral. There is now...

APPLAUSE There is now only one party that

believes in British business - large and small - that believes in

entrepreneurship and innovation, that is the Liberal Democrats. We

are the free market, free trade, probusiness party now.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE So Theresa May, please tell us what

Brexit really means. You have had three months. You are the Prime

Minister. Stop dithering. What is your plan?

APPLAUSE The Liberal Democrats have a plan.

We know what we want and we know where we want to take our country.

When Theresa May does agree a deal with the European Union, we want the

people to decide. Not a rerun of the referendum. Not a second referendum

but a referendum on the terms of the as yet unknown Brexit deal. If the

Tories say, we've had enough referendums, I say - you started it.

LAUGHTER We had a democratic vote in June. We

cannot start this process with democracy and end it with a stitch

up. If we trusted the people to vet for our departure, then we must

trust the people to vote for our destination.

APPLAUSE Millions of people have not been

well served by generations of politicians, who put their own

short-term political needs before the long-term interests of the

people they were supposed to be serving and politics is about

service. David Cameron's handling of our relationship with Europe is a

master class in selfish, swallow, short-termism, party before country

at every turn. The Conservatives risked our country's very future,

the life chances of millions of our young people all in a failed attempt

to unite their fractured party. David Cameron risked our future and

he lost. While he waltzes off to riches and retirement, our country

is plunged into economic uncertainty, insecurity and

irrelevance on the world stage. The Tories took the gamble, but Britain

will pay the price. What an absolute disgrace.

APPLAUSE But their short-termism does not

stop with Brexit. Look at their handling of the refugee crisis. The

biggest crisis facing our continent since the Second World War. They did

nothing to help right until the point, that they thought it was in

their short-term interest to act. When the photo of the body of

three-year-old Alan Kurdy face down in the stand was on the front page

of every newspaper. The people were shocked, heartbroken. They demanded

action and the Tories did the bare minimum. But since then, the front

pages have moved on. They have barely lifted a finger. Now there

are some on the centre left who are squeamish about patriotism, but not

me. I am proud of my country. I hate it when my Government makes me

ashamed. When I was on the island of Lesbos last year, after we helped to

London a flimsy boat of desperate refugees, I want handing out bottles

of water alongside other volunteers. A few yards away was an aid worker

from New Zealand, who knew I was a British politician. She looked at me

and she shouted, "Stop handing out bottles of water and take some F-ing

refugees because that is how Britain is seen - mean and not pulling its

weight. Maybe that doesn't bother some people, but it bothers me.

Because I am proud of who we are. I am proud of who we are.

APPLAUSE I am proud of Britain. We are always

a sanctuary for the desperate, the abused and persecuted. I will not

stand by and watch my country become smaller, meaner and more selfish.

That is not Britain. We are better than that. A year on, a year on, the

crisis is worse. It is not better, not that you would ever know it. We

don't see those desperate families in the media every day now. We

aren't confronted so often with the knowledge that they are just like us

and that they need our help. Much to the Government's delight, compassion

fatigue has set in. The news has moved on. We've had Brexit, a new

Prime Minister, a Labour leadership contest and none of that makes a

blind bit of difference to a nine-year-old kid stuck alone and

hungry and cold in a camp in northern Greece. Or to the family

this morning fleeing their burning camp. The Government wants us to

forget this crisis. It's too difficult to solve, too risky to

take a lead, we have not forgotten. We will not forget. Those children

could be our children. How dare the Government abandon them?

