20/04/2013

:00:20. > :00:30.be flocking to Cardiff, but the Welsh Liberal Democrats are in the

:00:30. > :00:32.

:00:32. > :00:36.capital for the spring conference. Welcome to coverage of the Welsh

:00:36. > :00:40.Liberal Democrats conference in Cardiff. They are meeting down the

:00:40. > :00:43.road at the Holland House Hotel, and the conference kicked off this

:00:43. > :00:51.morning and the second half is already under way. They are

:00:51. > :01:01.discussing the health service at the moment. Let me bring in my main

:01:01. > :01:01.

:01:01. > :01:07.pundit, Kevin Ratcliffe -- Vaughan Roderick. Let us concentrate on this

:01:07. > :01:11.conference, we have had to already this season if you like, no main

:01:11. > :01:16.elections for a couple of years but the European ones next year. What is

:01:16. > :01:21.the main challenge for the Liberal Democrats going into this? I think

:01:21. > :01:26.there is a feeling after Easter that the political cycle has picked up

:01:26. > :01:30.speed a little bit, that we are in the very early days of the campaign

:01:30. > :01:34.leading up to the next general election. The Liberal Democrats have

:01:34. > :01:39.a difficult balancing act to do. They want to take credit for a lot

:01:39. > :01:42.of things they have done as a part of a coalition Government in

:01:42. > :01:47.Westminster, while at the same time keeping their distance or increasing

:01:47. > :01:51.the distance between them and the conservative half of the coalition.

:01:51. > :02:00.Then you have the situation in Cardiff Bay, with the Welsh Liberal

:02:00. > :02:05.Democrats a lot of issues are dissolved issues -- devolved issues,

:02:05. > :02:15.and you have the the situation where Kirsty Williams will be wanting to

:02:15. > :02:15.

:02:15. > :02:21.punch above her weight. We know that Ed Davey, energy Minister Nick Clegg

:02:21. > :02:26.the Deputy Prime Minister have been this morning. We will be hearing

:02:26. > :02:28.from them later. When the Lib Dems have their conference they are happy

:02:28. > :02:34.to attack the Conservatives, forgetting perhaps that the

:02:34. > :02:42.Conservatives will be watching it. They like to try and reassert their

:02:42. > :02:46.own identity. I think there is an agreement that is allowed to an

:02:46. > :02:51.extent, because we see attacks on the Liberal Democrats at

:02:51. > :02:56.Conservative conferences, so all politicians in the coalition are

:02:56. > :03:03.grown ups, they know there is an element of playing to the gallery.

:03:03. > :03:08.The difficulty does come at times where those ministers are bound to

:03:08. > :03:14.defend things that sometimes they do not like very much. That is a

:03:14. > :03:19.difficult thing for them to do. Three years after the coalition was

:03:19. > :03:23.formed, the Liberal Democrats who hated the idea of coalition with the

:03:23. > :03:31.Conservatives by and large have left. Some of them have been

:03:31. > :03:35.replaced by new blood coming in, but the people who are really -- were

:03:35. > :03:45.really annoyed with the coalition are no longer in the party, by and

:03:45. > :03:45.

:03:46. > :03:55.large. Let us get down to the conference. And our political

:03:56. > :03:56.

:03:56. > :04:01.editor. Hello.Vaughan has been setting out the main topics for

:04:01. > :04:07.discussion. You have heard from Nick Clegg, seen the delegates milling

:04:07. > :04:14.around. Lib Dems love the conference, don't they? They do. I

:04:14. > :04:24.heard you discussing there, this is their opportunity to reassert what

:04:24. > :04:27.they are about, an opportunity for Kirsty Williams to remind those of

:04:27. > :04:34.what might have not happened if they weren't in Government. I keep asking

:04:34. > :04:41.you to stand firm, but things are not going half as badly as the

:04:41. > :04:47.papers and media are telling you they are. Look at Eastleigh, look at

:04:47. > :04:52.things we are picking up. So the message is shifting to we can win.

:04:52. > :04:57.It is looking ahead to the next part of the political cycle, not

:04:57. > :05:02.particularly the local election in Anglesey and not particularly the

:05:02. > :05:05.European election, but looking towards the general election and the

:05:05. > :05:15.Assembly election. A pretty feisty attack on the Conservatives and

:05:15. > :05:20.Labour, would suggest that he is looking ahead to around 2015, as

:05:20. > :05:26.opposed to a year later and the Assembly election. What kind of

:05:26. > :05:35.response did Nick Clegg get? We hear murmurings every now and again that

:05:35. > :05:42.he is under pressure as the leader. How did the audience react? A couple

:05:42. > :05:46.of interesting things, it started slow and just sort of picked up. The

:05:46. > :05:54.audience were neck and they went with him and they enjoyed his

:05:54. > :06:02.attacks on the Conservatives. The first round of applause is around,

:06:02. > :06:07.we are not going to allow this Government to lurch to the right.

:06:07. > :06:11.Labour have no idea of the way forward, they enjoyed that as well.

:06:11. > :06:19.We have always known that Nick Clegg likes Kirsty Williams, he likes what

:06:19. > :06:22.she is doing in Wales. He thinks she is good at leading a distinct party

:06:22. > :06:29.in Wales, and yet not hitting too hard against the coalition

:06:29. > :06:34.Government, which isn't always easy. He clearly thinks -- they clearly

:06:34. > :06:42.think she is going down well in Wales as a leader. So there is quite

:06:42. > :06:46.a burden on her shoulders, this is Kirsty's party, and so this growing

:06:46. > :06:54.responsibility on her, you sensed between now and the general and

:06:54. > :07:00.Assembly elections. She is working with Paddy Ashdown on reform, she is

:07:01. > :07:07.the vice-chair, which is a fine, I think, that the UK party thinks she

:07:08. > :07:13.is doing well. -- which is a sign. We might get a taste from her later

:07:13. > :07:19.on of what she plans to say. I heard Christine Humphreys speaking

:07:19. > :07:23.earlier, she was being asked about how she expects the party will do in

:07:23. > :07:28.that 2015 election. She suggested that their priority would be to hold

:07:28. > :07:38.what they have got. Even that is going to be a challenge, isn't it?

:07:38. > :07:39.

:07:39. > :07:44.Yes, it is, so when we hear Nick Clegg saying we are winning, the

:07:44. > :07:49.truth is, as you heard Christine Humphreys saying, that the job is

:07:50. > :07:54.going to be to fight those headlines when it comes to 2015 and hold onto

:07:54. > :08:02.what they have got. I think they would regard that as winning, after

:08:02. > :08:06.where have been over the past few years. Ask them about Anglesey, as

:08:06. > :08:16.them about European elections, and they are pretty cagey about what

:08:16. > :08:19.

:08:19. > :08:25.winning means in that sense. Do they feel beleaguered, being Lib Dems?

:08:25. > :08:35.think there is that sense for every party at every conference, but that

:08:35. > :08:35.

:08:35. > :08:44.these sorts of conferences, it is the old guard that come, the very

:08:44. > :08:48.faithful and loyal. I suppose there is that slight sense of huddling

:08:48. > :08:56.together, so no surprise from Nick Clegg, the message was that that is

:08:56. > :09:06.not going to be enough, you are going to have to believe , we have

:09:06. > :09:16.

:09:16. > :09:22.to fight and build up from where we are. Ed Davey has said -- there were

:09:22. > :09:26.about two dozen people at most who were there to listen to Ed Davey.

:09:26. > :09:30.They had expected some protesters outside. Until yesterday we

:09:30. > :09:34.understood Nick Clegg was speaking this afternoon, then there was this

:09:34. > :09:44.change to his speaking much earlier this morning, and the protesters did

:09:44. > :09:49.not get that message, so they arrived after he had gone. But

:09:49. > :09:57.again, not that many, considering the Deputy Prime Minister was here,

:09:57. > :10:05.considering the strength of feeling, they were feeling, not a lot of

:10:05. > :10:11.protests outside in the end. We will speak to you later and see how you

:10:11. > :10:14.sum up the afternoon 's action. In the meantime, let us go over to

:10:14. > :10:19.the conference hall, where there is a debate on the health service,

:10:19. > :10:26.question and answer session, Tina Donnelly of the Royal College of

:10:26. > :10:32.the. They are saying that that nursing

:10:32. > :10:36.level is unsafe. So they have no sad, sorry about that, we will do

:10:36. > :10:42.something else, we will do something about it. But in doing something

:10:42. > :10:49.about it, they have reduced the beds, because they have not got the

:10:49. > :10:56.finances to actually man or person those birds to do it. And this is

:10:56. > :11:02.continually happening. I come from Ceredigion and this hospital is

:11:02. > :11:09.right on my doorstep. There is going to be a further reduction of beds in

:11:09. > :11:13.my hospital because of that. Another �52 million of savings has to be

:11:13. > :11:23.made, plus whatever was overspent last year, because they cannot

:11:23. > :11:27.

:11:27. > :11:33.manage the budget. I am anxious to make sure... I am nearly finished.

