Tim Farron for President

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Are you enjoying being in Government? I am... mostly! I mean we are detting all sorts being in Coalition. Making the tax system fairer, making our country greener, having the biggest democratic reform in 80 years in fact we are getting everything out of the coalition except any credit! I don't know if you are like me during the Iraq war turning on the Today programme in the morning listening to Ming Campbell, didn't you feel proud to be a Liberal Democrat? Listening to Vince Cable at the height of the banking crisis on the Today programme in the morning, didn't that make you proud to be a Liberal Democrat? Well I want to be the person you wake up to in the morning on the Today programme and see in the newspapers an see on the television, some one who makes you proud to be a Liberal Democrat. Because without a doubt being in a coalition is bound to compromise the identity of any party that is in it, There is nothing shameful about that, but it would be very shameful if we were not to tackle it. And my job is to be a distinctive voice for you, make it clear what the Liberal Democrats are for and make it absolutely certain that you are inspired to go and fight in the campaigns that are to come. Home for me is in the Lake District in Cumbria but actually I was born a few miles further south, here in Preston. My mum, she used to live here. She was a single mum who brought up me and my sister in difficult times during the 1980's and that is the time I joined the Liberal Party. And you could say there are two women who influenced me most in politics. The first was me mum. The second was Margaret Thatcher. And I saw the cuts, I saw the attacks on, the particularly Northern, Scottish, Welsh and urban communities that that Government brought about and that shaped my politics for the whole of my life. Now I hear the barbs thrown at us by Ed Milliband and others saying that we are helping the Tories turn the clock back to the 1980's and that make my blood boil. If there is any chance of that happening I would be out of that door quicker than David Milliband but when all is said and done we have to make sure that we are clear about what we stand for and about our principles. We need to give people reasons to vote Liberal Democrat and not just in 4 and a half years time but in the elections coming up next May. TO the Welsh Assembly, to the Scottish Parliament, to local councils in South Lakeland and here in Preston, we need to be giving people real reasons to vote for the Liberal Democrats and that is my job, if you elect me as part president. So let's stop apologising for being part of this Coalition, we have made the right decision but we would be making the wrong decision if we stopped campaigning and we allow our voice to become managerial and muted. Tim Farron for president is a campaign to make sure our parties voice is vibrant, distinctive, liberal, popular. Turn on the Today programme the day after I am elected as president and I promise you, you will feel proud to be a Liberal Democrat.