Commenting on the news that the basic state pension will rise by only £2.40 per week next April, North East Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell said:

“Next April the majority of pensioners in North East Fife will see their pensions rise by a paltry 34p per day. This dismal increase will do nothing to help them cope with unfair council tax bills and rising food and fuel costs.

“We have a moral obligation to ensure those who have worked hard all their lives are rewarded with a respectable standard of living. There is an urgent need to restore the earnings link.”

Commenting on a study on child poverty by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies which shows a higher incidence in children from single parent families and ethnic minorities, Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell said:

“These figures should be a source of anxiety to all politicians. That the incidence of poverty should be so high particularly among ethnic minorities and single parent families requires a concentrated and targeted response.

“After ten years of Labour, Mr Blair’s government should be ashamed.”

Raising the issue of chaos in the tax credit system, Liberal Democrat Leader Menzies Campbell asked the Prime Minister today why the Government had failed to implement the recommendations put forward by the parliamentary ombudsman in June 2005 and why, in the meantime, it has been chasing thousands of poor families through the court system.
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Ming Campbell addressed the IPPR on 19th December as follows:

For much of my life in politics I have been closely associated with the issues of Foreign Affairs and Defence.

But there is another great passion which brought me into politics.

It is the passion for a fairer society – in Britain and abroad.

But today Britain is still a society in which your future is determined not by your skills and commitment, but by where you were born and who your parents were.

I want Britain not only to be a society of opportunity, but to be a country where those who cannot work, or whose earnings are limited, are also given proper financial support and assistance to do better.

I want a society with ladders to climb up and a strong safety net to catch those who would otherwise fall.

And the safety net needs to move upwards as national income increases.

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Ming discusses the results of yesterday’s Green Tax Switch Debate, Charles Kennedy and a visit to the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

The consultation on poverty that Ming references can be found here.