:11:33. > :11:38.That is the whole area, because I think we have a huge area here,

:11:38. > :11:46.because if it is not addressed we are going to end up a third World

:11:46. > :11:51.country. One of the comments is that we have called for clear red

:11:51. > :11:55.transparent statistic, so that the general public and indeed our

:11:55. > :12:00.politicians can scrutinise the safety of their local health boards

:12:00. > :12:05.more effectively. It is not just about the numbers of the workforce,

:12:06. > :12:15.it is also about the number of birds and the number of activity, which is

:12:15. > :12:19.if the activity goes up, if the acuity of illness goes up, the same

:12:19. > :12:22.number of nurses are trying to do far more with less time. So that is

:12:22. > :12:31.an important time you make about analysing this to take sticks for

:12:31. > :12:38.safety and transparency. That is very much your experience from the

:12:38. > :12:43.frontline? The majority of my time I spend representing nurses, and they

:12:43. > :12:47.keep coming to me with their concerns. And yes, it is a constant

:12:47. > :12:52.concern, because they cannot give the concerned that they want to

:12:52. > :13:00.give. It takes a little bit of time to just say good morning to people,

:13:00. > :13:07.to say how are you, or whatever. And that is the time we do not have. I

:13:07. > :13:11.do not know what the answer is, if you had 1000 more beds I am sure you

:13:11. > :13:15.could fill 1000 more beds. Not enough attention has been given to

:13:16. > :13:22.the fact that the population has become older and more ill and more

:13:23. > :13:31.complex, and we are still working on figures, and it has gone out of my

:13:31. > :13:35.mind, the funding... But the demographics have changed

:13:35. > :13:44.completely, and we cannot be working under that system, we need more

:13:44. > :13:47.money for the people of Wales. They deserve it. I do not disagree with

:13:47. > :13:54.the point on reform of the Barnett formula. The international evidence

:13:54. > :13:58.says there is a direct correlation between staffing numbers and patient

:13:58. > :14:03.outcome. There are a number of countries where there is legislation

:14:03. > :14:08.with regard to this fact, and it is proven that the better of the ratio

:14:08. > :14:13.is the better the outcome for the patients. With the help of the RCN I

:14:13. > :14:19.have a private members Bill which will look to create statutory

:14:19. > :14:25.nursing levels in Welsh hospitals. But France's report said this should

:14:25. > :14:30.happen. We ask a question about this to the health minister on Wednesday,

:14:30. > :14:36.and I was vaguely encouraged. I have a lot of time for him. He did not

:14:36. > :14:41.rule it out. He made the point about making sure there was the

:14:41. > :14:46.appropriate skill mix, and that the number of nurses on the boards had

:14:46. > :14:53.to reflect the needs of the patient on the ward. Our patients are

:14:53. > :14:58.generally older, with complex needs. We are not going to go Mac -- they

:14:58. > :15:04.are not just coming in with a chest infection, they are coming in with

:15:04. > :15:07.underlying diabetes or dementia, so they are very complex patience. But

:15:07. > :15:13.I believe there is merit in having a statutory underpinning to the number

:15:13. > :15:16.of people we have on our boards. That is not a cost to the NHS,

:15:16. > :15:23.because what we have at the moment is spiralling numbers of

:15:23. > :15:26.remittances. If you cared for people well the first time and got it right

:15:27. > :15:32.the first time, and sent them home when they were ready to be sent

:15:32. > :15:38.home, you would not have this constant readmittance. We are in a

:15:38. > :15:48.desperate attempt to save money in the short-term. Actually we are

:15:48. > :15:49.

:15:49. > :15:54.creating costs in the systems. What the real tragedy is, is that the

:15:54. > :15:58.Welsh Government had the resources to do this, seven, eight, nine, ten

:15:58. > :16:03.years ago when there was more public money in the system. There is going

:16:03. > :16:07.to be a time when you are going to have to run up to track system where

:16:07. > :16:12.you move from the traditional way to the new system. They have squandered

:16:12. > :16:17.that opportunity, and for me that is the real tragedy. It will make it

:16:17. > :16:22.even harder now to reconfigure services, because of that lack of

:16:22. > :16:30.resources. You can wreak on reconfigure services if you give

:16:30. > :16:34.them confidence in the new services. We closed a community hospital in my

:16:34. > :16:39.constituency this year. It did not appear in the media, because we have

:16:39. > :16:44.spent time in the community to come up with an alternative system that

:16:44. > :16:51.works in conjunction with local Government, and with the district

:16:51. > :17:01.nursing staff to provide care. But if we had had these conversations a

:17:01. > :17:01.

:17:01. > :17:06.decade ago, there might have been a stronger position now.

:17:06. > :17:11.Perhaps we will take, here we are. Going to have to fight it out.

:17:11. > :17:14.was a taste of the Conference, let us go and speak to our reporter

:17:14. > :17:19.James Williams, he will be with us throughout the afternoon with a

:17:19. > :17:22.selection of guests. Over to you James.

:17:22. > :17:25.Thank you Carl. Well, it is the afternoon session of the first day

:17:25. > :17:31.of the Welsh Liberal Democrat Spring Conference, it started this morning

:17:31. > :17:36.and we had a speech from the party's leader Nick Clegg, in it he stressed

:17:36. > :17:42.the importance to Wales of more power for the Welsh Assembly, saying

:17:42. > :17:45.that devolution was a central tenet of liberalism. You adroo degree with

:17:45. > :17:50.him? Absolutely, one of the wonderful things about the Liberal

:17:50. > :17:53.Party, going back 100 years we were the original party of Home Rule.

:17:53. > :17:57.Moving forward into the future for the National Assembly for Wales eyou

:17:58. > :18:03.have to understand what powers we need, to be able to shape people's

:18:03. > :18:06.lives in Wales, the power model we have add the moment, it is creaky,

:18:07. > :18:10.it is not working very well. That is why we pushed for the Silk

:18:10. > :18:15.Commission to look at these issues in more detail and look at the

:18:15. > :18:20.financial issues. Of course he said he, he thinks a fairer society in

:18:20. > :18:23.Wales would require more powers, but he is part of a UK Government that

:18:23. > :18:28.the submission to the Silk Commission said there is no need for

:18:28. > :18:33.radical change, he is saying one thing and the realty is nothing is

:18:33. > :18:37.going to change. The coalition put forward their view as a partnership,

:18:37. > :18:40.but as a party, the Liberal Democrats are very much of the view

:18:40. > :18:44.that devolution Hughes is about fairness, it is about delivering

:18:44. > :18:50.power, at a local as level as possible, to make sure people are

:18:50. > :18:54.able to influence and to change thing, and our democracy works in a

:18:54. > :18:59.really, appropriate way. Before we had devolution, there was a feeling

:18:59. > :19:03.in Wales that Westminster was divorced from us, we were, you know,

:19:03. > :19:09.we were a long away way from the heart of power. That feeling is no

:19:09. > :19:14.longer so strong, there are places where Wales is's powers are too

:19:14. > :19:19.clipped. We need to make sure that people feel the National Assembly

:19:19. > :19:22.for Wales can deliver. The theme of the Conference and the Liberal

:19:22. > :19:26.Democrats nationally is stronger economy, fairer society. Absolutely.

:19:26. > :19:30.How are the Welsh Liberal Democrats delivering that as a party of

:19:30. > :19:34.opposition in the Welsh Assembly? One of the first things I would say

:19:34. > :19:37.is that even in opposition we are able to deliver a pupil premium for

:19:37. > :19:42.children in schools in Wales, so that those children from poorer

:19:42. > :19:45.backgrounds, you know, their schools have a little extra funding to help

:19:45. > :19:49.them, and make sure they don't fall behind, because we know that

:19:49. > :19:53.children who fall behind in school, if they are behind by the time they

:19:53. > :19:57.are aged seven, they will never catch up. We know there is a

:19:58. > :20:01.difference in the attainment levels of children from poorer background

:20:01. > :20:05.than children from middle class backgrounds. We have to stop that.

:20:05. > :20:09.If we want our society to be fair, we have to make sure every single

:20:09. > :20:13.child has an appropriate opportunity to learn, to grow, to develop as a

:20:13. > :20:17.human being and go out into the world and earn a living and

:20:17. > :20:21.contribute not only to our economy, but to our society.

:20:21. > :20:26.Thank you. Now, turn to Peter Black, the assembly member for South Wales

:20:26. > :20:30.west. Nick Clegg was very, was heaping

:20:30. > :20:33.praise on Kirstie William's performance, as he tends to do when

:20:33. > :20:39.he comes down to Welsh Liberal Democrat conference, she is going to

:20:39. > :20:42.be talking about later how tomorrow afternoon, when she closes

:20:42. > :20:46.conference easterly where the Liberal Democrats kept hold of power

:20:46. > :20:49.was a turning point for the party. Do you see it like that? Absolutely,

:20:49. > :20:53.what we demonstrated to people was we can go into a very important

:20:53. > :20:59.by-election, and defend the seat, despite the fact that as party, we

:20:59. > :21:02.are not doing well in the poll, we are under criticism for some of the

:21:02. > :21:07.things we have to put in place in Government. We held the seat

:21:07. > :21:11.comfortably, with a outstanding campaign, and I think we have shown

:21:11. > :21:15.in Wales the resilience of Welsh Liberal Democrats and I hope we will

:21:15. > :21:18.take forward the lessons of easterly so we will continue to show that

:21:18. > :21:21.resilience and build on it. mentioned resilience there, is that

:21:21. > :21:27.the best you can hope for, to maintain your ground, when it comes

:21:27. > :21:31.to the next election? I don't think so, we have maintained or ground and

:21:31. > :21:34.shown that resilience, but by the time it comes to the next election I

:21:34. > :21:41.hope we would see green shoots in the economy, we will have a good

:21:41. > :21:44.story to tell to people about how we have taken 1.1 million people in

:21:44. > :21:49.Wales, with have taken tens of thousands of people out of tax in

:21:49. > :21:53.Wales, we have helped pensioners with better pensions, we have helped

:21:53. > :21:56.people with childcare and tax credit, measures we have put in

:21:56. > :22:01.place, showing we can manage the economy but do so in a fair way, if

:22:01. > :22:04.that gets through, I would expect us to do better at the next general

:22:04. > :22:08.election. The narrative seems to be don't trust the Labour Party on the

:22:08. > :22:12.economy, we can be trusted and we can deliver a fair society, with

:22:12. > :22:15.different from the Conservatives, but, looking at the economy

:22:15. > :22:19.specifically, which is going to be the main issue at the next general

:22:19. > :22:23.election, the results speak for themselves, Fitch rating agency just

:22:23. > :22:27.last night downgrading the UK outlook for the coming year, it

:22:27. > :22:30.doesn't look good. It already difficult. The economy takes time to

:22:30. > :22:34.turn round. It is not the sort of thing you can turn round overnight.

:22:34. > :22:39.A lot of people experts internationally have recognised we

:22:39. > :22:42.are doing the right thing in, terms of making sure be cut the deficit.

:22:42. > :22:46.We are having to make difficult decisions is and obviously that is

:22:46. > :22:50.impacting in terms of the polls and in terms of the results of elections

:22:50. > :22:53.but I expect in the next couple of years we will start to see the

:22:53. > :22:56.results and see the economy picking up. I hope by the time it comes to

:22:56. > :22:59.the next election, people will be able to see that the policies we

:22:59. > :23:03.have had to follow, because of the situation we inherited, because of

:23:03. > :23:06.the mess Labour created in the years before we got into power, that

:23:06. > :23:10.people, that work is starting to bear fruit.

