It's what I've been saying, and what Conservative Party Leader David Cameron has set himself against. We reform our democracy or it dies. The choice is yours.

With the stock market recovering some of its losses, house prices rising moderately, optimism being reported locally and nationally, is there light at the end of the tunnel, or is it an express train hurtling toward us?

I also read Robert Reich, the former US Secretary of Labor who is now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.   He wrote a piece entitled ‘The truth about unemployment that no one wants to tell you’.

“Unemployment will almost certainly be in double-digits next year and may remain there for some time.  And for every person who shows up as unemployed you can bet there's another either too discouraged to look for work or working part time who'd rather have a full-time job or else taking home less pay than before (I'm in the last category, now that the University of California has instituted pay cuts).  And there's yet another person who's more fearful that he or she will be next to lose a job.”

Then I heard an interview with the Director of the Washington based Trends Institute claiming that oil dealers are ditching the dollar in fear that the US economy is not recovering sustainably from the recession.  It is the use of the dollar for oil trading that allows the Federal Reserve to print money the rest of the world has to use.

The message to our leaders on both sides of the Atlantic is stop worrying about paying off debt until you have helped to create a sustained and lasting economic recovery. 

Once again, the Government has attempted to address one of the big issues of the modern world and got it totally wrong. The debate on ‘file sharing’, which is often used as a short hand term for the illegal downloading of music, films and other creative content, has rumbled on for many years. Artists have long been up in arms about the practice, which has hit the revenue stream of the music industry and music shops particularly hard. After all, why go to the high street and spend your hard earned cash on a Pink Floyd album (I recommend Dark Side of the Moon – a classic), when you can go online and download it for free?

The answer to this conundrum surely lies in more up to date copyright laws, better enforcement of downloading sites, or a more flexible approach by the music industry to charging for online downloads. Instead, the government has proposed to disconnect, or ‘throttle’, those who overindulge in illegal downloading, without a proper judicial investigation and verdict. There are two major flaws to this. Firstly, enforcing this proposal is totally impossible, as the more savvy downloaders have a vast array of technological wizardry at their command to dodge a disconnect. The less savvy among them can simply continue downloading on another internet connection. Furthermore, these proposals again highlight this government’s authoritarian, anti-civil liberties streak. Disconnecting an internet user without a proper trial is plainly wrong. Even with a trial, blocking a household’s internet connection may deprive totally innocent friends or family members from online access.  

Lord Mandelson's ideas to tackle this are a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

For these reasons I have co-sponsored a cross-party Parliamentary Motion opposing the above proposals, and will continue to look for a more effective solution to the illegal downloading problem.

Title:  Paid Constituency Internship

Working For: Adrian Sanders MP (Lib Dem, Torbay)

Salary:  Remuneration will be according to the Parliamentary pay scales.

Where:  Constituency office in Torquay, Devon.

Contact: sandersa@parliament.uk or by post to Adrian Sanders MP, 69 Belgrave Road, Torquay, Devon, TQ2 5HZ.

Closing Date:  Midday, Friday, 23 October 2009.

I am offering a 4 month internship based in my constituency office in Torquay.

I like David Pedrick-Friend the Labour Party Candidate for Torbay.  He reminds me of one of those Japanese soldiers, stuck on a Pacific Island, who for years after the surrender didn’t realise the Second World War had ended.

Similarly for David’s army, the games up and they will be surrendering office at the next election.  The battle now is between the progressive forces of the Liberal Democrats and David Cameron’s Conservative Party.

You can narrow the battle lines down to the completely different approaches of the shadow Chancellors, Vince Cable and George Osborne.

One of the main reasons we are in the economic mess we are in is because Gordon Brown when Chancellor ignored Vince Cable’s warnings about escalating borrowing. 

The main cause behind the depth and length of the recession in the UK was the failure of Alistair Darling to act when Vince Cable suggested intervention in the market. 

Why we have gone so far into debt and had to borrow so much is because Chancellor Darling delayed taking over the troubled banks that for weeks Vince Cable had been urging him to do.

Now the debate is about how we prevent market collapse in the future while paying off the trillions that had to be borrowed because the bankers got too greedy and the Government acted too late.

The contrast between Vince Cable and George Osborne is stark.  Cable wants to recreate the high street bank and mutual building society separate from the casino investment banks and fund managers.  Osborne does not.

Both know cuts will have to be made.  Vince says they should be made at the right time and slowly as economic conditions dictate.  George wants to slash spending immediately.

