This is a crucial year in the development of Swindon. For the first time in more than a decade all of Swindon's
council is seeking re-election at the same time because boundary changes mean new wards and new representatives. This represents a timely opportunity to change the way our Council thinks and acts. To create a Swindon Borough Council that reflects the priorities of
Swindon residents, who involves you, listens to you and
takes your views seriously.
Over 20 million working people will be better off next year after Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government delivered the biggest ever increase in the income tax personal allowance in the Budget.
The massive £3.5bn tax cut for working people delivers:
The biggest ever single uplift in the tax threshold
A personal allowance of £9,205 in April 2013
21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
Brings the total tax cut for basic rate tax payers to £550
Brings the total number of people lifted out of tax to 2 million.
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes.
The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords.
Fairer taxes, promoting green jobs, protecting your civil liberties - these are just some of the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in government.
We're building a freer, greener and more liberal country - and stopping some of the worst excesses of the Conservatives. Find out more in this infographic.
In his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrat Conference, Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined his goals for the Government and the country over the coming years. He reiterated his commitment to liberal values on the environment and human rights and his determination to ensure a fair chance for every child, saying "every child can do good things, great things, if only we give them the opportunities they deserve."
Nick Clegg set out his view of the revisions to the government's NHS proposals today in his speech at Guy's Hospital. Responding to the report of the Future Forum on the reforms, he said "We've listened, we've learned, and we're improving our plans for the NHS"
Commenting further the Deputy Prime Minister summarised the changes as "Yes to patient choice. No to privatisation. Yes to giving nurses, hospital doctors and family doctors more say in your care. But no to heavy-handed, top-down restructuring of the NHS. Evolution, not revolution."
Swindon Liberal Democrats would like to thank all the voters of Swindon who supported our candidates on 5th May 2011.
The closest election in Eastcott in 17 years saw local resident and campaigner Nicky Sewell elected for the Lib Dem FOCUS Team with 1213 votes. She replaced retiring councillor Martin Wiltshire.
Chairman, thank you for your kind words about my knighthood. I will never forget Robert Burns' poem 'A man's a man for all that', in which he mocks those with titles but little merit: 'The rank is but the guinea's stamp/ The man's the gold for all that'.
Some of you know I am not a fan of the institution of monarchy and the honours list system. I hold it to be an anachronism in a 21st century democracy. But every country has its way of honouring achievement and this is Britain's. I consider this honour to be not mine but ours; what I have done we have done together, through our joint efforts and commitment.
It is now almost ten years since I piloted through parliament the legislation creating the European Arrest Warrant, much vilified by the UK's anti-Europeans but the one really effective tool the EU has for tackling cross border crime. It was the subject of parliamentary debate this week with many praising its usefulness but calling for greater safeguards against poor implementation or frivolous use of the procedure by member states and improvement of unacceptable detention conditions in some countries. These are all things Parliament sought ten years ago, but member states have been slow in reacting. To learn more about the issue, see the BBC TV programme The Record Europe [http://tinyurl.com/3brkvzg ] or follow the parliamentary debate here.
