The debate, which was hosted by ITV1, saw Nick Clegg eclipse Gordon Brown and David Cameron. Subsequent polls have placed Nick Clegg has the clear winner of the first debate.

But the news was overshadowed by a surprise new YouGov poll for The Sun which pitched the Lib Dems in second place, just 3 points behind the Tories – leaving Labour trailing in third place. The Tories were on 33% (down 4 points), Lib Dems on 30% (up 8 points), and Labour were down 3 points on 28%.

The phenomenal change of fortunes means that the Lib Dems are now on an equal footing – and everything is for play.

People are said to be impressed by Clegg’s friendly, honest and approachable manner. They are fed up of 65 years of the same old, same old with successive Labour and Tory government – and are ready for a change.

All eyes will be on Mr Clegg’s performance at the Sky News Leaders Debate next Thursday. It is thought the Lib Dems may perform well because the debate will focus on foreign affairs, such as the Iraq war, which the Lib Dems have been very strong on in previous years.

The video, which has been created by the Labservative website, contains a serious message – that Labour and the Tories stand for the same old ideas, and that it will be up to the people of Westhoughton to decide if they want real change this year.

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, commented: “Labservatism may seem like a bit of a joke. But the reality isn’t funny at all.”

“For the last sixty-five years Labour and the Conservatives have been in charge and look where it’s got us.

“Britain is less fair than it’s been for decades; we’re in the midst of an economic crisis caused by the greed of bankers, who were encouraged in their recklessness by the two old parties; and the political system that Labour and the Conservatives stitched up together is sunk in corruption and sleaze.

“In this election you’ll hear the two of them trot out the same old slogans and recycle the same old election promises that they’ve already broken countless times. But the only thing you can really guarantee is that if they get back in nothing will really change at all. Because the way things are suits them just fine.

“So if you have had enough of more of the same and you want a new approach to politics, I hope you’ll take a look at what the Liberal Democrats have to offer.

“Join the fight against Labservatism and vote for change that works for you.”

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats have announced they will fight the General Election on four key principles, designed to make Britain a fairer place.

PPC for Bolton West, Jackie Pearcey, has today set out  her campaign priorities: fair taxes; a fair start for every child; fair, clean and local politics and a fair, green economy with jobs that last.

Jackie said: “People in Westhoughton have been let down by their politicians and are rightly frustrated. I am going into the election with a clear direction and a manifesto that is short, direct and to the point.

“We will introduce fairer taxes by closing loopholes for the richest, introducing a tax on mansions and tax cuts of £700 for everyone else.

“If your child is at school in Bolton West, we can promise investment to help reduce class sizes, improve discipline and develop one-to-one tuition.

“We would also give you the right to sack your MP. The Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to real change of our political system, flushing out big money and corrupt donors and reducing the number of MPs by 150.

“And we will rebuild the economy in every part of Britain in a way that promotes green technology and creates lasting jobs. We will put an end to casino banking, bring back competition and support local entrepreneurs to make sure Bolton West businesses can find the money they need to grow.

Jackie Pearcey, Parliamentary Candidate for Bolton West

“The coming months are a crucial time for politics and I will be using them to focus on these four priorities and delivering real change for Bolton West.”

In his speech this morning (Monday), Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg said: “David Cameron and Gordon Brown are playing the politics of the airbrush and the focus group.

“One doesn’t know what he believes. The other doesn’t know what to do with the power he clings to so desperately.

“I believe the country wants something different. The Liberal Democrats are different. We offer credibility where it’s needed. And hope for our common future.”

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Dear friend,

Ever since I became leader of the Liberal Democrats I have been travelling the country, holding public meetings, listening and talking to the people I meet. The economy is in a mess, people are losing jobs and everywhere I go, people are angry at the way politicians have let them down.

The two old parties don’t really want to change a political system that keeps them in power or challenge the bankers who got the economy into such a terrible mess. The next election will be your chance to tell them they’re wrong – your chance to vote for something different.

Many people believed they would get change for the better in 1997. Instead, under Labour, the gap between rich and poor has got bigger, our politics has got even dirtier, our civil liberties have been eroded, the environment around us is in danger and our international reputation is at a new low. Labour let us all down.

The Conservatives say they want change but all they really want is to keep things the way they are. They say they want fairness but demand tax cuts for millionaires. They say they want to protect the environment, but have linked up in Europe with people who deny climate change is a problem at all. They will promise everything and change nothing.

