Doctor Prescribes Fairness For Britain
November 8, 2004 6:07 PM
Evan Harris addresses local party workers
Freedom, fairness and trust would be the three key Liberal Democrat themes for the next general election, local party workers were told at their annual dinner last Friday.
Guest of honour at the Rugby & Kenilworth Liberal Democrats constituency dinner was Dr. Evan Harris (39), who is the member of parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon.
Dr. Harris spoke about his early career as a junior doctor, and the influence of his parents who had fled South Africa in the sixties to escape the apartheid regime that operated there. His father Professor Frank Harris had gone on to become the founding dean of the joint Warwick and Leicester medical school.
Dr. Harris said that the Liberal Democrats were campaigning to make the tax system fairer. He contrasted their approach to the approach taken by Labour, who had gone into both recent elections promising to hold income tax steady but planning to increase other taxes. "We will introduce a new higher rate of tax on earnings over £100,000" he said, "but we will use the extra funds this raises to abolish three unfair charges. We will abolish the university tuition fees this government has introduced which are a tax on learning. We will abolish personal care charges for the elderly, which strike to the heart of our welfare system. We will abolish the regressive Council Tax system and replace it with a fairer local income tax."
Constituency party chair Councillor Ann Blacklock (Kenilworth Abbey) said: "Our members were in celebratory mood after a year of successful campaigning in both Rugby and Kenilworth. They were also boosted by the tonic of an excellent speech by one of our most popular M.P.'s."
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