Lib Dems call for General Election and radical change to UK politics (North Tayside Liberal Democrats)

North Tayside Liberal Democrats <info@libdems.org.uk>

Lib Dems call for General Election and radical change to UK politics

June 12, 2009 1:01 AM
Originally published by Scottish Liberal Democrats

Senior Liberal Democrat MSPs have called on the UK Government to call a General Election.

Commenting after a debate in the Scottish Parliament calling for a UK General Election, Nicol Stephen called for radical changes to UK politics like PR in Westminster, fixed terms for elections and votes for sixteen year olds.

Speaking during the debate, Mr Stephen said:

"We need radical, dynamic change. This won't be delivered by a mortally wounded Prime Minister, nor by the leader of a deeply conservative party that has resisted constitutional change at every key moment in Britain's history.

"For the first time in more than a quarter of a century people are crying out for change on a dramatic scale. They want revolution, not evolution and now is the time to act.

"Gordon Brown twisting and contorting in the death throes of his time in office for another 10 or maybe 11 months will be deeply damaging and destructive. It is, in my view, already.

"The corrosive atmosphere is poisonous and bitter. Trust and confidence have vanished. It's time for change and it's time for some genuinely radically proposals."

Liberal Democrat MSP for the West of Scotland Ross Finnie added:

"The Prime Minister and the Labour Government are past their sell by date.

"Under Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling there has been a financial meltdown that has led to thousands of banking job losses across Scotland. Under Labour we have a surveillance state, a government determined to fling money at DNA databases and ID cards.

"We don't have a government, we have a void. Alistair Darling is a second rate. The only credible candidate is Vince Cable. We need a General Election to elect more Liberal Democrats and give the country the chance for a credible Chancellor of the Exchequer."