21/09/2011 Today at Conference

Evening all. Welcome to our final conference round-up with the Lib

Dems here in Birmingham where an unrepentant Nick Clegg told his

party that it had been in the national interest to join with the

Tories in forming a coalition, that there was no alternative to budget

deficit reduction, that Labour couldn't be trusted on the economy

and that if the Tories thought they could get out of the European Human

Rights Act, they better think again. Here are the highlights. This party,

the Liberal Democrats, we have now been in Government for 500 days.

Not easy, is it? None of us thought it would be a walk in the park. But

I suspect none of us predicted just how tough it would turn out to be.

We have lost support. We have lost seats. We lost a referendum. We

proved something about ourselves last year when we faced a historic

choice, whether or not to enter Government in coalition with the

Conservatives. Now the easy thing would have been to sit on the

opposition benches, throwing rocks at the Government as it tried to

get control of the public finances. It might even in the short run have

been more popular. But it wouldn't have been right. At that moment

Britain needed a strong Government. Burying your "head in the sand",

that is not liberal. Saddling our children with the nation's debt,

that's not fair. Labour says the Government is going too far too

fast. I say Labour would have offered too little too late.

APPLAUSE Imagine, for a moment, if Ed Miliband and Ed Balls had still

been in power, Gordon Brown's backroom boys, when Labour was

failing to balance the books, failing to regulate the financial

markets and failing to take on the banks. The two Eds, behind-the-

scenes lurking in the shadows, always plotting, always scheming,

never taking responsibility. At this time of crisis, what Britain

needs is real leadership. This is no time for the backroom boys.

APPLAUSE Labour's economy was based on bad debt and false hope. Labour

got us into this mess. They are clueless about how to get us out.

Another term of Labour would have been a disaster for our economy. So

don't for a moment let Labour get away with it, don't forget the

chaos, the fear of 2008 and never ever trust Labour again with the

economy. APPLAUSE Government has also brought

difficult decisions. Of course, the most heart-wrenching for me, for

all of us, was on university funding. Like all of you, I saw the

anger, I understand it. I felt it. I have learnt from it. I know how

much damage this has done to us as a party. By far, the most painful

part of our transition, from the easy promises of opposition to the

invidious choices of Government, the simple truth is that the

Conservatives and Labour were both set on increasing fees. In those

circumstances, we did the best thing we could. Working tirelessly

to ensure anyone who wants to go to university can. Freeing part-time

students from upfront fees for the first time, ensuring fairer

repayments for all graduates. But we failed to properly explain those

dilemmas. Right now, of course, our biggest concern is the economy. The

recovery is fragile, every worker, every family knows that. There is a

long hard road ahead. Just in the last few days alone, we have seen a

financial storm in the eurozone, rising unemployment, falling stock

markets. So we were right to pull the economy back from the brink.

Because, as Liberal Democrats, we act for the whole nation. In our

long, proud, liberal history, we have never, never served the media

moguls, the union barons, or the bankers. We do not serve and we

will never serve vested interests. Of all the claims Ed Miliband has

made, the most risible is that his party is the enemy of vested

interest. I mean, give me a break. LAUGHTER While we were campaigning,

for change in the banking system, they were on their prawn cocktail

offensive in the City. While we have led the charge against the

media barons, Labour has cowered before them for decades. We should

fix it fast. APPLAUSE In a coalition, we have two kinds of

power - the power to hold our coalition partners back and the

power to move the Government forwards. So we can keep the

Government to a liberal path, anchor the Government in the centre

ground. We were absolutely right to stop the NHS Bill in its tracks, to

ensure change on our terms, no arbitrary deadlines, no back door

privatisation, no threat to the basic principles at the heart of

our NHS. We are right to stand up for civil liberties, no retreat to

the liberal populism of the Labour years. We are right to keep

insisting on a fair tax system, asking the most of the people who

have the most. And we will always defend human rights at home as well

as abroad. APPLAUSE The European Convention on Human Rights and the

Human Rights Act are not, as some would have you believe, foreign

impositions. These are British rights, drafted by British lawyers,

forged in the aftermath of the atrocities of the Second World War,

fought for by Winston Churchill, so let me say something, really clear,

about the Human Rights Act. In fact, I will do it in words of one sill

billion. It is -- sylaable. It is Now, this summer, this summer, we

saw the consequences of a society in which some people feel they have

no stake at all. Nobody could be failed to be horrified by what we

saw during the riots. These weren't organised campaigns for change.