Short-termism in politics goes back a lot further than just this

Government. You've got to look at the way of Conservatives in the 80s

and Labour in the 90s treated the banks, sucking up, deregulating,

encouraging a culture of risk and greed instead of building an economy

that served the long-term needs of the whole country. They put all

their eggs in one basket, the banks. And for a while, things were good

for Britain. Britain boomed. They didn't invest in modern

infrastructure that could benefit the north of England or Scotland or

Wales or the Midlands or the south-west. They didn't invest in

the skills the next generation would need. They didn't invest in our

manufacturing base. All they did was allow the banks to take bigger and

bigger risks, build up bigger and bigger liabilities and when the

banks failed, we were all left paying the price. In lost jobs,

lower wages, in debt, in cuts to public services. Short-term

thinking, long-term consequences. Nowhere is this danger posed more by

short-term thinking greater than with the future of our national

Health Service. Can you remember a time, when there were not reports on

the news, almost daily, saying the National Health Service was in

crisis? For years, politicians have chosen to paper over the cracks

rather than come clean about what it will really take, what it will

really cost, not just to keep the NHS afloat, but to give people the

care and treatment that they deserve. That means finally bringing

the NHS and social care together. APPLAUSE

In my grandpa's journey through Alzheimer's, he had good care in the

home he spent his last couple of years in. But when he first became

ill, after the death of my grandma, the place he was put in was

despicable - lonely, unclean, uncaring. I can still smell it now.

It's a few years back, but as I fought to get him out of that place

and into somewhere better, it occurred to me this was a standard

experience for too many older people and for their loved ones. Maybe some

people can just shrug and accept this, but I can't. I've seen enough

terrible old people's homes and I've seen enough people who've had to

wait forever for treatment, particularly people who don't have

someone to fight their corner. It is not civilised to let people slip

through the net. It is not civilised towards the people who love them,

who go out of their way to try and make their lives easier, when

everything else is making their lives harder, it's not civilised and

it is not good enough. I worry about this, not just for the NHS, in

general, but if I'm honest, for myself and my family. We are, if

we're all lucky, going to grow old. We all deserve to know that no

matter what happens, we will be cared for properly and treated with

dignity and respect. If the great liberal William Beveridge had

written his blueprint today when people are living to the age that's

renow, there's no doubt he would have proposed a national health and

care service. He would have been appalled about the child who has to

lock after their disabled parent or the hundreds of thousands of women

across the country who are unable to work because they are

disproportionately the care givers. Let's today decide to do what

Beveridge would do. Let's create that national health and care

service. APPLAUSE

And let's stop being complacent about our NHS. Of course, we have a

brilliant NHS, best staff in the world, free care at the point of

access, but we are spending far less on it every year than we need to. Of

the 15 original EU countries, including Spain, Greece and

Portugal, we rank behind them in 13th place when it comes to health

spending. It would take tens of billions of pounds a year just to

bring ourselves up to their average. It is not good enough. So we need to

face the truth, the hard truth that the NHS needs more money, a lot more

money. Not just to stop it lurching from crisis to crisis, but so it can

meet the needs and challenges it will face in the years ahead, so

that it can be the service we all need for the long-term.

APPLAUSE That means having the most Frank and

honest conversation about the NHS that the country has ever had. What

Beveridge did for the Twentieth Century we must do for the 21st

century. In Norman lamb we have the politician who is most trusted and

respected by the health profession and deservedly so.

CHEERING Norman and I are clear. We are not going to join the ranks of

politician who's are too scared of losing votes to face up to what

really needs to be done. We will go to the British people with the

results of our Beveridge commission and offer a new deal for health and

social care, honest about the cost, bold about the solution and if the

only way to fund a Health Service that meets the needs of everyone is

to raise taxes, Liberal Democrats will raise taxes.

APPLAUSE Short-term thinking is the scourge

of our education system too. Governments have designed an

education system, especially at primary school level, focussed not

on developing young people for later life, for work or further study but

on getting them through the wrong kinds of tests. It's not about

whether kids can solve problems or converse in other languages or even

their own, it's about statistics, measurements, league tables. Instead

of building an education system we have built a quality assurance

industry. It is no wonder so many teachers are frustrated. No wonder

so many leave the profession. Parents deserve to know that their

child's teacher is focussed on teaching. Teachers are

professionally under valued, driven towards meeting targets instead of

developing young minds. As ever, it is the poorest kids who suffer the

most. We introduced the pupil premium.