Britain is in the teeth of three crises: a huge banking crisis and recession, a rotten Westminster system abused by too many MPs for personal gain, and the threat of climate change. We need big changes to fix our economy, our discredited politics and our environment, yet both Labour and the Conservatives are letting the City, the House of Commons and polluters off the hook. No action against bankers’ bonuses. No action to give people the right to sack MPs guilty of breaking the rules. No action to slash emissions. They say just enough to get in the headlines, but when the spotlight moves on it’s back to business as usual.

I believe there’s a better way. This country can be fairer, it can be safer, greener, and stronger in the world. Only the Liberal Democrats have the ideas, the energy, and the ambition to provide the new hope the country needs. If that’s what you want too, after twelve years of Labour disappointment, turn to us. We carry the torch of progress now.

Despite all the gloomy news, there’s still real hope for the future – but only if we make a fresh start. We need strong leadership and a different kind of politics to make it happen. The way things have always been done has got us into this mess, and it will never get us out.

Above all, we must do everything to protect the next generation from the mistakes made today. For me, how we treat young children is the most important measure of what kind of society we want, what kind of values we hold dear.

Even in these difficult times, giving all children from all backgrounds the life chances they deserve will always be my personal priority.

So if you want things to be different, choose a party that is different. Choose the Liberal Democrats.

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats

To see the full text, including a downloadable PDF of the document either click here.

The article which appeared in The Times

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, yesterday made it clear that it is up to the people of Britain to decide who will govern the next Parliament, and not for the Labour and Tory parties to start discussing who will back who if there is a hung parliament.

The Tories and Labour have recently lavished praise on the Lib Dem leader, Clegg, in an attempt to woo the party into a potential ‘coalition’ if a majority mandate is not provided after the election.

Nick Clegg writes…

If there is a hung Parliament there will be no under-the-counter deals with either big party.

Hostilities have started. The frenzied announcements and counter-announcements from the Conservative and Labour parties over the past few days point towards a long, grinding election campaign.

Much of what we have heard so far is unsurprising: absurd pledges on spending, vitriolic attacks on cuts.

But one development is new: both the old parties now claim to be almost identical to the Liberal Democrats. David Cameron and Gordon Brown are ostentatiously flirting with Liberal Democrat voters, clumsily trying to woo them — and by implication me and my fellow Liberal Democrat MPs.

This year’s general election is likely to be the most open and unpredictable in a generation. So you have a right to know where we stand. I can promise voters wondering whether to put an “X” against the Liberal Democrats that there are no backroom deals or under-the-counter “understandings” with either of the other two parties.

The stance the Liberal Democrats will take matters more than ever because the map of British politics is being dramatically redrawn. Slowly but surely three-party politics has asserted itself. Half a century ago only 2 per cent of voters chose a party other than Labour or the Conservatives. At last year’s local elections, that had shot up to 40 per cent. At the last general election, one in four people who voted supported the Liberal Democrats; six million voters, more than for any other Liberal party in Europe.

So no wonder that both Mr Brown and Mr Cameron are trying to appeal to the millions of people who have long tired of the pendulum politics of Westminster. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so it’s a compliment of sorts that the core values of the Liberal Democrats — fairness in society, real change in politics — are now being mimicked by others. On so many issues in recent years, Liberal Democrat instincts have been in tune with the British public: on Iraq, civil liberties, political reform, the environment, fair taxes, the excesses of the City of London, the rights of Gurkha veterans.

We are, and have shown ourselves to be, very different from the other two parties. My message to Mr Brown and Mr Cameron is simple: the Liberal Democrats are up for real change. We are not up for sale.
Mr Brown and Mr Cameron utter fine words about reform and fairness, but their policies aren’t even close to what’s needed. They both say that tax should be fair, but Mr Brown has created a tax system where the poorest pay a higher proportion of their income in taxes than the rich, while Mr Cameron’s top priority is tax cuts for millionaires.

But Britain faces economic, social, political and environmental crises on an extraordinary scale. So we need an extraordinary government, not more of the same, for these extraordinary times. In the event of a hung Parliament, the British people also deserve to know how the Liberal Democrats will respond. We have two basic principles that I will uphold.

One, we will respect the will of the public. The voters are in charge and the decision is theirs. If voters decide that no party deserves an overall majority, then self-evidently the party with the strongest mandate will have a moral right to be the first to seek to govern on its own or, if it chooses, to seek alliances with other parties.

