"The West Country cannot afford another Tory Government, we're still paying for the last one!" - Paddy

11.12.00am GMT Mon 25th Jan 2010

Paddy Ashdown spoke to Liberal Democrat activists in Exeter on Saturday. Here's what he had to say:

"The election campaign has started - and it is going to be a long one - God help us all.

But it is now clear - the count down has begun and we are now marching towards the day - almost certainly May 6th - just 100 days away come Tuesday - when the country must decide who will govern Britain and we must decide who will represent the West Country.

One thing is clear. It is now a straight fight between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.

You don't have to look at the crystal ball to know that Labour is finished. You just have to look at the recent election results in our region of Britain.

Since the start of the rise of the Liberal Democrats here in the South West, our vote has grown and grown and grown - and Labour's has fallen and fallen and fallen. In last year's local council elections - not one Labour councillor was elected in Cornwall, just four in Devon, and two in Somerset with Gordon Brown suffering the double blow of losing the region's only Labour MEP. Labour's total vote in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall was only 5%!

Believe me, I understand why so many Labour voters feel let down and disappointed.

But here's the point. Over the last twenty years, exactly the same has happened to the Tories in the North of Britain. They now hardly exist north of Birmingham.

You see, only the Liberal Democrats are a genuinely national Party now - capable of taking on Labour in its heartlands of the north and the Tories in their traditional strongholds in the south.

Britain's two big Parties, Tory and Labour are now niche Parties who represent only one half of our country and are dedicated to pursuing the interests of that half when they are in power.

There is a message in these facts for those voters who want a Party in Westminster who can represent the whole country, rather than just part of it - only the Liberal Democrats can now do that.

But the message for voters in the South West is even clearer.

If you want to ensure the Tories don't get back in the West Country, then the only way to do it is vote Liberal Democrat.

There will be some in Labour who, when they cast their vote, will prefer hopelessness to betrayal of their socialist beliefs. I understand that and I respect it.

I remember the loyal liberals in the South West who stuck with us through thick and thin in the wilderness years waiting for the revival which came in the 1980s - and I am not going to criticise those Labour die-hards who want to do the same.

But those Labour voters who want to change things now know that a Labour vote in the West Country at the forthcoming election is a vote that can win nothing, do nothing, change nothing.

And to them I say, come and join us! Join the coming force! Join the swelling army!

And together we will make sure, not just that the Tories will not get back here, but also that the great traditions of internationalism, fairness and the reform of our rotten corrupted political system which we have both fought for, will live and have a great force behind it that can win, here in the West country and in due course, across the rest of the country as well.

And if you're thinking of voting Tory in the coming election, well you don't need a crystal ball either - all you need is a memory.

Remember what they did to us in the West Country last time.

Remember what it was like?

Remember the closed village schools. Remember the shut down cottage hospitals. Remember the BSE cattle carcasses hurriedly buried in landfill sites by a Government in a panic. Remember the rape of our farming industry. Remember the devastation of our sub-post office network. Remember the long queues of our unemployed. Remember the negative equity on our houses. Remember our rocketing water bills - we are still paying for those!

I tell you, the West Country cannot afford another Tory Government, we're still paying for the last one!

Remember, too the ignorance and arrogance of a Tory Government which, in thirteen years had not a single MP from the far South West in the Cabinet!

Remember the way they treated Tory MPs from the region then? Simply as Westminster Lobby fodder to drive through their Home Counties policies.

And remember this.

They are about to do it again.

Is there a single far South West MP in the Shadow Cabinet? Not one!

Is there a single South West MP in Mr Cameron's close circle? Not one. He cannot even find a single Tory in either of the two Houses of Parliament to head up their West Country campaign. We have to put up with a come-by-train from Yorkshire.

Now we are hospitable folk in the West Country. We welcome all from the great County of Yorkshire who want to come and holiday in our beautiful region. But when it comes to telling us what's best for our West Country in Westminster, we'd much prefer someone who knew what he was talking about!

You see its happening again.

If Mr Cameron gets elected - God help us - one thing is very clear.

He will be a Home Counties Prime Minister, leading a Home Counties' Government, with a Home Counties' Cabinet whose most significant feature is the number of them who went to the same Home Counties' school.

What we need is a team strong enough to represent the West Country in Westminster, not one whose only role is to act as Westminster lobby fodder for a Home Counties' Government!

Only the Lib Dems will give the West Country the fair deal we deserve. Our strong team of West Country MPs has a strong record of action in delivering change that has already made a difference.

