February 2: Ming Campbell met with Liberal Democrats in Brussels earlier today and addressed them as follows:

I am delighted to be able to join you here today.

The European Parliament is unique. There is simply no other Parliament in the world like it. Working in twenty different languages, legislating for a partnership of 450 million citizens, it is a daring example of representative democracy in action.

I am immensely proud of the work of our Liberal Democrat MEPs, and of that of our colleagues from Liberal parties across Europe. You are promoting a European Union which is economically dynamic, environmentally sustainable and politically accountable. A union which has liberal values at its core.

I am a lifelong internationalist. It has always seemed self evident to me that the pooling of sovereignty at international level is necessary if we wish to influence the world around us. Globalisation has made this need for collective, supranational decision-making even more pressing. The new threats to our collective security – international terrorism, unstable or rogue states, weapons of mass destruction, cross border crime, and global climate change – demand a coherent international response.

In seeking the leadership of the Liberal Democrats in Great Britain, I can promise you this: I will lead a party which will wear its internationalism on its sleeve.

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January 31: Ming Campbell today launched a personal statement entitled “Policy Themes, Leadership Priorities” in which he identifies the most pressing challenges facing Britain today and how he, as leader, would tackle those issues.

When I joined this party we were not afraid of fresh thinking, of testing the boundaries of political debate, and challenging the fossilised thinking of the other parties. I am determined that we will become a party not of protest, but of Government, a party which changes Britain for the better.

I believe that a modern Liberal Democrat party is better placed than any other to understand and address the most pressing challenges of our time:

• the overbearing centralisation of public life in Britain, which has led to a pervasive feeling of individual powerlessness amongst its citizens, and to public services which still fail too many of the people they are supposed to serve;
• the absence of social justice, with persistent levels of poverty and social immobility, which are simply unacceptable in a country as wealthy as ours, and a tax system still biased against the poor;
• the unsettling effects of globalisation and the urgent need to rebuild confidence in the international rule of law;
• the threat of catastrophic environmental degradation and the complex task of changing individual behaviour for the sake of the survival of the planet;
• the fundamental imperative of reforming our outdated political institutions, and defending civil and individual rights at a time when Labour – and the Conservatives – are all too ready to abandon those hard won freedoms.

These are the urgent challenges of our times. My leadership will focus relentlessly on applying fresh thinking to these issues, drawing on our longstanding principles, and offering new solutions and answers to a British electorate weary of spin and managerial politics.

This personal statement sets out in more specific terms how I would aim to deliver on those pledges.

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