Two, regardless of the post-election arithmetic or whatever power we are granted, there are four objectives that we will unwaveringly pursue.

First: fair taxes. Our plan would mean that the first £10,000 you earn would be free of income tax. This would be paid for by taxing income and capital at the same rate, phasing out special pension subsidies for highest-rate earners, switching tax from income to pollution and introducing a mansion tax on the value of homes above £2 million.

Second: a fair start for all our children. We will cut class sizes and provide more one-to-one tuition to children by introducing a new “pupil premium” in our schools.

Third: a fair and sustainable economy that creates jobs. We will use the money from one year’s cuts in current spending to create tens of thousands of new jobs in public transport, a national programme of home insulation and new social housing. We will be honest about where savings must be made to balance the books and we will break up the banking system.

And finally, fair, clean and local politics. We will introduce a fair voting system, ensure that MPs can be sacked by their constituents if they break the rules, return powers to local communities and stop tax avoiders from standing for Parliament, sitting in the House of Lords or donating to political parties.

While the other parties set out increasingly implausible lists of promises, the Liberal Democrats will remain focused on this short list of big, structural changes that will make Britain fairer. Neither of the other parties seems willing or capable of delivering them. So the Liberal Democrat message to the voters is clear: if you like what we offer, vote for it. The decision is in your hands.

By Nick Clegg, published in The Times on Tuesday, 5th January 2010.

Labour and Tory chiefs have lavished praise on the Lib Dems in a desperate attempt to win their support.

Gordon Brown and the Tories’ David Cameron have both commended Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, as never seen before.

It is seen as a clear sign that both parties believe the Lib Dems pose a serious threat to their chances in the elections.

People are impressed by Lib Dem plans for a fairer tax, which would leave millions better off.

They support the Lib Dem stance on the illegal war in Iraq and they like our plans to tackle environmental change.

Gordon and David are desperate because they realise people are turning to the Liberal Democrat’s common sense policies.

Labour has created a tax regime where the poorest pay a bigger slice of their income than the richest. Polluters are allowed to get away with harming our environment without paying for the clean-up. And we lose as much as £40 billion a year to tax dodgers.

This has to change.

The Conservatives tell us that we are all in this together whilst promising tax cuts for millionaires and then say that there might be tax rises for everyone else.

So much for their kind of change.

Today, we have pledged to put a transformation of Britain’s unfair tax system at the heart of the Liberal Democrat campaign for a fairer Britain.

Our plans will see tax cuts for millions of people, paid for by closing tax loopholes, making polluters pay and introducing a ‘mansion tax’ on homes worth over £2m.

For more details of our policy proposals, see here. And for a video from the launch, see here.

What we are proposing is a radical rebalancing of the tax system with fairness at its centre. This is a real and genuine change that would make a huge difference to the lives of people up and down the country.

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Vince Cable MP
Shadow Chancellor and Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Lib Dems

Liberal Democrats are celebrating a fantastic new win, after Dave Hodgson was elected as Mayor of Bedford.

Leader of the party, Nick Clegg, commented: “A couple of hours ago Bedford elected a new Mayor – Liberal Democrat Dave Hodgson. This is a sensational victory for Dave Hodgson and I congratulate him and the Bedford Liberal Democrats for an outstanding campaign.”

“You might not have seen much about this election in the media – but this by-election matters. The Mayor of Bedford represents more people than an MP does, and Dave will be making important decisions that affect the lives of the people of Bedford.”

“This result shows how misplaced the Conservatives’ complacency about the next election really is. The Liberal Democrats have never taken a single vote for granted. With Labour lagging behind at a disastrous fifth this is yet more evidence that the real choice is now between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.”

“I’ve just recorded this video to congratulate Dave Hodgson, our new Mayor of Bedford.”

VIDEO: Nick Clegg on Dave Hodgson’s sensational win

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats

This Saturday the Liberal Democrats will be returning to Bournemouth for what will be our last Autumn conference before the General Election.

We will be making it clear that if people want things to be different, really different, they should choose the party that is different – our Party, the Liberal Democrats.

There’s only one party that will cut taxes for ordinary people, paid for by closing loopholes for the very rich. Only one party that will make sure every child gets the best start at school in a class of just 15. Only one party that will make the changes that are needed to stop climate change before it’s too late. And only one party that will reform our broken politics. It’s our party.

That will be the message of our conference.

You can get involved by following conference online here: www.libdems.org.uk/ConferenceOnline

We’ll be keeping our Conference Online page updated every day with news and information.