Chris Coleman writes about Freedom, Fairness, Trust

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 29th Sep 2004

In a letter to the editors of each of the newspapers coving the Forest of Dean, Chris Coleman has outlined the key themes of the new Liberal Democrat pre-manifesto called "Freedom, Fairness, Trust".

He wrote:

"I am pleased report that at our recent conference in Bournemouth, we in the Liberal Democrats launched our pre-manifesto called "Freedom, Fairness, Trust".

Freedom is about giving people the opportunity to make choices for themselves. Fairness is about providing equal access to good quality and reliable public services. Trust is about telling people the truth when it counts and trusting them to make decisions.

The document outlines the key themes that the Liberal Democrats will be campaigning on in the run up to the next General Election, which is expected to be held on 5th May next year.

Our policy proposals include a commitment to Axe Council Tax, abolish university tuition fees, bring 10,000 extra police officers to our streets and provide free long term care to the elderly and disabled.

In addition, we have also re-affirmed our commitment to fight for lower class sizes in our schools, for an increase in pensions by £25 per week for over 75 year olds, for protection of the environment and for good quality health care provided by the NHS which is free at the point of delivery.

The pre-manifesto states our aspiration to restore people's trust in politicians which has been so dented by the sleaze of the last Conservative government and the way that Tony Blair and his New Labour party have mislead us all over the war in Iraq.

The next few months will be a very interesting time for British politics and we in the Liberal Democrats will be campaigning strongly to show why we are worthy of support. Recent election results, as well as opinion polls, show that we live in an era of three party politics in which the Liberal Democrats can win."