Conference,
Our successes during the election have produced a new political environment.
Three party politics is the reality in Britain.
The Liberal Democrats confirmed as the growing force in British politics.
This reflects the sound political judgement and sheer hard work of our campaigners and committees, our parliamentarians and policy groups, and of you, our conference delegates, as you weigh up the proposals that come forward each year.
We are a democratic party - and our success is the reflection of no one individual or group.
It is a reflection of our positive unity of purpose and determination as a party.
But fellow Liberal Democrats, this is no time for complacency.
In all areas of the party we must consolidate and grow.
In our campaigning techniques.
In our communications.
In our finance and fundraising.
And of course in our policy platform.
Because, fellow Liberal Democrats, you know as well as I do, we go nowhere if we stand still.
So the hard work starts now!
As the Blair era comes to an end and the Prime Minister desperately tries to cement his legacy, the Labour Party will begin to turn in on itself.
And over the next Parliament we will take the fight to this fading Labour Government.
We must expose its woolly thinking, its arrogance, its instinctive authoritarianism.
The Conservatives are simply not up to that job.
They are too inward looking - too divided.
It is up to us to provide the solutions.
So over the next year we will look at how far our party is ready to take on the real challenges of the next decade - and to prepare the way for our challenge at the next general election.
And when that time comes we will only succeed if we present ourselves - and believe in ourselves - as a British Government in waiting.
That is why I have set in train two formal policy reviews.
Firstly, a Tax Policy Commission to look broadly at our tax commitments.
It's over a decade since we did this as a party.
The consultation session for this took place on Sunday and the formal proposals will go to conference in September next year.
The Tax Commission is a complementary exercise to today's consultation - 'Meeting the Challenge'.
I am chairing the overall process.
There have been three meetings of the working group in order to draw up this consultation paper.
I am determined that the whole party has the opportunity to contribute.
This exercise will include:
A dedicated website with special essays and papers and online consultation at meetingthechallenge.net;
Specific Meeting the Challenge sessions at regional and state party conferences with representatives from the working group;
A special CD ROM consultation pack which will be sent to all local parties and party associations to help them contribute.
We will also be holding a one day conference on January the 14th dedicated solely to Meeting the Challenge.
Formal proposals from the group will again come to conference in September 2006.
This is about thinking long and hard about how Britain is changing and how we apply our principles to the new problems that are arising.
This is not about writing a whole new manifesto.
This is not about lurching to the left of right.
This is not about jettisoning our principles.
We take as our starting point the underlying framework of the 2002 policy paper 'Its About Freedom' which set out our liberal democratic principles.
This initial consultation paper poses the tough questions - across the gamut of public policy.
The tough questions posed by terrorism to our security and fundamental liberty.
The tough questions posed by crime and antisocial behaviour.
By climate change and a deteriorating environment.
By poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity.
By global economic competition and technological change.
We must assess how far existing party policy stands up to these challenges.
And provide new innovative - and expressly liberal solutions - where they are required.
We must also look closely at how we can set the agenda - so that people understand instinctively what Liberal Democracy is about.
I want the country to understand that the solutions to their problems are Liberal Democrat solutions.
This has to be about presenting ourselves as credible contenders for power - not just for its own sake, but because of what we want to do with it as we gain more support.
We have achieved the most when we have stuck to our liberal values and in the current climate I believe the health of British society and politics requires us to continue to do so.
Meeting the Challenge is about just that.
For such a process to succeed, it should spark fresh thinking and generate debate.
And a good thing too, because I want this process to be dynamic and creative.
We have to be bold and to be willing to take risks.
We cannot provide the real alternative to this discredited and fading Labour Government if we keep our heads securely safe below the parapet.
But let me yet again repeat this assurance to you.
This process is not about saying one thing here in public while pursuing a private agenda behind close doors.
It is a process based on mutual trust in a mature, potential Liberal Democrat party of government.
Because it is we Liberal Democrats who now, as the real alternative, have the opportunity to put before Britain a fresh and practical application of liberalism for Britain in the 21st Century.
We Liberal Democrats must re-dedicate ourselves to the same tasks that drove the liberal reformers of the early 20th century.
That is the work ahead of us.
That is the work that I am determined we carry out.
That is the work with your help and your trust we shall achieve and deliver.
ENDS
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