They were outbursts of greed. I will never forget the woman I met

in Tottenham who told me the clothes she stood in were the only

possessions she had left in the whole world after her home was

torched. The rioters are not the face of Britain's young people.

APPLAUSE The vast majority of our young people are good, decent and

doing the best they can. Don't condemn all of them because of the

actions of a few. APPLAUSE Do you know what really struck me? It was

how so many of those who did join the riots seemed to have nothing to

lose. It was about what they could get here and now, not what lies in

front of them, tomorrow, and in the years ahead, as if their own future

had little value. Too many of these young people had simply fallen

through the cracks. So, today, I am launching a new scheme to help the

children who need it most in the summer before they start secondary

school. A two-week summer school helping them to catch up in maths

and English and getting them ready for the challenges ahead. Because

we know this is a time when too many children lose their way. So

this is a �50 million investment to help them along the right path.

APPLAUSE So hold your heads up. Look our critics squarely in the

eye. This country would be in deep trouble today if we hadn't gone

into Government last year. And Britain will be a fairer nation

tomorrow because we are in Government today. Never apologise

for the difficult things we are having to do. We are serving a

great country at a time of great need. There are no short cuts, but

we won't flinch. Our values are strong, our instincts are good.

Reason, not prejudice, compassion, not greed, hope, not fear. APPLAUSE

Britain is our home. We will make it safe and strong. These are our

children. We will tear down every barrier they face and this is our

future. We start building it today. Nick Clegg. There was no mention of

any further economic stimulus in his speech, something Vince Cable

seems to have been pushing for. So as the applause for his leader died

down, I asked the Business Secretary if he had lost the

stimulus argument. Absolutely not. I spoke on Monday about the need

for stability and financial stability and sticking with our

deficit reduction commitments, but also for stimulating growth. This

is partly about some of the longer term measures we are doing to

attract inward investment, apprenticeship training and

technology and also some of the things that can happen, monetary

policy is one way. The kind of modest support for infrastructure

that Danny Alexander... You called for a new deal-style stimulus?

set out a whole series of measures about how the Government could

encourage growth without undermining or sacrificing...

deal-style - a new deal-style stimulus means a substantial new

deal, huge increase in Government investment. You are not going to

get that? I didn't use the phrase "new deal". Somebody else used it.

I was very careful... It was not very... I was careful in what I

argued. We need to have as much commitment as we can to investment

in the economy, Government money can leverage in a substantial

amount of private capital, the sort of thing we are doing with the

green investment bank. We must not compromise our public expenditure

commitments. Do you accept there cannot be a substantial amount of

new capital investment without breaching your budget targets and

spending limits? We are dealing with - we have a series... Do you

accept that? We are having to stick to those commitments. We are

dealing with a moving target. As far as capital expenditure is

concerned, the Government has increased it. It was savaged under

the outgoing Government. We have increased it. I plays an important

role in priming private sector investment. Danny Alexander has put

an additional commitment to that Your leader went on about social

mobility including cleaning up inturnships. That's a way privilege

people can get a leg up. They are often not paid they depend on

contact. From your website I have a list of job for interns terns all

of which are offering unpaid internships. Why don't you clean up

your own house first? Unpaid internships can be valuable work

experience. They can have the negative results you described. I

and many other other people in public life have given - We know

they are valuable. If you are a bright boy or girl from Birmingham,

just coming out of university, from an ordinary working-class family,

how could you afford to take an internship for the Liberal

Democrats when it is unpaid? We - we are not going to scrap

internships simply because - the major problems of social mobility

have to be overcome in a variety of ways, helping people get through

university. Internships are a valuable form of training. Keeping

them will form a useful service itself. You said you would do

something dramatic to kerb executive pay. You ended up only

consulting. We started. Since you control the pay of the Royal Bank

of Scotland, why don't you do something about their pay? Well, we

talk about Mr Hestor. All of them? He has a long-term contract. The

Government don't want to be in a position of directly managing every

executive decision within the banks that are partly state opened owned.