Vince wants to take people earning under £10,000 out of tax altogether by savagely cutting the tax loopholes the very wealthy enjoy.  George wants to cut inheritance tax for the wealthiest one per cent of the population.

If Vince is going to meet his pledge to protect front-line services such as in education and health, then the expensive ID card scheme will need to be scrapped and a new tax on million-pound homes may have to be levied.

For the Conservatives the pledge is to maintain health and international development spending only, while remaining silent about cuts, except to the staff canteen subsidy in Parliament.

Cable has proposals to ensure our armed forces are better paid and properly equipped paid for by cutting the number of pen pushers in the Ministry of Defence and by not replacing the expensive trident nuclear missile programme.

As the opinion polls and local council by-election results are beginning to show, the contrasting positions of the two opposition parties are forcing former Labour supporters to choose between them.

It won’t only be in seats like Torbay where Labour is out of the race at the next election.  Right across the country Vince Cable’s Liberal Democrats will be challenging George Osborne's Conservatives for the chance to fix the economy.

It’s time David Pedrick-Friend laid down his arms and took stock of the new political landscape.  I fear though he will keep on fighting until someone locates the island he inhabits and rescues him. 

If the Lib Dems are going to be able to take people earning under £10,000 out of tax altogether then savage cuts are going to have to be made to the tax loopholes the very wealthy enjoy.

If the party is going to meet its pledge to protect front-line services in education and health, then savage cuts are needed to the trident nuclear missile programme.

If we are going to ensure our armed forces are better paid and properly equipped then savage cuts will have to be made to the numbers of pen pushers in the Ministry of Defence.

I like the idea of savagely cutting the ID card scheme, banker’s bonuses and the number of MPs.

I’ve always welcomed the idea of savage cuts to poverty, ignorance and conformity which is why I joined the Liberal Democrats in the first place; and above all I like the idea of savagely cutting the number of Labour and Conservative MPs at the next election. 

The Lib Dems can make all of these cuts except cutting the number of Labour and Conservative MPs, that bit’s up to you.

To all my Facebook and Myspace friends:

Dear Friend

I am just back from the conference in Bournemouth and am really excited about the prospects for the Liberal Democrats going into the next election.

The polls, commentators, European and local elections, council and parliamentary by-elections are all showing that Labour is not going to win the next election.  The choice for people who want change will be between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.

Nick Clegg and Vince Cable have set out our stall this week.  They have been upfront and honest about the challenges facing us and how we might meet them.  They were also clear that when we face them is just as important as how, and that simply cutting public expenditure as soon as possible could turn recession into social and economic catastrophe.

For me the highlight of our conference was Vince Cable’s speech where he exposed the Conservative Party for what it lacks; talent, experience and values.  Qualities that Vince and his front bench colleagues exhibited in spades.

It made all the more woeful the attempt by David Cameron to portray his party as being on the same side as the Lib Dems.  Clearly they are not.

While the Conservatives want tax breaks for millionaires: we want the rich to pay more so we can cut taxes for the least well off.

On the environment, we are resolutely opposed to nuclear energy, which is dirty, expensive and will not help against climate change.  The Tories back nuclear, and for good measure are siding with climate change deniers in the European Parliament.

Mr Cameron commits his party to the same spending as Labour on the NHS, while we argue that it is how we spend, as much as how much we spend that matters and we can deliver better services across the public sector by decentralising decision making.

Even when it comes to the familiar Tory agenda of cuts to services where you would expect Cameron to have some well thought through ideas, all we have is a Tory commitment to increase the price of a cup of tea in the Houses of Parliament, while the Liberal Democrats are proposing to save billions of pounds by cutting the Trident replacement programme.

I believe we have an ideal opportunity to make inroads nationally into replacing the Labour Party as the alternative to a Conservative Government.  Like many seats in the South West it has been a straight fight between the Conservatives and ourselves for some time now. 

Our biggest challenge is competing with the Conservative Party that can outspend the Lib Dems ten to one.  This financial backing threatens the progressive direction of British politics.  Our only source of funding is support from local people.

Getting our message across is not all about money though.  Many volunteers in Torbay are working very hard delivering leaflets and speaking to voters.  We need everyone’s help to ensure the next election is going to be a fair fight.  If you liked what we were saying in Bournemouth this week, please get in touch.

Best wishes

Adrian Sanders MP

PS: If you would like to join my team in Torbay, message me.  If you can make a donation - UK citizen's only - visit my website: www.adriansanders.org 

My first ever party political broadcast - it was easy, it was cheap, go and do it!