:23:10. > :23:13.Nick Clegg mentioned in his speech as he did in the party's national

:23:13. > :23:18.Spring Conference a couple of months ago, that you are the party of

:23:18. > :23:22.change, you are not the party of protest you once were, but is there

:23:22. > :23:26.a disconnect between what is party the grass roots is feeling and what

:23:26. > :23:29.the party leaders and politicians are feeling? No, we are not just the

:23:29. > :23:33.party of change, we are a party of Government. You talk to the people

:23:33. > :23:36.who have come here, we have had a good turn out, a lot of people, very

:23:36. > :23:41.enthusiastic about the party, desperate to get out there on the

:23:41. > :23:44.doorsteps and sell the message, the grass roots are behind what we are

:23:45. > :23:49.doing in coalition, because they can see the benefit, they can see people

:23:49. > :23:52.getting lower tax bill, pensioners getting a better deal, the

:23:52. > :23:54.improvements put in place in terms of Chile care, they can see the

:23:54. > :23:58.Liberal Democrats making a difference in Government, even

:23:58. > :24:02.though we have a small part of that Government, with just over 50 MPs.

:24:02. > :24:10.I want to ask you a quick question about the new scheme that the Welsh

:24:10. > :24:13.Government has dropped. That was a key plank of the budget. They have

:24:13. > :24:17.dropped that now, which is a disappointment, something you wanted

:24:17. > :24:22.to see introduced, does that mean it will be difficult for you to deal a

:24:22. > :24:27.budget deal in the future? It is going to give us pause for thought.

:24:27. > :24:32.It was part of a budget deal, we in good faith ex --s expected them to

:24:32. > :24:35.deliver on it. Has taken 14 month to get where they are, they drop it for

:24:36. > :24:39.the launch, questions have to be asked about why it wasn't in place

:24:39. > :24:44.earlier, why they haven't given it the priority which felt it deserved

:24:44. > :24:48.and why it was they dropped it, seemingly because they haven't got

:24:48. > :24:52.partners and builders are saying we are prepared to go ahead with it. I

:24:52. > :24:57.hope they will rescue something from the Ashes in terms of a new buy

:24:57. > :25:01.scheme over the next few months but certainly next we sit down with the

:25:01. > :25:06.Labour Government we will look long and hard and saying you are

:25:06. > :25:11.promising this now, what guarantees have we got you will deliver, if you

:25:11. > :25:16.can't deliver we won't do a deal. Thank you. Back to you.

:25:16. > :25:20.Thank you James. We have heard not least from our two guests there, the

:25:20. > :25:23.big speech was from the leader of the UK party, the Deputy Prime

:25:23. > :25:25.Minister Nick Clegg, he was introduced by Christine Humphreys,

:25:25. > :25:31.the President of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

:25:31. > :25:37.It has been a whole year since we last met here. In Cardiff.

:25:37. > :25:41.And in the meantime, we have received the excellent news that our

:25:41. > :25:51.leader, Kirsty Williams, has been voted ITV's assembly member of the

:25:51. > :25:51.

:25:51. > :25:56.year. APPLAUSE

:25:56. > :26:02.I have to say, that was no surprise to any of us.

:26:02. > :26:07.All you have to do is watch First Ministers questions. Each week. To

:26:07. > :26:15.know that we have by far the strongest leader.

:26:15. > :26:20.Take the Tory leader. Yes, take him, please.

:26:20. > :26:27.Andrew RT Davis, who seems to think that shouting words, any old words,

:26:27. > :26:33.is the right approach. Then there is Leanne Wood. The Plaid

:26:33. > :26:38.Cymru leader, who thinks she's standing up for Wales.

:26:38. > :26:47.By throwing the First Minister questions, just like Bates. Asking

:26:47. > :26:53.what he thinks about the UK Government. I have a little message

:26:53. > :26:58.for Leanne, Leanne, dear, you are the leader of the second largest

:26:58. > :27:04.opposition party in the assembly. Your job is to hold the First

:27:04. > :27:10.Minister to account. Not to play the stooge, in some

:27:10. > :27:15.little double act, designed to lay all of Wales' woes at the foot of

:27:15. > :27:21.the coalition. And let in Carwyn Jones off the

:27:21. > :27:25.Hook. That isn't standing up for Wales at all. So let us be honest,

:27:25. > :27:31.neither the Tory lead or the Plaid leader troubles the First Minister

:27:31. > :27:35.very much at all. Yet when Kirstie stands up, he knows there is trouble

:27:35. > :27:40.brewing. Have you seen how all of a sudden he

:27:40. > :27:47.starts fibbing -- flicking through his binder, looking for answers that

:27:47. > :27:53.aren't even there. Week in and week out, Kirstie gets the better of the

:27:53. > :28:02.first minister and think he secretly shows, knows it, she is a fantastic

:28:02. > :28:06.leader and her award was thoroughly deserved.

:28:06. > :28:10.APPLAUSE Now, as always, there is a great

:28:10. > :28:14.programme ahead of us this weekend. We have a number of interesting

:28:14. > :28:21.debates, spread across the weekend. And remember, conference, this is

:28:21. > :28:26.important to us, because we are the only major party that has proper,

:28:26. > :28:33.open debates in our conferences. We are the only party whereverry

:28:33. > :28:36.member has a stake in what our policy priorities will be.

:28:36. > :28:43.What Liberal Democrats have achieved in Government hasn't just been

:28:43. > :28:46.plucked out of thin air. For example, only this month, thanks to

:28:46. > :28:52.the Liberal Democrats, over one million Welsh workers have seen

:28:52. > :28:57.their income tax cut once again. While over 100,000 of the lowest

:28:57. > :29:02.paid workers won't be paying a penny of income tax at all.

:29:02. > :29:07.All as a result of a motion put forward in a federal party

:29:07. > :29:14.conference by a Liberal Democrat member, Elizabeth Dukes. Quite an

:29:15. > :29:19.achievement, I think you will agree. And last year, of course, our own

:29:19. > :29:24.member led the debate and won on the issue of regional pay. It just goes

:29:24. > :29:29.to show, that our party members can shape and influence the party's

:29:29. > :29:36.direction. And now we are in Government, we

:29:36. > :29:40.don't just influence our party's direction, and policies, we

:29:40. > :29:46.influence coalition Government direction too.

:29:46. > :29:51.So this weekend, we are also having a wide range of fringe events, and I

:29:51. > :29:55.advice you to pop in, and sample those.

:29:55. > :30:00.And of course, we have lots of training available. I can see many

:30:00. > :30:04.new faces here today, and a warm welcome to all of you who are

:30:04. > :30:12.attending the Conference for the first time. I know you will gain

:30:12. > :30:17.from the training session, but these aren't just for new members. Even

:30:17. > :30:23.for seasoned campaigners, dare I say the old stagers. There are always

:30:23. > :30:29.skills we can improve. Innovative ways to win elections.

:30:29. > :30:32.You could learn skills that you could put into operation in our o

:30:32. > :30:38.campaign in Anglesey, you wouldn't expect me to miss this opportunity

:30:38. > :30:43.to mention our elections in Anglesey, Anglesey is the only

:30:43. > :30:49.County in Wales to have local Government elections this year.

:30:49. > :30:54.And I know how much your help would be appreciate appreciated by all the

:30:54. > :31:04.north Wales team there. If you think you could be of help in

:31:04. > :31:08.any way, please let me know, or Aled, or David, or Damian.

:31:08. > :31:18.You, every one of you in the hall, although you may be quite a few

:31:18. > :31:20.

:31:20. > :31:25.miles away from Anglesey, pick up the phone, we are on Connect.

:31:25. > :31:30.This weekend we will also have the chance to hear from our team in

:31:30. > :31:37.Westminster. Alongside Nick, we have Danny, Ed and Vince. It is good to

:31:38. > :31:44.have so many of our ministers here. Neither Labour nor conservative

:31:44. > :31:53.members get such frequent access to their frontbench teams. Since 2011,

:31:53. > :31:59.Nick has visited Wales no fewer than 13 times. Compare this to Gordon

:31:59. > :32:05.Brown, who as prime minister visited Wales on just one location. And even

:32:05. > :32:11.then, he did not have the courtesy to visit the National Assembly. In

:32:11. > :32:16.13 years of being in power, never once did a Labour minister from the

:32:16. > :32:20.Treasury Department come and face questions from the Assembly 's

:32:20. > :32:27.finance committee. Something that Danny Alexander did a matter of

:32:27. > :32:32.months after being in Government. So no longer in Wales do we have to put

:32:32. > :32:36.up with being the forgotten region of the UK. It is always good to hear

:32:36. > :32:43.what is going on with our team in Westminster, and yes, of course

:32:44. > :32:48.sometimes we have issues that we want to raise with them. But we are

:32:48. > :32:56.in coalition, and we realise that we cannot always have our own way. But

:32:56. > :33:01.do you know what, when you think of it, I think we have achieved huge

:33:01. > :33:06.amounts in coalition. Raising the tax threshold, creating a fairer

:33:06. > :33:09.state pension, ending child detention, scrapping ID cards,

:33:09. > :33:18.progress on equal marriage, the green investment bank, and the list

:33:18. > :33:25.goes on. And let us not forget every single day we are successfully

:33:25. > :33:29.fighting to stop the Tory Right Wing from working the coalition 's tale.

:33:29. > :33:37.The Tory party, that wants to scrap the human rights act, and to

:33:37. > :33:40.introduce regional pay. Nick and his team have kept the coalition

:33:40. > :33:48.Government firmly on the centre ground, and that is something we can

:33:48. > :33:53.all be proud of. Conference, it is now my great honour to introduce to

:33:53. > :34:03.you and to welcome on your behalf the Deputy Prime Minister, and the

:34:03. > :34:14.

:34:14. > :34:20.Thank you very much. That's a very warm introduction. Thank you,

:34:20. > :34:27.everybody. Thank you. Thank you for that very warm introduction. It is

:34:27. > :34:34.lovely to be here again. Next season there will be two Welsh football

:34:34. > :34:40.teams in the Premier league, well, three if you can't Gareth bail. So

:34:40. > :34:45.congratulations to Cardiff city who will join Swansea in the premiership

:34:46. > :34:50.after decades in the lower divisions. It is proof that we

:34:50. > :34:55.English can never rest on our laurels. Just when we think we have

:34:55. > :35:05.got rid of Craig Bellamy, he forces his way back into the limelight a

:35:05. > :35:11.