That is right. Even though you think bankers are paid too much,

you can do nothing about the banks that you own? Well, we can do. One

of the - Why don't you? One of the elements of the agreement was

getting acceptance from the banks, including the state-owned banks

they would exercise moderation in their pay. In your view, have they?

They are still getting millions of pounds? Indeed. That is clearly an

issue we have to work on. Lib Dem leaders have been adamant economic

policy is set in stone. That the budget deficit has to be cut. That

is an end to it. What do ordinary Lib Dem members make of their

leader's unstinting support for Plan A. We sent Adam Fleming to

find out. This conference is taking place against a back drop of grim

news about the economy. The most recent piece being the IMF

downgrading its forecast for Britain's growth next year. Do Lib

Dem delegates think they should stick to Plan A or is it time for

Plan B? It's difficult with. This we don't know whether the plan is

working or not lch is no Plan B. would like to put it in Plan B I

can't see a credible coherent alternative. I have to go Plan A,

against my best wishes. You have gone for Plan A, why is that?

difficult. It's slowly moving in the right direction. I think we

have to stick with it. If we change direction it will undermine the

markets. Time for "plan B". Why do you say that? Plan A is affecting

the low paid, the under privileged only. We now need to speed up the

tackling of the rich. One thing you can say about the conversation, it

does hurt. Sometimes the cuts aren't fair they do sort the

economy out to an extent. It's a crude way of judging the economic

policy. OK? I wouldn't take part of that because I'm a Plan A plus

person. Your menu choice - I'm not trying to be difficult. OK. If you

were Michael Cibg I would give the same answer. Your menu choice needs

to be expanded, it's never that simple. As long as you you choose

the sample correctly this is the method, but with a flasher box, the

one we used to predict the general election. Nothing about the

Metology. A seal of approval from the experts. Plan B at the moment.

Vince Cable it's right up your street today Plan A or Plan B on

the economy? No. Maybe he doesn't have a view. I've handed over loads

of balls. Let's see who is in the lead. It's Plan A by a mile much

must say a lot of people have said they are voting for Plan A plus.

Vince Cable, do you want to pick up one of the balls? Confident Plan A

is still working? Eem' a Plan A person, not with any joy. None of

us know how it will pan out over the next year. The Lib Dems I'm

more into the Plan B. They are singing from the same hymn sheet.

Most are in favour of Plan A, sticking the course on the economy.

Who also man who like Plan A are Danny Alexander and David Laws, the

current and former Treasury Chief Secretaries. I asked Danny

Alexander if Vince Cable had been pressing him for more capital

spending. How do we make sure the capital spending we have set aside,

we we pry oror advertised on the best for the economy, how that

happens on schedule. There is a problem within government. Things

get delayed. We can't afford for that to happen. The second thing,

is we use our spending more effectively to help the private

sector to bring forward development and investment? The thing I

announced on Sunday was a fund aimed at bits of local

infrastructure unlock dovement sites. We are committed to sticking

to the spending plans we have set out. That is so important to our

nation's financial and economic credibility. It's a moving around

of the deckchairs not actually adding to the number of deckchairs?

I'm not sure I want to pursue the deckchairs - It's in the context of

the huge amount of work that is going on within government to

identify things we can do to help with economic growth. I would argue

our deficit reduction plan is the foundation for growth. You can't

have one without the other. Many things on deregulation, on the

planning system and investment in schools through apprenticeships are

there to lift the productive (inaudible) of our economy. Should

the Bank of England go in for more quantitative easing? Provided we

hold course on the deficit reduction plan, which is what we

are going to do, if the economy remains weak weaker than we would

like, because of the international pressures, then the Bank of England

will be in a position to consider further quantitative easing and

different types of quantitative easing, particularly as I think we

know it's highly like that the uncomfortably high inflation we

have had this year is likely to come back down next year because

the increases in food and energy price also not feed through again.

