Literacy news

Liberal Democrats release election manifesto

14 Apr 2010

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg promised a fairer Britain at the launch of his party’s election manifesto today. Launching his policy programme, Mr Clegg said: "I believe every single person is extraordinary and the tragedy is we have a society where too many people don't get to fulfil that extraordinary potential."

The four main themes of the 103-page booklet are fair taxes, more chances for children, a fairer and greener economy, and cleaning up politics. While the headline policy is a planned £700 tax break for low and middle income earners.

Proposed education reforms include: replacing the National Curriculum with a “Minimum Curriculum Entitlement” scheme in every state-funded school; creating a General Diploma which would encompass aspects of GCSEs, A-levels and high quality vocational qualifications together; and an investment of 2.5 billion to fund the most disadvantaged pupils, allowing the average primary school to cut class sizes to 20, as well as offering one-to-one tuition and providing extra after-school and holiday support.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have questioned how the Liberal Democrats plan to fund their tax proposals. Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond told Sky News, "To be credible and get any proper consideration, they have to come forward with serious proposals about how they are going to fill the gap in the public finances", while Labour’s Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper said there was a "multi-billion pound gap" in the Liberal Democrats' plans and they were "wrong" to be cutting programmes such as child trust funds.

Read the full manifesto at the Liberal Democrat’s website

Read about the launch and reaction to the proposals at the BBC website

Tags: NLT Campaigns, Policy

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