:35:11. > :35:16.bit like Lambert opaque! -- lame Margaret Thatcher. I am not here to

:35:16. > :35:20.talk about her politics or her policies. Many of which had a

:35:20. > :35:24.devastating effect on communities here in Wales. Indeed they motivated

:35:25. > :35:30.many of us in this room to get into politics in the first place. But I

:35:30. > :35:35.will say this. Whatever you think of Margaret Thatcher, no one can deny

:35:35. > :35:40.that is the first and only female British Prime Minister, she broke

:35:40. > :35:50.the highest glass ceiling in Britain. She was not the first

:35:50. > :35:50.

:35:50. > :35:52.strong woman to succeed in British politics, I suspect many of you to

:35:52. > :35:55.your inspiration from Shirley Williams, I certainly don't. But

:35:55. > :36:01.Margaret Thatcher was the first to reach the very top. And our party

:36:01. > :36:06.still has a long way to go. We are working hard to do better across the

:36:06. > :36:12.party, more female councillors, more film Assembly members, more female

:36:12. > :36:17.MEPs and MPs. But today I pay special tribute to the Welsh Liberal

:36:17. > :36:22.Democrats for leading the way. Every time I come here, I heap praise on

:36:22. > :36:28.Kirsty Williams for her leadership, her determination and her uncanny

:36:28. > :36:33.knack of getting exactly she wants. But in this week of all weeks, I

:36:33. > :36:37.want to praise Kirsty for another reason. For being such a fantastic

:36:37. > :36:41.role model for young women across Wales. I will be girls watching the

:36:41. > :36:47.television seeing Kirsty running rings around her opponents and

:36:47. > :36:52.taking Carwyn Jones to task at first Minister's questions, thinking, I

:36:52. > :37:01.want to be like Kirsty. What she always says is being there, being a

:37:01. > :37:05.strong leader, shows other women can do the same. When I see Kirsty all

:37:05. > :37:14.Eluned Roberts or any number of you, I know we have a generation of

:37:14. > :37:19.inspiration inspirational woman coming through the ranks. This party

:37:19. > :37:23.is to mail, and that needs to change. We need more Liberal

:37:23. > :37:29.Democrat role models for black, Asian, disabled, and for young gay

:37:29. > :37:33.men and women too. Some challenge for you is in every selection

:37:33. > :37:41.committee that use it on, with every candidate you support and vote you

:37:41. > :37:45.cast, is to consider how you can help us change our party for the

:37:45. > :37:52.better. We must be a more diverse party, and we will be a better party

:37:52. > :37:58.for it. Liberal Democrats believe that everyone should have the same

:37:58. > :38:03.opportunity to get on in life. That would make society fairer. But to

:38:03. > :38:09.build a fairer society we need a stronger economy, so we have the

:38:09. > :38:14.jobs and opportunities you need to get on in life. A stronger economy,

:38:14. > :38:21.a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. You may have

:38:21. > :38:25.heard me use those words before. Get used to them, conference. Get used

:38:25. > :38:30.to saying them, because that is the message I need you to deliver across

:38:30. > :38:36.the country. Explain it to people every and each day, from now, for

:38:36. > :38:43.the next two years and beyond. Tell them that only the Liberal Democrats

:38:43. > :38:46.have the values and ideas to build a better future. That only we can

:38:46. > :38:52.deliver the stronger economy and fairer society that Wales and all of

:38:52. > :38:57.Great Britain needs. It is a message that resonates with people because

:38:57. > :39:01.it is true. Look at what we are doing to build a stronger economy. A

:39:01. > :39:06.million new jobs in the private sector, a million apprenticeships

:39:06. > :39:12.started, a deficit cut by a third so far and above all taxes cut for the

:39:12. > :39:15.vast majority of working people, including more than 1 million Welsh

:39:15. > :39:19.workers. And look at what we are doing to build a fairer society.

:39:19. > :39:25.Equal marriage, ending child detention, the pupil premium. I have

:39:25. > :39:30.always believed that the best way to give children the best chance to

:39:30. > :39:34.fulfil their potential and get on in life is to stop them falling behind

:39:34. > :39:40.when they are still young enough for it to make all the difference. That

:39:40. > :39:43.is what the pupil premium does. It is a policy I first wrote about more

:39:44. > :39:48.than a decade ago, and one of the things I am most proud to have

:39:48. > :39:52.delivered in England. It is a sign of Kirsty 's leadership and your

:39:52. > :39:57.determination that we have been able to deliver a pupil premium for Wales

:39:57. > :40:00.to. It is hard enough to deliver your policies as a partner in a

:40:00. > :40:10.coalition Government, so to deliver them in opposition takes a

:40:10. > :40:11.

:40:11. > :40:14.remarkable degree of talent, conviction and persuasiveness.

:40:14. > :40:17.Kirsty has shown, and it is what all of you have shown as well. As

:40:17. > :40:21.Liberal Democrats we know that a fairer society for Wales means more

:40:21. > :40:25.power for Wales as well. That is why we pushed for the silk commission,

:40:25. > :40:30.and why we want appropriate debate about how to devolve more power to

:40:30. > :40:34.Wales. This is something we can only do together, together as nations,

:40:34. > :40:41.together as governments and together as Liberal Democrats. Devolution has

:40:41. > :40:46.always been and remains a basic tenet of our party. It is key to the

:40:46. > :40:51.sort of liberalism that I believe in. We make compromises daily in

:40:51. > :40:56.Government. But I want you to be sure of one thing, our commitment to

:40:56. > :41:04.devolution, indeed my commitment to more power to Wales, is as strong as

:41:04. > :41:09.it ever was. Building a new stronger economy, it is not easy. I do not

:41:09. > :41:15.pretend it is all sunny uplands from here. Britain 's economic recovery

:41:15. > :41:19.has proved more challenging than everyone imagined. The crash in

:41:19. > :41:26.2008, deeper and more profound than we knew. Globally, things are still

:41:26. > :41:30.precarious. Look at what has happened in Cyprus to see the danger

:41:30. > :41:35.that looms when markets question the ability of governments to live

:41:35. > :41:42.within their means. Countries around the world face the same hard truth.

:41:42. > :41:49.We must all pay the piper in the end. I want to make one thing clear.

:41:49. > :41:54.We will not flinch on the deficit. But to be unflinching is not to be

:41:54. > :42:02.unthinking. And the idea that the choice is between a cruel and

:42:02. > :42:08.unbending plan and unethical plan B is simply not the case. Balancing

:42:08. > :42:13.the books is a judgement, not a science. Our plan has always allowed

:42:13. > :42:18.for room for manoeuvre. When economic circumstances around us

:42:18. > :42:25.deteriorate and UK growth forecasts suffered, voices on the right call

:42:25. > :42:28.for us to respond by cutting further and faster. But instead we took the

:42:28. > :42:34.pragmatic choice to extend the deficit and debt reduction

:42:34. > :42:39.timetable. Far from being rigid and dogmatic, we chose to meet our

:42:39. > :42:42.deficit and debt targets on a slower timetable. By international

:42:42. > :42:49.comparison, we are proceeding at a sensible pace. The fiscal

:42:49. > :42:54.contraction this year and next is less than under President Obama 's

:42:54. > :43:01.deficit reduction plans, and indeed less than France and Spain's plans

:43:01. > :43:06.as well. It is simply not true, as our critics on the left pretend,

:43:06. > :43:12.that we are slashing and burning the state. Did you know that at the end

:43:12. > :43:20.of this Parliament, public spending will be 43% of GDP grows back that

:43:20. > :43:27.is higher than at any point between 1995 and when Labour let the banks

:43:27. > :43:33.crash in 2008. While reducing the deficit is essential, it remains of

:43:33. > :43:38.course a means to an end. That end is a stronger economy, with

:43:38. > :43:44.lasting, sustainable growth. Sound public finances are one piece of the

:43:44. > :43:48.jigsaw, but so are better skills, and more competitive tax regime for

:43:48. > :43:51.business. All of which we are delivering. In recent weeks and

:43:51. > :43:56.months many on the Conservative backbenches have called for the

:43:56. > :44:02.Government to lurch to the right. Whether it is Liam Fox David Davis,

:44:02. > :44:06.demanding further cuts on Europe or human rights. The direction of the

:44:06. > :44:11.Conservative party has been the subject of much discussion in the

:44:11. > :44:18.wake of Margaret Thatcher's death. Let me be absolutely clear, there

:44:18. > :44:28.will be no lurch to the right by this Government, not while I am at

:44:28. > :44:37.

:44:37. > :44:43.As Christine pointed out, Conservative backbenchers can huff

:44:43. > :44:47.and puff as much as they like, but the Liberal Democrats will keep this

:44:47. > :44:51.coalition Government firmly anchored in the centre ground. The

:44:51. > :44:57.Conservatives are not the only party in the shadow of former leader. This

:44:57. > :45:02.week Tony Blair issued a warning to Ed Miliband that the Labour Party is

:45:02. > :45:08.not behaving as a credible party of Government. Under Edmund Abad and Ed

:45:08. > :45:16.balls, Labour has retreated into the comfort zone of opposition, with no

:45:16. > :45:20.apologies and no idea of what to do next. Ed Miliband and Ed balls have

:45:20. > :45:23.learned nothing. They took our economy to the brink with their

:45:23. > :45:28.reckless spending, reckless borrowing and reckless debt, and now

:45:28. > :45:33.they have told us that they would do it all over again. Of course, they

:45:33. > :45:41.have come up with one new idea, the mansion tax, and that is our idea.

:45:41. > :45:50.In fact, Ed balls took another idea from us just last week. He did a

:45:50. > :46:00.call in on LBC radio. When I do it it is called call Clegg. I think his

:46:00. > :46:00.

:46:00. > :02:20.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 980 seconds

:02:20. > :02:24.dynamic performance from Nick Clegg. This is not a huge conference, Welsh

:02:25. > :02:29.Liberal Democrats conferences have never been that big. They have a

:02:29. > :02:34.core of activists that worked very hard. They do not have the sort of

:02:34. > :02:38.occasional members that the other parties tend to have who turn up to

:02:38. > :02:47.see the party leader. That is not the way the body operates. But Nick

:02:47. > :02:50.Clegg I think, remember he was addressing the party first thing in

:02:50. > :02:56.the morning, it was a calm and reasoned appeal. We are at the start

:02:56. > :03:00.of this part of the electoral cycle, the foothills of the

:03:00. > :03:06.Himalayas of the 2015 election, and he is making sure everyone has their

:03:06. > :03:12.backpacks on and has their walking shoes on, and starting out on that

:03:12. > :03:21.campaign. But it is not yet the hammer and tongs to stage. But he

:03:21. > :03:27.has made clear we want to win, we want due to make sure you can win.

