Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is to tell activists they must "move on" after rows about university tuition fees and the NHS in England.
Mr Clegg will say party members should be "shouting our achievements from the rooftops" in a speech at their spring conference in Gateshead.Last year, discontent expressed at the conference about the NHS shake-up led to further consultation on the bill.
This year a motion has been submitted calling for the changes to be scrapped.
The motion, which is not guaranteed to be debated, says the Lib Dems "oppose the further commercialisation of the NHS" by "working together to achieve the defeat of this deeply unpopular bill".
The party is also meeting in a week in which a leaked letter from Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable said the coalition government's economic policies "lacked vision".
In a speech at a rally in Gateshead on Friday evening, Mr Clegg will tell party members he has never "ducked fights".
"We've made some difficult decisions, not all of them popular," he is set to say.
"But we made all of them with only one test in mind: What was the right thing to do for the country? And now it is time to move on. To stop justifying being in government and start advertising being in government."
'Stop looking back' "To stop lamenting what might have been and start celebrating what is. To stop defending our decisions and start shouting our achievements from the rooftops."
Mr Clegg will say the government is "fairer, freer and greener" because the Lib Dems are part of it.
And insisting there is "no more looking back," he will urge activists to look forward to "the better future that we are building for our children"
"So let's tear off that rear view mirror and look straight ahead. Let's get on with the job that we all came into politics to do. Making this a more liberal nation," he will add.
Mr Clegg will also be supported by party president Tim Farron - who has previously called for further concessions.
"We got three-quarters of our manifesto into government policy, so I hereby allow you to stop saying sorry for the quarter we didn't get," he will say.
"And if people wanted that missing quarter, well they should have flipping voted for us shouldn't they?"
The Health and Social Care Bill's proposals include giving GPs control of much of the NHS budget and opening up the health service to greater competition from the private and voluntary sector.
These have proved controversial, with critics - including some Lib Dems - warning of "back-door privatisation".
Last month, Mr Clegg and Lib Dem peer Baroness Shirley Williams wrote to MPs and peers explaining how the bill had been improved, partly, they said, through the work of members of the party.
No comments:
Post a Comment