This year, more than 2 million children will benefit from that

policy and I am so proud of that and of Kirsty Williams, who is making a

real difference, everyday, to the lives of children across Wales. The

pupil premium is not safe in the hands of Tories but it is safe in

her hands. That is what happens when you get into power. We need to do so

very much more. I talk about breaking down the barriers. I want

children to be opening their minds, not just passing tests. I want

schools to be places where people are inspired to learn, not stressed

out by test. I want to end the system of SATs in primary school, a

pressure that weighs heavily on children as young as six. What are

we doing wasting our children's education and the teacher talents on

ticking boxes? What are we doing in 2016 threatening to relegate 80% of

children to education's second division by returning to the 11

plus? Every child wants to send their kids

to a good school. That's probably right. Every parent, I mean. We need

better schools for all children, not just those who can pass an exam at

the age of 11. We cannot leave children behind. Over the last 40

years, millions of children, me included, had been liberated by

comprehensive education. Those kids would have been consigned to

second-class status in a secondary modern. It's important for us to

remember who made that happen. It was Shirley Williams. It was Shirley

Williams. Let's be clear. Defending education for all is not just about

being a liberal but it is personal. Surely, we will defend your legacy.

Assessment is vital, exams are important, but let's have assessment

that leads to a love of learning and breadth of learning that is relevant

to what children will need next at school. There is nothing more

long-term than the education of a child that stays with them for their

entire life. Let's end the box ticking and trust our teachers.

One thing you cannot accuse Jeremy Corbyn is thinking. His lot have

waited over 100 years for this. Finally, they've taken over the

Labour Party. Blake all good Marxists, they've seized the means

of production and even the nurseries, opening branches of

momentum kids, otherwise known as child Labour. Or my favourite, tiny

trots. The Liberal Democrats have never had any trouble with entry is

unless you include the Quakers. My problem with Jeremy Corbyn is

nothing personal. I used to see him quite a lot. In the Blair years he

was always in our lobby. But my problem with him is holding the

government to account is not a priority for him, winning elections

is a distraction, unless it is his own. It is baffling to see the

Labour Party arguing about whether or not they should be even trying to

win an election. Can you imagine that? The Liberal Democrats spent

decades out of power and then when the opportunity finally came in

incredibly difficult circumstances, when the easiest thing would have

been to walk away, we chose to take power because we knew the point of

politics is to put principles into action, to get things done. Not just

to feel good but to do good. We took power and we got crushed. So you

could forgive us for thinking twice about whether it is really worth it.

But of course it is worth it. Having fine principles but no power is

turning your back on the people who need you the most and letting

someone else win the day. We have huge crises in Britain today, in the

NHS, the economy, our relationship with the rest of the world, we have

a Tory government with the support of less than a quarter of the

electorate, led by Prime Minister nobody elected that has plunged our

country into chaos. They spent a year going for the working poor,

refugees and junior doctors and what have the Labour Party been doing,

going from each other. Instead of standing up to the Conservatives

they were sitting on the floor of half empty Virgin Trains. Maybe

Jeremy Corbyn thinks there are more important things but for millions of

people desperate for a properly funded home and an NHS, they cannot

wait. How dire the official opposition abandon them?

Whichever party you supported at the last election, we know that Britain

needs a decent, united opposition. If they've left the stage then we

will take the stage. People say this is a great opportunity but this is

more than that, it is duty. Britain needs a strong opposition and the

Liberal Democrats will be that strong opposition. Do you ever

listen to these Labour people arguing amongst themselves, throwing

around the word playwright as if it is the most offensive insult in the

world? Some of them refer to Gordon Brown as a playwright. -- Blairite.

Just to reassure you, I am not a Blairite. I was very proud to march

against his illegal invasion of Iraq. I was proud to stand with

Charles Kennedy and I was incredibly proud this summer when his brave

stance was vindicated in the Chilcott report. I was proud to be

in the party that stood up against his government's attempts to stamp

on civil liberties. I was proud of Vince Cable as he called out Tony

Blair's government's deregulation of the banks. But there is more to his

legacy than that. I kind of see Tony Blair the way I see the Stone Roses.