:03:27. > :03:35.That is a tough sell. He cannot say, let us hold onto as many seats

:03:35. > :03:41.as we can the Liberal Democrats -- it is fair to say there are two

:03:41. > :03:46.different election is going on, there are the elections in seats

:03:46. > :03:50.where they may challenge the Conservatives. If anything they have

:03:50. > :03:55.helped the Conservatives in power, that might make Conservatives

:03:55. > :03:58.amenable to voting for them. The real problems are in seats like Nick

:03:58. > :04:04.Clegg's own seat in Sheffield where labour is the challenge. Those are

:04:05. > :04:10.the seats they will find it tough to hold. Let us go back to the

:04:10. > :04:17.conference venue, where James Williams is there.

:04:17. > :04:23.Thank you. We are here -- we heard the speech that Nick Clegg made, and

:04:23. > :04:28.here to listen was Mark Williams, MP for Kennedy Gillan. What did you

:04:28. > :04:35.make of the speech. - Ceredigion. Did you think Nick Clegg has

:04:35. > :04:38.stabilised the Liberal Democrats? has not only stabilised the Liberal

:04:38. > :04:43.Democrats, but the messages are really strong and beginning to

:04:43. > :04:48.resonate with people out there. I point to the Eastleigh by-election,

:04:48. > :04:58.the local election results. The party always knew it had a big job

:04:58. > :05:16.

:05:16. > :05:18.to sell the messages of the coalition. That was what Nick

:05:18. > :05:20.Clegg's speech was all about this morning, and I think we are doing

:05:20. > :05:22.that increasingly successfully. you think the things that you are

:05:22. > :05:25.pushing on coalition, of the messages are getting through?

:05:25. > :05:28.takes a while. Coalition Government is new to the UK, it is not unique

:05:28. > :05:31.to Wales. I think as the junior partner in a coalition, it does take

:05:31. > :05:33.time. Taking all those people out of the tax regime, work and pensions,

:05:33. > :05:36.it takes time to get that message through. There is still work to do,

:05:36. > :05:44.we are not resting on our laurels. We need to continue pushing those

:05:44. > :05:47.causes, but it is a challenge. will you be able to distinguish

:05:47. > :05:55.yourself some Conservatives? Policies such as the ones on tax and

:05:55. > :05:59.pensions, I have spent my political life fighting the Conservative

:05:59. > :06:04.party. People must ask themselves, would we have seen those policies

:06:04. > :06:10.without the Liberal Democrat engagement in Government. Would we

:06:10. > :06:15.have been talking about regional pay in Wales? That was another

:06:15. > :06:19.achievement. They are the issues that we well I think increasingly

:06:20. > :06:24.seek clarity between ourselves and the Tory party. I am not a

:06:24. > :06:30.conservative, Mr Cameron might say we are all Thatcherites now, but not

:06:31. > :06:35.many people here today would describe themselves as such. So you

:06:35. > :06:39.will push the fairness of the coalition, but how will you divorce

:06:39. > :06:47.yourself from the economic record? The economic record means many, many

:06:47. > :06:51.more private-sector jobs, and announcements in the budget a couple

:06:51. > :06:56.of weeks ago to try and boost things there. There are huge difficulties,

:06:56. > :07:01.but I signed up to the coalition on the basis that we would be reducing

:07:01. > :07:06.the deficit. It is down by a third, that is significant. By 2015 it will

:07:06. > :07:12.be reduced that much further. Vince cable has often said if you do not

:07:12. > :07:18.get progressive -- you do not get aggressive politics on the back of

:07:18. > :07:28.bankruptcy. You have had to move the goalposts for whatever reason. Will

:07:28. > :07:32.people by that now? I think you in the media have explained brilliantly

:07:32. > :07:37.the challenges of Europe, the challenges in the Eurozone, which

:07:37. > :07:41.have hampered some of our plans. People understand that is well

:07:41. > :07:45.beyond the control of the UK Government. It has been more

:07:45. > :07:54.challenging, but progress has been made and I look forward to

:07:54. > :07:59.continuing progress. That is not to say there are not issues we have

:07:59. > :08:07.concerns about. I now turn to the lead candidate for the Liberal

:08:07. > :08:15.Democrats in the European elections next year. Alec, both Nick Clegg and

:08:15. > :08:23.Kirsty Williams will point out that the Eastleigh was a turning point

:08:23. > :08:28.for the party. Does it feel that way for you? It does as well -- it does

:08:28. > :08:35.actually. I think we are in a robust position in Kerry Daykin, and what

:08:35. > :08:40.happened in Eastleigh strikes accordingly. Where you get a Liberal

:08:40. > :08:50.Democrat MP NUC how they work is good constituency MPs, they are

:08:50. > :08:54.

:08:55. > :08:58.quite hard to get rid of, and that is what we are saying. The president

:08:58. > :09:05.compared some of the members like cockroaches and locusts because you

:09:05. > :09:08.survive nuclear war! I think there is a serious point there. A lot of

:09:09. > :09:14.people joined the Liberal Democrats when it was not something that was

:09:14. > :09:20.going to naturally lead to power. I joined in 1976, and you hear Paddy

:09:20. > :09:24.Ashdown talking about the time when in his leadership it was barely

:09:24. > :09:30.measurable. Most activists are committed to what the party stands

:09:31. > :09:36.for. And are going to go on through thick and thin and be quite hard to

:09:36. > :09:41.discourage when it comes to it. will that play in the European

:09:41. > :09:46.elections? Well, one thing is we have a distinctive line on Europe,

:09:46. > :09:53.and people who have voted for us in European elections in the past are

:09:53. > :09:58.likely to go on to, because we are saying that countries need to

:09:58. > :10:02.cooperate on big issues like global warming or climate change. Those

:10:02. > :10:08.things can only be done internationally. People will support

:10:08. > :10:13.us for that kind of thing. UKIP are saying it does not work, let us get

:10:13. > :10:19.out of it, Plaid Cymru are in a way saying the same thing about the

:10:19. > :10:26.United Kingdom, and we are saying, let us reform this. UKIP and Plaid

:10:26. > :10:31.Cymru have seats in Wales, you do not. How will you change the?

:10:31. > :10:35.were within distance last time, a few thousand votes. It is a

:10:35. > :10:39.proportional election, which is quite interesting. People can vote

:10:39. > :10:44.for the party they support, and the seats will be divided up

:10:44. > :10:50.proportionally unfairly on that basis. Some will go up, some don't.

:10:50. > :10:54.We can speculate on that, we can do is push our case that being engaged

:10:54. > :10:58.in Europe is important, but it needs reform just as the United Kingdom

:10:58. > :11:05.needs reform and Wales needs reform. We will make our argument, they will

:11:05. > :11:12.make bears, and let us see what happens. -- they will make their

:11:12. > :11:17.arguments. Back to you. As we heard earlier, the parties are

:11:17. > :11:22.in election mode. The voters of Anglesey go to the polls. A year

:11:22. > :11:27.behind the rest of Wales. You can tell us why there are elections in

:11:27. > :11:31.Anglesey this year. They were postponed from last year because of

:11:31. > :11:35.Government 's problems on the council. What the Government decided

:11:35. > :11:39.to do was to postpone the elections to redraw the boundaries, and rather

:11:39. > :11:46.than a proportional election we were hearing about there, but Anglesey is

:11:46. > :11:50.being given is a large dose of first past the post, big wards, three

:11:50. > :11:55.members each, and those members were by and large likely be drawn from

:11:55. > :11:59.political parties, because what happened is that you had a lot of

:11:59. > :12:03.small single members wards very often represented by independents

:12:03. > :12:08.who were very often the only candidate standing. The Government

:12:08. > :12:12.is trying to politicise Anglesey if you like, and the first stage was

:12:12. > :12:15.postponing the elections, the second stage is holding the elections with

:12:15. > :12:20.these new wards. All the political parties have piled into Anglesey's

:12:20. > :12:26.local Government in a way that is incomparable with anything we have

:12:26. > :12:32.seen in the past. Because they think they can get something out of it?

:12:32. > :12:38.think partly they think it is their duty to do it, and realistically can

:12:38. > :12:43.any party win an overall majority? That are just 30 councillors on the

:12:43. > :12:47.new council. Plaid Cymru think they can. We shall see. But there are a

:12:48. > :12:50.large number of Conservatives and Labour standing, and a large number

:12:51. > :12:57.of UKIP standing, so they will be very interesting elections to watch.

:12:57. > :13:00.We heard from -- we heard from Christine Humphrey earlier.

:13:00. > :13:04.Let us hear what Labour, the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru have

:13:04. > :13:09.to say about those elections on Anglesey.

:13:09. > :13:13.The whole culture of Anglesey has been based on independent

:13:13. > :13:20.councillors. I think the solution is better party politics instead of

:13:20. > :13:24.personalities. We have seen Rose between personalities, and not

:13:24. > :13:28.focusing on what people want. For the first time we will have a

:13:28. > :13:32.manifesto and a proper programme which includes jobs, education and

:13:32. > :13:36.issues that are important to the people of Anglesey. Anglesey

:13:36. > :13:41.politics have always been about the island, there is a strong feeling

:13:41. > :13:45.the need to get it right this time because the local authority has been

:13:45. > :13:49.badly performing for such a long period of time, and I think a strong

:13:49. > :13:59.group of Conservatives candidates will be able to offer the people are

:13:59. > :14:00.

:14:00. > :14:03.different viewpoint in terms of how they should move forward. We need to

:14:03. > :14:05.make Anglesey proud again after this long, turbulent difficult period. We

:14:05. > :14:07.need to have a council that has disciplined, and therefore the

:14:07. > :14:13.commissioners will feel confident about leaving the island to the

:14:13. > :14:17.local councillors. More needs to be done in creating jobs and so on and

:14:17. > :14:20.making sure that the councillors drive forward a programme to make

:14:20. > :14:25.sure that the services that the people of Anglesey need can be

:14:26. > :14:30.properly run. Mark Williams had a question and

:14:30. > :14:34.answer session earlier, and one question was about the Silk

:14:34. > :14:38.Commission, set up by the UK Government to look at the future of

:14:38. > :14:45.devolution. A question about the Silk Commission.

