‘It’s the Economy, stupid’ was Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 Presidential campaign message. And it is probably as true now that the economy is enormously important. However, controlling or forecasting the economy has become even more difficult.

We are living in an increasingly interconnected world. There are many global companies that have turnover greater than some national governments. Most of these companies have the simple aim of maximising profit for their shareholders within the law. Countries compete to provide a financial environment, particularly the tax regime, to attract such companies who provide jobs and income, eg Luxembourg and Amazon. So what should our next government do? As Liberal Democrats we believe we have to cooperate, particularly within Europe, to get a fairer tax regime for global companies.

At home we can aspire to reducing the national debt but in the global economy it is not wholly under our control so a proportionate approach has to be taken. The Liberal Democrat objective is to eradicate the current account deficit by 2017/18 so that we live within our income each year. The long term debt we would keep falling as a percentage of GDP.

It is the duty of government to protect and care for its citizens; this must include concern for fair wages for all. The Tories, funded by big business, believe in the trickle down effect to their employees from businesses that flourish but what we have seen is the divide between top salaries and wages expanding from 8 to 1 to 10 to 1. Liberal Democrats believe that we should help wage earners directly. So we pushed the coalition government to raise the initial tax level to £10,500. We would raise this again to £12,500 which is roughly what someone on the minimum wage could earn, still not reaching a fair wage. At the other end of the scale we believe the wealthiest should bear more of the burden and we would introduce a banded high value property tax on homes over £2 million.

Promises, promises but can we keep them? Liberal Democrats have learnt a lot from being in the coalition government and know how difficult it is to escape from recession into growth. What we are determined to achieve is a fairer society and to tackle the wider aspects of the economy by cooperation and agreement within Europe. We may be an island but we cannot be insular.

Elizabeth Barraclough

Executive member, Copeland and Workington Liberal Democrats