It’s a choice between Labour and the Liberal Democrats here.

Posted By: Wera Hobhouse
Date Posted: 28/02/2010

This afternoon the North-West politics show featured John Leech MP for Manchester Withington and his Labour challenger in the forthcoming election. John Leech and the Liberal Democrats won a stunning victory five years ago and they are most likely to repeat it. Yet all the Labour candidate was saying about the coming challenge was, that voters have a clear choice between Labour and the Conservatives in Withington. The sheer stupidity of this statement while sitting next to a Liberal Democrat MP with no Tories in sight became just too obvious.
Particularly around our big urban centres in the North-West the choice is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. In many boroughs the Conservatives are just not in the race. For many years now they have not elected a single councillor on either Liverpool or Manchester City Council. Of the 28 Greater Manchester parliamentary constituencies there is only one Tory MP (in Altrincham), but there are four Liberal Democrat MPs.
Of course it suits the Conservatives to be seen as the only challenger to Labour because it hides the truth about their very flimsy base in this part of the country.
But it also suits Labour because they hope to benefit from the unpopular image of the Conservatives as a London centred party of the rich and privileged.
However the real choice in our area is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Under the Labour Government we have been thrown into the worst recession in living memory as a result of reckless gambling by the big banks. Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats are proposing to break up the big banks, give tax breaks to the least well paid and rebuild our economy on jobs in green and manufacturing industries.
Under Labour the gap between rich and poor has widened even further.
Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats are proposing to support children from poorer backgrounds from a very early age and look at getting rid of unfair tuition fees so that young people can start their professional lives without any debts.
Labour has started an illegal war in Iraq with Conservative support. Only the Liberal Democrats have always opposed the war not just when it looked convenient to do so.
Labour is introducing ID-cards, a multi million pound folly which will do nothing to improve national security but restrict the civil liberties of millions of innocent citizens.
Under this Labour Government we have witnessed the worst breakdown in trust between voters and politicians after the expenses scandal.
The Liberal Democrats are proposing a big shake up in our political system by changing our voting system, which will make safe seats a thing of the past; will allow the electorate to get rid of their MP if found guilty of wrong doing; get rid of the unelected House of Lords to be replaced by an elected second chamber and stop big donation to political parties.

If people in our area want change from Labour they have to look at the Liberal Democrats, because we are the only party serious about winning here. The successes of our neighbouring MP Paul Rowen or Manchester Withington MP John Leech are ample proof that Liberal Democrats can beat Labour. The Conservatives are not in the race here.