:14:45. > :14:51.Do you see the proposals being implemented in this parliamentary

:14:51. > :14:55.session? There are two dimensions to the Silk Commission. Part one talks

:14:55. > :15:00.about the taxation and fiscal arrangements, and part two is about

:15:00. > :15:03.the powers that we believe should be devolved to the National Assembly in

:15:03. > :15:13.this great historic progression of powers that we have championed for

:15:13. > :15:16.

:15:16. > :15:22.many years. The process currently is that they have reported on part one,

:15:22. > :15:27.the partial capacity to vary income tax, talked about income streams

:15:27. > :15:31.through devolving some of the smaller taxes, and we await their

:15:31. > :15:35.government's response to that. Has assured us that we will have a

:15:35. > :15:41.response to that report in the spring, it might not feel like it,

:15:41. > :15:46.but summer is fast approaching, spring is fast ending, so we look

:15:46. > :15:51.forward to the government's response to part one, and Paul silk is

:15:51. > :15:57.currently taking evidence on part two. This party has achieved a great

:15:57. > :16:02.deal. We were the party that created silk. We have responded to the

:16:02. > :16:10.historic challenge and honoured commitments that we made in our

:16:10. > :16:15.manifesto. We need a Wales Bill in this Parliament, whether it happens

:16:15. > :16:21.in the Queen's speech in a few weeks time is a bit optimistic, but it

:16:21. > :16:25.must happen in this Parliament. I want us as a party to be in a

:16:25. > :16:31.position to go to the general election in 2015, to say that not

:16:31. > :16:34.only did we make an important platitudes about devolution and

:16:34. > :16:38.ensuring that our lead and his colleagues that make decisions on

:16:38. > :16:44.our behalf to do with provision of services and the strategies we have

:16:45. > :16:50.talked about, have the means of having the debate and the powers of

:16:50. > :17:00.raising money as well. I want to go to that job elections saying those

:17:00. > :17:14.

:17:14. > :17:19.We need to see what Paul sold all say or do Part Two. Devolution is

:17:19. > :17:24.not a day event, but a process. It would be fair to say that this

:17:24. > :17:28.party and his parliamentarian us, we both talked about this in

:17:28. > :17:32.Parliament, are impatient and want to see a speedier approach.

:17:32. > :17:36.This is a programme about the Welsh Liberal Democrats spring conference

:17:36. > :17:44.so let us see some more of it. Earlier delegates discussed

:17:44. > :17:51.introducing more public transport concessions for students and young

:17:51. > :17:55.people. As a Liberal Democrats, conference, as Nick Clegg just

:17:55. > :18:00.mentioned, we are a party that is committed to ensuring you can get

:18:00. > :18:06.on in life whatever their social circumstances a background. The

:18:06. > :18:10.same driving forces behind our motion here today. We are committed

:18:10. > :18:16.to helping young people whatever they do win difficult economic

:18:16. > :18:21.times to ensure everyone can get on in life and access further and

:18:21. > :18:25.higher education and training and employment. I believe we need a

:18:25. > :18:29.holistic approach to tackling youth unemployment here in Wales. As a

:18:29. > :18:36.body of young people we are aware of the issues affecting young

:18:36. > :18:40.people in Wales and we also understand the additional impact

:18:40. > :18:43.around the geography. Last week I criticised the was government and

:18:43. > :18:46.its inability to support young people on public transport as I

:18:46. > :18:50.firmly believe that if we are to tackle youth unemployment we need

:18:50. > :18:55.to ensure people can access and a four to access the things needed to

:18:55. > :18:58.get on in life, if that is higher education, further education,

:18:58. > :19:03.training, apprenticeships or whether it is work opportunities

:19:03. > :19:06.that are available to young people in Wales. As a party we should be

:19:06. > :19:11.leading the way in developing a consensus that we need to do more

:19:11. > :19:15.to support young people in Wales. We cannot limit discussions of

:19:15. > :19:20.youth unemployment to the number of apprenticeships on offer or the

:19:20. > :19:23.number of people going on to higher-education. Earlier this week

:19:23. > :19:28.a Cardiff private bath -- bus company launched a scheme to cut

:19:28. > :19:33.fares for young people between 16 and 18, a policy similar to what we

:19:33. > :19:35.are proposing here today. This company is showing that this policy

:19:36. > :19:40.can be implemented across Wales and I believe that the Welsh government

:19:40. > :19:47.and local authorities can work with bus companies to support young

:19:47. > :19:49.people on public transport. Wales needs a public transport system

:19:49. > :19:53.that connect every dot and every community and allows young people

:19:53. > :19:59.to get on in life whatever their social circumstances. Conference, I

:19:59. > :20:02.want a fair deal for young people and I believe this is a way of

:20:02. > :20:07.tackling youth unemployment in a way to create a stronger economy

:20:07. > :20:12.and society. Firstly, thank you very much for bringing this motion

:20:12. > :20:16.today because I think there is a group of people in our society who

:20:16. > :20:21.have less of a voice than others and that his young people. We need

:20:21. > :20:26.to make sure that wherever possible you are bringing forward ideas that

:20:26. > :20:30.we can discuss and take forward to other places. I do welcome the

:20:30. > :20:35.principle of this motion. A picket is an idea that his very well

:20:35. > :20:40.thought out and I applaud you for the work that you have done towards

:20:40. > :20:44.it. It makes me ask myself some questions about what do we do with

:20:44. > :20:48.public transport and how do we spend the money that we use of

:20:48. > :20:52.public transport here? One of the things I thought about it is, why

:20:52. > :20:55.do we find all the persons bus passes? One of the fundamental

:20:55. > :20:59.reasons we do that is because in the long term it saves us money, in

:20:59. > :21:04.is that people are kept low bar for longer and it saves social services

:21:04. > :21:07.money and committee chance for money and so there is, not only a

:21:07. > :21:10.fairness issue here, and a social issue here, but there is an

:21:11. > :21:15.economic imperative as well which makes it a wise investment.

:21:15. > :21:19.Actually doing something for young people has that same potential

:21:19. > :21:23.because when we look at the problems that led him people --

:21:23. > :21:27.young people, particularly in rural Wales, experience in travelling to

:21:27. > :21:33.things like a apprenticeships and work placements and job interviews

:21:33. > :21:37.and school and higher education, we see the fact that the lack of

:21:37. > :21:42.access to public transport and the cost of public transport acts as a

:21:42. > :21:45.real financial barrier and an economic disincentive to go out and

:21:45. > :21:51.work. That is something that we need to take seriously and consider

:21:51. > :21:54.when we look at the financing of these kinds of proposals. We did do

:21:54. > :21:58.some work in my office looking at the facts and figures and

:21:58. > :22:01.statistics here and it is interesting to look at the older

:22:01. > :22:08.person's bus pass as a comparison to what it might cost to introduce

:22:08. > :22:14.something like this. We found that 630,000 people in Wales aged over

:22:14. > :22:19.60 have a pass and that is only 82.5% of those who are eligible for

:22:19. > :22:23.a pass. One of the things we want to look at is whether there was a

:22:23. > :22:26.potential for using the none take up as a funding mechanism. Actually

:22:27. > :22:32.the funding does take account of the fact that at the moment there

:22:32. > :22:35.is a lack of take up their for people who are perhaps too frail to

:22:35. > :22:42.use it or who are still working so we will need to look at other ways

:22:42. > :22:45.of doing that but it is worth considering. There are around

:22:45. > :22:50.190,016 to 18-year-old student who would qualify for a pass under the

:22:50. > :22:53.proposals that you make. Looking at the figures in terms of the

:22:53. > :22:58.administration costs, not including the transport costs, we would

:22:58. > :23:00.estimate it would cost �500,000 a year to administer the passes so it

:23:00. > :23:05.is a substantial amount of money but not an impossible amount of

:23:05. > :23:10.money so we need to understand how we would go about paying for that.

:23:10. > :23:14.We need to think about that very carefully. If you want to develop

:23:14. > :23:20.this policy further I would welcome the opportunity to work with you to

:23:20. > :23:25.further bring these ideas to fruition and for that reason I

:23:25. > :23:28.think it is important to note that the motion calls the policy -- for

:23:28. > :23:31.the policy commission to work is a but look for the answers and to

:23:31. > :23:36.develop this as a policy and with that in mind I would like to rescue

:23:36. > :23:39.all too supported wholeheartedly because it is wholehearted -- well-

:23:39. > :23:45.thought-out. It is not looking for pie-in-the-sky, it is looking for

:23:45. > :23:49.our support to help make it happen. Thank you very much. There is more

:23:49. > :23:56.of a flavour of the Conference for you. Let us find that what they are

:23:56. > :23:59.saying in the coffee room for and the other rooms around the

:23:59. > :24:03.conference. James's with Lord German. Thank you very much. I am

:24:03. > :24:09.joined by Lord German, the former leader of the Welsh Liberal

:24:09. > :24:12.Democrats, of course. You are now a member of the House of Lords, how

:24:13. > :24:15.is the change of pace from your time in the Assembly, how why

:24:15. > :24:20.you're enjoying it? It is very enjoyable because you do the same

:24:20. > :24:23.things as you do in the National Assembly but differently. Of course

:24:23. > :24:26.the larger number of people means that you look at things in a

:24:26. > :24:30.different way and sometimes you have to shout louder to get your

:24:30. > :24:35.voice heard, whereas with only 60 members of the National Assembly

:24:35. > :24:39.you can always be her. To the difference between the Welsh

:24:39. > :24:42.Assembly is that you were pushing for more powers there but you are

:24:42. > :24:48.rare breed of Lords who wants to see the House abolished and that

:24:48. > :24:51.one will happen in this Parliament. No, my chance to have myself

:24:52. > :24:55.abolished has a past and I would have voted for it, I would like to

:24:55. > :24:58.see the House of Lords directly- elected. I think we need to have

:24:58. > :25:01.that sort of democratic base to read but we are stuck with what we

:25:01. > :25:05.have got at the moment for the foreseeable for your job. In a way,

:25:05. > :25:09.do you think it was the best thing for the Liberal Democrats? In the

:25:09. > :25:12.sense that it falls due to draw the dividing lines between yourselves

:25:12. > :25:17.and your Coalition partners? certainly wasn't the best thing for

:25:17. > :25:22.us in the terms of our political stance and standing, what it did do,

:25:22. > :25:27.I think, was strengthen the resolve of people in the Liberal Democrats

:25:27. > :25:31.in Parliament to know how to operate within a Coalition, to know

:25:31. > :25:36.when to say, no, we don't agree with you on that point but we know

:25:36. > :25:40.that we have to work together to bring clarity to the relationship

:25:40. > :25:45.between ourselves and the Conservatives. That is certainly a

:25:45. > :25:49.dividing line between the way that we operated, rather than anything

:25:49. > :25:55.that means the Coalition would collapse. It will not collapse, it

:25:55. > :25:59.will continue, but we are being clearer about our position within a.