I preferred the early work. His government gave us the national

minimum wage and working tax credits. It gave us NHS investment

and a school building programme. I disagree with him a lot but will not

criticise him for those things. I respect him for believing that the

point of being in politics is to get stuff done and you can only get

stuff done if you win otherwise you're letting your opponent get

stuff done instead. In carbon's -- Jeremy Corbyn's rank they like to

talk about betrayal. There is no greater way to let down the people

you represent than to let your opponent win. I believe in working

across party lines. I'm prepared to work with people of all parties and

none if it will make lives better. But I could not work with Jeremy

Corbyn because he would never work with me. I wanted to work with him

during the referendum but he would not share a platform. Isolation was

more important to him. Labour is having a leadership contest in a few

days. Maybe Jeremy Corbyn will not be their leader, in which case it

will be on Smith. I don't know Owen Smith all that well. But unlike

Jeremy Corbyn he is certainly on our side of the European debate. If he

wins I want to make it very clear to him that I am open two working

together. There are others I would work with. There is a contest

happening for the cheer of the home affairs select committee. It's an

important post but with no offence, it's kind of a retirement job. Among

the contenders are Yvette Cooper, Caroline Flint, and Chuka Umunna.

What are these people doing jostling for position in a sideshow? The

government needs an opposition and progressives should put our

differences aside to hold them to account. If Jeremy Corbyn does win?

Where does that leave us? A conservative Brexit government

without us to restrain them. Reckless, divisive, prepared to risk

our future prosperity for their own short-term gain. A Labour Party that

has forgotten the people they are there to stand up for. Blatantly

unfit with no plan for the economy or the country, led by a man who is

obsessed with fighting the battles of the past and ignoring the damage

this government is doing to our future. There is a hall in the

centre of British politics and a huge opportunity for a party that

will stand up for an open, tolerant and united Britain. A rallying

point, for people who believe in evidence, moderation, who want fact

and not fear. Who want responsibility and not recklessness.

Who want to believe somebody is looking out for the good of the

country. There is a hall looking to be filled by a real opposition so we

will stand up to the Conservative Government. If Labour want to be the

opposition Britain needs then we will be.

That is what we are fighting for. We will rebuild this Britain if we win.

Here is my plan. We will dramatically rebuild our strength in

local government deliberately, passionately, effectively. Winning

council seats is our chance to serve our communities, to prove liberalism

into practice. Liberals believe in local government, I believe in local

government, every council seat matters to me. My challenge to you

is to pick award and when it. I will build the revival on victories in

every council in this country. And my plan includes growing,

continuing to grow our membership, our party has grown up 80% in 14

months. But that is merely a staging post. We will continue to build a

movement that can win at every level. I will lead the Liberal

Democrats as the only party committed to Britain in Europe with

a plan to let the people decide our future in a referendum on the as yet

non-existent Tory Brexit deal. I will lead the only party with a plan

for our country's long-term future - green, healthy, well educated,

outward looking, prosperous, secure. I will build the open, tolerant,

united party that can be the Opposition to this Conservative

Government on NHS under funding, on divisive grammar schools, on attacks

on British business, I will the Liberal Democrats to be ready to

fill the gap where an official Opposition should be. I want the

Liberal Democrats to be the strong, united Opposition.

APPLAUSE I want us to be audacious, ambitious

and accept the call of history. A Severnery ago, the -- century ago,

the liberals lost touch with their purpose and their voters and Labour

took their chance and became Britain's largest progressive party.

Today, I want us utterly ready and determined to take our chance as the

tectonic plates shift again. I did not accept the leadership of our

party so that we could look on from the side lines. I did it because our

destiny is to once again become one of the great parties of Government,

to be the place where liberals and progressives of all kinds damager to

provide the strong opposition that this country needs. That is my plan.