OK. He can't comment on this, but you can. You are a backbencher. Is

it - is it not inevitable that given that Greece's public debt is

heading for 200% of its GDP and the economy is declining by 6%, that

Greece defaults as night follows day? I think that default is not

the word I would use. Use what word you like. The words I would use are

these, the European governments, particularly the euro-zone

governments, need to come together with the Greek government to do two

things. To have a serious strategy for deficit reduction in Greece. To

look at whether the debts they've got, which are very difficult to

manage, can in some way be rescheduled to make them bearable.

You can answer, this I'm not sure you will. Are we not, when we look

at what is happening in the money markets, for the financial system

to work, banks need to borrow. They borrow in the wholesale market they

lend to us. At the moment that is drying up in exactly the same way

as it did before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Are we not on the

brink of - and the banks are not able to earn because they have

things like Greek debt on their balance sheets. Are we not

seriously on the brink of another major financial meltdown?

wouldn't necessarily make those parallels myself. There is a lot of

turbulence in the markets and uncertainty. That is fuelled in

large part by doubts about the ability of politicians in many

parts of the world to get to grips with the problems they have. Many

people look at the United States and the Congress and the President

not being able to agree. Would you like your old job back? No. I think

Danny is doing too good a job. I don't think I have been missed.

When will we see you back in the government? Who knows. I'm a strong

supporter of Nick and the coalition. I think they miss you? I will do

what I can it support them. We have good ministers. What about Business

Secretary? Sorry. If you were Business Secretary you would be

more on message than the current one. Despite of your mischief

making attempts. We have a very good Chief Secretary stpwhrfplt two

for the price of one, even in these tough times. It wouldn't be a party

conference without miss chiefious journalists lurk around every

corner waiting for the politicians to slippup. We asked Quentin Letts

to cast a wry glance back at the week's proceed, The Liberal

Democrats could have their conference confident they would

never get near a ministerial limousine. Nowadays they are in

Government. Don't worry, that hasn't stopped them much they have

been complaining about the Government that they helped to

create. Take this for some Tory bashing. Divorce is inevitable. I

took the liberty of seeking legal advice about how we stand in the

event of a break-up. There is good news, there is bad news. The good

news, we might get half of Ashcroft's money. Bad news, we have

to have Pickles at the weekend. Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, was

determined not to be out done. danger, if you don't compromise, is

now clear. From America. There the markets looked over the brink when

the mad cap Republican right in Congress would not compromise with

the President. Let that be a warning to the Conservative right

here. We need no tea party tendency in Britain. Lib Dem conferences

have been docile affairs. Look at it, it's not exactly Nuremberg, is

it? Nick Clegg thought he had them well under control. Does anybody

want to ask a supplementary on that or... Heavens what docility. Like

North Korean conference meeting. Supporting the Lib Dems is like

support supporting a lower league football club. You cheer them on

whatever the results. Just as they have clapped along

enthuse@astically when others have attacked it. Where are they all?

Some rotten so-and-sos reckon the Lib Dems are a bunch of comedians.

Teeth teeth teeth proved them wrong. I thought I wouldn't keep you for

too long tonight much I want it get back to my hotel room to watch

Strictly. I heard they have Peter Hain booked for the next series.

He's doing the tango or has he been tangoed. Rupert Murdoch is on for

the series after. He has been out shopping with Andy Coulson already.

They bought him a pair of tap shoes. Living dangerously. But they are

coming back to George Osborne. I heard he is quite keen to get on

the show as well. He wants to do a line dance. The Lib Dems have been

a party with a slaigtly split personality between the old SDP and

the old liberals that is continuing with the those happy to be in

government and those who are resentful of the idea. This has

been a week when there has been an awful lot happening abroad. I'm not

sure that anything that has happened here in Birmingham has

really shaken the world. Oh, well, I'm off to Liverpool. Quentin Letts.

That's it from the Liberal Democrat conference of 2011. A few months

ago Nick Clegg might have pt expected a lynch mob here in

Birmingham. Instead, he consolidated his position and

convinced us sometimes sceptical party that they had to stick with

the coalition. That a loveless marriage was better than no

marriage at all. For him and that party, this conference was a

success. This weekend we're off to Liverpool where Labour gathers for

it is first full conference since Ed Miliband became leader. Before