:25:59. > :26:02.Are we seeing you separating ourselves already, two years away

:26:02. > :26:07.from the next general election, starting to separate and showed

:26:07. > :26:11.clear dividing lines? I don't think so. The experience we have had here

:26:11. > :26:15.in Wales of Coalition is that you actually intend to complete the job

:26:15. > :26:20.that you set out to do and you lay out that programme and you follow

:26:20. > :26:24.it through. At the same time you start to lay out what you would do

:26:24. > :26:27.in the future, after the next Jemma Lowe election, and you will hear

:26:27. > :26:32.more for the Liberal Democrats would like to do after the next

:26:32. > :26:36.general election as these months roll on, in the next two years.

:26:36. > :26:39.Clarity is needed about where we would go so that we can say, we

:26:39. > :26:43.have come together in this partnership to do this job and we

:26:43. > :26:46.will see the job through but where we will go from there on is our

:26:46. > :26:51.view and then the people of the country can have a vote upon it.

:26:51. > :26:54.you think the party nationally has got a flavour for Coalition now and,

:26:54. > :26:58.should there be a situation in the next general election that the

:26:58. > :27:02.numbers do not add up for one party or another, would you be happy to

:27:02. > :27:05.go into Coalition with the Labour Party? Is that actually the best

:27:05. > :27:10.thing for the party? I don't suggest for one minute that we

:27:10. > :27:14.should choose to might be a Coalition partner in advance, of an

:27:14. > :27:17.election. It is the people of the country who choose how they want to

:27:17. > :27:20.see their parliament elected and what the make-up of the tears.

:27:20. > :27:24.Politicians like us have got to make the best of it. We shouldn't

:27:24. > :27:28.be frightened of coalitions. We shouldn't be frightened of the fact

:27:28. > :27:31.that it can't make brave decisions. This Parliament has taken some of

:27:31. > :27:36.the toughest decisions that this country have thinner many decades

:27:36. > :27:39.and as a Coalition I think that has been more competent at doing that

:27:39. > :27:44.than a single party with its individual ideological positions,

:27:44. > :27:48.arguing underneath the car was. I suspect that if it were to happen

:27:48. > :27:52.again we know better now how to operate within it and also how to

:27:52. > :27:56.negotiate the Coalition agreement. It seems from the opinion polls

:27:56. > :27:58.that it is yourself that have suffered the most from being in a

:27:58. > :28:02.Coalition compared to the Conservatives. I think we have

:28:03. > :28:07.turned a corner. I think that was true in the first part of the

:28:07. > :28:12.Coalition. People do tend to hammer the smaller party in a Coalition

:28:12. > :28:16.but I suspect, and I think Eastleigh was another put --

:28:16. > :28:22.turning point for us, we won a by- election in a most difficult of

:28:22. > :28:26.circumstances and we are winning local government elections...

:28:26. > :28:30.held the seat. We won it even though we held at. It was buried

:28:30. > :28:33.difficult and I can't think of aware circumstance. We're winning

:28:33. > :28:36.local council elections across the country and people are beginning to

:28:36. > :28:40.recognise that when the crunch comes to it, when the chips are

:28:40. > :28:43.down, it is the two questions, which party do you think can

:28:43. > :28:48.deliver a fair and balanced economy and get the jobs back into our

:28:48. > :28:51.economy, and secondly which one is going to produce a fairer society

:28:51. > :28:56.to live in? Those are the two issues that we are focusing upon

:28:56. > :29:01.now where some way down the track we are doing some of the job and we

:29:01. > :29:05.want to see more of that done and that is what we layout post 2015.

:29:05. > :29:10.With regard to the issue of fairness, I wanted talk to quickly

:29:10. > :29:13.about the Welfare Reform Bill. It has detractors say that it is the

:29:13. > :29:16.death of the welfare state and you have been doing a lot of work

:29:16. > :29:21.Colleter the House of Lords, how does that message that you're

:29:21. > :29:25.trying to deliver fairness and yet you are making swingeing cuts to

:29:25. > :29:29.the welfare state. How does that tally up? For when you look at the

:29:29. > :29:33.percentage of the cut, it may be huge numbers but it is not huge in

:29:33. > :29:37.terms of the percentage of the bunch of. If you let think about

:29:37. > :29:44.the whole budget for the National Assembly of Wales, �15.4 billion a

:29:44. > :29:48.year, the budget in Wales for welfare, the state budget is a �13

:29:48. > :29:53.billion a year and the gap is narrowing. Clearly, when you

:29:53. > :29:57.exclude health and schools from a budget it is bound to take the hit.

:29:57. > :30:03.If you are trying to put the economy back on track again,

:30:03. > :30:09.excluding pensioners, in terms of the percentage, the spending Wells

:30:09. > :30:17.is not as great as people made out. Thank you very much for your time.

:30:17. > :30:21.Let us pick up on one of the themes are raised by Lord German there. He

:30:21. > :30:23.had to do the same thing when he was in government with Labour, the

:30:23. > :30:27.idea of disengagement, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives

:30:27. > :30:31.going their own separate ways ahead of an election. When do you think

:30:31. > :30:33.we will see that? There are some people who think that maybe the

:30:33. > :30:37.Liberal Democrats will leave the government just before the election

:30:37. > :30:41.is called and leave a caretaker Conservative government in charge.

:30:41. > :30:47.I don't see that happening. There are no indications that that is

:30:47. > :30:51.going to happen. The problem they have got is, simply put, that

:30:51. > :30:56.wherever you look a, anywhere in the world, normally, more often

:30:56. > :30:59.than not the junior party in a Coalition does badly in the

:30:59. > :31:03.following general election. It is because they cannot appeal to the

:31:03. > :31:13.tactical votes from the people who were excluded from the Coalition.

:31:13. > :31:18.

:31:18. > :31:23.That is the case around the world so what This fairer economy,

:31:23. > :31:25.stronger economy, fairer society, how many times have we heard that

:31:25. > :31:31.quez-mack they are trying to get words associated with their brand,

:31:31. > :31:37.but it won't be easy. So when the coalition said they

:31:37. > :31:42.would be together for five years, they will be? I think so, unless

:31:42. > :31:46.some extreme factor comes in that we cannot foresee. It does not appear

:31:46. > :31:52.that would be the case. I think one of the problems the Liberal

:31:52. > :31:56.Democrats will face is this one. Lord German said you cannot make

:31:56. > :32:01.decisions about coalitions in advance, but I think people will be

:32:01. > :32:06.asking, well, if we are looking at another hung parliament, do you

:32:06. > :32:10.believe, as you said last time, but the party with the largest number of

:32:10. > :32:16.seats has a moral right to lead the Government, or do you take yourself

:32:16. > :32:22.and abrogate onto yourself the power of kingmakers are Queen makers in

:32:22. > :32:27.Parliament, that is assuming the Lib Dems hold the balance of power.

:32:27. > :32:37.can put that to Kirsty Williams shortly. One morning session was

:32:37. > :32:38.

:32:38. > :32:43.held by Ed Davey, the energy Secretary. This is about my fourth I

:32:43. > :32:46.think Welsh Liberal Democrat conference I remember going as our

:32:46. > :32:54.party economic's adviser to Fishguard and talking there, so it

:32:54. > :32:58.is great to be back here in Cardiff. It is a privilege to beard the

:32:58. > :33:00.Secretary of State for energy, and a liberal Democrat one, making sure we

:33:00. > :33:07.are driving forward policies we have campaigned for an developed over

:33:07. > :33:12.many years. We have some very clear objectives, obviously to keep the

:33:12. > :33:17.lights on, to keep bills affordable, but obviously also to

:33:17. > :33:22.make sure we can meet our climate change objectives. Said like that it

:33:22. > :33:31.seems very simple. But it is a huge, huge challenge. We have to attract

:33:31. > :33:36.this decade alone �110 billion of investment. It is the largest

:33:36. > :33:40.infrastructure investment in the whole of the UK, it is nearly 50% of

:33:40. > :33:45.the UK's infrastructure needs in the next decade. That is partly because

:33:45. > :33:51.20% of our power is going off-line, but also because we are preparing

:33:51. > :33:54.for the low carbon energy that we need. It is a huge challenge for

:33:54. > :34:04.every part of the United Kingdom, and we need Wales to play a big role

:34:04. > :34:06.

:34:06. > :34:11.in that. When you look forward beyond 20 ten to 2050, the demand

:34:11. > :34:16.for electricity is going to be huge. Because it is not just in

:34:16. > :34:23.decarbonising the power generation that we have now, taking out coal

:34:23. > :34:30.and so on, it is also about electrifying transport, whether it

:34:30. > :34:35.is the railways, to south Wales, or elsewhere in the UK. Whether it is

:34:35. > :34:38.caused becoming electric cars. Whether it is moving away from gas

:34:38. > :34:43.heating to electric heating. The demand for electricity is going to

:34:43. > :34:51.grow and grow and we meet to make sure that is clean electricity. --

:34:51. > :34:56.we need to make sure. It is such a huge and pressing need, we cannot

:34:56. > :35:02.delay these decisions. They have been delayed for far too long. But

:35:02. > :35:07.it is a huge opportunity, and the debate around this area sometimes

:35:07. > :35:13.has been hijacked by those climate change deniers and those who are

:35:13. > :35:17.saying this is all too expensive. We have to make the argument for green

:35:17. > :35:22.growth. There are hundreds of thousands of green jobs that can be

:35:22. > :35:28.created if we get this right. I think that makes it one of the most

:35:28. > :35:32.exciting economic opportunities as well as an environmental imperative.