I need you to join me to fight for it.

APPLAUSE Let's be clear, we are talking about

doing a Trudeaux. He's better looking than me. He's got a tattoo.

I can fix one of those things, if you insist.

LAUGHTER I would not get into a boxing ring

with him, but I reckon I could have him in a fell race. But the point

is, his liberals leapt over an inadequate Opposition to defeat a

ring right government. Do you fancy doing that? Because I do. I do. Some

people will say steady on. You've only got eight MPs. Look, maybe for

the time being, some might be sceptical about us doing a Trudeaux,

but let's agree we can do an ash down, to take this party from a

handful of seats to dozens of seats, from the fringe to the centre, from

irrelevance to importance. What would doing an Ashdown mean for

Britain today? No-one believes whether the boundary changes happen

or not that Labour will gain a single seat from the Tories. Math

matically the SNP could only possibly take one seat off the

Tories. But there are dozens of Tory seats in our reach, which means that

the only thing standing between the Conservatives and a majority at the

next election is the revival of the Liberal Democrats, so let's make it

happen. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And we have to make it happen. Because there is a new battle

emerging here and across the whole western world, between the forces of

tolerant liberalism and intolerant, close-minded nationalism. Of all the

things that depressed me, the morning after the referendum, was

seeing Nigel Farage celebrating. That really took the biscuit. Here

is a man who fought a campaign that pandered to our worst instincts,

fear, anxiety, suspicion of others. And he is not alone. His victory was

welcomed by Marine Le Pen in France, Nationalists and pop lifts all

across Europe. -- populists all across Europe. Within a few weeks he

went in front of that breaking point poster, demonising refugees to

standing on a podium in Mississippi next to Donald Trump. Make no

mistake, Farage's victory is becoming the Government's agenda.

When the Government talks about a hard Brexit, that is what they mean,

a Brexit that cuts us off from our neighbours, no matter what the

consequences for people's jobs and livelihoods, a Brexit that toys with

the lives of hard working people, who have made Britain their home,

paid their way, immersed themselves in our communities, just more than a

million Brits have made their homes on the continent too. A Brexit that

will leave us poorer, weaker and less able to protect ourselves. But

we will not let Nigel Farage's vision for Britain win, to coin a

phrase, I want my country back. For people who say, can I risk

backing the Liberal Democrats - let me be blunt with you. The risk is

for you to do nothing. In 20 years' time, we're going to all be asked by

our kids, when our NHS, our school system, our unity, as a country has

been impour rished by 20-odd years of Tory rule and when our economy

has been relegated, our green industries trashed and our status

diminished after two decades of isolation from Europe, we're going

to be asked why did you let that happen? What did do you to try and

stop it? You might explain, well, we lost the referendum, so we had to

move on and live with it. Or you might explain, well, I was in the

Labour Party. Moment destroyed it, but I couldn't bring myself to leave

and back anybody else. They will look at you and they will say, why

didn't you even try? Why did you let us limp out of Europe? Why did you

stick with a party that handed the Conservatives unlimited power and

you will know then that you could have done something different. You

could have joined us. You could have fought back. You could have taken a

risk because joining the Liberal Democrats today, it is a risk. It is

a big ask, but let me be clear, as we stand on the edge of those two

horrific realities, Brexit and a Tory strangle hold on Britain, the

biggest risk is that you don't join us.

APPLAUSE So let's be absolutely certain of

this reality. The only movement with the desire and potential to stop the

calamity of Brexit and the tragedy of a generation of Conservative

majority rule is this movement, the Liberal Democrats. So you can

despair, if you want and accept the inevitability of a Tory Government

for the next quarter of a century or you can recognise that the Liberal

Democrats can prevent that inevitability, that means you, it

means us - together. Together we must fight to keep Britain open,

tolerant and united. Together, the Liberal Democrats must be the real

voice of opposition. Together, we must win. Thank you.