David: This is a wide question. But I'll be specific. In 1978 when Thatcher won a big election, it was around fixing a broken economy. We will win the next election around fixing a broken society. At the end of the Blair/ Brown legacy which we are currentlyu living through, there are 5m people of working age not in work. There are 1.2m 16-25 year olds not in full time education or work and we have the worst record on child poverty of any country in western Europe. Perhaps even worse than all of this, is that social mobility has reached an all time low.
My charity work and my interest in social mobility has brought me into politics and we are the only party putting forward solutions to issues like these. This will include a much bigger role for the voluntary sector and a refusal to accept that society can only be fixed by centralised target setting. Every individual is partly responsible for the statistics that I quoted, and is partly responsible for working within society to fix them.
The question talked about centre ground. I think that politics has now moved on from left and right and the next election will be won by the party with the solution to these issues.
Jo: I will tell you the differences between some of the key policies which the Lib Dems will fight the next election on. But as we are still waiting for the Tories to formulate their policies, making a direct comparison is a little difficult. However, the Lib Dems are the only party at Westminster who have put forward a clear policy on environmental taxation an are serious about using the tax system to improve environmental quality. We are against the introduction of University tuition fees, top up fees and we have also fought the last two general elections and will continue to fight to scrap the council tax. We were also the only party at Westminster to vote against the Iraq war - a policy on which we were proved right. We have also been consistent in our opposition to the identity card, as we feel this money would be better spent on more police. The Tories have flip-flopped on this issue.
David: The issue with the Iraq war was the failure of the government to properly plan for what to do after Hussein was toppled. What has subsequently happened there has been a tragedy. Returning to the UK and the state of our society, an area of policy that I was pleased to see was that under a Conservative government, we will no longer be the only country in western Europe which does not recognise marriage through the tax system. This is not because we believe marriage to be a morally good institution, but it is because 1 in 2 of children born to couples who are not married are left in broken homes by the age of five, whereas if they are married, it is one in 12. The issue is not marriage, it is male role models and through the work of my charity I have seen what can happen to kids where male role models don't exist.
Jo: Marriage incentives are ineffective, they don't work and they also send a message that single parents are ineffective. I'd also like to know how the Tories plan to pay for them, when they fought the last general election on a tax cutting agenda.