:35:32. > :35:35.But we have to put it in a human context and talk about the issues

:35:35. > :35:42.people are facing, so we have to talk about bills, and helping people

:35:42. > :35:46.in fuel poverty who are struggling with the cost of living. What are we

:35:46. > :35:53.going to do to make sure that energy retail markets are as competitive as

:35:53. > :35:59.possible? I am keen to make sure that we are leading the debate. I am

:35:59. > :36:07.also keen that we move from just talking about paying for energy to

:36:07. > :36:14.how we save energy. We have to help people in all elements of that. When

:36:14. > :36:18.you move to the saving bit, the energy company obligations, the

:36:18. > :36:20.support for energy in business is critical to our message and I am

:36:20. > :36:28.keen to hear Heather Green Deal is going anywhere else. I in Scotland

:36:28. > :36:35.last week, some good things, some not so promising things. I want to

:36:35. > :36:40.see what the situation here is like. There are an awful lot of people

:36:40. > :36:44.focusing on the generating side, whether it is onshore wind, offshore

:36:44. > :36:50.wind, whether it is tidal opportunities, biomass, all the

:36:50. > :36:56.different multiple types of green clean energy we can have. I am a

:36:56. > :37:00.complete enthusiast for renewable energy. We should make no apologies

:37:00. > :37:05.for that. But I don't think it is renewable energy at any price, we

:37:05. > :37:10.have to make sure it is cost competitive, and I believe it can

:37:10. > :37:14.and will be. A lot of our policies are designed to make sure we do have

:37:14. > :37:19.cost competitive clean, green energy. We also have to make sure

:37:19. > :37:23.that we take people with us, and I know in Wales and other parts of the

:37:24. > :37:33.country there is a backlash against certain forms of renewable energy,

:37:34. > :37:34.

:37:34. > :37:37.and the grid networks that are required for it and other energy

:37:37. > :37:39.sources. So we need to reach out, we should not be imposing things on

:37:40. > :37:43.people without proper debate and in particular trying to make sure that

:37:43. > :37:47.our policies ensure that communities can benefit from these developments

:37:47. > :37:54.as well both in terms of the direct element but also from the supply

:37:54. > :37:59.chain and the jobs that can come from this green revolution. There

:37:59. > :38:04.are, particularly on nuclear. I like to think the way we are going about

:38:04. > :38:09.it is changing the debate, because I am focusing on the cost, to make

:38:09. > :38:16.sure that nuclear is not as expensive as it was in the past. It

:38:16. > :38:20.is shocking, this year 69% of my department's budget, about �3

:38:20. > :38:25.billion, is being spent on decommissioning costs for nuclear

:38:25. > :38:30.electricity generated in the past. We cannot allow that ever to happen

:38:31. > :38:35.again. I am being absolutely robust in taking forward the coalition

:38:35. > :38:40.agreement that there will be no public subsidy, nuclear will have to

:38:40. > :38:43.be cost competitive in this generation. But I would urge people

:38:43. > :38:50.not to completely reject nuclear, because the scale of the challenge

:38:50. > :38:55.we have is massive. And climate change is pressing and extremely

:38:55. > :39:00.alarming, so having different low carbon options on the table is

:39:00. > :39:10.something that I think we have to contemplate. One of my final points

:39:10. > :39:14.

:39:14. > :39:22.on generating is the exciting prospect for community energy. We

:39:22. > :39:27.will be publishing a strategy in the autumn. I think the Liberal

:39:27. > :39:30.Democrats should be in the forefront of arguing for community energy, not

:39:30. > :39:35.just to change the dialogue that people have with energy supply, not

:39:35. > :39:42.just to be part of the green energy debate, but I think it can be a

:39:42. > :39:48.great win for all sorts of aspects of local communities, whether

:39:48. > :39:51.economic development, social capital or whether it is helping people with

:39:51. > :39:57.their bills. So community energy is something we should be talking a lot

:39:57. > :40:01.about. I am really excited to be here in Wales to look at all your

:40:01. > :40:06.fantastic opportunities, whether it is the tidal lagoon, the economic

:40:06. > :40:12.benefits that Liberal Democrats want, and other parties have been

:40:12. > :40:15.too slow on. So I know that you will see this opportunity as a way we can

:40:15. > :40:23.build a stronger economy and a fairer society here in Wales. Thank

:40:23. > :40:28.you very much. That was Ed Davey. Time to speak to

:40:28. > :40:38.Kirsty Williams, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats. Good

:40:38. > :40:39.

:40:39. > :40:43.afternoon, Kirsty Williams. Hello there. These occasions, your party

:40:43. > :40:50.love a conference, what sort of mood are you finding delegates in? It has

:40:50. > :40:54.been a pretty tough time for your party. As I am sure you can hear, it

:40:54. > :40:59.is very lively down here at the conference, we have had some

:40:59. > :41:03.excellent debates. This is still a party which lets its members to

:41:03. > :41:11.contribute to debates and to policy-making is, so everybody is in

:41:11. > :41:21.a very good move. We are buoyed up by the easterly wind, -- easterly

:41:21. > :41:21.

:41:21. > :41:26.wind. It it is a bit of a red herring, that when in Eastleigh.

:41:26. > :41:31.Don't you think you are putting too much store on that by-election win?

:41:31. > :41:36.It is the first time a party in Government have been able to hold a

:41:36. > :41:41.seat in a by-election for over 20 years, and I am sure you would be

:41:41. > :41:45.the first to have had something to say if we did not hold on. The party

:41:45. > :41:52.is in fine fettle, it has been a difficult couple of years for the

:41:52. > :41:55.party, but that easterly wind demonstrates that when people hear a

:41:55. > :41:58.message about a stronger economy and tackling the budget deficit and the

:41:59. > :42:03.economic mess left us by the previous Government, we are doing

:42:04. > :42:10.that in a way that is fair. 1 million taxpayers are getting a tax

:42:10. > :42:15.cut here in Wales, 130,000 taken out of paying tax altogether. When

:42:15. > :42:19.people hear that message, they respond positively to it. So that is

:42:19. > :42:26.the message you will be going into the next election on. You are the

:42:27. > :42:30.vice-chair of the general election campaign. A reporter was asking your

:42:30. > :42:34.predecessor whether he would favour a coalition with Labour next time.

:42:34. > :42:41.Are those the sorts of discussions you are having in that group with

:42:41. > :42:47.Paddy Ashdown? No, they are not. What we are discussing in those

:42:47. > :42:51.meetings with Paddy is putting forward a strong message from the

:42:51. > :42:56.Liberal Democrats in that election, but if the public wants a strong

:42:56. > :43:00.economy, we know that Labour governments have repeatedly left

:43:00. > :43:04.this country bankrupt. The Liberal Democrats are prepared to make those

:43:04. > :43:14.tough and difficult choices. But if you want a fair society it cannot be

:43:14. > :43:14.

:43:15. > :43:19.left to the Tories. They only look after their own. If you want a

:43:19. > :43:23.strong economy and a fairer society so that everyone in life can get on,

:43:23. > :43:26.only the Liberal Democrats can do that and it will be a vote for the

:43:26. > :43:32.Liberal Democrats that will deliver it. As to what happens after that

:43:32. > :43:42.election, it is quite clear we will not put narrow party political

:43:42. > :43:43.

:43:43. > :43:47.interest before the wider needs of the country. On that point, if you

:43:47. > :43:52.are faced with a situation as you were last time of the Conservatives

:43:52. > :43:58.on labour, and you hold the balance of power, do you think that you are

:43:58. > :44:01.duty bound to let the party with the most seats have a crack at governing

:44:01. > :44:08.and support them, or would you rather do what you think is best for

:44:08. > :44:12.your party in the country? We will do what we did at the last election,

:44:12. > :44:19.where we will not put narrow party political interest to the

:44:19. > :44:25.forefront. We warn act in the nation's best interests. -- we will

:44:25. > :44:30.act. You are no fan of the coalition, are you? The reality is,

:44:30. > :44:34.no overall party won the election, the party leader had said quite

:44:34. > :44:38.clearly before the election he would seek first to work with the party

:44:38. > :44:43.with the bigger number of seats, and we are using our influence within

:44:43. > :44:50.that coalition Government to implement Liberal Democrat policies.

:44:50. > :44:53.Two ways, the personal tax threshold to �10,000, that means 130,000

:44:53. > :45:02.people in Wales not paying income tax at all and a further million

:45:02. > :45:06.Welsh people not... We have heard that message from you. We will have

:45:06. > :45:11.a manifesto and we will seek to use whatever influence the British

:45:11. > :45:15.public gives this party to implement those ideas. That is what we have

:45:15. > :45:19.done in Westminster, and it is what I do in the Welsh Assembly to try

:45:19. > :45:24.and influence the Welsh Labour Government. For instance,

:45:24. > :45:31.introducing people premium soul are very people get a start in their

:45:31. > :45:37.education. We use the influence we have to deliver on Liberal Democrat

:45:37. > :45:44.policies. 1-macro that is one success you have claimed, the people

:45:44. > :45:48.premium. We heard Peter Black talking about the new scheme which

:45:48. > :45:52.the Welsh Government have scrapped. It was part of the scheme that

:45:52. > :45:57.bought your support for the budget. He was suggesting that trust has

:45:57. > :46:04.been eroded, and next time you sit down with Carwyn Jones you might not

:46:04. > :46:08.trust that he will deliver on what he says he will do.

:46:08. > :46:13.I am not disappointed for the Liberal Democrats, who I am

:46:13. > :46:18.disappointed for other thousands of first-time buyers that believe that

:46:18. > :46:22.scheme would help them owned their first home. They have been let down

:46:22. > :46:25.by a Welsh Government that has dithered and not find a way of

:46:25. > :46:31.delivering bad idea. It is clear to me that the Welsh Labour Party do

:46:31. > :46:35.not have a great many ideas. When they take on our ideas, they have

:46:35. > :46:39.demonstrated they are not very good at implementing them. That is a real

:46:39. > :46:49.shame for the Welsh people. We could have had a scheme up and running

:46:49. > :47:03.

:47:03. > :47:05.that could have helped those people buy their first homes. Because of

:47:05. > :47:08.the inability of the Labour Government to get these things

:47:08. > :47:10.organised, those chances have now been taken away, and it is a real

:47:10. > :47:12.disappointment. But an even bigger disappointment to those people who