On health, take the Cornish team who have won a major battle in securing fairer funding for our hospitals - £94 million over two years helping stave off the threat of the closure of St Michael's Hospital in Hayle.

Where were the West Country Tory MPs then? Nowhere.

Across the region, our MPs have made real progress on tackling the high cost of water bills. After years of pressure and an independent report our team has helped pave the way to undo the botched privatisation of the water industry.

Where were the West Country Tories then? Nowhere! Well to be fair, that's not quite true - they were hiding their heads in shame for creating the problem in the first place.

On housing Julia Goldsworthy has worked hard to highlight people's fury with central housing targets that will not tackle the impact of second homes, will not bring empty properties back into use and will not deal with the affordable housing crisis that so many young families face.

Where were the Tories then? Nowhere!

Martin Horwood's work on the floods bill has added measures to encourage natural flood defences like woodland to be reinstated, to establish a single point of contact for flooding, and for planning law to recognise that water does not obey political boundaries.

Where were the Tories then? Nowhere!

As the bitter cold struck, Steve Webb our pensions spokesman highlighted that 25,000 pensioners in the West of England could be missing out on cold weather payments.

Where were the Tories then? Nowhere!

In Taunton, Jeremy Browne has also stepped up the pressure on behalf of the West's older residents, starting a major review of the provision of elderly care.

In Bath Don Foster has championed the cause of all who travel across the region, intervening on transport issues and highlighting amongst other things the "postcode lottery" of rail fares. More recently he's campaigning to ensure our region gets its fair share of the rewards that should flow from the 2012 Games and to prevent rural areas losing out in the broadband revolution.

On the environment, Annette Brooke has campaigned for protection of the greenbelt against Government plans for development under the South West Regional Spatial Strategy.

In Bristol, Stephen Williams has led the way in finding a method to harness the great tidal power of the Severn without devastating the environment or undermining the growing Port of Bristol.

On the defence industries of the West, David Laws has been has been lobbying the current and past Secretaries of State for Defence on the Future Lynx Programme, urging them to go ahead, providing our hard pressed armed forces with the helicopters they need.

In Somerset and Frome, one of the most rural constituencies in England, David Heath has been the region's foremost campaigner for our villages.

In North Devon some houses were only getting a TV picture from Wales or Bristol. Nick Harvey has got a promise that these problems will be tackled at digital switchover. Now that is fast approaching and Nick is pressing UK Digital to make good their promises.

In Torbay Adrian Sanders has been famous as a consistent champion for tourism in the region.

In Teignbridge Richard Younger-Ross promoted the boiler scrappage scheme to reduce CO2, fight fuel poverty and boost jobs, getting cross-party and some high profile support for the scheme including a government minister, and before he knew it, found his proposals in the budget.

Dan Rogerson, fighting for Cornish farmers, campaigned for: action to prevent Bovine TB, an end to exploitation of local farmers by supermarkets, better food labelling and persuading people to buy Cornish to support local farmers.

Andrew George has worked to highlight the problems in Cornwall created by an unfair allocation of resources which has left Cornish patients with a much lower level of NHS dentistry than the national average.

Colin Breed has championed action to tackle high water charges and measures to halt the closure of local pubs.

Matthew Taylor was asked by the Prime Minister to conduct a review on how land use and planning can better support rural business and deliver affordable housing. The Taylor Report will influence thinking on the rural economy and affordable housing for a generation.

Matthew and Colin are standing down at the next election but the lead they have given to Liberal Democrats in the South West in campaigning for the West Country is second to none and I am sure that their successors Steve Gilbert, Terrye Teverson and Karen Gillard will follow in their footsteps as powerful advocates for the region.

And where were the Tories when all these great campaigns were being fought?

Well you know the answer.

NOWHERE.

Now I am, I think a fair man. And I have searched diligently for a single effective Tory campaign led by a South West Tory MP which has benefited the South West in the last ten years - and I can find not a single one!

So my message is simple to those in the South West as you come up to vote.

Don't listen to the promises, look at the record.

And before you believe any Tory MP or candidate who tells you what he or she WILL do, ask then what they HAVE done.

And then, judge your Liberal Democrat candidates by the same standards.

And if you do this, then I do not think you will have to be a brain surgeon to know where, for the best interests of the West Country, you would be best to put your vote.

As for the Lib Dems, the bigger our party's influence in parliament, the better we will be able to deliver our key pledges to make our society fairer and give the people of this wonderful part of the world the fair deal they deserve.