Getting on with our job as the real opposition to the Government
Friday, August 18th, 2006August 17, 2006: Ming Campbell emailed party members as follows:
Politics never stands still. Even in the short time since my election as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in March, the landscape now looks quite different.
Tony Blair is looking increasingly insecure as Prime Minister. His handling of the crisis in the Middle East has laid bare just how exposed he is in his party and in the country. His Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott clings to office despite the media ridicule. The Home Office is being overhauled after years of mismanagement. The Identity Card project is looking more and more expensive and less and less practical. Cash deficits in the Health Service continue to rise, leading to ward closures and cuts in frontline staff.
We are surely now in the dog days of the Blair premiership.
While Labour falters, the Liberal Democrats in Parliament have been getting on with our job as the real opposition to the Government. Our Shadow Home Affairs secretary Nick Clegg led the debate which uncovered so many of the failures in the Home Office. Our Shadow Pensions Secretary David Laws has exposed just how shambolic the Child Support Agency has become. Our Shadow Health Secretary Steve Webb has been fighting to protect the National Health Service in the face of crippling deficits and central government diktat.
The Liberal Democrats are stronger than ever. After the local elections in May we now have the highest proportion of Liberal Democrat councillors ever. The by-election in Gordon Brown’s back yard in Dunfermline returned the Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie as MP boosting our numbers in Parliament to an all time high. And in one of the Tories’ safest seats in Bromley we reduced their 13,000 majority to just 641 – so much for David Cameron’s appeal.
